Bryan & Ian rock Mumbai

Bryan & Ian rock Mumbai

 

It was a double delight for Mumbaikars with Canadian rock star Bryan Adams and Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson performing back-to-back to a music-starved audience.

The crowd at MMRDA grounds at the Bandra-Kurla complex rocked and swooned and shrieked in delight as Adams belted out his all popular numbers. Though this was not the first time Adams has performed in the commercial capital, Mumbaikars never seemed to have had enough of Adams, who took the world by storm in the ’60s and the ’70s and is still rocking. And the fact that it was a Saturday added to the joyous mood of the weekend with fans charged up with incredible energy as one by one Adams crooned out his all-time hits — Please Forgive Me, 18 Till I die, The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You, So Far So Good, Have You Ever Loved A Woman, Everything I Do, Run To You, Summer of ’69, Cuts Like A Knife and Run to You.

Mumbai was part of Adams’ 2006 tour of the Gulf and Asia. Accompanied by guitarist Keith Scott Adams, the Canadian crooner sang and jumped and dazzled and ‘ROCKED’ as the crowd went into a frenzy asking for more.

Cell phones started flashing to get a picture of their icon as thousands of arms started wildly swinging high in the air, electrifying the atmosphere. Everything I Do, Run To You, Summer of ‘69, echoed the maximum response. Keith Scott’s guitar riffs on It’s Only Love was a real show stealer.

The high point of the show was when Adams invited a fan onto stage to sing with him. Her name is Amruta but Adams insisted on calling her Ruta. She blushed and could only say, ‘Oh you look so good!’ The lucky girl also proved to be a good entertainer and accompanied Adams with When You’re Gone.

Adams final number was a rendition of Room Service incorporating Indian food items like pappadams, aloo saag, vindaloo within the lyrics. And the crowd was chanting Bryan! Bryan!, not having enough of the rock star. Rock apart, there was also a noble side to the show. Adams was here to espouse the cause of indiacancer.org (an online platform), which functions as a link between people who want to donate and those who need donations. The platform was set up by cancer specialists in Mumbai to help needy patients. The show coincided with World Cancer Day.

Compared with Adams’ show, the crowd at Mumbai's Shanmukhananda Hall three days later, where Ian Anderson performed, was sober one, most of them preferring to listen to the master musician’s numbers sitting. It was only the backbenchers who did all the action.

Clad in black with a bandanna-like skull cap, Anderson began with Life's a long song. Belting out popular numbers like Aqualung, Thick as a brick, Living in the past, Cross-eyed Mary and Budapest, Anderson infused life into the flute and magic into the guitar, dexterously switching from one to another with much ease.

Holding the audience stunned and speechless with his magical creations, striking his famed one-legged pose, Anderson constantly kept on narrating brief introductory notes before most of his numbers.

"This is a song dedicated to the man who kept us free of the nuclear holocaust," he said as he introduced the track Boris Dancing, a sarcastic piece on Boris Yeltsin, former president of Russia.

From Pink Floyd to Byran Adams to Mozart, he took a dig at music’s many well-known names. But all that was just meant for humour more than sarcasm. He ended with the adrenalin-drenched Locomotive Breath.

A local band, Indus Creed, formerly known as Rock Machine, also performed along side Anderson. Anderson was accompanied by Florian Opahle on the guitar, David Goodier bass, John O' Hara on keyboards and James Duncan on drums.

Both shows earned tremendous response and both rock stars were at their best — but it was Bryan Adams who was clearly man of the match.