Posts Tagged ‘raghu’

As a musician in London, one of the fun things to do is the “Black Cab Sessions” where you get into a traditional black cab and while it drives you around the streets of London, you sing songs in it! Making this even more special is an awesome film crew that films you doing just this and then puts it up on their website - The Black Cab Sessions

For those of you who have met us, you will know that with all our instruments, there is no possible way to fit all of us into a black cab and while I appreciate that the cabs have so much more room than our Autos back home, it was just a feat we did not want to attempt!

So Raghu and Karthick got into the cab while I stood outside and took photos of the whole thing, except for the driving around London part where, fit as I am, it was too much to ask ;)

But before you write me off for not capturing those ‘moments’, take a look at the picture below which is the expression on the face of the people recording the minute Raghu belted his first note!

The video should be out soon and when it is, we will personally let you know, in the meanwhile, check out other videos at http://blackcabsessions.com

For the first time ever, in over 12 years, we cancelled a gig, in fact, we cancelled 2 gigs back to back because we just din’t have the confidence to go up on stage considering the state Raghu’s voice was in.

Earlier in the week, Raghu had a slight cold and sore throat which just got worse over time and yesterday, when we landed in Mumbai, it had become a viral infection of the throat. Raghu’s voice was completely gone and he could barely speak, but on what was an overdose of Betadine Gargles and Benadryl syrup and tons of antibiotics, we still went ahead with sound check!

But there was this nagging feeling in the back of our minds that it was not a good thing to push it and when he still couldn’t talk even, it was time to take him to the doc for a professional opinion.

Now the good news is that it isn’t the singer’s nodules that we feared it had turned into, but the bad news was that Raghu had severely swollen vocal chords and voice box and it was a viral infection and the ONLY thing that would make it better and not just supress it for a couple of hours was complete voice silence for a couple of days atleast.

Considering that, we decided to opt out of the MTV Roadies launch gig yesterday and the Virasat Festival we were to play at today. This is the first time ever that we are pulling out of a gig and it is not a good feeling! we left a LOT of people disappointed today, but it was the best thing to do considering the situation.

A HUGE round of thanks, really heartfelt thanks to Jagjit and Aashish at MTV, we promise to make it up to you guys! Sorry for letting this one go by, we really hope you managed to work things around!

A BIG round of applause and a million thank you’s to Vijayshree and the folks at the Virasat Festival for understanding and being the sweetest organizers a band could ever hope to work with! You guys saved our lives and we are forever indebted.

Thanks a bunch to Faridkot, who just finished a gig, took the decision and went out to Dehradun to play at the Virasat Festival, you guys saved our behinds and we do hope you have a great gig!

Thanks to Fali and Dhruv for putting up with the incessant calls and being such great people and working things out for us!

Thanks to Nikhil and Swarathma for being there and ready to go out and help at the shortest notice ever!

We owe all of you big time! And your unconditional support and love overwhelms us!

The good news is that it isn’t as bad as it could be, the bad news is that it isn’t as good as it should be! but a LOT of rest and quiet for Raghu is exactly what is happening right now and if things work out, we should be good to go soon!

Keep your fingers crossed and send him some love :)

November 11th is Raghu’s birthday, and what better way to do it than to go to jail?!

When a discussion with Prasad who runs Prakruthi, lead to this idea of going into the new Bangalore Central Jail and performing for the prisoners there, any normal person would think, what a crazy idea! and we being the people we are, thought to ourselves, “WHAT A CRAZY IDEA!!!”

Thats all it took! One crazy idea and then it was time to put the logistics in place. That is still being done, but the gig is on!

So on the 11th of November, at 11 in the morning (do you notice the pattern? - 11/11 at 11 AM?) The Raghu Dixit Project goes out and does the Jailhouse Rock! And since most of you respectable citizens will not be present for that gig ;) - we will have a DVD of that show, shot courtesy RAJ Music ready for your viewing pleasure in due time!

So wish us luck and see you on the other side :)

The last show of the tour was simply the most amazing thing we’ve experienced in a LONG time! The Regal Room exploded with friends and fans resulting in a magical experience!

After a few initial hiccups, the gig got started with 3 other artists performing before Raghu who was playing a solo show after a long long time. We were quite amazed to see the place packed and buzzing with people who had come to watch Raghu. It was really touching to see all of them come by and make this so special for us.

Raghu got on stage by around 9PM, and from the word go, it was a fun gig, he played a very different set from what happens with the whole band bringing songs like Ambar and Sorutihudu Maneya Maligi out of the woodwork to serenade the bunch of us who were by now fully into it.

The format of the Regal Room gigs means that there is a break in the artist’s set after 3 songs and in that break, Raghu was overwhelmed by requests for the ‘hit’ song “Ninna Poojege Bande Mahadeshwara” which he kindly obliged and played a nice short solo version of. But this is where things got very interesting!

In the middle of the song, Raghu went out and asked the crowd to sing along and then just stepped back from the microphone and was just playing the guitar and to the amazement of the entire club, there was a loud chorus of the song reverberating through the Regal Room and I couldn’t help but smile at the fact that a club in London was singing the words to one of Raghu’s songs louder than Raghu himself!

