R.I.P Leon Ireland

Putting up two posts in three days about some concerts I attended many moons ago makes the blog feel jaded. The moment I heard about the death of Leon Ireland, lead vocalist of the Chennai rock band Moksha, I knew I just had to put up this post anyway. In similar vein to the Deep Purple post, Moksha's performance at St.John's Medical College, Bangalore on the 10th of November 2001 was the first ever college rock show I attended. I had a blast and no rock show I've attended since has ever come close (Friends of mine from RV EEE might point to the Imbalance show at the end of Vidyut 2004. A good show but it paled in comparison to the one I'm describing in this post). In spite of myself, I want this post to be unpretentious and humble like Moksha and Leon were; just a simple thank you to Leon for putting on an awesome concert that night and letting me have the time of my life.

No major build up, no great expectations this time. Guys in the first phase of college life these days are remarkably well informed about local bands and nuggets of info like who plays which covers best, who plays the best pure death/thrash, who DJs at which pub, etc. By comparison, for an avid (rock) music listener, I was an innocent little ignoramous when I joined college. Fests and rock shows didn't mean anything to me but I was more than happy to tag along with 'the herd' on Saturday, 10/11/2001 for the Autumn Muse rock show featuring Threnody and Moksha. There was a goodish crowd with the usual suspects - black t-shirts, couples, wannabe death-metallers etc. We arrived just in time to see Threnody finish their bit with Metallica's Whiplash. That had the crowd moving a bit. Then Moksha arrived. Hope they're good, I said to myself. What do they play? They warmed up with an own-comp. I don't quite remember but I think it was Dine with the Devil. Then came a blistering succession of songs delivered with such tightness and energy which literally blew me off my feet. It's passe for most Indian rock/college rock bands to play covers of 80s hard rock bands these days, and even more passe for the (self-respcting) 'rock' crowd to like that kind of music. That wasn't the case with Moksha and it rocked. When they went ahead with a full-throttle take on Motley Crue's 'Kickstart My Heart', I was in the seventh heaven of delight. I jumped and crashed my head around without a hint of self-consciousness, screaming out the lyrics for all I was worth. I've no idea what the rest of the crowd was doing. The people immediately surrounding us (the herd) must've eyed me with the disdain reserved for posers. (Motley Crue? Who the hell listens to a lame-ass band from the glam era whose locks of hair had ten times more depth than their music? With a few reservations, my general policy is, 'If it rocks hard and true with a neat melody, bring it on! ). This was followed by Whitesnake's 'Slide it in' and Extreme's 'Suzy'. Such a track list was a big 'huh?' for the purist and newbie alike. I loved it. 'Do you guys like Van Halen?' yelled Leon. 'I think I heard someone scream "Eruption" said Christy, "Nah, I couldn't pull off that one. Sorry Eddie. It'll have to be PANAMAA!" More frenzy from me, as I continued to revel in the innocence of my first rock show. I was as excited as a fox let loose in a hen-house. Next came "....And this song's from a group that calls itself 'icy daicy'" and he started off "You shook me all night long." Then came the powerful Maiden medley, which included Wrathchild, Be Quick or Be dead and Can I Play with madness, as far as I can remember. I have never, ever heard better Maiden covers in my life. (Moksha's trademark sound is very Maiden-ish indeed, but they sure know what they're good at, and play it amazingly well!) What followed was the most memorable moment of that show , which'll always remain etched in my memory. The crowd yelled for a Sabbath cover, then a Dream Theater cover, and finally the chants of 'Floyd! Floyd' came about.The rest of the herd, who don't share my liking for hard rock, joined in eagerly. "You guys have just cost me a big dinner!" quipped Leon, "I had a bet with Christy here that the audience wouldn't ask for Floyd. I hate you guys!" And they started off with that inexplicably haunting, dreamy, overplayed yet overpowering college rock show staple, 'Comfortably Numb'. It felt really...er, numb (for genuine lack of a better word). Seven of us, singing at the tops of our voices. That was the heady moment for the day! After some Dio, Metallica and Judas Priest covers, my friends had enough of this noisy overload of unfamiliar compositions, and decided it was time to go. I reluctantly went along, neck almost broken and throat absolutely worn out from screaming myself silly. The herd said they'd never see me go wild ever before. They needed to take me to a rock concert every month now, for the apparent novelty of seeing me go wild.

