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George Peter makes waves in the Garden City

Making Waves steps out of Kerala and rocks big time! Special thanx to Dr.Karim of GCC. It all happened like this; right after the Calicut show, Georgie told me let's do more shows together. And I senmt a few emails and sms-es. And lo, I get a reply from Karim asking me what the rates would be. We worked out the rates and the arrangements and the show happened. Ofcourse, it helped that Karim is an old classmate!

On to the show; excellent arrangements. Fabulous campus. Do visit www.gardencitycollege.edu to see the college, facilities, campus etc. A huge stage, well raised, green carpeted, drum platform set a bit to the corner. Much as we wanted Reynolds, the college had budget constraints, especially as this was a free show for the annual day, non-ticketed, non-sponsored etc. So we had to settle for Dominic's Classic Sounds. The management was kind enough to provide a class drumkit and the cost of a professional sound-engineer for us. Let me say one thing for the sounds. They had the equipment; hanging systems, lights, monitors etc. All equipment looked good and in mint condition. The PA sounded excellent.

The band wasn't professional and landed up at the sound-check rather late in the day, which wasn't good. Anyways, the sound-check started only at 3pm and the stage had to be vacated by 4.30pm . So, checking could be done only for the drums, guitars and keyboards. The vocals and monitors weren't checked. The band was asked to rest and get back by 7 or so as there would be a valedictory function going on. Once again, the place provide for the stay was lovely. There was a college vehicle on call. The arrangements were too good. One must also mention the yeoman service rendered by our liaison person Ms.Kajal Gupta, who could manage any request in record time; water, signboard, vehicle whatever!

The show started off only at 8:15pm . There was some confusion regarding when the band should start and during this time, there were some dances etc. The band did a small vocal check. The crowd was getting restive. Its times like these that separate men from boys. A huge crowd, may be 3000-4000, all college students, plenty of girls, lots of color, getting restive, no curtains to hide behind etc. Our man, George showed us what an entertainer he is by getting in the audience to sing along with him for the sound check! The rest of the band looked overawed by the size of the crowd and the occasion. The band started off with H eavy Fuel by Dire Straits sung by George. He had the crowd roaring along with him, joining in on the chorus. The next song was I Shot the sheriff by Bob Marley done by George to perfection, in fact, the guy was belting out the song on a much higher scale than the original n really got the crowd rollicking.

It was then that the sounds started playing up. None of the band could hear anything on the monitors and they were complaining. The sound guys were working on fixing the issue and then to keep the crowd in a good mood, George had a minus one CD played and sung along. The song was Hum Dum, I dunno which movie its from. To fill in on the time factor he went on to sing another hindi song Khal Bali from Rang De Basanti. Now this one had the crowd really wild. AR Rahman's music is really popular, I must say, transcends all barriers. Imagine these songs being sung at a rock show and that too on Karaoke and being accepted fully and completely without reservations!

I guess it must have helped that the college gave a buildup to the show publicizing George's association with Rahman, especially in Rang de Basanti. The next number was Enter Sandman by Metallica, done by George. The reason I mention that the songs were done by George is that for this show, the band had a new vocalist guesting, Manu, all the way from Trivandrum . More on Manu later. Summer Of 69 by Bryan Adams was up next and needless to say, this staple was done to near perfection.

In between all this, there were a few sound hassles. The guys had 2 wonderful scanners but had absolutely no idea where to place them or when to use them. The smoke machines never worked at all, the reason given being that the wires got cut. Overall, we got the impression that the sound guys didn't like a professional sound engineer manning the controls. The cordless mic wud get cut off in the middle of a song. All the while, the drummer and key boardist were gesticulating wildly that they cudnt hear a thing on their monitors. George gave a big pep talk on how women are the salt of the earth etc and dedicated Sweet Child O Mine by GNR to the fine ladies of the college. In the middle of the song, the mic got cut and full marks to the band for starting off on the very same spot that it got cut when the mic started working again.

The band, especially the three guitarists, were rooted to their positions throughout the show, as if they were nailed down there. The leads, Sikkanth was coaxed to come forward during the solo of sweet child of mine and one could see him springing back to his former post of vigil as soon as he could! A bit more of action on stage never hurt any band! Up next was We Will Rock You by Queen. Here again he gave a talk on how Queen is supposed to have used foot-stamping sounds for their recording and got the crowd to follow his cue on when n how 2 stomp and clap during the song. This went down well.

The next song was an all time classic rarely heard live on stage, Still Haven't Found what I'm looking For by U2 done by George to perfection. Bono's soaring vocals were done justice to. Throughout all this most of the monitors weren't working and one could see George walk the ramp and get into the crowd so that he could atleast hear it all on the PA!!

Then came the guest vocalist, the young Manu with Smoke On The Water by Deep Purple, he started of a tad bit fast, the lack of feedback on the monitors obviously didn't help him any. But by the time he was thru with the first stanza he was right on track. This guy's energy on stage is to be seen to be believed. A real live-wire who was sprinting up and down the stage, running into the audience, jumping up n down, the guys is on fire on stage and the best thing is that it all comes naturally. He then sang Two Minutes To Midnight by Iron Maiden very well. He sure made a lot of fans that day. Had a lot of gals taking down his cell number n email. This time the keyboardist was raising hell that he cudn't hear himself at all.

Thus George was again forced to delve into his karaoke collection to do Paathshaala- Lose Control from Rang de Basanti. My word, this had the crowd eating out of his hands. The popularity of hindi movies nationwide never ceases to amaze me. After the keyboard issues were sorted out came The Wall by Floyd done by George. Sadly, at this point, it was just nearing 10pm , the college authorities asked the band to stop. The band had atleast 5-6 more songs ready to be done that day. Hallowed be thy name, City Blues, Ground Zero, Give into Me etc etc were all in the pipeline ready to roll!

But alas, it was not to be. Strict orders were passed down to stop at once. Thus, fed up with the monitors et al, the band decided to do They Don't Really Care About Us by Michael Jackson on karaoke as the last number. George joked that the principal and the management didn't really care bout them etc. the entire band came up front away from their rooted spots for this song and they sang it with full gusto. Needless to say, the entire crowd joined in. For my two-cents worth, the band was overawed by the stage, the set-up n the crowd. The monitor glitches were there ofcourse, but that doesn't explain everything. Had it not been for George's experience and showmanship, I shudder to think what might have happened.

Despite the worries of the band, what came out of the PA really did sound good. Their playing wasn't really bad. I guess this big show experience wud stand them in good stead in future. Fantastic crowd. Garden City College really rocks. The band line-up: George Peter and Manu on vocals Sikkanth on lead and rhythm Vyaas on rhythm and lead Renish on bass Danny on keys Anwar on drums