EVERGREEN or instrumental, ballads or disco, retro music has its own charm. For those who love the golden oldies, two annual shows at St Andrews Auditorium have become compulsory. One is in the middle of the year, and the other brings in Christmas.
The event called The Heat Is On will take place on July 5. It will feature singers Marie Paul, 2Blue, Keshia B, Raul D’Mello, Tammy & Roy, Shayne Gomes and Darren Das, besides a tight live band. While one would obviously expect to hear Eagles member Glenn Frey’s song The Heat Is On, there will be many other popular favourites. The event has been conceptualised and curated by Niloufer Rohira of Streaminlive and Darren Das Productions, with INT Aditya Birla Centre For Performing Arts presenting it.
It all began on December 1 2022, just after the pandemic. The show, titled That Christmas Spirit, was a good mix of Christmas songs and popular fare. It featured Gary Lawyer, Sonia Saigal, Siddharth Meghani, Darren Das, Giselle Pinto, Karen Vaswani, Vivienne Pocha and Shazneen Arethna. Slowly, the organisers moved from one to two shows a year.
Obviously, such gigs work. They cut across different audiences, old and young, male and female. They keep happening at various clubs and gymkhanas, where everybody seems to know every song.
Over the past few weeks, Mumbai had had three such events showcasing the English classics. The first was a musical play at Royal Opera House. Those Were The Days was produced by Vishaal Asrani and Sarosh Nanavaty, and starred Mithil Patel, Sarosh, Sahir Mehta, Shriya Rao and Vishaal. For a large part, old songs were used as a motif. The play talks of a bartender and his girlfriend who meet a stranger who has come for a late-night drink. An interesting conversation follows, and an old love story is brought back to life.
The play featured songs like Mary Hopkin’s Those Were The Days, John Denver’s Annie’s Song, Dean Martin’s That’s Amore, Abba’s Honey Honey, Doris Day’s Que Sera Sera, Frank Sinatra’s Fly Me To The Moon and Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive. There was a fair balance between the narrative and the music. The cast sang the songs well, against music from backing tracks.
The other two shows were at the Experimental Theatre. First, Darren Das was joined by his group The Sixth Sense in a concert titled The Last Waltz to pay tribute to the fabulous singer Engelbert Humperdinck, a Britisher born in Madras. The tight band consisted of drummer Sylvester Chaves, guitarist Wilburn D’Costa, keyboardist George Joseph, bassist Russell Fernandes and saxophonist Enrico Rodriguez. The young 14-year-old Hyderabad guitarist Daniel Gelles did a nice guest appearance on a rock n’ roll medley.
Darren has a marvellous stage presence and there’s a natural energy in his performance. The set consisted of Engelbert classics like The Last Waltz, Ten Guitars, Release Me, Spanish Eyes and Quando Quando Quando. He also ventured into Chuck Berry’s Johnny B Goode and Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock, before concluding with the standard My Way, popularised by Frank Sinatra. Interestingly, when Engelbert had performed at the Jamshed Bhabha Theatre in 2005, he had closed his set with My Way.
A few days later, the Doctor J Collective had the Top Of The Pops show. It was fronted by Dr Jarvis Pereira, an ENT specialist by profession, who was assisted by vocalist Kelly Dlima. The band had Russell Fernandes on bass, Darel Joseph on keyboards and Lenny Jordan on drums, with guest appearances by violinist Wiona and guitarist Gavin. From Bruce Springsteen’s Dancing In The Dark, Guns N’ Roses’ Sweet Child O’ Mine and Bryan Adams’ Summer Of 69 to Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On, Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive and Cher’s Believe, it was a total nostalgia ride.
At both the Darren and Jarvis shows, the audience came in front and danced. The elderly folks sat back and sang along. We’re sure to see a lot of that while ‘the heat is on’ coming Saturday.
