• DJ Black Kat with red hot ideas 
• Two Happy Couch Potato Pops
• 'Max-8':18 of today's biggest hits
• Western pop: common chord
• Veteran 'C.L.' celebrates 50 years in the music scene 
• 'Hannibal': Story of suspense
• HCIMA elects new Chairman
• Serendib Leisure revamped website
• '2001 Space Odyssey' for Club Palm Bay

DJ Black Kat with red hot ideas 

He starts a session saying "it's nice to catch you all the party people down here, this is DJ Black Kat making you groove". 

Of course he is known among local fans as DJ Black Kat, but the real name behind this personality is Upul Rohan Wijesiri. His love for music started in his childhood. His idol was none other than the king of pop Michael Jackson. The music in Michael Jackson's Moon Walker, thriller, beat it magical videos lead this enthusiastic little fellow to fall in love with music.

He started DJing in year 1990, when he was a student of Nalanda College Colombo. Interactors Day '90 of Nalanda College was the first time he laid his hands on a console. From there onwards he DJ'ed at many school functions such as the "Nalanda Glory", trade fair and carnival. According to him, one of his memorable moments as a DJ was doing the hot mix programme of radio station "extasy of Nalanda" in 1997.

He didn't stop there. He was always in the music scene even though it was a hard task to continue. A lot of youngsters come to the field of DJing when they are schooling but after the schooling period they are hard to find. That's because they don't exist.

He went on with mobile DJing with "Level 4 DJ Crew" as his first mobile DJ outfit. Upto now he has DJ'ed with many popular DJ outfits such as "Good Groove", "Imagine", "X-treme", "Cool Zone", "Entertainment Unlimited". As a mobile DJ, Black Kat has done many successful dance parties through the years.

He moved to club DJing in year 1997, by renaming the night club of "Berjaya Mount Royal Hotel" as "After Dark". "After Dark" became very popular and many revellers made that place their weekend get away. 

The secret behind this was the music played in "After Dark" was a superb blend of a crowd determined music.

DJ BLAck Kat's secret of popularity among the party crowds is mainly his style of mixing along with the special variety of music he plays. 

"My personal preference is house music and of course I like to play original Sri Lankan tracks too. 

But all these are played according to the crowd and I have no hesitation of playing any type of music as far as I feel the crowd is enjoying" was the answer given by DJ Black Kat when asked what kind of music he loves to play.

Born on March 27 in Colombo still in his twenties and working in the Computer Department of a leading Bank, DJ Black Kat puts his all other time and effort to make a difference in the Sri Lankan DJing. Upto now he has shown the path to many youngsters who wanted to become DJs.

"I believe we can make a big difference in the local DJ industry and take it internationally to a higher standard if we have more unity among Sri Lankan DJs", he said.

Two Happy Couch Potato Pops

TNL Radio and Lite 89.2 who celebrated father's day on the June 17 with a unique competition, "Couch Potato Pop", which actually brought out all the genuine couch potatoes, through a registration period of ten days.

The event was carried out at two Singer Mega stores, Rajagiriya and Mount Lavinia with twelve contestant. Each of the dads were seated in front of a TV and given packs of Tipi Tip, Heladiv Iced tea and the remote controls to the relevant televisions. The first dad to finish the snacks, drink and channel surf to the TV channel assigned to them would walk out with a 21" National Panasonic colour television.

A very interesting competition indeed it was, with the families cheering and warning their dads not to come home without the TV. Well two of the dads did walk away with a colour television each. A.I.C. Manikkam won the competition held at the Rajagiriya Singer Mega and Percy Seneviratne won at Mt. Lavinia.

Even though the rest of the couch potato pops did not win, their wives would have been quite happy when they walked home with a Tefal steamer and other goodies from the sponsors.

'Max-8':18 of today's biggest hits

By Sanath Weerasuriya

'Max 8, the latest release on Max series is this week's album on 'Original Music Competition' with M-entertainment , TV Times and Sony Music. 

The Max series is truly a phenomenal compilation with a track record of well selected hit songs by many world renowned artistes.

Now ..... the collaborators of the Max series, Sony Music, BMG and Warner Music have once again announced their latest release of the all new 'Max 8'.

As one can only imagine, the magnitude of such an album can only be materialized by the joining of 3 international recording companies, putting out their top artistes for the listening pleasure..... 'Max 8' features 18 of today's biggest hits by 18 world class artistes - truly giving listeners maximum musical entertainment.

This is brought to Sri Lanka by Maharaja Entertainments (Pvt) Ltd.

