The Chase to save 1.5 lakh worth instruments - Amrapali Gig

If you have read my previous blog about the F.D.D.I Noida gig, then you must be knowing that what we already went through, and one day after the Noida gig we were suppose to leave for Amrapali Institute of technology Gig. We reached Doon in the morning, every one was tired so decided to rest at Akash Rana's (Nikhil's Cousin) place. Our drummer was suppose to go back to his home that time only, but out of laziness he kept lying on the bed whole day. His parents called him a thousand times and he kept on telling that he is leaving in 5 minutes. His parents were calling him since 7 or 8 am in the morning and since he was with us till evening, they got fired. Suddenly Sanata( Shubham/drummer) was shouting on his cell phone. After a while, he asked me talk to his elder sister to give some explanation and I swear, she shouted on me like hell Only thing I said was "didi, I can understand but.. ". It sucks to get scolded from a stranger elderly person, specially when they are relation with your band mates. Sanata's whole family was angry with him and cancelled his further gigs, now we were suppose to go to them and request them to allow him to continue the shows. We went and wasted two hours just hearing lectures about Sanata's great works, Sanata got frustrated in the end and decided to leave with us in the night only. We were walking towards our bikes and Sanata was along too. The one mistake we did that time was to stand there for a while and gossip about what happened inside Sanatas house, that was time when his angry dad came out of the gate, his face and ears went red, he was so angry that he was stammering little bit and we watched him coming toward us with our hearts in our mouths. In seconds I realized that he was coming straight toward me since every one else was on the the further side, he said - You are the one who is always taking my innocent son outside, I have not given you the permission  and you are still taking my son forcefully, I can get you arrested". That time I really felt likr " F**K everything, keep your son with you I am out of this", so I was. Next day after a long confused discussion we left for Amrapali with out Sanata, if you are thinking we did not had a drummer, you are wrong. Very few people know that Nikhil has saved our asses many times when we had no drummer, He always worked excellent as a back up drummer.We took the night train and reached Amrapali.

As we reached nearest railway station to Amrapali, we got off the train and hired two auto rickshaws each had three of us and our instruments. It was a long way from there to Amrapali Institute, almost half an hour if I am not wrong. Lonesome morning roads with a few dogs and cows here and there, almost nil traffic. Enjoying all this we reached the Institute and were happy to be there on time, gave the auto drivers their fare and were talking to the organizers who came to the gate to receive us. Suddenly we realized that we forgot to take our instruments out from one of the Auto rickshaw. Reaching a venue on time and realizing that you have lost your instruments on the way, makes you feel your self a super idiotic looser, and we fully felt it because we were seeing the auto rickshaw going 100 - 200 meters away, we were standing in front of the gate like forever losers waiting for some thing to stop the Auto rickshaw. There was not a single vehicle on the road which could have given us some hope and dogs and cows were of no use. Then, out of no where came our superman. This was a skinny guy riding a skinny bike with shades and jacket on. He stopped on our request and decided to help us catch the Auto rickshaw who was going away unaware that our instruments worth more than one and a half lakh were lying inside his Auto. I sat on superman's bike with him and the chase began, he was driving kickass, not slowing down even on the speed brakers, well that was  the fastest we could have been :D, evn after driving for several minutes we didn't see any auto rickshaw and  superman started to looked like he was regretting helping us. He started slowing down a bit, to stop that from happening I offered him money and he speeded up happily. Soon we saw the Auto rickshaw and stopped him. Nikhils guitar and processor and Jonathan's Synth were in the Auto Rickshaw thanks to Superman, we got it all back. Superman refused to take the money and said he was happy he could help. The gig went well, we won, got some some cash and some beauty parlour coupons :D
Here is the picture of the moment :

Jonathan in the train :

Winners

The Most Dramatic Gig Ever - F.D.D.I Noida.

