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Swing to the 60s
PHOTO: M. VEDHAN
SONGS FROM YESTERYEAR At the concert
"Ihope you find me sufficiently
ancient to take you back
to the 1960's," grinned the
compere, introduced to the
audience as "Uncle" by the lead singer.
"Back to when life was simple."
"Pocketful of Memories," a retro
concert by Sujan Daniel and The
Live Martini concentrated on the
past, and the greatest singers of the
sixties, Cliff Richard, Eric Clapton,
Michael Franks, The Rolling
Stones.
The audience however, was a
small but interesting mix of age
groups. The compere said, "Let's
have a show of hands. How many of
you remember the 1960's?" And only
about 25 per cent of the group
waved their hands in the air gleefully.
The rest, most probably born to
the strains of Bon Jovi, or Puff Daddy,
just looked amused as Uncle and
Co. took a quick trip down memory
lane.
"Remember the radio. Station B,
and the programme Listener's
choice," he said, to oohs and aahs of
agreement. "The LPs, the
gramophones."
Then Sujan Daniel came on, in a
jazzy cowboy hat and started off the
concert with the "Honkey Tonk
Blues". In a way, the fact that the
Museum theatre was not really full
worked well for the concert, making
it feel like a cosy rehearsal. Since the
band took a while to warm up, Sujan
candidly admitted to everyone "I'm
nervous. The backing vocalists are
nervous," before turning to them
with a grin, saying,
with a grin, saying, "You guys got to
loosen up a bit."
They might have taken a while to
relax, but the audience didn't. Perhaps
it was the festivity in the air
this season, or the fact that Sujan
managed to create a fairly intimate
atmosphere at the concert, for by
the time they were into their third
song people were yelling out suggestions,
requests and demands for
encores.
Retro music clearly never dies.
Maybe it's because even the children
of the 80s and 90s grow up listening
to their parent's music collections.
The band did, however, make an attempt
to contextualise and update
the songs by pointing out how many
of them were so successful that they
were remade into covers decade after
decade. Like "Blue Christmas",
originally sung by Bing Crosby, then
Elvis, and finally Bon Jovi. Or
"These Boots Were Meant For
Walking," today associated with Jessica
Simpson's sizzling video, but
originally sung by Nancy Sinatra in
the 1960s.
Other evergreen songs that featured
included "Young Ones" by
Cliff Richard, "Lady In Red" by
Chris De Burg and "Every Little
Thing She Does Is Magic" by the
Police. A lot of thought seemed to
have been put into the programme,
since it included both well-known
songs, as well as more obscure
tracks, and featured everything
from Jazz to rock. And in a timehonoured
Chennai tradition, they
ended with a college rock concert
favourite, Jim Morrison's "Roadhouse
Blues".
SHONALI MUTHALALY
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