In my time Ive played many gigs, promoted plenty, reviewed performances as a journalist & been in the audience at many others, often having special life changing moments but unquestionably one of the greatest ever live events I was fortunate to see took place inside the beautiful cathedral at Lichfield, Tamworths posh neighbour. It was 1984 & one of the worlds greatest ever musicians, Ravi Shankar, was on sitar accompanied by the outstanding Alla Rakha on tabla/bāyāñ and someone playing tanpura drones. I was 19 & knew very little of classical Hindustani music. Back then my knowledge was limited to the footage of them at Monterey in 67 & my love of Beatles records. Embarrassed to say that I was also into the sound from what I had heard floating around the room in Indian restaurants; such a cliche! (1984 was the year I began eating Indian food for the first time). I headed to the gig as a teenager steeped in a punk heritage but with an open mind. And I can remember turning up at the cathedral on my scooter & feeling totally alien in an audience that seemed to be very highbrow but I was moved to tears & it was inspirational The concert was real lengthy, intense, chimerical & invoked a riot of emotion inside the short-haired M at the time, ranging from peaceful meditation through a sweat-inducing intensity that was every bit as heavy as Blue Cheer & the MC5 turning up to 11 while at times also being disarmingly quixotic. There was the paradox of the music generating a total realism while also creating the atmosphere of a fantasy of exotica. Ive retained a fascination with Indian music, its array of instrumentation & heritage ever since. It has been a total learning curve & joy having collaborated with some wonderful musicians from India, Pakistan & this country with DC Fontana. More recently I saw Ravi play in Birmingham shortly before he passed & I felt the same love & intensity then as I did back in 84.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 00:12:07 +0000
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