I would like to make it clear that the things you are about to read are absolutely true and I am not  making any thing up even.
F.D.D.I Noida till now has been the most dramatic gig in our entire carrier.2012 ended up on a good note for Crystal Heads as far as gigs won and shows done is considered, but early months of 2013, we were jobless, bored, eating each others head, dying to do shows. We got to know about this gig at F.D.D.I Noida through my Childhood friend Neelesh who was a student there. Since I was in Delhi that time, I went to his college and filled up the registration form. We had everything clear, we had almost 20 days from when we filled up the registration form till the performance. We were continuously checking for our examination dates just to be sure that they don't clash with this gig. Everything was looking fine and since this was going to be our first gig in NCR, we didn't want to take any chances and were totally looking forward to prove the true music spirit of Dehradun  in NCR. With all that, we had a gig in Garhi cant., Dehradun next day which was among the most awaited ones and then another gig at Amrapali after one day, so we started practicing hard for all three gigs. Fingers crossed, we were hoping that nothing stops us from doing these gigs .
Ten days before the FDDI show, I got a call from Nikhil ( Guitars/Tech, C.H )

NIkhil : Bro we are in a big trouble, Akash is having two very important exams, dates of which are exactly clashing with the Noida Gig

 and I started picking broken pieces of my heart, but this time Nikhil was determined to do what we planned, more than any of us. He came up with an idea to call Akash Via flight from Dehradun to Delhi. The gig was suppose to start around 6 - 7 pm and Akash's exam was getting over at around 1 pm, + the cash at FDDI was good and if we won, it was enough to cover up all our travelling expenses. So the idea was possible to implement. We checked the flight timings and got one seat booked in the 3:30 pm flight which was earliest after Akash's exam. For rest of us we booked early morning train tickets. Now as per our plan We were suppose to reach the venue at around 1 pm and Akash at around 5 pm as it was a 40 mints flight and then one and a half hour in metro. Next day, we were suppose to take early morning bus from Anand Vihar, New Delh, so that we can reach on time for the Dehradun Gig and then one day later leave for Amrapali.

2:30 pm, we reached the venue at FDDI Noida with all instruments and things, got passes for ourselves and Akash too, all formalities done, got rooms to rest and freshen up, heard stories from my friend Neelesh about his ongoing war with his warden whose name was also Neelesh, ha ha he he everything and chilling.
Phone Rings :

Akash : Hello yaar, trouble, flight is delayed by 20 minutes

 and this time every one else was picking up the broken pieces of there hearts along with me.
All of us started praying, God not this, what if Akash cannot make it on time ? What if we have to play without him ? We started working on the backup plan. Nikhil started practising the solos and he did that continuously for 2 hours, Jonathan started making new patches on his keyboard to cover up the rhythm parts when Nikhil will be playing the solos. 4 pm, the venue managers started coming in to do the sound setup and we get another call from Akash that the flight is delayed 20 minutes more. 5 pm people started coming in and Akash's flight has not left from the airport yet, over that, Akash's cell phone's battery was dying which worried us more. At 5 :10 his flight left and now we were praying to get his call about landing in Delhi as soon as possible. The gig started, some how we convinced the managers to give us the last slot so that we could buy some time for Akash. Around 6:30 we get a call from Akash that he has landed and at the same time we informed him that the first band was on stage. Akash needed at least one and a half hour to reach Noida City center from Dwarka sec. 21 and 15 mints additional on both sides. He takes a cab to reach Dwarka sector 21 metro station and the cab driver lost his way. It took him half an hour to reach the metro station only and here second band was done with there sound check and ready to play. That moment we were not able to think about any thing. All of us were silently waiting, even Jonathan was not P j ing. Third band performs, then fourth than 5th. 2 bands to go then it was us. We were sitting on stairs on third floor watching the whole gig silently with Akash, still one hour away.

