Spearheaded by Anil Balasuriya, March 2008 witnessed the birth of Rockapalooza Productions, which is a unique production company that has, since its inception given the public events such as The Rockapalooza Series, Divas Unplugged, Regenisis and Dhayan Yathra but to name a few.
Rockapalooza productions are gearing up to kick off the 2009 series of events with its first gig on the June 6, 2009. The venue this time around is the Shine Lounge (formally Clancys). The gig will kick off at 9pm, while tickets will be available at the gate.
 |
| Magic Vinyl. Pic by Sanka Vidanagama |
The line up for the night includes Hollowpoint Halo, Powercut circus and LOA. With Rockapalooza being all about giving bands a platform to be heard as well as the exposure of new talent, in keeping with this goal, there will be a number of new acts taking the stage this June. Among them will be singer/ songwriter Sajjid and alternate punk band Point Blank. While both these acts have performed at Rockapalooza before, they are still quite new in Sri Lanka’s contemporary music industry.
Making their debut at Shine will be, Anil Balasuriya’s new band ‘Magic Vinyl.’ Besides being the founder of Rockapalooza Productions, Anil is one of the leading singer/ songwriters in the country. In 1999 Anil and his band Independent Square won the very first TNL Onstage award. Releasing their first ever album of its genre, ‘Bring Back the Sun’ in 2000, Independent Square influenced many rock and roll hopefuls to pick up a guitar and start writing their own songs. Two years later the band released their much anticipated second album ‘Five and a Half.’
Two Years ago, with Independent Square on a break, Anil released his debut solo album ‘The last few pieces of April.’ The album spawned some gig hits such as “Songs of what I know,” “Hey” and “Broken.”
Talking about his band members Anil said “I like this line up a lot. Alan, Sam, Isuru, Maria and I all have very different musical influences but when we come together as ‘Magic Vinyl’ we seem to fit perfectly and just get along. Although the band has only been practicing for three months, we’ve known each other for much longer, right now the chemistry seems to be good, that why we feel it’s the right time to come out and do a gig.”
Another band performing at the gig, Powercut Circus has had a steady, but diverse fan base. The band is best described by its members themselves as “formed in Colombo 2006 by bald drummer and bearded bassist, singer recruited at a funeral and guitarist borrowed and then stolen.” They go onto explain that they record trippy danceable experimental rock and groovy jams with weird soundscapes and generous helpings of delay. Some of the themes they write about are politics, polythene and pony-tailed has-beens.
And finally, of the band, they say they “will either get famous or get beaten up.”
The electronic media sponsor for the show is Art TV, while the print media sponsors will be The Sunday Times.
|
E-mail