‘Nightingales’ back in action after decades with ‘Pera love songs’
View(s):By Sanath Weerasuriya
‘Nightingales’, popular seventies era band from Moratuwa is now getting ready to celebrate their 50 years with their new song ‘Climbing Hantana has been a dreaming’ reminiscing the sweet past of the days at ‘University of Pera’.
Lalith Wass Gunawardena, the leader of the band ‘Nightingales’ is back in the saddle with his new creations about his days at the Pera. ‘I have been fortunate to attend Ananda College and enter the Engineering Faculty at the University of Peradeniya. Straight out of escaping the apron strings of the mother and the ever-caring eyes of my father, landing in the Akbar Hall, which was the main accommodation facility for the Engineering Students was a life changing experience’ said Lalith.
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- Nightingales in 1973
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- Lalith Perera
Lalith’s new song is all about his romance, heart breaking events, fights and mainly about the Hantane Mountain, which is consider as a part and parcel of Pera students.
He was telling about the life at Pera in early days. Back then, there were only a handful of lady students counting to less than 10% of the six hundred Engineering Students, and all girls were housed across the Mahaweli, on the opposite side of the campus. This led to the Engineering Faculty and the Akbar Hall complex being called the ‘dry zone’ of the Peradeniya Campus. University fresh men and women are at the tender age of youth, the time where romantic thoughts form and develop. In this time, there are countless stories of relationships being formed across Mahaweli where all the ladies’ halls situated, which is the most picturesque part of the campus.
‘In the meantime, needless to mention that there is equal or more numbers of broken hearts, leading to sorrow and frustration. Through experience or empathy of consequences of heart breaking events, there have been several songs written to console the poor souls of misfortune. These songs are cherished by all, on whatever the side of the fence they were on’ said Lalith. ‘Therefore, I felt that reminiscing those sweet moments of the youth is a pleasant experience moving into golden era of my life. That led me to write so many campus time love songs in the past months. Although I have been on the winning side of the fence, empathising with my beloved brotherhood who were on the opposite side of the fence was the true justice as I believe. Therefore, most my composing belongs to the ‘viraha gee’ genre’ Lalith continues his down memory lane story.
Having learned the decent quality of those songs, I have been fortunate in making connections with the Recording and Visual Engineer of ‘Nightingales’, Lalith Anthoney Perera, an experienced musician in Sri Lanka.
Lalith Wass Gunawardena recently have released one Peradeniya love song in Sinhala, ‘Sarasavi Bima Sonduru Arana’ a slow rhythm number, which is attracting a prominent level of attention on the YouTube and is going to be a remarkable success.
Both Lalith Wass Gunawardena and Lalith Perera are now planning to launch their next ‘Pera love song’ in English, ‘Climbing Hantana has been a dreaming,’ a Rock n’ Roll number, with a happy conclusion of a girl and a boy hitching up. It is going to be released by mid-August 2023 on YouTube.
‘I am looking forward to a long and happy relationship with the band, Nightingales and the song will be under their name’ Lalith said.
‘As the Leader of the band, I would like to thank Bandula Samarasinghe for connecting with us on compiling these beautiful tunes. The Nightingales team: Manager, Nelson Senevirathna; lead vocalist and visual engineer, Lalith Anthoney Perera and vocalist, Dayantha Gunawardena’ Lalith added.
The song was penned by Bandula Samarasinghe, now living in Australia. Music arrangements and main vocals were done by Lalith Wass backup vocals and dance sequence on the visual were done by Thamara Hansangi, Sachini Praboda and Shaini Wakkumbura.
The band ‘Nightingales’ started in 1973 and the line-up included Dayantha Wass Gunawardena, Sunil Wass Gunawardena, Chistopher Fernando, Anura Aponso, late two brothers Devadasa and Viraj De Silva, Malcolm Perera, Ayesha Gunasekara and Christine Gunawardana.
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