Date:02/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/02/stories/2008120250590200.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

The piper and the princess concert today

Staff Reporter

Bangalore: Tuesday evening at Palace Grounds promises an interesting mix between the old and the new, a musician who has a following of cult status and a young musician who has created a niche audience for herself.

British folk-rock band Jethro Tull and sitar player Anoushka Shankar will take the stage on December 2 as part of their Seagram’s 100 Pipers Pure Music tour “A night with the Piper and the Princess” taking both musicians to Kolkata, New Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

The concert team has rescheduled its programme in Mumbai.

Lead singer Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull and Ms. Shankar addressed presspersons here on Monday after they finished their Kolkata and New Delhi shows, eager to talk about their Bangalore performance.

The collaboration between Jethro Tull and Ms. Shankar started over a year ago as Mr. Anderson got interested in Ms. Shankar’s music.

“We communicated over email with the ideas Ian had for the collaboration, and I only met him once before the tour took off,” said Ms. Shankar.

Now that the tour is in full swing, the two are looking forward to their third concert of the tour.

Little expectations

“We don’t have any expectations as such. If we play badly we deserve to be sent back where we came from,” said Mr. Anderson jokingly.

“If we lose track, we make it up. In the Delhi concert, I made three or four major mistakes, and while the audience could not really tell, Anoushka caught them,” he added, talking about their chemistry on stage as two musicians who try complementing each other, trying to take the show to the highest place.

Tickets priced at Rs. 1.900, Rs. 1,100 and Rs. 700 for the concert beginning at 7.30 p.m. are available at Music World outlets in Indiranagar, Malleswaram and Jayanagar.