Bringing back the sounds of classic rock

By Joshua Surendraraj

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Chitral and Derek. Pix by- Anuradha Bandara

It was a wet Friday evening that was filled with a sense of nostalgia, as some of Colombo’s finest musicians, took the stage at the Viharamahadevi amphitheater last month. Together they rendered some stunning classic rock covers, truly portraying the talent that the country hadn’t witnessed in a long time.

This was the first time in ten years, since Rockestra, a brilliant combination of rock meets orchestral music, was showcased once again. Things kicked off with Deep Purple’s “Smoke On The Water” and the audience was soon drawn in by Dylon Manuel’s high pitched vocals, which rang across the park.

The show also featured the reunion of ‘Mirage’, who was accompanied by Kevin Almeida. Earlier during the week, the Mirror Magazine caught up with Kevin, who has been in the music scene from the 80’s.

“I played with ‘Purple Rain’ and I also have my own band ‘EXIT’,” he tells me. Purple Rain was a renowned band that toured Europe as well in the 80’s. It was the era of classic rock, back when artists, like Jon Bon Jovi and bands like AC DC, Aerosmith and Guns N Roses, dominated the global industry.

Every now and then Purple Rain would come to Sri Lanka and perform in packed halls to local music enthusiasts. Today the scene has quite changed since the days where it was just the bands ruling the industry.

“Personally, I feel that Sri Lankan bands should get more preference musically. Back then, there was a band playing almost everywhere. However today, the number of bands performing have gotten somewhat lesser. I wish I was still back in that time, playing that type of music,” Kevin tells me.

He says he is thankful to those like Imran Saibo, as they keep this local industry, going. “Shows like this are what needto happen in this country. We saw so many good artists coming and singing their hearts out at Rockestra. I was shocked by the performances and we need to keep the ball rolling,” he says adding that he has he plans on forming his own band again. He talks to me more about ‘Rockestra,’ saying that the show was a team effort. And it was everybody’s contribution, that made it perfect.

Kevin

“It was after ten years, that we did Rockestra and we can’t wait for so long to do something like that again. We’re missing out. It’s not just the organisers only, we need a crowd too. The people, should get together and do these things,” he says, adding that today’s generation tends to be behind the PC, but they need to experience things like this as well.

For Saibo of ‘Classic Fun time’, the company that put together ‘Rockestra’, says it was a spontaneous thing. “We were mucking around in office and decided to put the show together, he says, adding that the songs were from the 80’s, that their generation used to listen to. “These songs never fade away and the orchestra makes it much more beautiful.”

It was that amazing Rock and Orchestra combo that made the show hauntingly beautiful. That feeling of the distorted guitars, combined, with the soft violin tones, does tend to take Rock music to a whole other level and that’s just what Rockestra did.

According to Saibo, the music industry from the 70’s up until the early 90s, produced great musicians such as Geoff Fernando, Lal Seneviratne, Desmond Silva and bands like Amazing Grace, Mirage and Purple Rain etc. “They were all musicians first and foremost and they did it for the love of it,” he says, adding that today he finds that passion missing in the industry and its sad.

Rockestra also featured some the industry’s greats, such as Chitral Somapala, Shane Berenger, Dylon Manuel, Sherry, Noeline Honter, Geoff Fernando, Russel Fernando, Derek Wickramanayake, Fabion Paul, Harsha Makalanda and Khrome, Mirage and Randhir Withana.