Hard Days Night to turn five with musical odyssey

The baby boomers are turning five. But that would be a misnomer, right? To be in that cute-sounding category, they should be, at the very minimum, in their ‘furious’ fifties.

KOCHI:  The baby boomers are turning five. But that would be a misnomer, right? To be in that cute-sounding category, they should be, at the very minimum, in their ‘furious’ fifties. But here we are talking about Hard Days Night (HDN), cobbled together by a band of baby boomers five years ago to relive the pop and rock ‘n’ roll nostalgia of the sixties, seventies and early eighties.

HDN will celebrate its entry into the fifth year with a bash featuring ‘Gravity’ and ‘The Late Nights’ in Thiruvananthapuram on July 21.

HDN is essentially a bi-monthly get-together of baby boomers - all the members are born between 1945 and 1960 - who shared a passion for western music during their college years. “HDN was formed five years ago with the music of the sixties and the seventies as its base. We used to meet at the Trivandrum Club initially, then moved to the South Park Hotel,” recalls Tomy Cherian, one of the founder members.
The group - it’s a rather small one which is finicky that the attendance shouldn’t exceed 100 - meets once every two months, invites a band to perform, and offers space to upcoming talent. Members include Technopark CEOs and professionals from the state capital.

“The founder members included Raju Harilal, Johnny Bernard, Anil Kurup, Jo Varghese and myself. We entertain a family crowd,” Cherian said. The name ‘Hard Days Night’ itself is a tribute to the third eponymous album of the Beatles.

Rock bands - a majority of them incidentally British - had a devoted following in the seventies and eighties in Thiruvananthapuram. With YouTube and MTV only vague possibilities of the future, they had to rely on the radio and LP records. The latter was available only at three or four places in town; like Jacob’s, Manickyam Pillai and Sons, Natarajan and Sons and Paico.

Today, HDN is one of those rare groups that keeps alive the musical sub-culture of those days. One of HDN’s recent bi-monthly events was a tribute to the Beatles, for instance. City-based 12th Bar had brought alive some of the best-known numbers of the 1960s rock sensation.

But that’s not to say that HDN is caught in a time warp. “Initially, HDN used to focus on the music of the sixties, seventies and the eighties; Rolling Stones, Queen, Beatles, Pink Floyd and Blues music. But nowadays we mix it up to add variety,” said Tomy.

‘Gravity’ will perform at the South Park Hotel at 7 pm, July 21, as part of the five-year musical odyssey of Hard Days Night. The opening act will have a performance by ‘The Late Nights.’ For reservations, contact 9947289036.

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