Shaoxing, China, July 26: A bright, beautiful Monday morning…
Voice Print, a sort of oddball (in a good way) but talented ten-member Sri Lankan choir, who had just taken part in the World Choir Games (WCG) 2010 in the ancient city of Shaoxing, were seated in the audience, not really expecting any miracles, waiting for the judges to announce the winners of what is known the world over as the Olympics of choral singing.
Also in the audience were tons of other, much bigger choirs, some with a membership of over 100, from countries like Russia, the US and South Africa, with backing orchestras, no less, who were eagerly awaiting the announcement of the final verdict.
“Can the leader and music conductor of each choir get on stage and sit with the other choirs, please?” the host said.
Two of the boys from Voice Print got up from their seats and started walking towards the stage when someone said, “Hey, take the [national] flag with you. Nikang geniyamu.”
So they did.
A few minutes and several rounds of applause later, they heard it: “And the Silver goes to… Voice Print, Sri Lanka!”
There was stunned silence in the corner of the audience where the guys were seated. Then suddenly, someone got up and shouted, “Adoh, that’s us!”
And thus the celebrations began. Voice Print went on to bag another (bronze) medal and it was ‘party all night’ after that. God knows they deserved it, because it was, by no means, a walk in the park.
According to Music Director and de facto Face of the group Michael Sathasivam, it was an uphill climb. “The whole journey itself was one big obstacle. We had only three months to go, and we had to raise Rs 2.5 million. That was the toughest part. I must have sent out about 60 to 70 letters to corporate Sri Lanka, but unfortunately no one came forward to help. Just two days before the deadline, we didn’t have a single cent on us. We thought about pulling out and we actually did pull out. I sent an email to the organisers saying we don’t have the funds,” says Michael.
He did not hear back from the organisers. So, they just stopped practising.
However, Michael still kept sending out letter after letter, hoping against hope that their luck had not yet run out, until one day, an Indian businessman based in Dubai, Abbas Mammoola who currently heads Caravan Fresh contacted them. Mr. Mammoola listened to them, and he liked what he heard. Then, according to Michael, he wrote them a cheque worth a cool Rs 400,000.
“After the cheque came in, everything fell into place. The organisers called and said they’d give us free accommodation for five days. SriLankan Airlines said they’d take 50% off the airfare. So we immediately started practising again,” recalls Michael.
And before you could say Shaoxing, Voice Print were in China, faced with the dauntingprospect of performing in front of a massive 4000-strong crowd.
It was going to be their biggest concert ever. But there was no time to get nervous. They were given their own tour bus and were taken all over town, which had been transformed into a musical city. The group was given accommodation at the Shaoxing University with several other choirs.
“From Day One it was all about music. We started practising at the lobby. Every time we sang at some place about 40 to 50 people would gather around us,” Michael says.
The first concert was the next day. Voice Print’s backing band The Rebels and lead guitarist Ranil Gunawardena were to perform with them.
Then came the problems.
The microphones the group had requested for were not there. There were no amplifiers, no equipment, there was nothing. When they asked the organisers for a keyboard stand, they had given them… a table. With just minutes to spare, the guys hurriedly searched the place for whatever they could find – mics, amps, you name it, and miraculously managed to set it all up, just in time.
They sang U2, an Elvis medley and a nine-part cover of Lahiru Perera’s Rambare, which Michael says the crowd loved. Voice Print became an instant hit. Soon, the boys were all over the local news and people were queueing up to get their autographs and pose for pictures with them. “Voice Print from Sri Lanka gives Shaoxing a Music Lesson”, read one of the headlines of a Shaoxing daily.
Twenty-year-old beatboxer Julius Mitchelle was probably the biggest star. He quickly became a crowd favourite and stole the show with his improvised drum machine sounds complete with grooves and scratching noises and even trumpet sounds a la Papare music. He was featured in TV and radio interviews as the best beat boxer at the games.
“It was nothing like I’d ever experienced before. I went there and got to do beat box solos. The sounds were great. When we performed in the indoor stadium, the sound was really awesome. Even I couldn’t believe that was my voice I was hearing. It was the biggest audience I’d ever performed to,” says Julius.
One day before the competition, says Michael, the group was given ten minutes for a sound check. They went on stage, only to find that none of the equipment they had requested was given to them (again). So they asked for time, to get everything ready.
“We got the perfect sound balance. We got Ranil to do it. We were very happy about it. We even had our numbers written down on the mics, because nine of us were to sing nine different parts, and each part had to blend in, perfectly.”
Satisfied, the guys went on stage again, the next day, ready and confident. They were in for a rude shock.
“We found, to our dismay, that all our equipment had been changed. Drums were missing, the keyboard stand was missing. The worst bit – mic settings had been changed. The judges were there, people started clapping, so we had no choice but to start singing. From the first note, we were dejected. Six months of preparations, for this.
“We couldn’t hear two of the parts because two mics had been switched off, so it was almost like we were a singing flat,” says Michael.
It was an emotional moment for the guys. Most of them broke down in tears, Michael says.
They were then shepherded to another venue where the Sacred Music round was to be held, where they performed better, but halfheartedly so. Everyone was feeling down and miserable on their way back to the university. Then, Michael’s phone rang.
It was one of the organisers. “One of the judges who had heard you guys at the concert thought you were much better than what he saw at the competition and would like to give you a second chance,” the voice on the other end said.
Within minutes they were back at the stadium, standing in front of the same judges. “We’ll give you a ten minute sound check. Do any two songs. If you sound any different than what you did earlier, we’ll score you on that,” the judges had said.So, they did the sound check, and sang their hearts out.
“We did Why Do Fools Fall in Love and Rambare. We really rocked it. You could see it on our faces,” recalls Michael.
And that’s how they won the Silver for the Pop category. Their performance at the Sacred round won them a bronze medal.
Voice Print has arrived. |
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