Some of the world class artistes featured in this Album include West Life (My Love), Christina, Aguilera (Come On Over Baby), M2M (Everythig You Do), Madonna (Music), Jennifer Lopez (Love Don't Cost A Thing), Craig David (7 Days), Destiny's Child (Independent Women Part -1), Ricky Martin (She Bangs) and Joy Enriquez (Tell Me How You Feel).

This album is available now on Compact Disc and Cassette at M- entertainment

But still you can win five original albums of 'Max 8' by answering the simple question on the coupon on this Sunday TV Times & Entertainment magazine.

To enter this contest, all you have to do is to answer the question on the coupon and send it to the address given below.

The address is "Listen to Original Music Contest-No. 50, C/o Maharaja Entertainments (Pvt.) Ltd., 330, T.B.Jayah Mawatha, Colombo. 10. 

Tel: + 941672425-8, Fax + 941699070. E Mail: me @ lgo.lk 

All the entries must be originals from the Sunday TV Times and no photocopies or faxes will be entertained. 

All correct entries will be drawn by a panel of judges. The entries should reach the above address by July17, the latest. 

The decision of the judges will be final and the names of the winners will be announced in The Sunday TV Times accordingly. 

Here are the winners of Contest Number. 46. 

The winners of two Sony Original CDs are Loxley C. Wambeek of Ragama and Petula Wijesinghe of Moratuwa. The two audio winners are Padma Fernando of Malabe and Sunil De Silva of Nawala.

The 10% off gift vouchers go to Biyanca Jayasinghe of Mattegoda, A. Perera of Wellampitiya, Vindya Pabadini Weerakkody of Negombo, Rajithangani Unantenna of Ratmalana, Danitha Anuradha Dahanayaka of Matara and A. Pushpanathan of Dehiwela.

The Poster winners are Binara Sathkumara of Nugegoda,R.Naresh ofColombo-12, Chameera S.Jayarathne of Kandy, Sudara Ranaweerasinghe of Maharagama and W. Suresh of Colombo 6.

Western pop: common chord

By Gamini Akmeemana

Johnny Heyn and Stefano Herft share one great passion – a love of Western pop. Heyn is a fan of Cliff Richards, while Herft collects pop music records. He now has close to 500.

Both live close to Dehiwela, in the suburbs of Colombo, within a mile of each other. I first talked to Johnny Heyn in his small, neat house down Quarry Rd. It's a typical suburban Burgher house (unaltered since his grandfather's day, says Heyn), with a small garden, neat hedges and family memorabilia adorning the drawing room.

Johnny works as receptionist at the Colombo Swimming Club. He is also the back-up singer for the three-piece band which plays Friday nights at the club. 

Being left-handed, Johnny has trouble playing the guitar. But he hugely enjoys his singing (insisting on singing a Cliff Richard song for me during our interview) and has sung on a professional basis at hotels and restaurants, including the Transasia, the German restaurant and the Showboat.

He and his wife Charmaine have two sons, aged 18 and 11. His sister sends him Cliff Richards memorabilia from London. They were arranged on the sofa for my benefit – Cliff Richards t-shirts, cassettes and song collections. 

Former Sri Lankan cricketer David Heyn (also a left-hander) is his second cousin. Pop singer and comedian Ronnie Leitch is his classmate from their old school, Arethusa College at Wellawatte. 

Stefano Herft is a lot younger, but age is no obstacle to this friendship. Unlike his friend, though, Herft is no focused on one particular singer. He is serious about collecting records and has a highly varied collection dating back through the 1980s to the 1950s.

Glancing at the collection, I was suddenly aware of many familiar names, and others I'd I'd nearly forgotten – Lena Zavaroni, Johnny Nash, Trini Lopez, Shaking' Stevens, Don Gibson, Marty Robbins, Karen Young, Jim Reeves, Glen Campbell, Hank Snow, Tammy Wynette, Bonnie Tyler, Willie Nelson, Neil Sedaka, Andy Williams, Ronnie Milsap, Tina Charles, Olyvia Newton-John, ABBA, the Bee Gees and the Beatles.

In addition, he has a smaller collection of LPs and EP s recorded here during the golden days of Sri Lankan pop. Sitting incongruously amidst this lot were two names – Amaradeva and Victor Ratnayake – "That's for friends who want to listen to them," Herft says with a sheepish grin.

Taking up space in the bedroom are three record players, complete with their amplifiers and speakers. "One is belt driven, the other two are motor driven," Herft explains with technical savvy. He is a keen technician and knows how to repair the machines, an invaluable skill these days when electronic technicians often do shoddy work and many haven't touched a record player. On Sundays, the two friends get together and relax by doing what they like best – listening to old classics.

