Such An 'Awfully' Long Musical Journey

Awful is a strange adjective to qualify a long time. So is bloody. Think about it. Awfully long, bloody long. All that. I say strange and not terrible because its a guilt adjective. So guilty as charged I am for staying away for an awfully long time, when there was a lot happening around.

As a radio artist, one gets to realize at some point that events happening far from the music arena do play an important part during show days - before, while and after. Its easy when things are happy around since RJ's are always meant to be 'happy' and 'bubbly' souls. (Thats a load of bunkum. We are mostly a bunch of lost,messed up, cynical, manic depressive,schizophrenic individuals acting happy). So the happy vibe seeped in from Beijing to Bangalore and on to the airwaves of 101.3 FM too. Abhinav, Sushil and Vijender seemed to have suddenly transformed the spirits of a sagging city depressed by weighty issues like the lack of a nightlife,rising prices and bomb blasts (important as it maybe, i wonder why the first one takes precedence over the rest in this city). So the medals did buoy up the RJ's and listeners to revv up the music to all too different level. So it was all bright and cheery happy music on the last two thursdays and a more pronounced intensity to the rock music on the mondays.

I've grown to start loving my thursday stints. To the uninitiated, I have been traditionally and historically doing shows with a rockcentric theme on monday evenings. With the addition of a few thursdays in the month to my bookings, I've moved towards an easy feel sing along singles playlist on thursday nights. The drift remains the same for MAST 101.3 - the show featuring callers and bollywood hits.

Had ace racer Vikram Mathias on air for a live chat. Quite a delightful, well spoken who's been doing phenomenally well in the rallying circuit and it was quite a coincidence to discover a TOI interview with him in todays sports page. Since I'm all heart, I don't hate them for it.

The top of the Rainbow charts for bollywood is still reserved for Kabhi Kabhi Aditi from JTYJN, Lambi Judai from Jannat, Is This Love from Kismet Konnection and Teri Ore from Singh is Kinng for the die hard romantics (I find that a bit of an overrated cheesedrippy single..not too fond of the melody either). But the standard favorites from the immediate and not too distant past still retain a strong love factor.

With the international music hits, its a mixed bag. The metalheads don't have a moment of peace till the melody of death creeps into the setlist. We might be accused of a few double standards, but apologies guys,its not in the realm of mainstream mass media as much as I may love to have listen to it sometime myself. Rockstar by Nickelback makes a comeback after having a change in recording label, Queen is back with Paul Rodgers, Mariah and Madonna still going strong with their age defying act, Def Leppard rocking on with all their nine lives. Some people never get bored of My Heart Will Go On. Adam Levine of Maroon5 supposedly still turns on women.

Tell you what no matter who does what, the show will go on. New sets of favorites will emerges, new genres will take over, new superstars will rule the roost for a brief time frame. You and I would be the only constants in this entire circus. So make it large, while I get a ready for another musical outing.

Catch U soon
S'jay