TV Times

TV Times

‘Gallefinger’ in love with Lanka
By Sanath Weerasuriya
Gallefinger is a Sri Lankan based band of foreign nationals. This sevem piece outfit comprises of expats working in Sri Lanka. Gallefinger is just a hobby band and they are not professionals, as they all involved in different jobs. Pascal Algier, the leader of the band is a French national. He plays keyboards and handles vocals too.

Marc Biefnot, who is from Belgium, plays guitar, sax and vocals. Conga player and percussionist is Mark Gabay from Turkey. US’ Michael Devlin is a guitarist and handles vocals too. Drummer Paul Topping is British and Paul Buckley plays bass. He is from Australia.

The groups’ star attraction Ashika Chapman is from Singapore . She is the frontline female singer and the saxaphonist. The band is together since last November and they have performed in many top gigs during during the last six months.

‘The most recent function’ was the North American Ball and in March we performed the Mardi Gras. with North American Women’s Association.’ said Ashika. Pascal Algier is the man behind this outfit and his love for Galle has made him to name this band Gallefinger.

“My first band in Sri Lanka was 100% French, with minimal equipment, we performed at the Kandy Alliance Francais in 1995, the second band was an 80% German /Swiss band, we were performing mostly at private parties, the third band was 100% Japanese, I was the only Gijin, but they were missing a keyboard, we played together for about a year and a half and performed at the Colombo Hilton in and at Clancy’s. At that time, I asked Ashika to join us as no one was able to sing as high as Robert Plant.” he explained .

Gallefinger is a rock band and all the member are rock fans “Everyone was willing to play Led Zeppelin.” he laughed. ‘It took time to put together the Gallefinger band, when the Japanese left the country back to Japan, I was left behind and started to miss it very much, as usual. The problem with expatriates is that they stay in the country for few years only, and when they leave, everything has to be re-built all over again from scratch.’ Pascal, popularly known as butcher said..

Then I called Michael D. (guitar) and we started to play together at home in the guest room. I liked his sophisticated technique and his voice very much. Later on, I heard about Paul T (drums) from his wine testing sessions, I contacted him and went on a Saturday morning at his residence, I noticed the shiny drum set under the stairs, he was just working up after a short and heavy night, rock n’ roll attitude was definitely there.

After the guitar and the drums, a bass player was still missing and during another private party at Carmen’s place, I suddenly shouted “does anyone know a bass player in here?” and one guy said “yes! there is one at the OSC!” I called few days later the number he gave me, and chatted for the first time with Mark B code name the Shark (guitar and lead voice). He mentioned his former band in China and said that he was also looking for a band. The first day we met, Mark came along with Paul B. (bass) and by looking at both of them, I knew that there would be no way we would play any boy’s band staff!’ Pascal went on explaining.

We started to play together from time to time, and during a rehearsal, Marco G. joined us for a different matter and was , compelled to stay and listen, and I asked him “why don’t you take these congas instead of staying on that sofa?” and since that day, so far, he still did not returned the congas!

“That’s how Gallefinger was born, a mix of Australia, United States, Belgium, Singapore, Turkey, England and France, it’s quite an achievement for me because music is not everything in a band.” The band was mostly influenced with black music, funk, godspel, rhythm and blues, Michael is more on “experimental” staff, Zappa, Robert Fripp.. Mark is definitely and purely Rock n’roll.

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