RDP Live at Vismay 2009 – April 9th

Its been a long long time since we played in Bangalore (well, longer than we would have wanted to) so its time to rectify that and thanks to the lovely students at Don Bosco Institute of Technology, we are playing in their college for their annual fest – Vismay 2009.

Don Bosco Institute of Technology is on Mysore Road – just head down until you find it on Mysore Road itself 🙂 You can also view a map on Google Maps – here

Come by and catch some fun new songs and a fantastic live set 😉 .. and I am not exaggerating!

Oye Its Friday – Update

Oh well .. Looks like we were edited out of the show this week but after checking with them, they said they would try and fit us in next week. But I’ll let you guys know for sure.

Thanks to everyone who responded!

Oye Its Friday

I know its been a while since we went to shoot for the Farhan Akthar show, ‘Oye Its Friday’. And this time round, I have been waiting to make this post till today very intentionally! This is to announce that we are featured TONIGHT on ‘Oye Its Friday!’. Watch it on NDTV Imagine at 10 PM.

Now for the long story!

We landed up at the magnificient ‘YashRaj Film Studio’ in Mumbai bright and early and ready to shoot for the first time on a talkshow on National TV! We were hustled into one of the many changing rooms where we just about managed to keep our luggage and had to leave to the studio for a sound check!

The sound check passed off without incident and was quite a breeze actually because of the lovely Nitin Joshi who was handling sound that day and also photography! infact, all these photos that you see are courtesy him! He is a total case of a man who is torn between two passions and is excellent at both!

Back to the story, After sound check we met everyone from ‘Jazz Junction’, the in-house band for the show who are capable of so much more than you see them play on the show each week! and each of them is a brilliant musician and singer in his/her own right. They informed us that we were infact, the first band that ever played everything live on the show and we were sounding good that day! it was a HUGE pat on the back! To go on National TV with the confidence that we can nail our stuff live!

Once that was done, it was time for us to go get some ‘make up’ on and come back down totally transformed for the show. By now, the man himself, Saurav ‘Dada’ Ganguly was on set finishing his part of the show before he left and we could go up on stage! Dada though had to leave early and was not on stage with us for later part of the show or to watch us perform!

We had to do two songs on stage and they would pick and edit our performance later to suit the format of the show. So we went up and belted ‘Mysore se Aayi’ and ‘Hey Bhagwan’ and the people from the show said it was a wrap after the first time itself! and we were just warming up and thought it was a run through! However, we were not so happy with the rendition of Hey Bhagwan and chose to repeat that song.

At this point I must make a mention of the lovely audience! These guys are extras who were brought in to the show and were strictly instructed to “Clap and show energy when the band is playing live!” but honestly, looking at them that day, I don’t think they were going wild just because they were instructed to 😛

In all fairness to them, they put a whole lot of excitement and enthusiasm in us and it was just plain fun to play for them!

We were then called back on stage for the finale of the show and met Farhan Akthar who remembered us from the ‘Rock Gig’ that we had played months back! he chatted us up before going up on stage to do the end credits along with all the performers of the night and the ‘Oye Girls!’.

So the Moral of the story – The show airs tonight, Friday, 27th of February between 10 and 11 PM on NDTV Imagine. Make sure you tune in! and please do tell us what you thought of our performance!

Thanks in advance and I just have to do this .. “OYE!!”

RDP at the VTU Fest, SBMJCE Tomorrow!

I know there are a lot pending articles to come on this blog and but this is a quick note to let you guys know that we are playing at the VTU fest in SBMJCE (Sri Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain College of Engineering) on Kanakapura Road tomorrow.

We should be on stage by around 8 PM or so, so make sure you start early if you plan to be at the gig! Its going to be loud and its going to be fun!

Directions to get there – Get on to Kanakapura Road and once you are at the Metro on Kanakapura Road, its 35 kilometers down that road on the left side.

I know its a long drive, but head out anyway, its the weekend and we’ll make sure its worth it.

Touch the Tune Concert

I apologize firstly for the delay in doing this and its about time I did! So here we go ..

The show was something all of us in the band were looking forward to with the greatest enthusiasm. We were dying to play a big show in Bangalore and it was after a long time that we got such a show in place.