Regrettably, that would be the only time I saw Moksha in concert. There was a show in PESIT sometime during May 2002, which i couldn't attend due to some stupid internal or the other. Then in May 2004, there was a show in palace Grounds featuring Pentagram, Zebediah Plush and Moksha for which I showed up with major expectations. Plush were solid that night. Then, the rain came and washed away the possibility of Moksha performing. Later I heard Willy, drummer boy and senior in College who shifted to Chennai, had joined the band so i had faint hopes of seeing them again. With the unfortunate new sof Leon's is death, and the fact that I'm in the states, the John's show and its associated nostalgia is all I'm left with.

I can't claim to be a Moksha fanatic, though I've listened to and enjoyed some of their stuff, especially 'Dine with the devil' and 'Chasing my life'. However, that show five years ago at St.John's remains one of my fondest memories of college life, a night of pure uncomplicated genuine fun and, the most enjoyable rock show I've been to (not theat I've been to a great many). And I really repsect the band for whatever little they've done for the rock scene in India, for appearing on the Maiden Tribute Album and all that. And of course, for transforming the scene in Chennai, my birthplace and a city otherwise not especially renowned its contribution to Rock Music. No doubt Leon will receive more fitting tributes than this one from people who attended more than just one of Moksha's shows. Nevertheless, I've posted mine as an appreciation for the time I had at that concert. Here's hoping the show goes on yet.

The Unwritten Diaries: Deep Purple Revisited

Well, Deep Purple made their second visit to Bangalore in the last five years on Sunday. I heard it was a good concert and all that, and really wished I was there. Of special mention, my sister was at the show and at around nine in the night (which would be 9:30 am US central time) she gave me a call from her mobile when they were in the middle of "Highway Star" so that I would get to hear it, as she had promised. But of course, I was sleeping like a log at the time. I was conscious of the call for a second, then the next moment I ignored the phone and effortlessly returned to my sleep. However, her efforts were not wasted after all. In all the din around her all she could do was shout "Can you hear me?" a couple of times. She obviously thought I was on the line, as it appeared that way on her cell. So, when I finally dragged myself out of bed and checked my phone, I found a new voice message. I played it, heard her voice and then the familiar Jon Lord keyboard run followed by "Nobody gonna take my car...". It came out pretty clearly, and cost my sister quite a bit of currency on her cell in process. At the same time, it brought the memories back to me all at once. Love you Kets!

As a Bangalore resident I have been fortunate enough to attend quite a few concerts over the last few years, including Roger Waters, Joe Satriani and AR Rahman (for a really good account of our Rahman experience, check out my friend Akar's blog, entry dated October 27th 2005 http://tastepeatka.spaces.live.com/?_c11_blogpart_blogpart=blogview&_c=blogpart&partqs=
amonth%3d10%26ayear%3d2005). However, the Deep Purple concert of 2001 will always have a special place in my memory bank. It wasn't the first live show I attended - that was actually a Michael Learns to Rock show in 1996 (which was admittedly good, but that's a different story). By 2001 I was a more conscious music lover so this was for all practical purposes my first real concert experience. This seems like a good time to consult the unwritten diary in my head, and rewind to April Fools' day, 2001: Deep Purple's show in Bangalore, and the events that preceded it.

The first time I heard Deep Purple was in Class XI. Mohan and Suhas Noronha used to bring a lot of their stuff (ie. cassettes) to school, and the Anthems compilation tape I borrowed from had Purple's "Smoke on the Water" on it. Sometime after this, I heard Highway Star, identified it instantly as a tune from an old Philips ad which ends with "Why did you turn it off?It was so nice.." Later, in Class XII, Noronha recorded a copy of 30:The Best of Deep Purple for himself. I borrowed it on a couple of occasions and remember being hooked on "Strange Kind of Woman", partly because Channel V was playing a contrived video of it as the soundtrack to the Om Puri Film "East is East". I liked the stuff I heard a lot, but was simultaneously discovering so many artists so I was in no way a huge fan or devotee of the band as yet. Enter 2001 and the class XII boards were fast approaching. On January 31st, in a comfortable little break between the end of the prelims and the start of my study hols, I took out the 125 bucks I had saved up with great difficulty, and headed for a music store down the road. On a whim, I decided to buy the 30: Best of Deep Purple tape as a study break companion for the next few weeks. By now I had grown to appreciate these guys and the music they made. Little did I know I would be seeing them very soon!

