Mumbai rocks harder, attracts major rock acts

HEADBANGERS UNITED: German rock band, Scorpions, performed to a packed hall in Mumbai in 2007.

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Mumbai: The mere mention of Mumbai evokes images of Bollywood-styled hip-gyrating songs and dance routines. However Maximum City seems to be grooving to a different tune these days.

Around 10000 fans gathered up for the first ever concert of heavy metal band Iron Maiden in the city this month. The rock concert came close in the heels of the German rock band Scorpions’ concert in December last year. Before that headbangers of Mumbai eagerly lapped up the music of Roger Waters.

"The audience couldn’t have been more attentive, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable. I had a great time, and I am really happy being here," Roger Waters remarked about the Mumbai audience.

"Blue said earlier: ‘Which way we are going round the world?’ I said, ‘I know…let’s go to India. Where in India? Let’s go to Mumbai!’” Iron Maiden dummer Nicko McBrain said.

Mumbai has traditionally been sidelined to rock hubs like Bangalore and Shillong. However, lately the city seems to be figuring in the stopover routes of major rock acts across the world, despite it not being able to match up in crowd strength. And there is more good news in waiting for Mumbai rockers if rock act Def Leppard finalise their Mumbai concert plan for May.

"Bombay is a great city for music culture. Sponsors want to organise concerts in Mumbai. Music scene here is very good, and people are very progressive. For bands Mumbai is the first choice. It’s a place to hold live shows and concerts" Owen Roncon from Oranjuice Entertainment says.

However, for many others the doubts remain. Despite all that noise, analysts are rooting for Bangalore and Shillong to be the ideal places for rock shows.

"The culture in Bombay is very Bollywood, while Bangalore and Shillong are the typical places where rock bands have typically been garnering big crowd. There are more rock fans in Bangalore. You can expect 10000-20000 people to gather in Bangalore, while in Shillong 20000-40000.

“In Mumbai, however, it’s so tough to even get 5000 people. The economics don’t really work for them to stop in Mumbai," explains management guru Professor Arindam Chaudhari.

Clearly the numbers don’t seem to be adding up in case of some other acts as rock acts like Megadeth, Machine Head and Dream Theatre will be heading straight for Bangalore later this year.