Posts Tagged ‘raghu dixit project’

This show was due from a long long time and in retrospect, it was fully worth it! Its been over 15 days now, but we are still reeling from it!

For a show put together with such short notice, it was amazing how it all fell into place. But lets start at the very beginning.

The lovely chaps at IndianStage.in came to us a couple of months back saying they wanted to start conducting shows in Bangalore for their clients and for the general public and they would like to start with The Raghu Dixit Project. They had no sponsors, no partners, no nothing, but they knew they had to put together a good show and they were confident that Bangalore would not let them down if they could put together something great!

Now the sanest thing to do at that point is to say - DON’T!

But we decided otherwise - we looked at this as an opportunity to create something that we had always dreamed of! a show that truly defined the Raghu Dixit Project. A remarkable collaboration with various dancers, musicians and also with video jockeys, and some great sets! The plan was to set the bar for performance so high that it would be something that everyone will want to attend!

So we got around to doing just that.

We got Clio, the Greek-French harp player from Pune to come to Bangalore a few days in advance to re-arrange 2 songs with us, we got Nritarutya, the best dance company in the world to work out something that would eventually blow our minds for Khidki, Garudi dancers (dressed as HUGE dolls) to come on stage to add colour to Mysore Se Aayi, Kamsale dancers to join us on stage for ‘Mahadeshwara’, Anil and his team from Davis Pro Sound to set up a video projector system and work with us over a couple of weeks to get the concept and the meaning behind each song right so that they can then project some amazing stuff behind us when we were playing and most importantly, the sound and the lights itself!

We also got our dear friend Varun Agarwal from Last Minute Films, to set up 5 cameras in the hall to record all of this for a DVD to be released!

The days leading to the show were filled with hectic activity and it was like sinking into quicksand with the number of things that we had to get done. Fight everyone’s schedules, rehearse, co-ordinate things with the guest performers, ensure all equipment was in order, permissions, printing, making sure we invite everyone for the show and then our costumes and the show itself!

But once it started, it was pure magic! the best show of our lives - the most co-ordinated, visually rich and filled with some amazing moments! And the audience itself, some fantastic people who were with us through the show lifting the performance even higher :)

Our heartfelt thanks to Clio, the folk dancers, the sound and lights company - Davis Pro Sound, IndianStage for seeding this idea - we hope you continue to do this a lot more and to Nritarutya - by far the best in the business, we ourselves were not ready for what you guys did on stage with Khidki! It was magical!

If you were there at the show, let us know what you thought of it and also - watch this space for announcements about the DVD.

Thank much to Kalyan Varma, Ganesh Raghunathan and Prasad Bhat for the excellent photographs!

Our first club gig in London was at the Von Underbelly and we were the headlining band! and what fun it turned out to be :)

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It was with great apprehension that we arrived in the UK without our guitarist Vijay Joseph and the man who was supposed to replace him was Varun Krishnan ..

So after the heart breaking news that Vijay could not make it, we were in a complete fix about how we would pull off the trip to the UK and one part of the answer was Varun Krishnan. He was the guitarist for Zero after Warren had to move to New Zealand and he came heavily recommended ;) - So we had nothing to fear!

We landed up at his house early in the morning yesterday and I must say it helps when you stay down the road from Abbey Road Studios! You know what you *HAVE* to do when you are in the vicinity of the Abbey Road Studios right? We did just that!

Sang Beatles songs and crossed the road and had someone click that famous photo! except small problems - the song that Jithin started singing when we asked him to sing a Beatles song was - “Hotel California” !! - though we can just blame his Mallu descent for it :p - and we most certainly don’t look like the Fab Four a couple of decades back, but then, it was a brilliant experience walking through music history!

Varun did not disappoint - he had his parts nailed, gave us cereal bars and cake and some excellent coffee and the morning session was a breeze! We ran through the structure on most songs we were playing and stepped out of his house to watch the long queue of people waiting to get into the Lords Cricket Ground! We have promised ourselves that we we will make it to the Final day of the Ashes test on Monday - I hope the Aussies stick around till then!

We then headed out to meet Sareata, our lovely host who has been quite an angel, helping us out with settling in and sorting out all issues we’ll face here about our travel and accomodation - its been brilliant! thank you so much :)

The evening practice session was at ‘The Joint’ which is a studio that is used by bands like Noah and the Whale and Coldplay for practice! and when we reached there, we learnt that we have been upgraded to use one of their bigger and newer studios - the Red Plus!

A LONG practice session and some Mc Donalds burgers (Thanks Sammy and Rajeev for that!!) and it was time to drag our tired selves to the flat and get some sleep! But its all good coz in a couple of hours - its us on the Gaymers Stage at the Lovebox festival!

Check out some of the pictures we’ve put up! - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=281666&id=522175007&l=fecccf746e

After all the confusion regarding our tour, we are finally off and have sorted most of it out, but then what fun is a tour without a little uncertainty ;)

We boarded the Sri Lankan airlines flight last night and had a long stopover at Colombo and are currently in the Colombo airport ready to board the next flight to the UK. In between, losing boarding passes and breaking escalators, we’re certainly making our presence felt ;)

But here we go hoping for the best and knowing that we will play our hearts out and like the lovely Anuva Seth said, hopefully break a few hearts on our way back (with only our music that is!)

