Rubbish - who wants to change the tune?
Bryan Adams is going to be here, they tell me. After that, Bryan Adams will be taken to meet Tilvin Silva. Tilvin Silva will then blow his (Bryan's) mind out.

Tilvin Silva is going to tell Bryan Adams who is having the greatest show in town. Tilvin Silva's gig is being showcased in three state television channels, and it has been going on for the last three or four weeks. There are more young men waving their hands there than at any Bryan Adams or UB 40 concerts put together.

Shaggy, the reggae star from the Caribbean was here a couple of years back. He was a little anxious that Sri Lankan crowds found it hard to let themselves go like those in the Caribbean.

He should have met Tilvin Silva. Silva has got three television channels to showcase strikes on national television. The striking crowds are so animated, that they qualify for a special award. They know what it is to perform for television.

They know what it is to wave their hands about and basically send out the message to foreign investors not to touch Sri Lanka with a bargepole. Why else would they be on television if not to send these kinds of messages?

The Bryan Adams concert is for peace. The Tilvin Silva concert is for one short sharp strike at the government -- - peace be damned. In the meanwhile, they are still talking of UB 40.

The post mortem on the UB 40 concert playing last week on national television was more interesting - - and I daresay more high decibel -- than the UB 40 concert itself. The only difference was that whereas the Chairman of the CWE was watching the concert itself from the grandstand, he was watching this post mortem from the back row to which he had been relegated. His leader was in the front row.

But these concert wars might just as well determine who is going to occupy Temple Trees next. They are bringing on Bryan Adams for peace. Who will the JVP bring on from the Caribbean -- Castro?

Eventually they tell me anyway it is all a big mistake. Concert for Peace? Not really -- it is a concert for a piece of the action. The facts and figures will be thrashed out in round two which is the post-concert concert for which the grandstand happens to be by the Bo tree near the Pettah bus stand.

One editorialist said it is the singer not the song. The song is the same - "who is more corrupt, who is going to form the next government, who loves peace more -- you me or the other Soma, Somawansa?'' And if it is the singer and not the song, then why have only Bryan Adams in a concert for peace? Why not Michael Jackson in a concert for child's rights?

Later, the Attorney General's Department and Rienzi Arsecularatne can have the mother of all concert post mortems on television on the topic "can we prosecute Michael Jackson for molesting three children at the Colombo Hilton?'' Bet your bottom rupee, three children will be fasting to death courtesy Tilvin until Jackson is well and truly indicted…

Back to Top

Back to Columns

Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers Ltd. All rights reserved.