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Is anybody listening?

Mumbai actually didn’t go berserk seeing Shakira on stage. Bandra-Kurla complex, where she shook her famous hips, struggled to fill-up even half the available seats.

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Whether it’s Beyonce or Gary Lawyer, English bands are still struggling for an audience in India

Mumbai actually didn’t go berserk seeing Shakira on stage. Bandra-Kurla complex, where she shook her famous hips, struggled to fill-up even half the available seats. Ditto with 50 cents and Beyonce. And ditto, if any of the English bands in India try to host a gig at any of the stadiums. In fact, the scene would be worse.

Somehow, English bands in India have been playing and still continue to play to a motley group of niche audience. The saddest part is that a Kumar Sanu (who has already in history books) still commandeers more audience than a Gary Lawyer.

Go by sales figures and there is another story to tell. While Gary’s album The Other Side Of Dawn catapulted him to the heights of stardom, the band Pentagram’s album We’re Not Listening! became India’s fastest selling rock album with a initial hit of 23,000 copies in a month.

But even after selling copies, the artists get paid peanuts. While an Adnan Sami or a Sonu Nigam command lakhs for a two-hour concert, bands like Cassini's Division from Kolkata or Pin Drop Violence from Mumbai play through the evening at hotels or local gigs for meagre sums.

Superstardom in rock music for Indians arguably started and ended with Freddie Mercury, the NRI Parsi boy from Zanzibar who died of AIDS, but even he is accused of subverting his Indian origins on his way to launching the rock band Queen. So, why is it that this country of over one billion people has failed to produce a single English band like The Beatles, Rolling Stones or Pink Floyd?
b_aveek@dnaindia.net

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