Also, the day before the concert, we met a lot of our friends who wanted to come for the show and couldn’t find tickets elsewhere and gave them passes for the show. Before the show began however, it was a little grim because none of us were sure of the turn out and considering the fact that we were to go on by 8 PM on a work day with Bangalore’s traffic being what it is, it was not looking any good!

But when we did get on stage, it was a treat to see about 6000 screaming people in the audience who as it turned out were very familiar with our music and loved it!

That was enough of a push for us to put together a wonderful set and we got going from the first song onward! The band was full of energy and enthusiasm and were jumping around like wild teenagers on stage! The sound had a few issues on stage but we were in no mood to worry about any of that. The response we got was absolutely fantastic and we made quite a few fans that day I must say!

Karsh Kale and the Punditz who followed us were in a league of their own and were a fitting finale to the event. The organizers managed to get the concert extended long enough for a nice set from the band though I think it was Pappon who stole the show after he taught all of us how to ‘Banaao’!

A huge round of thanks to Kalyan Varma and Noella D’sa for the super photos of that night! We are still to see the rest of them though 😛

Meeting at Coffee Day

[UPDATE] – If you couldn’t come yesterday, there are passes left behind at the Coffee Day on Cunningham road. Not the one in Sigma Mall. Please Pick them up on your way to the concert.

Raghu and I went to Coffee Day yesterday for the much awaited meeting with everyone who had asked for passes for our show today! We went armed with about a 100 passes and more importantly went there to meet everyone who would come and were fans of our music 🙂

We keep hearing how people who really liked us in a show could not come and meet us after the show and are really excited to meet us and thought this was a brilliant way to do just that!

The turnout was a tad lower than we expected, but it is completely understandable that people from a little far away could not really get through the maddening traffic in the city to make it on time and also like someone pointed out to us later, there was another coffee day in Sigma Mall on Cunningham Road, so I am hoping many people din’t go there and miss us that way.

Anyway, for the people that did show up, we had a nice round of introductions and conversation, lots of photos were taken and lots of passes were given out as well! Now we hope all of you turn up for the show and get more with you when you come!

For those that couldn’t make it, we have left the remaining passes at the Coffee Day counter itself. Please go there and pick it up on your way to the concert!

Collect your passes!

A *HUGE* round of thanks to all of you for commenting and wanting to come for the show on Friday, the 23rd! I have your passes with me and Raghu and I would like to meet you guys and personally give them to you!

If you haven’t already collected your passes, then read https://theraghudixitproject.wordpress.com/2009/01/15/nokia-touch-the-tune-in-bangalore/ and comment at once! That is how I am keeping track of the number of passes I should get.

So if you have commented, please come to the Coffee Day on Cunningham Road at 6PM on Thursday, 22nd Jan, 2009, collect your passes and have a chat with us!

It will be great to catch up with all of you!

Nokia – “Touch The Tune” in Bangalore

The Raghu Dixit Project plays at the Nokia “Touch The Tune” concert in Bangalore at the Palace Grounds on the 23rd of January at the Palace grounds. Also playing along with us is Karsh Kale (absolutely brilliant contemporary music from India and has worked with the likes of Anoushka Shankar, Norah Jones and Sting!) and Midival Punditz (one of the biggest electronica acts in the country)

The show starts at 7 PM and goes on till about 11 PM. Head to the event page for this concert on Facebook and RSVP! Also, invite all your friends to the show!

I managed to score some passes for the concert and so if any of wants passes to the show, leave a message here and I will tell you how you can pick them up from me personally! The special Raghu Dixit Project friends and family offer 🙂

Mysore Se Aayi – The Dance

Very recently I came across this video of a dance for ‘Mysore Se Aayi’ that was performed at the ‘Anandabalaga‘ by Aditya Kavoor which was directed by Rohan Raj from Nritarutya!

It is a really sweet effort and I think all of you should see it! And send Aditya a comment if you like it 🙂

Raghu Dixit Project in Bangalore – Finally!

So its official! our first public gig in Bangalore after a LONG LONG time will happen on Christmas Eve! The Opus Christmas festival ’08 plays host to The Raghu Dixit Project on the 24th December 9PM Onwards.

If you haven’t watched the band in a long time or haven’t watched the band at all, then this is a very good place to start. So, on the 24th evening, Opus, in Bangalore is where you need to be!