Sanjay Divecha Strums at Daddy’s Wind Song.

As you know by now Daddy’s Wind Song Wednesday’s are becoming the stuff of lore. Every Wednesday Mumbai’s Juhu neighborhood is treated to an eclectic mix of music at Riyaaz Amlani’s rooftop respite Il Terrazzo. I’ve seen a motley crew of extremely talented performers there including, Anushka Manchanda, Ankur Tewari, Yana Gupta, Something Relevant (P.S. they’re back on stage at Blue Frog on June 17th see you there… woohoo!) Nikhil D’Souza, Shaa’ir & Func (and there have been many more which I have sadly missed…)

Last night the guitar maestro Sanjay Divecha (known for his folk, rock and jazz styles) strummed his heart out. By the way he has a new album out called “Full Circle” featuring a song in the epic voice of Kailash Kher called “Naino Sey”  which the evening show producer at my radio station, Avadhoot has totally flipped over. Seriously, he spent a good twenty minutes raving about the video to Sanjay who was in on Tuesday for an interview and put a really big smile on Mr. Divecha’s face. I’m glad because he seemed a bit bummed about how hard it is to give non-commercial music a voice in India. Thank you Blue Frog. If you haven’t seen this video yet, well you’re in for a treat!

(Randomly spotted Saif Azmi in the video who I feel like I met in another life when my roommate used to work for Prahlad Kakkar at Genesis nearly a decade ago. Saifi! Wazzup yo?!)

So back to last night, celebrity turn out included (the still yummy) Milind Soman, (boogie woogie bro) Naved Jafri, Shriya Sen, Reema Sen, Suvarna Jha, Shweta Keswani and Narayani Shastri and of course I have pictures!

Sanjay Divecha (far left)

Shriya Saran and Riyaaz Amlani

Jennifer Mayani

Milind Soman

Narayani Shastri and Reema Sen

Alex O'Neil and Shweta Kesvani

Channel [v] Launch Pad in Pictures

The Channel [v] Launchpad Concert for Change (and yes, the after party which we’ll get to in a bit) were something else…seriously what a night. Here’s your very own front row (and backstage) debrief!

VJs Mantra & Juhi

Lola Kutty and Raghu Dixit

Raghu Dixit Project

So I got to the Andheri Sports Complex, Mumbai just in time to catch VJs Mantra and (the darling) Juhi Pande introduce the Raghu Dixit Project who proceeded to rip up the stage with their unique blend of folk rock music. Raghu man, what a performer. There’s some kind of magic in his music (I also love that his whole crew does the show barefoot in lungi’s and since he used to be a classical dancer he wears ghungroos, not that’s what you call coming to the party with bells on!) Backstage I caught Lola Kutty having one of her hilarious conversations with him pre-performance. And then we rocked it out to his music for the next half an hour.

My favorite tracks have to be:

“Hey Bhagwan” – The first video for the band ‘The Raghu Dixit Project’ premiered on MTV on 26th February 2008. The song is ‘Hey Bhagwan’ and it’s also their first single.

“No Man will Ever love you like I do”

“I am in Mumbai (and I’m waiting for a miracle)”

…you have GOT to hear them if you haven’t already.

Sheetal Sudhir - Creative Director

You know this whole “party in the park” vibe is truly awesome. Half of the audience was chilling on the grass enjoying the music while the superfans up front screamed their lungs out in support (mostly of Reverse Polarity.) Its so cool to see gigs like this come together with a motley crew of performances ranging from young death metal bands to the sappy strains of of Bappi Da. All in all, just the right mix of cheese and talent to make it all quite memorable!

Reverse Polarity

The next band I caught was of course Reverse Polarity, a crowd favorite (and I’ll cut the suspense and tell you right now that they won! Now while this may not be my kind of music per say I can totally see how they would be all the rage with today’s youth. I also thought their whole silence-of-the-lambsish comment on politicians being liars and two faced “and so we wear these masks” was pretty intense but hey, way to take a stand! By the way Anushka Manchanda’s brother Shikar is part of the the band too. And while the siblings play totally different kinds of tunes it was cute to see full support and big love backstage.