The schedule for the ISC Boards, which began on march 1st, was quite crazy. I had taken up Computer Science as my fifth subject in the science stream. While the Biology guys were done by the 19th of March, there was a week's gap between that day (the day of the Physics exam) and the day Comp paper. This would be followed by the Comp Pracs paper - on the 30th of March. So we were having to deal with a critical set of exams for an entire month, which was pretty exhausting mentally. In the middle of this period of the longest days of our lives came a real bolt from the blue. Bangalore Times, the notorious supplement, carried a small feature about Deep Purple coming to Bangalore on the first of April. Their show would raise funds for the victims of the quake that had occured in Gujarat early in the year. Schoolboys we still were, but the cynicism had already crept in. We initially dismissed it as an April Fool joke, noting that it was so characteristic of BT to try and pull a fast one on the readers. Deep Purple? The Band? The guys who wrote Smoke on the Water? It couldn't be. Then, joy arrived as the low profile coverage of this event-to-be soon gave way to some space in the papers and on TV. BPL was to sponsor it, and they put on an ad for the event, with a suitably purpled background claming "The Gods of Rock are coming....Be there, get blessed."It was too good to be true. Finally we had a legendary band coming to Bangalore and the timing couldn't have been better - 2 days after the boards ended. I chatted non stop with it about Mohan, Suhas Noronha and Kary, none of use were missing out on it. We each had separate plans though. I would be going along with my sister, cousins Kartoon, Chitz, Bharat and Anant. Chitz had come down from Hyd along with a friend of hers, Vini and was providing the transport. Kartoon had purchased the now seemingly mandatory copy of 30: Best of Deep Purple (which was hurriedly reissued at 150 bucks with a lyrics booklet and selling like crazy once the announcement had been made). I, by now the knowledgeable music fan, was happy to play mentor and guide him through the track list. These days, he plays mentor and tries to guide me through his favourite Death and Black Metal bands, but finds an unappreciative ear. Anyway, the event was now upon us and high excitement was in the air. April fools' day had arrived. The tickets were a mere 250 bucks. There were still lingering doubts whether we were bakras or not for an April fool joke. Until I saw the band onstage, I vowed, I would not believe...

We drove up to Palace Grounds and reached the place at 5:30. I recall being intimidated by the sheer mass of people there, for a relatively small venue. We made a wise decision to come early, the lines were long and slow moving. For all the time it took to reach the concert area, it was an amazing experience, just taking in the atmosphere around me. Having never been to a concert of this scale before, despite supposedly being a rock fan now, I got a look at the weird mixture of people you see at your typical rock show for the first time. Apart from familiar faces (Fittingly I met Noronha there; he too was with cousins), they were all there: The college crowd with black Maiden and Metallica tshirts, flashier guys with dark glasses accompanied by their damsels, the hip party set who were suitably (under) dressed for the April heat, some seasoned veterans in old faded Deep purple shirts, and also some pseudo-porki types who thought they were at some kind of dance show. I even remember a character who had painted the band member's names with the DP symbol on his plain white tshirt. All the while, we were slowly marching to the promised land (the concert area) and it felt wild. It felt like a pilgrimage of sorts. That was a short taste of what woodstock must've been like.

Finally we made it in. Stalls were all around selling rolls , pepsi and some souvenirs, bandanas and the like. No booze/cigarettes were officially allowed but most people managed to smuggle them in anyway. I remember a promotional flier handed out there, talking about Deep Purple and the arguments between fans over Purple vs Sabbath vs Zeppelin. I have a lot to say on that, but not in this post. As the sun slowly gave way, we had the opening act Thermal and a quarter on stage. Bruce Lee Mani and the boys did a pretty good job actually - I still remember them delivering "Brigade Street" with panache. Mani then prefaced the next song with "That was the upside of the city...now for the downside of the city" and waded into a dragging composition. TAAQ were in fine form, but they had clearly overstayed their welcome for the day, and the crowd was getting restless. As TAAQ meandered towards their finish, the doubts remained. Were Purple actually in town?

