GKT divali show at Royal Albert Hall

Haven't posted here for a while, wanted to tell about a great day i had on Sunday 13th. It was a Diwali show organised by students of King's college. For those of you who don't know, I've learnt the indian classical flute since I was 7 years old. And since then I've played in concerts at venues such as Beck Theatre(Hayes) and Winston Churchill Hall(Pinner).

But to play at the Royal Albert Hall was a brilliant experience. I arrived at the hall at 11am, and sat with my orchestra colleagues with whom I had been rehearsing on and off for the past 3 weeks. We waited, and waited until the organizers called us up for the sound check. Each member of the orchestra was asked to play in order to set up the sound. Branavan, the other flutist, played 'Twinkle twinkle little star", which was quite hilarious after the others were playing our traditional pieces.

We did a run through of our 10 songs (2 of which I wrote the music for), and after went back to the dressing room by 3pm. After some more rehearsals, chilling and a big pizza meal, I went to the top gallery to watch the first 7 acts which comprised of comedy and dance.

By 9pm (show started at 7.30), it was our turn to entertain the audience. It was brilliant, a great performance by all the members, Wayne's rendition on the bass for 'Billy Jean' drawing the biggest cheer from the 4000+ crowd. And though our act lasted 5 minutes, it was worth it.
We came back to our dressing room, ecstatic, relieved, overjoyed. 3 cheers for the hero of the hour, EASON, the one who put our act together. I watched the remainder of the show, one of the acts standing out was 'Tribute to Gandhi', a mesmerizing dance act with co-ordination second to none. By 10.30pm, the Diwali show finished.

BUT the day was not finished, as we all headed off to Hammersmith Palais for the after party. And what a party it was, especially that I hadn't been out on the piss for 3 weeks! Met some old Habs' friends Dinesh, Himal, Sean. Danced the night away after a few aftershocks and vodka, it doesn't get better than that! 3am, and the party was over, crashed at Ramiya's (my cousin who played violin) in Bermondsey, barely an hours sleep, headed back to my home at 11, and left for lectures at 1........EXHAUSTED. But it was worth it.

Here's a list of the orchestra pieces. The ensemble consisted of Eastern as well as Western instruments.

1. Vinaayagane (Eastern classical- played by eastern)
2. Twister- overnight celebrity (western)
3. Jay Z- Big Pimpin (eastern, I wrote the music)
4. Hamma (Bollywood classic, western)
5. Marques Houston - Clubbin (eastern, I wrote the music)
6. Kannalane (Bollywood classic, western)
7. Sean Paul - Get Busy (eastern)
8.Michael Jackson - Billy Jean (Everyone)
9. Appadi poordu (Bollywood classic, everyone)
10. Ragupathy (Indian anthem, everyone)