Anushka and Shikar

The rest of the performances included Anushka herself filling in for Pentragram (who pulled a Pentegram and dropped out two days before the show because they weren’t crazy about sharing concert space with Bappi Lahiri.) She did a good ‘ol Bollywood song and dance routine but more than her moves I guarantee it was the mile high legs that the boys were admiring! Faridkot another one of the finalists sang their super popular love song “Laila” to a crowd that knew all the words. Soft rock Hindi-style, reminded me of all the supercool Pakistani boy bands like Strings and Jal. Kailash Kher and Bappi the king of disco Lahiri headlined the night to perfection. Suffice to say one look at him (and his bling bling) and you know you’re in for an unforgettable experience!

Bappi Lahiri

Bappi Lahiri on stage

Anushka Manchanda

Faridkot

Kailash Kher (centre)

Big B, Simpu Sir and SRK

Lola Kutty

Juhi Pande

Between the shenanigans backstage and the hilarious and excellent Simpu Sir adventures of an animated Sardar on the big screen I had a blast! Watch this space for the lo down on the after party set (with pictures of course) where everyone who spent all day doing this…

…finally got to chill out and do a little bit of this!

[v] will, [v] will rock you.

So tonight I’m off to the Channel [v] Launch Pad concert and after party in Andheri, Mumbai (woohoo!) This will be their third edition and bigger and badder than ever before with the inimitable Vishal Dadlani playing mentor (loved the badass billboards all over town by the way. That photo shoot must have been such a blast.)

Announcing the battle, Sheetal Sudhir, Creative Director, Channel [v] said, “Launch Pad this year is extra special for us. We’re cranking it up a notch to celebrate and recognize Indian rock music in its rawest form, language no more being a constraint. Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, all are invited. We’re tapping into the heart and soul of our desi rockers and searching for a revolutionary new sound that needs to be heard and [v] are all ears! Judging them would be India’s most versatile musician, Vishal Dadlani. We have hot wired the process for tracing the best musical bands of the country!”

Mentor and jury, Vishal Dadlani added, “You could be a punk rock band from Shillong, a pop rock band from Kolkata, or even a Malayali folk band from Kerala, it’s all good — I’m looking for the real thing; music that moves me. If you have it in you then here’s your platform. If not, don’t bother.”

The competition began in January where 20 short listed bands performed each week live at Blue Frog, Mumbai. Based on how they did the best ones play tonight (the creme de la concert if you please.) At the end, the winner gets a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to secure a record label deal, publish their photo on the cover of India’s edition of Rolling Stone magazine, and shoot a music video with Channel [v]. (Wait a minute, wait a minute wasn’t this the whole plot line of Rock On?!) Sweet.

The top 7 included Faridkot, Reverse Polarity, Cassini’s Division, Blank Noise, Workshop, Circus, and Prachir. I hear at today’s  Bigadda [v] Concert for Change Raghu Dixit Project, Bappi Lahiri, Kailash Kher, the top 3 bands Cassini’s Division, Faridkot and Reverse Polarity of Channel [v] Launchpad III with perform, while Kailash Kher plans to premiere his brand new album. Guess who will be candid camera clicking (hopefully) backstage through it all? Pictures tomorrow

Besides how can you not love a party invitation that comes with a bottle opener like this?

The Frog Prince

Mumbai-born composer Ashutosh Phatak’s music is the stuff of dreams and tomorrow night we get to be a part of it! There’s a free live performance at Blue Frog on October 16th for the launch of his new album “Sigh of an Angel” see you there.

P.S. Summertime Rocks by Smoke, (Ashu-Dhruv) from their album Smoke Signals, has received over 150,000 hits on youtube. They’ve got a fun animated video to go with it and killer vocals by Kailash Kher. Cool right?