Gypsies go virtual for jubilee celebration
Sunil and the gang on rickyflicks.com
Gypsies led by veteran singer/ musician Sunil Perera, launched their experimental outfit in 1970 under the guidance of his father Anton Perera. Sunil, Nihal, Nimal, Lal, Kanthi and Noel were the very first line-up for the band and subsequently changed it to ‘five brothers’ boy band’ in 1971.
Sunil, Nihal, Nimal, Lal and Piyal came under popular Gypsies tagline in 71 and since then it was a nun stop march for them with hits after a hit for the next fifty years.
The band is currently planning to host a mega concert to celebrate their fiftieth year in the music scene. Gypsies is the only band in Sri Lanka to continue nonstop music with major chart toppers for fifty years. Perhaps they may be the only band in the world to enjoy that privilege with huge following of a fan base.
Currently, apart from Sunil and Piyal, the rest of the members of Gypsies are outside of the family circle. The present line-up comprises Sunil Perera (lead vocals/guitar), Piyal Perera(Vocals), Kamal Perera (guitar), Lal Witiwala (drums), Dushan Jayathileke (keyboards), Shezry Shirajudeen (bass) and Monique Pallagama.
Due to pandemic situation, the concert to celebrate the jubilee will be streamed digitally to the world on popular ‘rickyflicks.com’ by Ricky Flicks (Pvt.) Ltd. created by famous film tycoon Sunil T Fernando.
Speaking to TV Times about this mega event, Piyal told creating a ‘Digital platform’ seems to be the correct solution for most of the questions.
‘But this is going to be new avenue for us as well as for the fans too. The idea is still on a planning level and we are looking for the possible ‘record and streaming’ option, without going for a live stream straight away. Anyway still everything is at discussion level and nothing is finalised yet’ Piyal added.
However Sunil is keen to host a major show to mark the celebration and is waiting for the right time for it may be 2022 will be the year for Gypsies to hit the road again with their new song ‘Galu Para’, almost at the final stage at the recording.
‘The ‘new digital streaming’ or live performance to the crowd will be decided with the current pandemic situation. We have to wait and see for the improvement of the country’s situation. But ‘Galu Para’ will be the hit for us’ he said.
Rickyflicks is the brand-new Virtual Home Cinema Experience to all Sri Lankans around the world. This will encourage not only films, but concerts and musical events too. Rickyflicks revolutionise the film and music industry in time to come.
The Managing Director of this new entity, Udayakanth Fernando, a former banker and presently a Consultant in digital Learning and Development, said that this site would be expanded in the near future to accommodate feature, discovery and educational films to be streamed exclusively from this site, while new releases would also be made on a continuous basis.
‘Rickyflicks will be a new platform for not only movies but for all musical concerts live and recorded’ said MD Udayakanth.
For more details log onto www.rickyfilicks.com
