I asked Mala Balakrishnan if she had any pictures of the time I was playing with High. She asked Tejan who sent me a few of this concert (within a few minutes, I might add), along with a request to put down a few memories. I'm getting old and chronological records are confused to say the least, but there are some memories that are as clear as daylight!
#1 - the years we spent rehearsing at Sekhar Iron Works on Chowringhee Road, courtesy the unputdownable Kamal Kant Mishra. We are ever grateful to the guy. Especially one evening when just randomly searching through the abandoned warehouse we came across a cupboard that contained some very rare old alcohol -- me being a teetotaler didn't have the enthusiasm of some of the others, but we're all in this together (as we hear so often these covid days).
#2 The Master Blaster night - when we spent a night at Nondon's trying to pick up the nuances of Stevie Wonder's hit from Hotter than July. I distinctly remember arguing about the lyrics -- remember, we had no Google then -- and then Nondon Bagchi started pouring fuel into glasses (not on the fire) and all was well. One outcome of that night was that the 4-finger peg got re-christened from "patiala" to "master blaster". Later on, when another friend topped up the whiskey with gin thinking it was water, the term went into all caps as MASTER BLASTER.
#3 - IIT-D, Matias Akenbach and White Fang. We were to play the final night at IIT-D festival probably in 1982 (at least my faded tee shirt seems to indicate that). While setting up at the open air stadium we were pleasantly surprised to find Matias Akenbach doing the sound. Matias had done the sound at JazzFest earlier and just happened to be roaming around Delhi at the time. Why am I not surprised that Dilip wasn't surprised? Later that evening the opening band was White Fang, if I recall correctly. Then we came on and about two thirds of the way through we were suddenly disconnected, bundled into a van and whisked off to the railway station. I think there was an article in the papers the next day about some Calcutta band inciting a gatecrash and several people injured or something ... but we made it home safely.
#4 - High Velocity and Highways were the two concerts I remember most vividly ... if you like my undocumented rambling, please put in a comment and I will dredge the memory banks for more.
Tejan - we shall not give the inside info of a certain toddler clambering all over his baba's jottings in Mandeville Gardens.
(As published in a Facebook post on the High Group Page which you can find at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/480460015182 )
#1 - the years we spent rehearsing at Sekhar Iron Works on Chowringhee Road, courtesy the unputdownable Kamal Kant Mishra. We are ever grateful to the guy. Especially one evening when just randomly searching through the abandoned warehouse we came across a cupboard that contained some very rare old alcohol -- me being a teetotaler didn't have the enthusiasm of some of the others, but we're all in this together (as we hear so often these covid days).
#2 The Master Blaster night - when we spent a night at Nondon's trying to pick up the nuances of Stevie Wonder's hit from Hotter than July. I distinctly remember arguing about the lyrics -- remember, we had no Google then -- and then Nondon Bagchi started pouring fuel into glasses (not on the fire) and all was well. One outcome of that night was that the 4-finger peg got re-christened from "patiala" to "master blaster". Later on, when another friend topped up the whiskey with gin thinking it was water, the term went into all caps as MASTER BLASTER.
#3 - IIT-D, Matias Akenbach and White Fang. We were to play the final night at IIT-D festival probably in 1982 (at least my faded tee shirt seems to indicate that). While setting up at the open air stadium we were pleasantly surprised to find Matias Akenbach doing the sound. Matias had done the sound at JazzFest earlier and just happened to be roaming around Delhi at the time. Why am I not surprised that Dilip wasn't surprised? Later that evening the opening band was White Fang, if I recall correctly. Then we came on and about two thirds of the way through we were suddenly disconnected, bundled into a van and whisked off to the railway station. I think there was an article in the papers the next day about some Calcutta band inciting a gatecrash and several people injured or something ... but we made it home safely.
#4 - High Velocity and Highways were the two concerts I remember most vividly ... if you like my undocumented rambling, please put in a comment and I will dredge the memory banks for more.
Tejan - we shall not give the inside info of a certain toddler clambering all over his baba's jottings in Mandeville Gardens.
(As published in a Facebook post on the High Group Page which you can find at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/480460015182 )
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