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| Sunday, 13 October 2002 |
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by Umangi de Mel
`Blind Faith' consists of five members, Geoffrey Fernando on bass and vocals, Kevin Almeida-guitar and vocals, Primal Liyanage-guitar and vocals and Christopher Prins-drums and vocals.."We are a good clan, and we are proud to have variety in the band," says Kevin adding,"We play songs in a `soul' type. Primal is a fantastic guitarist and mind you, he plays folk music," Kevin seems to be truly pleased with their lot. "And Kumar is a `jazzy' guy, in fact we call him `Jazz Kumar', plays pop to rock..Prins is a very steady drummer and he is very knowledgeable about music..Geoff and I are more soul type," he continues,"I have absolutely no regrets about leaving Germany." Basically a 6os, 70s an 80s band, the group performs at Clancy's every Fridays and has regular spots at the Echelon Club, Rhythm & Blues, The Supper Club and the Hilton Pub.. Kevin, who together with Geoff was initially with 'Purple Rain' and spent over 15 years in Germany says the 'Purple Rain' did their own songs with Joe Thambimutthu when he was alive. " I miss him so much..." he says sadness clouding his face. "But with 'Blind Faith', we stick to originals. We hardly have time to do our own thing," What about the 'Blind Faith Fan Club'? "There are a lot of people who like our music," says Christopher Prins, the savvy drummer who joins the two. The group states their claim to being the only soul band "I think we are the only soul band in Sri Lanka cause we stick to `soul'," Kevin joins in. "Our job is to give the audience what they want," he says. "If somebody requests, we do it for them totally unrehearsed," Chris says adding, "We don't play cover. Each one of us has a different personality. It's novel. We have Kumar's, Geoff's, Kevin's in our own set up. If we do a Bryan Adams hit, we do it our way".
He thinks that they are a band that is well-liked among the older folk. What about the Sri Lankan Music scenario? They say "It has changed, tastes have changed drastically but change is good, and when it comes to alternative music, well I haven't heard one single band playing with a guitar that is properly tuned," chuckles Geoff. "But to be honest, I think the other bands are very good, doing their own music,"Today the audience has got a choice, there are enough bands and people have a chance to listen to their type of music. So what plans have `Blind Faith'? "Well," starts Geoff, "we want to do it a bot more seriously," Kevin butts in, "er..slightly, but it feels really good playing," Geoff says there are no plans as such but that there are a few ideas.. "I have written lyrics for 28 songs and the tunes have still to be made but whatever we do, it has to be done properly, and the rest, I leave it to God." Kevin smiles when he says that they have a wide repetoir but it requires hard work to survive, "We really need to work a little bit more." |
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Two
male figures seated at Clancy's, casually let out rings of smoke and the
reek fills up the cool air... "We are very proud about the name,
cause what you see is what you get," cracks Geoffrey Fernando, the
lead singer of `Blind Faith', a band that is, "blindly playing,"
chips in Kevin Almeida, a member of the band. But he justifies his words,
"We are an open band that play a little bit of everything. We do pop
to rock to jazz and folk. " Blind Faith has within a short span,
established itself as a band to be reckoned with, and provides stiff
competition to those who claim to have no competition. "As Blind
Faith, we started playing to the local crowd in June 2001 but Kevin was
still in Germany that is why he joined in late," says Geoffrey who is
better known as Geoff.
Geoff
appears, so what happened to a band like 'Purple Rain' that was doing so
well, Geoff? "Everything comes to an end.." he says
nonchalantly. "All good things come to an end, ye know," crack
the other two. "We were all married to europeans, and the group
members had their own commitments and we had our own life, which is why we
had to split, and," continues Geoff "if we were to play together
we had to stay in the same country which we couldn't do," "Now
we play all kinds of music except for techno," says Geoff. "And
we play to suit the location," Chris says. "We play jazz at the
`Supper Club',"says Geoff and Chris joins in, "For obvious
reasons that people come to the `Supper club' to chat and dine,"