After the performance of second last band, we got a call from Akash  that he need 20 minutes to reach the venue. My friend Neelesh and Sanil made a plan to pick him from the third last station on there bike, they left and we were on stage for the sound check. We decided to waste time on the sound check so that Akash can reach before the performance starts. We wasted 20 minutes, Nikhil plugged in Akash's guitar and processor unit, and every one acted as if there was some technical fault for which the sound engineer was responsible. Just take a guess what can be worse, it started raining. Now we had no option left we have to take the stage otherwise we would be out of competition without even playing. We slowly walked toward our positions on stage, everybody plugged in there respective instruments, I turned on my mic told everyone that our guitarist has not reached yet and we were still hoping that he comes in the middle of the song at least, like Arjun Ram Pal did in the movie 'Rock On'. We played ' The last Mirage ', everyone of us was literally feeling the rain that night. Everybody came near to the stage and head banged with us, but we were playing with an aggression that comes because of sadness. As we finished the song, it started raining heavily and doing second song became impossible. Everybody ran away back from where they came and exactly when we packed up our instruments and reached the nearest shed, we saw Akash coming along with Neelesh and Sanil. That was an emotional moment and we just looked at each others faces with  most naturally saddest possible expressions, ever. We told Akash that we lost it just by few minutes. Then out of no where came the organizers and informed us that they have decided to conduct the finale next day and we are in it. " YEAHHHHHH  M**T***R FU***RS, NOW WE'LL SHOW WHAT WE ARE " were our exact words and we were full of anger. We were not going to miss this chance now. We had no money at all to afford return bus tickets + the finale was on the next day, so it became clear that we were going to miss the Dehradun gig, so we planned to work hard for this one atleast. We decided to sleep early and wake up fresh for practicing, as if that was going to happen. We went to Neelesh's room to sleep and just when we thought that the bad day was over we realized that Neelsh was not in the room. He comes from outside with a angry and sad look on his face at the same time and told us that his warden has not approved for us to stay in the hostel. Middle of the night and you are thrown out of a hostel thats not even yours, in a place you have never been before but always heard in News for its high crime rate, not a good feeling at all. Thankfully, few friends of Neelesh came up with a plan which was to sleep in a 1 BHK flat which was left open in there building. It was middle of the night and around nine guys wearing black and soaked were walking like thieves with local mattresses folded up on our shoulders, that too in the pathetic galees of Noida with super skinny dogs barking at us from distance, thats good enough to scare the hell out of your own self, forget the neighbourhood. Despite everything that has happened, we finally found a place to sleep. Did  the show next day and conquered FDDI's band war with a victory. Got cash in prize which gave us the hopes of going back in a good A/c bus back to Dehradun. Now when we talk about this gig, we don't talk at all, we still hate those 5 hours of nervous breakdowns performing without a band member :D

Here are a few pics,

  

                                                             pic 1 - The early morning Train

                                 
                                   
                                                2.Finale Morning with comeback of Akash

                                        

                                                        3. Returning in the good A.C bus
                                 

                                   
                                                The Survivors :D with Neelesh in Centre,
                                                 Sanata missing for confidential reasons.

When Jonathan Paul tricked us all.

Time when Indu (Indresh Pathak) got placed in Accenture, we were mentally preparing ourselves to carry on and come up with plans for a new drummer. We had hope that there must be a few good drummers in Graphic Era university, so we started posting on facebook and all to let our situation in everyones knowledge. Our bands posters on the walls was something we always wanted to see but the sad part was, we had to paste them ourselves. So " Drummer Needed " poster sort of things were all over the college walls. Our contact was mentioned on it, soon we started getting calls and entries. Now we needed a place to conduct the auditions, that is the time when we first met Pranay Kapoor, yes sounds celebrity. He had his own house which was under construction that time but good enough for us to take the Auditions. We called up the guys who were in for auditions one by one. Few were good, more were pathetic, some lost in there own thoughts while we were waiting for them to play, some wanted us, to be better, up to their imaginary insane level some, looked to professional in everything except drumming, some played only on hindi songs, all over we were very disappointed as till many days we didn't find the guy we needed.
Morning time, we get a call
" Hello Crystal Heads ???, I am Jonathan Paul, can I come for the drummers audition thing going on ??
He was the last to call and we have never heard of him before, so we called him up.
We had no Idea that he was not only into music but a Keyboard genius, guitar genius too and was already playing keyboards for a kickass band of Dehradun called Rudranath. Though he was not good with drums but still better than most of the people who gave auditions more over we had no other option left and were convinced that we can work upon him, we didn't tell him anything and went to drop him to his house because it was next to KFC :D.
I don't understand what screamo animal comes out from inside when we are riding bikes together, and i think its the same with all most everyone, so we were shouting like anything and the new guy Jonathan was sitting silent behind one of us trying to be funny with his PJ's (ha ha ha sorry Johny). We thought he was a very decent calm guy who thinks he can play drums, later we saw him playing with Rudranath many time, turns out he was not what we have thought. After a few days we became good friends and he told us that he came for the auditions just to see how good we were. That very moment we were jaw dropped.
Now he is one of our favourite pal to hang around with, did many shows together as Crystal Heads and The Evangelion Project.

Few Pics with Jonathan