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Petra to rock Bangalore

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore Dec. 14. Familiar to some but not all, but they will soon be. Petra, the U.S.-based rock band and winner of four Grammy awards, will be rocking Cathedral School Grounds on Sunday and Monday evenings.

Back from a packed concert in Kochi, the band was all excited and obviously pleased by the reception they had received on their first India tour. Over the past 30 years they have brought "gospel rock" to match contemporary rock music and while some of the present band members are new, they have jelled well. The band has often been likened to other popular artists like Aerosmith, Rolling Stones, and Santana.

Their albums "Double Take," "Wake Up Call," and "Unseen Power" won them Grammys, and Petra has sold over seven million records. The fact that awards have come from both the Christian and mainstream music industries is remarkable.

The lead vocalist John Schlitt, Louie Weaver who plays drums, Bryce Bell with his keyboard, the bass guitarist, Greg Bailey, and the lead guitarist, Quinton Gibson, posed for photographs before answering questions about the influences on their music. Matching their ages, everyone from Beatles, U2, the rock bands of 70s and classic metal seem to have touched them sometime or the other. They were impressed by contemporary Indian music and felt the voice control of pop singers here was remarkable. Indian music was likely to influence their style from now onwards. Petra is here for a good cause. To help raise funds for Cathedral School's library building project. And yes, as they all echoed: "We are already talking about coming back."

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