Fast Forward

Mehnaz, a quake survivor
Everytime there has been a disaster anywhere in the world, the showbiz people turn up with their own thing to raise funds and relief. Among the most stupendous such global events has been the Bob Geldof-produced Band Aid concert, where some of the best known pop acts of the early 80s sang at the Wembley Stadium to raise funds for the famine in Africa. It was also the first time that Indians heard and saw their very own Freddie Mercury. Band Aid was followed up with the release of the albums USA For Africa and Do They Know Its Christmas? Artistes for both these albums waived their royalties, recording studios and their engineers donated their time and facility, etc. Both these albums are collectors’ pieces and generated millions of dollars for the African relief fund.

The 50s-60s saw the first such attempt when international artistes and musicians like Elaine Page, Louis Armstrong, Edith Piaff, etc. collectively donated one track each of their popular hits for an album called All Star Festival to raise funds for UNICEF. Of course, we still have the evergreen Concert for Bangladesh organised by George Harrison.

Closer to India and the present—ay national calamity — the Gujarat earthquake - has resulted in another round of showbiz persons coming to help. Charity matches and all-star nights have been staged and money collected. But how about this threesome quietly doing their bit. Two of India’s noted singers, Mehnaz and Devang Patel accompanied by former Miss World, Diana Hayden shared center stage in Bahrain last month for the quake victims of Gujarat. A survivor of the earthquake herself, Mehnaz was due for a live performance in Ahmedabad on the day of the calamity, termed the incident to have been a horrible experience. “Soon after it happened, the magnitude of the earthquake was not so easy to be determined and so was its impact on the area. It was only afterwards when the media started releasing death toll figures that we got to know how devastating the quake was.”

The two singers enthralled an audience of over 600, which included diplomats and prominent members of the expatriate communities. Also present was the Indian Ambassador, Surinder Singh Gill. Mehnaz, stole the show with her vivid performance. Taking the stage soon after Mehnaz was Mumbai’s singer-comedian Devang Patel. Patel has carved a niche for himself in the film industry of India by adopting music entirely of a rare origin. Describing the nature of his music Patel said, “My ideas differ quite a lot from what other singers in India have to offer. Seven years ago, when I first started, I decided to come up with the idea of introducing funny music under the theme L & D, which is Laugh & Dance.” Watch out for Patelscope II.

And by the way, time was when Diana Hayden and Mehnaz were colleagues at BMG Crescendo. Diana was handling A&R affairs and dealt with Mehnaz. And yes, it was Mehnaz who wove her way around the Miss India finalists singing Banoongi Miss India the year when Diana was among the final three!

News for hopefuls
Wannabe-singer there’s hope for you yet. Many a website is yours to log on to in the hope of being ‘discovered’ as a singer. Notably is the one Milestone has sourced - Indigaana.com - and on a link called centrestage they have featured 10 new singers which have been shortlisted for over 600 entries. And we are told that some of the talent is really quite prodigious, this writer is waiting for that talent to be presented. Also in the running is other Mumbai-based music company called RAP Music. The label is launching a talent-hunt contest. The feature of the contest will be that the contestants will not give an audition, but will directly record in the studio. The event called ‘Toh Gaaoo Om...’will have Pandit Jasraj, Zakir Hussain, Ustaad Sultan Khan, Javed Akhtar, Anup Jalota, Suresh Wadkar, Taufiq Qureshi and Shankar Mahadevan as the judges. The contest will begin in Mumbai and will travel in different parts of the country. The winners will then cut an album with the company.

Deep purple are back
Early 90s had Deep Purple, one of the definitive bands of the 70s come to India, i.e. Mumbai. Now a decade later, Virgin Records (India) celebrates the arrival of Deep Purple in Bangalore for a live concert on April 1, 2001. The group’s label is commemorating the event by launching the album 30: Very Best of Special Edition - India. Featuring 18 of the band’s biggest hits from the first 30 years of their career, along with lyrics of 14 classic songs, the album opens with Deep Purple’s first smash hit, Hush (1968). And traces the band’s illustrious career through the hits that placed them among the most successful rock acts from the late 60’s onwards. With 30: Very Best of Special Edition - India, Virgin Records (India) acknowledges a band that are on tour after more than 30 years of hard rock. Deep Purple generate the sort of dynamic power that shows the younger generation of rock acts they inspired, how it should be done.

Jatin-Lalit at it again
Will wonders never cease. Jatin-Lalit’s insipid score for Raju Chacha remains fresh in public memory, thanks to one track Yeh vada raha. That is because it is heavily borrowed from a catchy, lyrical song called Day by day from Godspell, a musical written by Stephen Schwartz in the 1960s-70s. This musical has not been repeated on the Mumbai stage since its showcasing in the 1970s, but one still remembers its catchy music.

Now surely Jatin-Lalit don’t underestimate our memory and knowledge about international music. And one wonders why they have to resort to stealing tunes when the same duo has done gems of music like Khamoshi and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.

Now the duo are combining their talents with Sameer for a film by Deepak Sareen, whose Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai had a pleasant score, coincidentally, by Jatin-Lalit.

The Pop Queen and the Princess
Pop Queen Madonna says she’s amazed by teen sensation Britney Spears. The latter has been telling the media that she wants to be like Madonna. Hearing this, the ‘Material Girl’ is overcome with maternal feelings towards Britney. In the wake of all this there was talk about a duet between the Pop Queen and the Pop Princess, but it doesn’t seem possible. They can’t mange dates to be in the studio together. It could have been good if it had materialised.

Donny Osmond, not so little any more
Some may remember little Donny Osmond as the sweet, toothy, chubby one from The Osmonds. And just as they hit the high time, they vanished into oblivion. Now we have news of the cute one called Donny. The golden boy is still going strong today? His latest CD, This Is The Moment has become his fastest-selling record of all time and has debuted at number 64 on the USA’s Billboard 200 chart, just behind hit-makers Destiny’s Child. This Is The Moment contains songs from Rent, Saturday Night Fever, Seussical, Sweeny Todd, Guys & Dolls and a first-ever recording of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Our Kind of Love from his latest musical, The Beautiful Game. Superstars Vanessa Williams and Rosie O’Donnell feature singing duets with Osmond.

Pat Boone to the rescue
Veteran singer, songwriter, actor, producer and record compnay-owner, Pat Boone, may not seem like the Eminem-type, but he supports the controversial singer’s right to express himself. Boone, who’s had 60 hit records including Speedy Gonzalez and starred in a host of film musicals, says that one of the most-prized resources we have as a country is the right to free speech. “I don’t agree with his lyrics, their content or tone. I’m totally opposed to violence, racism and homophobia, but I vigorously feel that we must respect an individual’s right to speak his mind, especially when it comes to all forms of art,” he says, “However, freedom exercised with no sense of restraint, taste or responsibility becomes a license, an abuse of freedom. Performers wield a tremendous influence on young minds. For Eminem, his wild rant and incendiary lyrics might be his ‘act,’ but when young fans put high musical anger into action, he can’t escape responsibility.” Eminem probably won’t appear anytime soon on Boone’s record label, The Gold Label, which is targeted to the 45-plus crowd.

PS: Sir Elton John and bad-boy rapper Eminem are to release a version of Stan with profits going to Aids charities. The unlikely duo performed the song at the Grammy Awards to the fury of gay groups, who protested outside the Staples Centre in Los Angeles. Sir Elton said: “I have met Eminem and I can say absolutely that he is not homophobic.”

Piroj Wadia

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