It is that time of the year again, when one of the city’s pioneers in the classic rock genre gets together with his friends to take us back to the roaring ’70s and ’80s. Vocalist and guitarist Nandakumar, known popularly as Nandu Leo, has in the past three years tried his hand at reviving the classic rock music scene in the city with his ‘Music for peace’ series of concerts.
Now, he is back with the third edition of the concert, titled ‘Music for Peace – There it is’. The concert will be held at his usual venue, Co-bank Towers, on April 25 at 7 p.m. Joining Nandu on the guitars will be Sunil Silvester, guitarist of Kochi based ‘4th Hue’, his old band mate Jayan on the drums, Balu on the bass and Ashwin on the keyboards.
Radhika Sethunath, a vocalist from Kochi, will share the vocal duties.
While the first concert was a tribute to Eric Clapton, in the second edition, he chose a varied set consisting of bands like Dire Straits and Grand Funk Railroad. This year, there will be a new set of songs including works of Rolling Stones, Uriah Heep, Manfred Mann, Santana, Joe Cocker, Pink Floyd, Prince and, of course, Clapton.
Increasing expenses
Nandu, at 55, says that it has become progressively harder to organise concerts, with every passing year. While the huge rise in entertainment tax in this year’s Union Budget has added to the increasing expenses, the lack of proper spaces for musicians to get together and practise is another problem.
“There are only few places available for practise sessions. The daily rents of even these places have doubled in this one year. Same goes for other expenses,” he says.
Taking a month’s break from his weekly hotel performances, Nandu has been doing all the running around for the show, right from getting all the permissions, printing the passes and handling other logistics.
Back in the mid-1970s, he and his friends started the band ‘Bahn Kruger’, one of the earliest rock bands to be formed in Thiruvananthapuram. Nandu has been closely watching the recent changes in the independent music scene in the State, and all of the changes are not to his liking.
“Many of the new bands are in the same mould, and several of the young musicians are not familiar with the legendary classic rock songs,” he says.
With Nandu doing his bit for the genre, there is hope of more youngsters getting introduced to it. Passes for the concert are available at Style Plus, Nirvana Lounge, Baskin Robbins in Kowdiar and Nilgiris.