Then, it happened. A quick rearranging of instruments, a small soundcheck and the Gods surfaced. Murmurs from crowd all around. Then, i the most matter of fact way possible, without saying a word, the band launched into the opening riff which I (and, no doubt a good proportion of the crowd) recognised as "Woman from tokyo". Deafening roars followed - I shall never forget the screams of approval from the crowd. The next thing I knew me and Kartoon were 8 miles high in the air, hand raised, screaming in unison "Maaa Woman from Tok-ee-yow....!!!" It was as exhilarating as it could get.

For such an old band, they were in top form and ably assisted by the knowledgeable crowd. Some blistering moments followed with "Speed King", "Hush", and "Black Night". Ian Gillian was at his operatic best, and Jon Lord's keyboard runs were simply divine. The shoes of Ritchie Blackmore must have been tough to fill, but Steve Morse showed us he's a fine guitarist in his own right when he spat out a five minute medley comprising of ACDC's Back in Black and a couple of other tunes I couldn't identify. Meanwhile I was reveling in the innocence of my first show. All around me were couples on the ground making out (some of them right by my feet), and there was plenty of dope being passed around. It was a minor culture shock, I guess. But these sights and sounds have simply become part of the overall concert experience and the memories. So the junta had made it their woodstock after all.

When the instantly recognisable opening riff of "Smoke on the water" was sounded, the crowd fairly erupted. A while later, the band decided to call it quits, wished us a good night and told us what a tremendous audience we had been. Wait a second, we thought, wasn't this a bit premature? No 'Strange Kind of Woman'? No 'Child in Time'? And, no HIGHWAY STAR! Then, the chant came forth. Highway Star! Highway Star! The Gods obliged, and they duly came back for the encore. For one last time that night, we screamed our lungs out "I'm a Highway Staaaarrr...!" And the show ended as abruptly as it had begun. The stage was cleared in no time. As we trudged back, each of us individually sandwiched somewhere in the middle of the delirious crowd, we felt like we were in some kind of Zombie March. With great difficulty we got the car out and left palace grounds, tired out but totally satisfied. The Gods had indeed come, and we had been blessed.

A few somethings in a day of nothings: Dec 14th

MOMENT OF THE DAY: Stepping out. To a gust of wind whose force I have never felt the likes of before. The first time I've experienced sub-zero temperatures in 11 years and the wind made me feel all the more numb. So this is what the Black Caps deal with in Wellington all the time?

ADVICE FOR THE DAY: "Stock yourself with movies, it'll be a long cold winter." - Nitin

BITCH OF THE DAY: Exams, and my apparent inability to come to terms with them.

WOTLA MOMENT OF THE DAY: Actually following cricinfo's online commentary, rather their ball-by-ball description of the Ashes play. It's a mixed bag, but you get to hear gems like "Boony wants a beer (crowd roar)." A nice throwback to the radio commentary days.

MOOD OF THE DAY: Anger. The unaccountable kind. This is what studying sometimes does to you, making you angry for no reason. Anger at what? At not making the most of the last year at home? At looking at the book and going blank? At not finding a suitable retort when most needed? For wishing I was anything but what I am? I need an outlet for this, but there's none in sight. If I had my way, everyone around me would turn into imps, I'd be armed with a Plasma Rifle and BFG 9000 and switch to ultra violence mode. IDKFA forever! But the laws of conservation prevail, and it's back to the books.

SONG OF THE DAY: Burning For You - Blue Oyster Cult. Really haunting song, this one. Might as well be "Burning for Bangalore", in my current situation.

Paint it, Black:

Paint it, Black: Sinclair Returns

(PREFACE: My entries on the blog so far fall into two definite categories: Some rather uninspired write-ups on University Life or something like it at Austin, and some slightly more inspired stuff on the Black Caps. I'm tempted to put them in separate blogs. For the time being, PAINT IT, BLACK will be my column dedicated to the goings-on in New Zealand Cricket.)

