I reached Cosmo club at 7.20 PM after driving at snails pace navigating carefully through the sea of people celebrating on the streets of calicut. Apparently the sound and light personnel also arrived late because of the traffic congestion. George Peter, using all his experience working with A. R. Rahman, made the sound check look so easy. The sound check ended with a "sample vedikettu" (as described by Vinod, the master of ceremony) - I shot the sheriff.

Then followed the new year gifts and competition for everyone. The kids had a gala time and Vinod, spontaneous in his approach, kept everyone involved in the proceedings. Advocate Narayan Namboothiri from Cochin and Advocate Sasi took over for about half an hour, to entertain us with rocking malayalam numbers like Chembakame, Confusion theerkaname etc., Next came the teenage sensation, Kavya Ajith. I am told she is ready to give her 10th standard SSLC exams in March 007. She took the stage by storm and the whole crowd rocked with her as she sang Kannum Kannum nokia. She also played well on the violin. By now we were all up and ready for the big boys. All the best to Kavya for her exams.

The band started off with a ballad from Elton John - Sacrifice. What followed was a feast of good ol' rock 'n pop numbers like Smoke on the water, and Labamba. George peter made sure that the crowd got themselves involved in most of the songs especially Summer of 69 and buffallo soldiers. Sultans of Swing, my favorite from Direstraits, failed to impress me. The guitar amp had a technical snag and we could not hear the solo properly. But it was made up by a breathtaking solo on the bass by Keith. Seemed as though the bass guitar is an extension of his own body and he was amazing. Jose did a good job on Clapton numbers like lay down sally and wonderful t’nite. George also did a few hindi numbers which he had done with AR. Needless to say, everyone was on the dance floor and singing along with this crowd puller.