Posts Tagged ‘Festival’

Each tour brings with itself a whole bunch of “firsts” for the band. And at the Larmer tree festival, it was the first time we had to play 3 gigs in a day, and believe it or not, the first time we played a proper acoustic show in a LONG LONG time!

Driving to the festival itself was an experience as we went out of the concrete jungle that London is to the beautiful English countryside and past the Stonehenge as well, though we did not have the time to go up to it and see it up close. I think most of the band just caught up on sleep for the rest of the tour and each of us was up to his own thing waking up once in a while in the middle, while Gary, our tour manager was awake through it all driving us to the venue ensuring we manage to make it in time for the show. At the end of the tour, I’m sure he is just going to sleep for a week! or knowing Gary, just take on a bunch of work :p

We arrived at the Larmer Tree festival just an hour before we were scheduled to be on stage and the organizers were going into a mild panic attack, but seeing us on site seemed to calm everyone down and we did our set up and line check in record time! With that done, there was just about enough time to get back to green room, change and get back on stage for the first set of the day!

The Larmer Tree festival has been running for 20 years now and over the years, I was told it has become an institution this side of the UK and it gets hardcore regulars who come out and camp for all days of the fest. We even met food store owners who really look forward to being part of this festival, so it was a brilliant festival to be part of!

Unlike many of the afternoon slots we’ve played at different festivals, this time round, the crowd was already lounging around on the grass in front of the main stage, that made it a little easier for us because we just had to get them up to their feet ;) - And we did and how! The first song we did got a whole bunch of people up to the front of the stage joining along with us, but once we launched into ‘Mysore Se Aayi’ I think we broke the ice :)

The nice thing about playing at such a fun festival is that the audience we get are here to truly have fun and you need to just cater to their fun loving side and they will jump at the chance. Its a skill we’ve learnt through many festivals. Once we got everyone involved, the rest of the set was pure joy. The interaction with the crowd was great, the setting beautiful and Gary on the sound was really milking that PA to make sure that people were “feeling” the music ;)

We got some great feedback post the gig and it was time to grab a nice lunch before we headed to Raghu’s 2nd gig of the day - a One on One with a bunch of fans at ‘Folk in a Box’. The idea for folk in a box is as simple as it is unique. Its the world’s smallest festival - one artist, one fan in a closed box. Pitch Dark, and the most intimate musical experience you will ever have!

So we put Raghu into the box and a bunch of fans went in one by one to listen to Raghu serenade them. We have no idea what it sounded like inside, but the people who were in there were overwhelmed. A short video about the whole thing is coming up very soon! Raghu loved it and it was, according to him, one of the best gigs he has done! and he had just finished quite a smashing gig right before that :)

Once we finished Folk in a Box, it was time to get some shut eye and rest before we went out to do the last gig of the day, an acoustic set in a tent at the festival. Now, this was another first for the band, not having done a proper acoustic set before and also, for Willy, it was the first time with a Cajón. So that was always going to be interesting.

To just spice it up a bit more, we had a packed house even before we got on stage for a quick sound check / line check and while that was flattering, it meant that we couldn’t take long to set the sound and also had to get it all done very quietly, without giving away too much before the gig started. But it was another of those ‘take it as it comes moments’ and before you knew it, it was time to get going.

Raghu started with a solo version of ‘Soruthihudu Maneya Maligi’ and the rest of the band joined him on stage in parts, first Vijay for Hey Bhagwan, the duo version and then Karthick and Vijay doing ‘Ambar’ with Raghu before everyone was on stage doing a punchy acoustic version of Mysore Se Aayi, Gudugudiya and Har Saans Mein.

We then headed to the artist tent for a signing, sold out all the CDs we had carried (and we carried quite a few) - it was heartening to see everyone stand in line to meet us! so we went out and broke the line ourselves, walking up and down the line talking to them as they waited to purchase our CDs. It was also the time when the “Incident” happened with Gaurav, so it was a Rock and Roll day in all.

I know I say this quite often with the gigs we are doing here, but yet again, Larmer Tree was a festival we wont forget in a hurry! and we certainly hope to be back next year :)

See all the photos we took at the Larmer Tree festival here - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=195599&id=22220507136

We’d never think we would ever say this, but its actually now part of our lingo when we say, “Back in London …” because we’ve been here that often in the recent past! In fact, yesterday, I caught myself giving directions to a tourist on how to reach a particular place in London and that was quite something!

