Our Headline Tour! – Part 1

It was just the next logical thing to do – We went to the UK, funded it ourselves, played some really cool festivals and met a whole bunch of people, then we went back, with some more investment, and played every possible showcase, that was not the end, we went back again, but this time we signed with our International Management company, we got a distributor on board and even signed a pretty sweet publishing deal but that was not it either!

We had to go back one more time and do it right – we had to go on our own Headline Tour and the past 10 days in the UK was precisely that! With over 40 shows in the last 4 months in the UK, where we were on and off, we had played a large variety of venues and a whole bunch of festivals, and had played right from temple halls to school auditoriums to the foyer of the Barbican Center to festivals in the lake district. But if there was one gig that was would announce our arrival in the music scene in the UK, it was the Jazz Cafe.

Our Manager Paul, was promoting this tour himself and for a first timer, I should say he did pretty damn well!

We landed up in London and had a quick warm up gig at the Mayor’s London Bridge Festival where we played below the tower of London and by the River Thames. If you had to consider anything a magical moment, this would rank very high up the list. And the interesting thing about this festival was that we were not playing to an invited audience or people who had even come there specifically for the festival. It was a festival that targeted the many thousands of tourists that frequent the tower of London and the banks of the river every single day! And to get a rousing response from this assorted bunch of people was just a big morale booster and it led to a lot of them making it to the Jazz cafe a couple of days later!

Now the Jazz Cafe is one of London’s most prestigious venues and has hosted many many great musicians and continues to do the same even today. And you know the venue is good when you tell someone that you are playing at the Jazz Cafe and headlining the gig and their eyes light up! To make things even more special, we were joined that night by the wonderful Mr. Justin Adams, who is one of the biggest names in the world music scene today and has worked with the likes of Robert Plant and Peter Gabriel.

After an engaging opening act by David Jordan, we took stage to a completely packed Jazz Cafe. Gary was at his brilliant best on the console and it had all the makings of a great gig. The band was loving it, the crowd was on our side, it was just the most beautiful setting to play.

Justin joined us for ‘Ambar’, and he showed us a whole new side to that song with his layered guitar solo on the song and came back again during the Encore to jam on ‘Mysore Se Aayi’ which he transformed with his percussive guitar style as well!

It was one of those shows that you sit back and re-enact in your mind, it was actually that good. I know I might be sounding like I am bragging a little bit here, but it was pretty damn awesome.

We got some great feedback and some really interesting ideas from some really nice people have started pouring in, which should lead to an exciting musical journey for the band. It was especially nice to see in the audience, Susheela Raman, an icon in the music industry and someone that we love and even idolize at times. She was completely tripping on the music as well and I don’t think you can easily describe the feeling when you see that happen to your own music

Photo Credits – Akin Aworan who runs the site PixPilgrim.com came by to shoot the gig an we are absolutely glad he did. These are the some of the marvellous photos he took that night! You should check out more of his photos and his review of the gig here – http://www.pixpilgrim.com/?p=2759