The naming of the squad for the first test against the Lankans saw the much anticipated return of Mathew Sinclair. It's hard to imagine that he made his debut seven years ago, double hundred and all, but has played only 24 tests since. His recall will be met with predictable reactions from the sceptics, who feel he isn't good enough for international cricket, but this could be a new lease of cricketing life for him. Will he be able to put his chequered past behind him, though?

His career has been a roller coaster ride since the 214, to put it mildly. Kiwi cricket's been starved of classy prolific batsmen for a long time now, so that innings invited huge celebration and the hope that he would be the next Martin Crowe. It was an innings of fearless strokeplay, especially his cutting and pulling, against the admittedly dispirited Windies. Disaster immediately followed, in the Trans-Tasman series at home. Australia were at their unstoppable best, he was cut down to size, and the limitations in his technique cruelly exposed. It's fair to say Lee and McGrath did to him exactly what Ambrose and Walsh did to Graeme Hick in his first series. The scars seemed to surface in every subsequent clash with the Aussies. The next season suggested he had come out of the Australian series a stronger player: the highlights being a gritty 150 in a low scoring test at Port Elizabeth, and his second double century against the Pakistanis at home. All this while, he was in and out of the one day squad, but capped the season with two hundreds in a tri nation tournament at Sharjah which earned praise from no less than Sunil Gavaskar. He had apparently established himself as Nathan Astle's opening partner, secured his test and ODI places, and demonstrated his class. That was as good as it got. The following season was the start of the slide for him.

The rematch series with the Aussies in Australia was a memorable one for the side given they came so close to pulling off an upset, but it wasn't a happy one for Sinclair. He was again undone by McGrath and co. despite getting off to starts, and lost his test place soon after. Ironically at the time, he seemed to have been typecast as a tests-only player and was not really considered for one-dayers, though he did play as a wicketkeeper batsmen for a couple of games in Sharjah when the think-tank was trying out available options following the retirement of Adam Parore. While the critics questioned his ability and temperament at the top level, the selectors clarified that he had NOT been discarded, but simply forced out of the playing XI since the competition for middle order spots was heavy. In the lead up to the 2003 World cup, he was a fringe selection for test match sides - always in the squad but never able to break in - yet he appeared to have cemented his place in the ODI squad as a number three, with some semi-consistent performances. During the 2003 World Cup, he was again a victim of bizarre selection policies. The New Zealand top order was largely out of sorts, and inexplicably the selectors preferred Lou Vincent and Craig McMillan ahead of him, wrongly in hindsight. A series of failures followed in Sri Lanka, when he returned to the test side. He was duly axed once more, and spent the next year and a half on the sidelines.

His last run with the National side pretty much sums up his career. He was asked to open alongside Mark Richardson in Bangladesh (as a replacement for the injured Michael Papps) at the start of the 2004-05 season and made a decent fist of it, adding two half centuries in the ODIs to go with his test return. Despite the weak opposition, that was a creditable return as most of the top order struggled on the slow wickets against the home spinners. Then, in completely opposite conditions, he was asked to contine as an opener - against the Aussies. Scores of 69,0,0,2 showed that makeshift openers simply do not work, least of all against Australia. I personally feel had he been given an opportunity in the middle order, he might have put his perceived Aussie-phobia straight. He seemed to be performing reasonably well in ODIs, but when Australia returned in February 2005 he made scores of 0 and 15 and was released by the selectors once again. The test team was plagued by injuries, yet the selectors ignored his claims. Now, on the basis of irresistable domestic performances (and a generally insipid NZ batting lineup), he gets his latest chance to do justice to his undoubted potential.

To put it all in perspective, for someone with his talent he's been treated unfairly by the last couple of selection panels. When set, he's a delight to watch and he's got an appetite for big scores all too rare among his peers. I'd like to think his best cricketing years have been mostly wasted away on the sidelines. At 31, his technical faults are unlikely to be improved upon and will keep the bowlers interested. However, given that players of lesser ability have been persevered with for longer, it must hurt that he hasn't been given an extended run in the side. He was not handled well during what should have been his best years, and must take it upon himself to establish himself in the side once and for all. Whether his return will be a damp squib or a triumphant one remains to be seen. With McMillan and Vincent out of favour, and Marshall and Fulton failing to deliver in the recent past, the door remains open.