Bulls on Parade- a Viewpoint from the audience
On the 23rd of December, 2010, the highly anticipated rock concert called ‘Bulls on Parade’ and created by Muscat-renowned singer Akhilesh Radhakrishnan and Aftershock band mates Swapnil Anto and Abrar Mohammed took place. It was a more advertised version of last year’s event – ‘Scream’, organized by Karnika Ray, Malvika Asher and Binoodha Sasy and was performed at the same venue, Le Grand Hall at the Al Falaj hotel. Unfortunately unlike ‘Scream’, ‘BoP’ failed to enthrall the audience, and made many people, including yours truly, wish that they had not wasted their time and money for such an experience.
Firstly, the number of people who came to watch the bands play was quite limited, contrary to expectation. The whole show had been largely publicized and talked about, at least in our school, Indian School Al Wadi Al Kabir. This could be due to the fact that the tickets were mainly sold in our school, and not in other reigning Indian schools like Indian Schools Muscat or Al Ghubra, because the organizers themselves were fresh out of ISWK. Secondly, the tickets were at a price of RO. 4.00, which was outrageous for a school-going kid. Perhaps it was due to such an exorbitant rate that many young people failed to show up. The mikes were also not working properly, leading to a vocalist’s voice being unheard, or an excellent guitar to be completely switched off. For all one knows, these could have been the factors which contributed to more people sitting outside, bored, than going inside and enjoying the music!
On the plus side, however, the bands were quite good, especially local bands Aftershock and Question Mark. All the bands had a host of guitarists who knew their way about the chords and scales well and that knowledge to make their (although a handful of) fans scream for them. But it was really the DJ Nigel Warren who got the concert-goers to sit up, take note of the songs he played and shake their hips enthusiastically around the hall. Indeed, there were little groups of dancers who cheered on their best for a mini-dance-off with another excellent dancer.
The show ended on a fair note when the results of the online voting for the best band were announced. Question Mark and school band Evolution bagged the first two places, with cash prize of RO. 150 each, and another school band, No Clue, won the second runners-up position.
