Not all foreign acts mesmerised Sri Lankan fans

Some have been disasters

Over the years, we have had many foreign acts come this way for performances in Colombo but not all of them have lived up to their reputation.

In the past, music lovers here have had the opportunity of seeing, in concert, internationally famous performers like Brotherhood of Man, Osibisa, Johnny Logan, Kool & The Gang, Boney M, Bryan Adams, Imagination, Sean Paul, Jay Sean, Trini Lopez, Shaggy, Enrique Iglesias, Shakin’ Stevens, Engelbert Humperdinck, Cliff Richard and several others.

Quite a few of them did create the kind of atmosphere that made the audience go ga-ga over their performance but some of the bigger names, at that point in time, failed miserably…to keep their fans entertained, and excited.

Sean Paul and Jay Sean were disasters, and so were Shakin’ Stevens and Trini Lopez – when Trini came to Sri Lanka for his second concert.

His first was a gas and the huge crowd present enjoyed Trini’s perennial favourites and even enjoyed singing along with him.

His second show, in Colombo, was a total disaster. Trini had aged by then and the crowd was disappointed with his performance.

An entrepreneur, who is also associated with entertainment, Down Under, was keen to do a concert, in Melbourne, with Trini Lopez but changed his mind the moment he got the feedback from friends, in Colombo, about Trini Lopes’s disastrous concert.

Shakin’ Stevens, too, didn’t live up to his reputation, but one can’t blame the singer in this regard.

With age catching up, he had indicated to his fans, the world over, that one shouldn’t come for his concerts expecting to see Shakin’ Stevens as seen in the old clips of Top of the Pops, on YouTube, etc.

That era was over, he said, where he is concerned, and I did highlight his comments in my column.

Said Shaky: “People have preconceived ideas about those Top of the Pops performances. That’s a long time ago. I do my hips but I do them in a different way.”

Unfortunately, what was mentioned, locally, highlighted Shakin’ Stevens of the good old days and, naturally, local fans were thoroughly disappointed with what they experienced at the Shakin’ Stevens’ concert.

Enrique Iglesias’ concert, in Colombo, was another disaster, with the organisers – two well-known local personalities – disbanding their newly established entertainment company no sooner the brickbats kept coming their way.

The Jay Sean show was a big disappointment, as well.

The crowd turned up at the venue as early as 7 pm as the show was scheduled to commence at 9 pm. But it eventually started well after 11 pm. And Jay Sean was on stage for less than an hour, performing to tracks.

He then vanished and never returned, although the crowd waited for nearly 45 minutes, believing he had gone for a costume change. He didn’t even turn up for the after-party, and tickets were sold for that event, too.

At that point in time, even in Oman, he was on stage for just 30 minutes and then vanished.

Equally frustrating was the Sean Paul show, held at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium, where the crowd had to wait hours before they were able to enter and take their seats.

To many, most of his songs, that night, sounded the same and it became very monotonous.

Both Engelbert Humperdinck and Cliff Richard excelled at their concerts and the crowd present, for both events, loved every minute of it. It was nostalgia all the way, although Cliff Richard mentioned to me that the venue, Sri Lanka Exhibition & Convention Centre, was like a warehouse and not a five-star venue that he was promised for his concert.