Veteran 'C.L.' celebrates 50 years in the music scene 

A mega concert titled 'C.L. Gee Mal' will be held in order to commemorate his 50 years of music and artistic activity on Saturday, July 14, 2001 at the refurbished Buddhist Hall, Moratuwa from 6.30 p.m. 

His inborn talents were evident from his formative days, when at the tender age of nine, he performed a programme of carols for Radio Ceylon - the only broadcasting station at the time in the country. As a youngster, he acted in stage dramas such as 'Lanka Tharuwa' and 'Rohini' where he appeared alongside big names such as Rukmani Devi among others. As a teenager he emerged winner in the Moratuwa schools open singing contest while at Prince of Wales College, Moratuwa. 

Leaving school, he became the live-wire of the versatile musical group 'Melody Makers' which included other talented musicians such as Vernon Perera, Dixon Silva, Eardley Silva (of 'Pibidev Pibidev' fame) Merril Peiris, Denzil Fernando, Eddie Ferdinando, Julius Arthur De Silva and David Fernando. They were the most sought after outfit for functions and were a rage in Moratuwa. 'C.L' studied oriental music and was designated as a 'B' graded artiste by the Indian great, Pundit Ratna Jankar and his eminent panel of judges in 1952. Later in life, he was a vibrant actor in the very famous and controversial stage play 'Rankanda' which was staged right throughout the country.

He was also a member of the 'Ballet music orchestra' where his contemporaries were the late Austin Munasinghe and Pundit W.D. Amaradeva. In more recent times his versatality was seen in teledramas 'Bogoda Andare', 'Hatara Kendere', 'Don Simon', 'Manawa Warana' while 'Saakki' is due to be telecast soon. 

C.L.'s popular originals which were familiar to the listeners of the 60s era include 'Ko Ran Etana', 'Mavage Thurule', 'Mal-Mal-Mal' and many more. 

He visited his son now domiciled in France four years ago where he was invited to head the panel of judges for the first ever Sri Lankan talent contest which was open to Sri Lankans living in all European countries.

During this tour, he recorded many tracks of music for the CD which he hopes to release in the not too distant future. He also concepted 'Singithi Prasangani' - a singing cum dancing concert way back in 1965. Some of the kids who took part in it blossomed to be high riding artistes in the country. 

C.L. also specialises in playing his box guitar and singing cowboy hits in addition to his western repertoire. As a founder member of the Moratuwa Arts Forum, he could be described as the most dynamic veteran member of the Forum having been the Chairman for 'Nirmana 95' a talent contest for youth featuring originals & 'Gayamu Eda Gee' - a sing along festival of Sinhala old favourites. 

Recently, he directed the music for originals sung by two members of the Forum in order to produce a mini CD. 'Wesak Bakthi Gee' was yet another project chaired by this never say die personality. 

C.L.'s son, Rohan along with wife Dulani would be making a special trip from France in order to be with him at this show. Dulani's mother Srikanthi Perera - a well known singer of yesteryear would also he appearing for this event. 

C.L.s grand-daughter Gayathri (dancer cum singer) daughter Geethika (singer) niece (Freddie Silva's daughter Chandani) would all join in to make this celebration a family affair. Well known songstress Amitha Wedisinghe would also make an appearance. 

The Orchestra for the occasion will feature many top class musicians such as Tissa Siri Perera, Kalani Perera, Jagath Wickremasinghe, Gallage, Anthony Surendra, Jude Peiris, Mahinda Bandara, Nissanaka Wimalasuriya and Ruwan Weerasekera.

'Hannibal': Story of suspense

By Susitha R. Ferenando

"Hannibal" depicting the canibalistic killings of Dr. Hannibal Lecter is now being shown at the Liberty Cinema and Milano Kegalle. 

Playing Dr. Hannibal Lecter- the cannibal is Academy Award Winner, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Academy Award nominee Julianne Moore plays FBI agent Clarice Starling as his adversary. 

Directed by Ridley Scott, director of 'Gladiator' the film is based on a novel by Thomas Harris featuring the fearsome Lecter's gruesome killings. 

Hannibal continues the story begun in 'The Silence of the Lambs'. Ten years have passed since Dr. Hannibal Lecter escapes from custody, ten years since FBI Agent Clarice Starling interviewed him in a maximum-security hospital for the criminally insane. The doctor is now at large in Italy, gloriously at liberty in an unguarded world. But Starling has never forgotten her encounter with Dr. Hannibal Lecter-his cold voice still haunts her dreams. 

