Sunday Times 2
Musical pioneer: Leader of the La Ceylonians passes away
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Noel Brian Ranasinghe, the Sri Lankan singer/songwriter who crafted a new style of singing with trademark sarongs, straw hats and calypso music with a local flavour in the 1960s, passed away on Thursday evening. He was 73 and had been ailing for the past year.
Noel was the leader of the La Ceylonians, one of the few bands to survive as a unit for decades, and known widely for landmark compositions like ‘Tharuna jeevitha apa vinodaya yen (about young people having fun based on British singer Cliff Richard’s popular ‘The Young Ones’)’ and ‘Hoiya hoiya (tribute to the fishermen)’ among hundreds of other songs that are sung by many bands today.
“I must have composed more than 300 songs in my lifetime,” the veteran musician said in an interview with the Sunday Times in April 2013 when he celebrated his golden jubilee in music.In that interview, Noel reflected on the time when his young band wore coloured sarongs and straw hats and went barefoot, singing what was seen as a strange kind of baila. It was not unusual, he said, for people to call them all sorts of names like ‘Malu Karayas’ or ‘Rasthiyadu Karayas’.
Home for Noel for many years was down 1st Cross Street, Pagoda, Nugegoda where he continued to live till his death, and he would laughingly say it was called ‘Lansiayahena Para’ because many Burghers, like him, lived there.
He was influenced by kaffringha music and the band, Trio Los Paraguas from Portugal. That band used the harp and two guitars. The La Ceylonians used simple box guitars (without amplification which is still evident today in all calypso bands), congo drums and Guiro (a instrument made by cutting a bamboo strip of S’lon pipe to give a screeching sound). Sri Lankan calypso became the music of the tourist hotels, all due to the efforts of Noel and his merry band.
The La Ceylonians was the first choice in overseas events organised by the Ceylon Tourist Board, travelling to the US, India, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Taiwan and Japan. That era has come to an end with Noel’s demise. In recent years he played country music with his banjo along with friends at the Country Roads concerts.
His funeral takes places today, Sunday, June 14 at the Borella cemetery.
Rest easy, my friend!
-Feizal