The show could only get better after that, Raghu topped off his set with a brilliant rendition of Sajna (my absolute favourite from the new bunch of songs the band has written) and finally Sorutihudu Maniya Maligi much to the appreciation of the boys from Karnataka at the show.

Many thanks to Paul and Lorraine for putting this together, to everyone who came to watch the show and made it so special!

It was a brilliant set and a grand finale to the short but very eventful tour of the UK that we embarked on. Much good should come off this .. very soon!

The very few photos from this gig are up here - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=289618&id=522175007&l=81f2799d3b

Tomorrow we head to Delhi to perform at the 6th anniversary of the Indian Youth Parliament. It is going to be a fantastic show with some great people in a lovely setting, the India Habitat Centre.

If any of you are in Delhi, keep yourselves free in the evening and get to the India Habitat Centre, the show starts at 8 PM. Click on the poster below for further details!

The India Youth Parliament - 6th Anniversary

Things have finally started getting back on track with the band and there is a lot to tell all of you, so keep watching this space :)

Its been a long long silence and a very tough one to maintain if you know the kind of people that we are (who usually love making a big noise :P) but we are finally getting back on track after Raghu’s accident.

Expect a lot of things to move at break-neck speed (no pun intended ;)!! ).. Okay okay! I will stop with these sidey puns.

This is to inform you chaps that the band is finally getting together after its long hiatus and we will be playing tomorrow in Chennai a the Taj Coromondel for a private event. If you guys are in Chennai and want to come by and say Hi! Get in touch!!

It feels good …

In the meanwhile, a couple of interesting videos have made their way to YouTube and if you guys haven’t checked them yet, make sure you do NOW!!

The one shown here is a video of us playing in Itanagar - a day after the accident! This was a fully brilliant show!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTogTMpHfng]

There are a few more videos that require a lot of explaining which Raghu himself has promised to do! so watch this space :)

We came to Mumbai on Thursday directly after our Calicut show and it has been quite super so far!

Our trip to the North East got confirmed! we are off to play in 15 cities in the 7 north east states and we start with Calcutta! That is going to be one hell of a trip and I am gearing up for it already!

I won the International Young Music Entrepreneur of the Year award for RadioVeRVe .. Read about that here ..

Jithin got his violin microphone!!! :D for people in the know .. its a big step forward ;)

We are playing tonight for the Miss Teen India Contest .. that should be a lot of fun ;)

And to confirm again … we are playing in Bangalore tomorrow! at the RV College of Engineering .. this will be our first show after a long long time in Bangalore .. we are told that we start by 2.30 .. so just confirm with the college if you can and land up for the show! and if you do … please do stop by and say hi after the gig!

Will keep you informed about more updates from our end! and there are many coming :)

We have had a very interesting week so far .. after the jaunt at the Mirchi Studios, we headed to Calicut where we had the whole day to ourselves at the NIT Calicut guest house. We headed out to the beach which was a LONG LONG way from the guest house and then had some super Kerala food at one of Jithin’s recommended joints … After all, he is the Mallu boy and it was only fair to pay heed to his advice there ..

The show the next day was all over the place but Nitin and Navin worked brilliantly with the students of NIT who were sweet and accomodating and got some sort of order and the show could finally begin … The show itself was okay .. it wasn’t our best show and there were a ‘few incidents’ in the crowd which marred the first trip we took to Kerala … But lets focus on the positives …

Jithin’s parents finally got to see their son play live on stage with the band and they were overjoyed! His entire family was there with a few friends and they loved the show! atleast thats what they told us ;)

Inspite of how it went, we garnered quite a few fans and I must thank at this point, Anand and his friends who came and hung out with us after the show .. we are very very touched by your support and love for us!

Anand - you still owe me the list of names which you haven’t sent in!

Anand did read this post and send me the list of people who are featured in this photo above .. Thanks for that!

And I would like to really personally thank
Anand, Tushar, Naveen, Naidu, Harish, Prasad, Ajith, Deepak and Hussamuddin for a lovely evening!

We are determined to go back there soon and we’re sure this time round, things will be a lot better!

But that is past .. and we have moved on …

We are in Bombay now and are playing for the ‘Miss Teen India’ contest tomorrow which promises to be a blast! After that we head to Bangalore to play at RVCE on Sunday .. that will be a belter of a show! We haven’t played a public show in Bangalore for so long its not funny!! More about that soon!

Thanks to Arjun who pointed out to us that we are on top of the charts on the Hummaa top 10 countdown. I went to check and its not just top of the charts, 4 out of the top 10 songs on the Hummaa chart at the moment are from the album!!

That sounds like something to be happy about :D .. now lets see if all 8 songs can get up there :P

Our dear Radio Jockey Genie just messaged us and told us that tracks from our album will be played on KBCS FM back home in the US ;) !!

This will be an hour long feature between 2100 and 2300 PDT on Wednesday, the 26th of March which translates to 0930 to 1130 IST on Thursday, the 27th of March for us in India.

Please go over to the radio station’s website and check if the station is available where you are and if not, please do listen online! the radio streams live online also!!And once you listen, its time to come back and tell us what you thought :)

Thanks a ton Arpana for this!