Mason Verger remembers Dr. Lecter too. Verger was Dr. Lecter's sixth victim, and though hideously disfigured, has survived. The solitary heir to his family's fortune, he uses the resources of his inheritance to exact his revenge. Verger realises that in order to draw Lecter out into the open, he must dangle an irresistible bait: Clarice Starling. 

Filled with suspense film Hannibal takes its viewers through a lot sickening and bloody scenes featuring a number of killings by Dr. Hannibal . Nevertherless one cannot miss the superb perfomance given by legendary Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Hannibal. Hopkins received an Academy Award for his performance in 'The Silence of the Lambs (1991)" and was subsequently nominated in the same category for his performance in 'The Remains of the Day'. 

The movie says it had almost hundred locations including Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, President James Madison's farm in Montpelier or Biltmore Estate in Asheville.

HCIMA elects new Chairman

The new Chairman elect is P.M. Vitha.

Mr. Rajapakse has 25 years experience in the hotel industry, out of which 18 years has been in General Management, He was the General Manager of Hotel Topaz and the Tourmaline in Kandy, Hotel Renuka and Renuka City Hotel, Colombo, and is at present the General Manager of Villa Ocean View Complex, Wadduwa which is a 4 star, 250 roomed Resort Hotel Complex where he has been since 1993.

He has been the Chairman of the HCIMA Sri Lanka International Group for the last three years. During his period of Chairmanship the membership of the group has grown from about 20 to 170 members an increase of 750%.

Rajapakse introduced the Annual Sri Lanka Hotel Industry Management Conference, The Chairman's 'Black Tie' Dinner, the HCIMA Ball, the Annual Cricket Encounter and the Members Day and Annual Regional Seminars in the Southern Region, the Negombo Region, the Central region and the Cultural Triangle Region. In addition to being a MBA from the PIM University of Sri Jayawardenepura, Mr. Rajapakse holds three Hotel Management Diplomas from the Ceylon Hotel School, a Post Graduate Diploma in Hotel Administration from West Germany and the Professional Examination of the HCIMA UK. He is a fellow of the Ceylon Hotel School Graduates Association and a fellow of the Hotel Catering and International Management Association.

Mr. Rajapakse, one of the best three students in his batch in the Ceylon Hotel School was awarded a scholarship to West Germany, where he was a Management Trainee in three hotels in Munich.

Mr. Rajapakse is the Vice President of the Regional Hoteliers Association, Kalutara and a member of the Professional Development Committee of both the CHSGA and the HCIMA.

In appreciation and recognition of his services to the Hotel Catering and International Management Association he was presented with a plaque by the Executive Committee of the HCIMA at the recently concluded ceremony.

Serendib Leisure revamped website

Properties featured on the website are Club Hotel Dolphin, Club Hotel Seaspray, Hotel Sigiriya, Hotel Serendib, Hotel Reefcomber as well as the Tasks Safari Camp.

Discover the panoramic view from Hotel Sigiriya, stroll through the restaurant at Club Hotel Dolphin, immerse yourself in the jungle while exploring the Tasks safari Camp or indulge in the view from your bedroom at Hotel Serendib-all at the click of a button!

A separate page is dedicated to each of the group's seven hotels, the latest of which is Hotel Sindbad in Kalutara. The website offers multimedia and interactive features such as streaming audio and video clips, enriching your virtual experience of these wonderful locations.

In addition to its unique content, users have the option to surf the website in English, French or German. Sales and Marketing Manager of the group Ramesh Boteju said this was decided on since a major proportion of their European clients come from Germany and France.

The website is based on the concept that one should first sell the city and then the hotel. Surfers first decide on the language of their choice, and the display would indicate the cities around the island in which the group's hotels are located. A click on the city will enable you to see where in Sri Lanka the hotel is located.

Serendib Leisure is the first Sri Lankan hotel chain to introduce virtual tours and high interactive content to present its hotels on its website.

'2001 Space Odyssey' for Club Palm Bay 

This year's winner "2001 - Space Odyssey" is more than an innovative cocktail, it is more a revolutionary creation.

'The unique blend of liqueurs and spirits shaken with a flair that is rarely seen in a cocktail bar, had a subtle taste that would make an ideal after dinner drink. It was presented in a real laboratory measuring cylinder held upright in a wrought iron stand with a tiny dish on a side holding the garnish which was an intricately designed white chocolate praline,' said Nishadha Periyapperuma, Director Operations and the trainer of the winner.

The golden-green cocktail in the stand looked like a rocket which was about to be launched into new realms of cocktail preparation. This cocktail incidentally was dedicated to Sir Arthur C. Clarke.

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