All along, when we are in London, its always been a little too cold for our comfort, and many times, the day starts off okay but then just the drop in temperature is massive! but this time round, things have been more than pleasant! it reminds us so much of Bangalore’s weather. Its bright, sunny, there is a little chill in the air, and it isn’t raining as often. Londoners consider this heavenly weather and you can see how everyone wants to be out all the time :)

We landed here in London early this week and headed straight to Charlsbury, Oxfordshire for the Cornbury Festival, touted to be a fun festival for the family. And it was all that it promised to be and more. The whole place was so colourful and bright and there was so much happening all the time, right from the puppet shows to the crazy rides to the food stalls to the soap bubbles, everyone was having a belter of a time.

We played at the Riverside stage as evening broke into night and a first for us, we had the audience seated on bales of hay! a true festival in the fields this was, but that was not for long. As is customary when we get on stage, the audience was up on their feet ready to shake things up a little along with us.

It was a quick set up thanks to Gary and Ron who picked up from where we left off in May with their awesome work and in no time, we were all set to get on with our set. We chose to go with the traditional “Hey Bhagwan” as the opener and just as that prayer to the good Lord above ended, as if s/he had heard us, there was a nice little drizzle acknowledging the acceptance of that prayer and just as the drizzle started, it faded away. Thankfully, we had gotten most of the audience off the hay by now and more people were running towards our stage as we proceeded to run through the rest of the set.

We debuted our brand new T-shirts at the fest and also sold a bunch of CDs and met loads of people who loved the show! reviews are still coming in and we’d love to hear from you if you were there at the festival! Do give is a shout.

A nice long drive on the way back nicely broken down into pre-dinner and post dinner at a Indian food joint in Southall and much to Gary’s dismay, harmonius snores in the tour van throughout the evening rounded off what was a brilliant way to start a tour.

Thanks to the folks at the Cornbury fest and we will surely be back next time round :)

Catch more photos from the festival here - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=453303&id=522175007

So how do you prepare yourself before playing at the music festival of your dreams? Certainly not by sitting packed in a van in heavy traffic on the Motorway!

But thats how the gig of our dreams started! After much confusion about the travel and having to drop one member from the travelling party at the last minute because there wasn’t enough place in the van, we set off from London in a rented van and to our horror found that the traffic on the Motorway was unbelievably crazy! But Sareata was on top of things and managed to squeeze her way in and out of lanes and get some ‘Indian Style’ driving done to speed things up!

But it was a HUGE sigh of relief we breathed as we pulled into the artist registration area at the festival and collected our artist kits and then made our way to the Saddlespan stage just 40 minutes before we were supposed to go on stage!

It was then that we found out that the engineers had gone off for a dinner break since we hadn’t arrived yet and were planning to land up only half an hour before our show, so we had just 15 minutes to quickly check if all was in place and then headed back to the green room to get changed! Looking back and things, I am quite pleased things went this way coz we were all full of energy and there was no chance or time for nervousness or any such thing! it was all plug and play!

The people who come to WOMAD are really special and they come there for a fun happy experience, the place itself is out of a fairy tale and the music is the most diverse you will ever find at festivals! So it was a great vibe from the first moment we got on stage! people were already fully kicked about our band and ready to have a great time!

We also spotted in the crowd, a familiar face, Mr. Derek Sivers himself and quite a few attendees from TED Global that had just finished in Oxford earlier that day! It was a first for me, playing in front of my “boss”!! But he seemed to like it so its all good I think ;)

The set was quite fantastic, the band was tight, the sound was brilliant, the crowd was beautiful, the setting was perfect, there was nothing more we could ask for! But … and you know how in our case, there is always a big BUT ;)

Rajeev, who was our Road Manager cum Photographer cum Roadie cum Guitar Tech cum Merchandise Sales Manager cum guide cum everything else assumed that the band’s slot was from 8PM to 9PM and so when there were 10 mins to go, he told us to wrap up the set and so at 9 PM on the dot, we ended our performance with a bang!

The organizers however came running and told us that we had half an hour more to go! so it was time for our triple encore!! :D

The crowd loved the fact that we had more time and it was all good and the best part of it being that we had enough time to set up a small stall on the left side of the stage where we could sell our CDs. And boy did we sell CDs! we ran out of every single CD we managed to get from India and still ended up not having enough!

By this time, it was getting really cold (atleast for us!) and then it was time to check some of the rest of the festival, go out and eat from the wide variety of cuisines on display and head to The Hilton in Swindon where we were to stay for the night!

And that is how it all went down, there are so many more stories to tell, but this is the basic draft I had to get out ASAP! More shall follow!

Pictures from the gig available at - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=285799&id=522175007&l=64b11f6ff6