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Every single Indian rocker knows that Parikrama opened for Iron Maiden in Bangalore on 17th March. That was some news, but nobody knows about the kind of impact that show left on everybody from the lands of rock that day. The Maidens themselves paid the Parikrama a visit back stage to congratulate them on their unique blend of Indian classical and retro rock of the 70s. Parikrama wasn’t even expecting to see the Maidens, let alone their coming to them personally. Well to sum it all it was an awesome experience for the band that has been singing for more then 14 years and that too without a single album to their credit.. some nerve..
Noticeably Parikrama performed all original set at the gig and also played two new songs. The success of the show and the impact it had was blatantly projected in the article “Maiden India” by Ed Vulliamy which was released online on the Observer Guardian Unlimited on Sunday, April 22, 2007. This is the official say:
“If the support band, Parikrama, don’t soon make inroads in the West, the A&R system is malfunctioning badly. During an entrancing instrumental called ‘The Open Sky’, the violinist, Imran Khan, played a hypnotic solo entwining heavy rock, Paganini and the chromatics of Ravi Shankar, while a huge, majestic but appropriately ominous jet-black house crow hovered above the stage.
Offstage, Parikrama’s vocalist Nitin Malik says with a knowing look: ‘Yes, that number can often change the weather.’ He explains that ‘heavy rock in India has been the preserve of the young intelligentsia until now. But it is filtering down to the blue-collar workers, becoming the music of a new generation in a new kind of country. But,’ he adds, ‘there is nothing in the world like playing on the same stage as Iron Maiden.’
The brilliant violinist turns out to be an enigmatic and retiring, classically trained 23-year-old who speaks no English, sadly. But this is suddenly irrelevant as word reaches Parikrama’s dugout that Janick Gers is wandering around outside. My interviews are abruptly halted as the Indian band hurry outside to collect autographs from Janick and others from Maiden who have come to pay their respects and congratulate the host band. So there is vocalist Malik, just 20 minutes ago strutting the stage as India’s rock God, now a teeny-bopper leaving this little backstage huddle, kissing and holding aloft his Iron Maiden autographs like a schoolboy with the signed photo of his dream football team.”
Its not official but the rumors are that A&R department did take a notice of the band and there are chances that the band will be sticking with Maidens for some more shows in West. While it seems that this will be a major break for the band, the truth is that they are already having a better chance at fate, independent of their Iron Maiden link. This news hasn’t been made official in India yet but inside resources have confirmed to it. I shouldn’t be letting it go online before the official say, but I just cannot hold the news to myself, because this will be a proud moment for every Indian who has a rocker inside him. The big news is that Parikrama has been invited to perform at the Download Festival 2007. The Download Festival is a three day music festival held annually in Donington Park England. This is the same arena which hosted the Monsters of Rock Festivals between 1980 and 1996, and 2002’s Ozzfest. The show is managed by Live Nation, a company owned by Clear Channel Communications and is one of the major annual live fests in England. The Download Fest started back in 2003 and the headliners for the very first Download Fest were Iron Maiden and Limp Bizkit, although Limp Bizkit was replaced by Audioslave that year. All the big mutha bands have played at Download fest and its not a different story this year either. The fest features three stages: Main Stage, Dimebag Darrell Stage and Tuborg Stage. The 2007 Download Festival is scheduled for June 8-10, 2007. The headliners this year will be My Chemical Romance, Linkin Park and Iron Maiden… My Chemical Romance as a headliner..!! Well anyways… Parikrama will be performing on the main stage on the final day along with Iron Maiden, Evanescence, Killswitch Engage, Stone Sour, Lamb Of God, Mastodon, Papa Roach, Chimaira and Reuben. All in all there are about 69 bands performing this year and some of the big names to perform this year are Velvet Revolver, Megadeth, Buckcherry, Marilyn Manson, Slayer, Machine Head, Korn, Mötley Crüe, Anathema, Billy Talent, Dream Theater, Dimmu Borgir, Napalm Death, Suicidal Tendencies, My Vitriol and the all female Led Zeppelin tribute band Lez Zeppelin.
Parikrama is also going to perform at three more gigs in UK and will be brushing their shoulders with the big time rock bands of the world. Parikrama is known as a live concert whore and rocking the white audiences wont be much of a task for them, considering their strong song sets and the experience behind them. With this article I give them wishes from my side and also from the whole angrypixel team… in fact these are the wishes of all the Indian rockers who are still waiting to see a single Indian band in the international rock act. Who knows, while on the tour, they might bag an international record contract. Whatever comes out of it, im sure that the whole Indian rocking nation will be proud of the fact that we do have band with the guts of “Rocking” in its literal sense.
Parikrama’s Official Site:
Parikrama at MySpace
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May 16th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
The Indian Rock scene lies in tatters with little or no recognition to the bands that bleed on stage, striving … no, struggling hard to make their point across the globe. Parikrama’s been sticking around the scene for such a long time (along with bands such as Hip Pocket and Pentagram), achieving very little. They truly deserve this honor and with it, a chance to acquire global recognition. This is probably the best thing that happened to Indi (not Inde) rock since The Mahavishnu Orchestra Performed with Shakti in the 70’s.
May 16th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
yeah, Indi Rock Scene… i remember reading about Petagram in a ver old issue of India Today, no idea where they are now. There was another band with loads of talent called Envision which came out with an album entitled “Patterns and Moodswings”, but even they disbanded. At the moment most of the bands are getting into Ethno Trance… exp. Tatva Kundlini from Delhi. No idea where rock is going. Parikrama’s punch line is “Rock as it was” and they are sticking to the rock gods. They are the only band who have actually struggled for survival… and now they are finally making it happen.
May 16th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
Nice article Bobby. I was waiting when this one would come up. But please tell me that you didnt go to BLR for this!!!
Infi - i agree that the rock scene here is very limited - but salvation is at hand. Have you heard the songs Bobby and I made - we’re called “The Arabian Knights”. LOL! hey Bobbster - kekekekeke
May 17th, 2007 at 10:00 am
No, actually i knew about this for a longtime coz Anuj (Parikrama’s manager) told me about it in advance. Then two weeks back he gave me more details about their future plans. So i wrote the article. As the news wasnt made official in India, he asked me not to publish the article. Yesterday he gave me the permission to go ahead with it, so…
I will also interview Parikrama for TAP on a conf. call after they return from the Download Fest..
May 17th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
Sweeeet!
May 17th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
And all he had to do to get that information was to sleep with Parikrama’s manager. Hey Bobby, we appreciate you ‘braving the cold’ for us
May 17th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Wh you little….
No infi, unlike your belief (and practice), not all the information arises out of the bed.
May 17th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
OH !!! This after you and Reggie decided to become the sole bane of indian rock , “The Arabian Knights”
May 22nd, 2007 at 11:31 am
what a JOKE!! whoever wrote that should have actually taken a walk in the front row and heard exactly what the audience was saying to Parikrama which i will reproduce here “FUCK OFF!!”. Parikrama sucked harder than the college band that played before them. Reality: there are FAR better bands out there that represent a unique Indian sound but are struggling to get a live show or sign-up just because they DONT have Parikrama’s undeserved visibility and contacts. Yep PK may have been good TEN years ago,,, but a band is only as good as the album they cut yesterday. Which is???
May 27th, 2007 at 10:16 am
[...] as we announced before (Parikrama - Iron Maiden and Beyond), here is the complete confirmed list of Parikrama’s appearances in [...]
October 30th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
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Thanks for the nice read, keep up the interesting posts..