T FRANCIS SUNDAR SINGH

It was a hard day's night at Live 1o1 in Unwind Center on Friday, with the city's most enthusiastic crowd , both young and old making their presence felt for 'The Beatles Story', a tribute to the legends who influenced musicians across the globe from the 1960s. Till date, their songs still linger around the ears of many individuals.

It was in 1957, John Lennon, at age 16, formed the Quarry Men, a band comprising his school friends. Later that year, Paul McCartney, aged 15, met John at a Quarry Men performance. In 1958, George Harrison joins the group. From that year onwards the band saw many musicians come and play except for the three. The band which changed its name to Silver Beetles, then Silver Beatles after John made a comment about the need for an 'A' finally ended up having it as Beatles.

It was a trip down memory lane for some, reunion of sorts for some others and altogether fun for everyone present. The evening started with the peppy Love Me Do rendered by Saroop Mathew and Freddie Koikaran with Dr K V Krishnan on the harmonica supported by Prithvi Chandrasekhar on the keys, John Satya on the guitar, Praveen George on the bass and Mark Williams on the drums. The first few notes of the harmonica and the drum was all that was needed for the whole place to come alive and one could see heads bobbing, hands clapping and lips singing along with the band and at times out-singing them.

The pace was carried forward with From Me To You and Day Tripper. The audience appeared like they were about to get off their chairs and boogie and it is a mystery what stopped them. The next number was the groovy, I Saw Her Standing There which made the audience go wild, followed by Can't Buy Me Love and Rock And Roll Music that had the audience screaming.

What made the Unwind Center pay tribute to these legends by clubbing together some of the city's top musicians. Dr K V Krishnan, the brain behind the whole show says, 'I just happened to come out with the idea of conducting a show as a tribute to the Beatles. When I told the same to the guys at Unwind Center, they were ready to go for it.'

On the practice sessions, he says that 'we hardly practiced as a group, excepting for four serious practices, that too at the fag end of the concert.'

According to Saroop, when the guys who accompanied for the band, initially had doubts about playing the Beatles, but once they got into the groove, they wanted to go ahead with it. The groups did not just try to imitate the Beatles, but tried to be innovative with the music.

The band played Something, and She Came In Through The Bathroom Window. The next two songs were Ticket To Ride and Eight Days A Week.

Dr Krishnan's solo rendition of When I'm 64 was applauded by one and all. This was followed by a soulful version of the famous Blackbird. Next was the ever-popular, Yesterday which had Saroop, Kalyan Subramanyan, Praveen and most of the audience singing and one could get a taste of how things would have been in the good old 60s with the fab-four giving it to the crowd. The next number was Let It Be which started with the feel of the original tune but shifted to a reggae groove soon after.

Next on stage was Roxygen along with David Pascal Timothy Madukar on the vocals, Christy Samuel and Sudeen Prabhakar on the guitars, Jim Satya on the keys, Keith Peters on the bass and Vasanth on the drums. They kick-started their set with Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band which had a distinctive Beatles' sound and combined with David's voice, sounded 'wicked' - as the Brits would say. This was followed by With A Little Help From My Friends and While My Guitar Gently Weeps which featured amazing fretwork by Christy. The next one was the all time crowd favorite Come Together which had the whole house rocking. The last number was A Hard Day's Night, after which the evening was named, which had all the artists on stage.

After the band had done with their set, musicians from the crowd were invited to jam with the band which got enthusiastic response from the audience with the most notable being a girl from Bangalore who did a neat rendition of I Saw Her Standing there.

Saroop goes on to say that despite many newcomers, both young and older generation to the Live 1o1 on Friday, they were very sophisticated and sensible to the music. Those who came there valued the excellence of music.

He further states that for all of the band members it was a very new and different experience altogether deviating from the genre of rock. With this response, the Unwind Center proposes to belt out more such concerts that would be well received by all the generations.