Wish us luck and if you are in London next week or know someone that is, please tell them to come watch us - the list of gigs we play is here - http://raghudixit.com/uk

The Kyra Theatre in Bangalore re-opens on the 8th of May, 2009 with The Raghu Dixit Project performing in an exclusive intimate setting featuring songs from our upcoming albums and lots of stories!

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Its been a long long time since we played in Bangalore (well, longer than we would have wanted to) so its time to rectify that and thanks to the lovely students at Don Bosco Institute of Technology, we are playing in their college for their annual fest - Vismay 2009.

Don Bosco Institute of Technology is on Mysore Road - just head down until you find it on Mysore Road itself :) You can also view a map on Google Maps - here

Come by and catch some fun new songs and a fantastic live set ;) .. and I am not exaggerating!

I know its been a while since we went to shoot for the Farhan Akthar show, ‘Oye Its Friday’. And this time round, I have been waiting to make this post till today very intentionally! This is to announce that we are featured TONIGHT on ‘Oye Its Friday!’. Watch it on NDTV Imagine at 10 PM.

Now for the long story!

We landed up at the magnificient ‘YashRaj Film Studio’ in Mumbai bright and early and ready to shoot for the first time on a talkshow on National TV! We were hustled into one of the many changing rooms where we just about managed to keep our luggage and had to leave to the studio for a sound check!

The sound check passed off without incident and was quite a breeze actually because of the lovely Nitin Joshi who was handling sound that day and also photography! infact, all these photos that you see are courtesy him! He is a total case of a man who is torn between two passions and is excellent at both!

Back to the story, After sound check we met everyone from ‘Jazz Junction’, the in-house band for the show who are capable of so much more than you see them play on the show each week! and each of them is a brilliant musician and singer in his/her own right. They informed us that we were infact, the first band that ever played everything live on the show and we were sounding good that day! it was a HUGE pat on the back! To go on National TV with the confidence that we can nail our stuff live!

Once that was done, it was time for us to go get some ‘make up’ on and come back down totally transformed for the show. By now, the man himself, Saurav ‘Dada’ Ganguly was on set finishing his part of the show before he left and we could go up on stage! Dada though had to leave early and was not on stage with us for later part of the show or to watch us perform!

We had to do two songs on stage and they would pick and edit our performance later to suit the format of the show. So we went up and belted ‘Mysore se Aayi’ and ‘Hey Bhagwan’ and the people from the show said it was a wrap after the first time itself! and we were just warming up and thought it was a run through! However, we were not so happy with the rendition of Hey Bhagwan and chose to repeat that song.

At this point I must make a mention of the lovely audience! These guys are extras who were brought in to the show and were strictly instructed to “Clap and show energy when the band is playing live!” but honestly, looking at them that day, I don’t think they were going wild just because they were instructed to :P

In all fairness to them, they put a whole lot of excitement and enthusiasm in us and it was just plain fun to play for them!

We were then called back on stage for the finale of the show and met Farhan Akthar who remembered us from the ‘Rock Gig’ that we had played months back! he chatted us up before going up on stage to do the end credits along with all the performers of the night and the ‘Oye Girls!’.

So the Moral of the story - The show airs tonight, Friday, 27th of February between 10 and 11 PM on NDTV Imagine. Make sure you tune in! and please do tell us what you thought of our performance!

Thanks in advance and I just have to do this .. “OYE!!”

A *HUGE* round of thanks to all of you for commenting and wanting to come for the show on Friday, the 23rd! I have your passes with me and Raghu and I would like to meet you guys and personally give them to you!

If you haven’t already collected your passes, then read http://theraghudixitproject.wordpress.com/2009/01/15/nokia-touch-the-tune-in-bangalore/ and comment at once! That is how I am keeping track of the number of passes I should get.

So if you have commented, please come to the Coffee Day on Cunningham Road at 6PM on Thursday, 22nd Jan, 2009, collect your passes and have a chat with us!

It will be great to catch up with all of you!

So its official! our first public gig in Bangalore after a LONG LONG time will happen on Christmas Eve! The Opus Christmas festival ‘08 plays host to The Raghu Dixit Project on the 24th December 9PM Onwards.

If you haven’t watched the band in a long time or haven’t watched the band at all, then this is a very good place to start. So, on the 24th evening, Opus, in Bangalore is where you need to be!

When I was first called to play for ‘The Raghu Dixit Project’, I knew I was playing where one of the best bassists in the country, Josy John had left a mark! On my best day, I am just about a fraction of what he does reguarly!

When Raghu called me today to let me know that he was in town and recording for Raghu’s upcoming movie, I had to clear out everything else I was up to and just sit and watch him record some of the most brilliant bass playing you will ever hear in a Kannada movie!

Sitting here for the past three hours watching him has taught me more than I have learnt in a long time. His bass playing reminds me of how at the end of the day, its not about technique, or the “right way” to play (he is as un-orthodox a bass player as you will find), its all about your groove and your choice of notes!

For the super star that he is, he is probably the most unassuming, down to earth musician you will ever find. I can guarantee you his humility will completely blow your mind!

Just to show you what I mean, take a look at the video here and when you’ve finally picked up your jaw that must have hit the floor by now, rewind and watch it again! *THAT* is what a bass guitar can do!

[youtube=http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=WMfzTgZQxO4]

This is a video taken from Antaragni’s show at BITS Pilani, a couple of years back.