Recent tour to Europe for Marians, one of the leading bands in the local music scene was a tragedy yet an inspiration. In an unexpected instant on July 20, just outside the Vatican in Rome the group underwent a major robbery. The band equipment which was in a hired vehicle was robbed except a saxophone and snare-drum and the team was left only with the clothes in which they were dressed.
Worst part of the tragedy was that, the band was to have performed on that night in Rome. Even worse was that the robbers also had taken their music notation books, an irreparable treasure which they had been using from the day the band was started.

Marians perform in Italy

"We felt as if we were dead and we all were clueless what to do next," said Nalin Perera, the leader describing their agonizing experience. All our attempts even to the mafia in Italy failed and we were desperately trying at least to get back our music books, without which we could not do anything.
Having failed in all our attempts, while we were waiting all lost, a Sri Lankan in Rome came to our rescue.

The young bands offered their musical instruments and others consoled us and offered everything we want. "With such a grateful circle of fans we were determined to do the best show in our lives," Nalin said.

And Marians even without their band suits got on to stage in the evening and with borrowed instruments and all shattered dreams started to sing. "With utter desperation we sang our hearts out and I felt that it was the best performance we had in our life and this was even felt by our much loving fans," Nalin said.
Having overcome the first obstacle of successfully completing the schedule on the evening the next obstacle was how to do the other shows in Italy and other parts of Europe.

"It was at this point our fans in Italy along with the Sri Lankan Association in Rome came forward to help us. They proposed that we do two extra shows to raise funds to buy band equipment and they looked after the much difficult organizing part. In this task we could never forget the roles played by the President of the Association Ananda Seneviratne and one of our very good friends Keerthi Costa. And similar support was given by Emil Costa in Verona who supported the additional shows.

With the support of its fans Marians collected nearly 6000 Euros (nearly Rs. 1 million) and bought new instruments at their next destination, London. Anyway there were some hidden blessings that came up with this tragic experience.

How tragic though, it was a great opportunity for us to realize how much people love musicians and Marians. People started calling us and were willing to give us money. "It is the most unforgettable and most inspiring experience in my life with Marians," Nalin said.

The band was able to buy some latest, up-to-date musical instruments from their next destination England. "The new instruments we bought were very advanced and they would be very helpful to us for our future journey," Nalin said with a smile on his face.

"Anyway we deeply experienced how much we owe to our audience who love us so much" . Nalin also remembered the Sri Lankan Embassy in Rome which in no time provided them with temporary passports. "That was a great relief for us," he said with gratitude.

Though we have partly recovered from the tragic experience we are still hopeful at least our music books will be returned, Nalin said in a hopeful note. Anyway we could not believe ourselves that there was such music loving fans around us and now we feel that Marians is not anybody's but belongs to its fans all around the world.