Sri Lankan pop icons in all-star gig at BMICH

Chamikara WEERASINGHE

A Galaxy of top artistes in Sri Lankan pop from the past will come together to perform their songs in a rare all-star studded pop festival on November 11 at BMICH Colombo.

The festival titled Legends of Sri Lankan Pop is organized by the F & G Welfare Club in collaboration with Rajiv Sebastian of of Star Lanka Music.

The festival celebrates the golden era of pop music in Sri Lanka in the decades 60s, 70 and 80s with the original artistes who performed during the time.

Legend of Sri Lankan Pop will be a ‘landmark gig ‘ in the history of Sri Lankan pop music with the participation of those original artistes in person to have represented the golden era of Sri Lankan pop from 60s to the 80s.

It will certainly be a rare gathering of the artistes concerned as most of them have not met each other for years. Artistes like Dezmond Rodrgo have not performed in Sri Lanka in 22 years.

Dezmond Rodrigo will be flown from US for the festival. Dezmond made hits like Baila Bazaar, Negala Yananwa and Lowe Ekama Bruce Lee in the 60 and 70s. He was called ‘Bruce Lee “ of Sri Lankan pop over his single Lowe Ekama Bruce Lee by the country’s late President R.Premadasa.

Singer Desmond De Silva will be flown from UK . De Silva made the hits , Polkatu Henda Mita Wage, Mamma No Pappa No and Yanna Rata Wate.

A.E.Manmohan will be flown from India , who sand the Tamil version of Clarence Wijewardena classic Kandasurindune.

The artistes to perform at the festival are are Annesley Malawana, Indrani Perera, Sunil Perera, Anil Bharathi, Lankika Perera, Lilanthi Karunanayake, Nihal Nelson, Luke Henriques, Vernon Perera, Ranil Mallawarachchi, Dalreen Suby, Sohan Weerasinghe, Priyantha Fernando, Priyankara Perera, Susil Fernando, Priya Sooriyasena, Menik Chandrika, Paul Fernando, Shayami Fonseka and Rajiv Sebastian.

Vijaya Corea and Ariyasiri Vithanage will compere the festival.Channa Wijewardene, Anushan and Rozanne Diasz will be in charge of the choreography.

Rajiv & the Clan will provide music for the artistes assisted by a classical guitarist, flutist, saxophonist, trumpeter and a percussionist. The artistes will be provided with original acoustic sounds of the 60s and 70s.

The festival is organized on a concept of Rajiv Sebastian. The event will feature 23 artists. It will be the biggest tribute ever paid to legendary pop artistes of Sri Lanka who performed in the 60s and 70s, he said.

Film stars and models will appear on the stage for film songs created by these legends to be performed at the festival, he said.

Rajiv said, His concet to have an all-star participating pop festival was the result of his working with Annesley Maalewana, who made Stars of 70s concert.

I was influenced by this show, and thought that the concept could be expanded to convene all legendary artistes of the past together. However the envisioned gig has excluded those artistes who has represented Sri Lankan Calypso music.

The organizers said , they are grateful to the two airlines and the hotels who have come up to provide air travel and accommodation to Dezmond Rodrigo and Desmond Silva.

Desmond de Silva will appear on stage to sing To all the Girls I’ ve loved Before bringing the memories of his mid 80 gig .

Legends of Sri Lankan Pop is in aid of The F & G Welfare Club.

Hi folks

It was not so long ago when I met composer Dr. Premasiri Khemadasa at Jana Kala Kendra for an interview for our columns. It was in May, last year. The musician was just a few days away from launching his fourth opera, Agni. We published the interview on his fourth opera on In Tune of May 25, 2007.

I was prompted to share a few words about Dr. Khemadasa once not on account of the gravity of his recent demise , but because of the services and the worthy efforts he made during his life to invent a greater tradition of music for Sri Lanka by skillfully combining Sri Lankan folk music, Hidustani music, Western classical music and many other streams of music.

This was not an easy task . In fact it seemed impossible . The touch of the master musician somehow made the difference to a degree that seemed a miracle to most of his admirers.

In fact he pioneered a system to represent Sri Lanka in his music, which stands to prove his genius.He was ahead of his time and knew how that local folk music be dealt with in order to bring the stream of Sri Lankan identity in them out of the village boundary to the world.

He was able to found a style of his own to represent Sri Lankan music, especially with his contributions to Sri Lankan cinema that carried his music to the world. The country started getting attention of other countries for its music because of Khemadasa’s music in Sinhala movies.

The film music of Khemadasa had a style that was unaquainted to Sri Lankan music.

Khemadasa could play the two hour score of his opera (Agni)on his keyboard without having to look at the music notation.

He was the only musician to have dared venture into Sinhala opera at a time others scoffed at him. and spoke negatively about it.

The angry comments by the composer and his demand that oriental singers should rise from their traditional techniques of singing was often misjudged by other musicians who said that Khemadasa was looking down upon oriental singers by such demands.

Khemadasa’s idea was different. He only said that it was important to discover one’s voice because in that way one can express the idea in a musical sentence with full force.

He brought forth youth from village and train them to sing in operas composed by him and earned them fame for their skills.

He did not charge a fee from these rural youth for his expertise or time.

Some have claimed after his recent demise that Master Khemadasa lived in a different dimension,. This is more or less to glorify the personage and his musical genius for he did not live in a different dimension except that he sometimes found it difficult to explain musical attrributes in his creations to some of them.

He was a simple man whose subject sphere was organised sound which may be described as music.His perception of sounds is that of a genius. That’s all folks

- Chamikara

The Beatles getting new life in custom video game

Surviving members of The Beatles announced on Thursday that their songs will take on new lives in a videogame that lets people pretend to be the world-changing 1960s British rockers.

MTV Games is having the game developed by US studio Harmonix, the maker of the hot-selling “Rock Band” videogame in which players using mock instruments as controllers win by keeping in tune with music and on-screen note cues.

MTV Games didn’t reveal details of the yet-to-be-completed Beatles game but says it will be “an unprecedented, experiential progression through” the band’s music.

“The project is a fun idea which broadens the appeal of The Beatles and their music,” Sir Paul McCartney said in a release.

“I like people having the opportunity to get to know the music from the inside out.”

The game will mark the first time the iconic band’s music is featured in a videogame.

“The Beatles continue to evolve with the passing of time and how wonderful that The Beatles’ legacy will find its natural progression into the 21st century through the computerized world we live in,” said Ringo Starr.

“Let the games commence.”

The concept for the videogame was honed with input from McCartney and Starr as well as from Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison, the widows of John Lennon and George Harrison.

“It’s cool,” said Yoko Ono. “I love it and hope it will keep inspiring and encouraging the young generation for many decades.” The videogame is the band’s long-awaited debut in the Internet Age because the surviving Beatles and their multimedia company have long resisted selling their music online in digital formats out of piracy concerns.

“This game will be a celebration of the Beatles undeniable legacy,” said Harmonix chief executive Alex Rigopulos.

“By presenting their music and artistry through the creative filter of a groundbreaking videogame, we are giving legions of fans and music lovers all over the world a profound, new way to experience The Beatles.”

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 30, 2008, AFP