Chandigarh, August 26
Neil Boorman has much to tell about music, especially of his country. As a founder of the top five clubs of England, he begins with a rather curt remark, “The club scene in England has three essentials - music, drinks and drugs. Back home, we play to help the visitors chill out. But here in India where we are performing for the British Council we have had to play at venues where no alcohol is served. It has been a pleasure to see people go crazy at the very strike of our melodies”.

Boorman’s music pulsates with varied influences from pop and punk-funk to disco and any other western musical styles one can conceive of. Those who throng London nightclubs ensure he keeps spilling magic on the deejay mixer and keeps loading his mind with inspiration unlimited. The trained classical musician admits, “I am of a firm belief that natural talents for anything can best be honed on job. Training in schools is a sheer waste of time. At the end of the day, you must know when to hit the crowd and when to let it be. No school wll teach you that”.

Also a writer on music (he wrote a weekly column called “Devil’s Dandruff” for The Guardian), Boorman says he can’t but be colloquial while writing about music, its impacts, its trends and evolution. “I use a lot of slang as well as several points of references which you get in the youth culture. In fact I enjoy using slang and playing,” he says.

Officially a deejay and a promoter Boorman has been regularly extending his earnings to charity, especially in the wake of London bombings. But he is honest enough to admit, “Bombings or no bombings, people in London go shopping. They have just one concern - where and how to spend money. Where years ago you saw people thronging churches on Sundays, now you see them headed straight for departmental stores. They however have a sense of national pride”.

“The Punjabis rocked for a while but now they have died down, so has the explosion which Punjabis caused in the world of music in London,” says Boorman, who performed his live electronic music event at Copper Chimney in Sector 26 yesterday.

The programme was part of the British Council’s ongoing efforts to bring value to its customers and give them a UK experience. TNS

LEISURE

We’ve been cheated by music piracy, say Punjabi singers 
S. D. Sharma

“All that glitters is not gold,’ applies to the plight of Punjabi singers, as many of them feel that only Punjabi folk music is flourishing commercially but not the singers who gave their best to come up with such music. These days, the artistes find themselves cheated besides facing an economic crisis due to the unethical practice of music piracy and now the DJs playing this music at every function, is still more affected. As many as 15 top folk and pop Punjabi singers denounced the unchecked menace, affecting their art and the artistes during a press conference at the Chandigarh Press Club today.

Punjab Sangeet Natak awardee, Paramjit Singh Sidhu ‘Pammi Bai’ explained the aims and objectives of the Punjabi Singers Welfare Association: to safeguard the interests of Punjabi singers and music companies under the apex body PEGMA besides those of writers and music composers.

Senior artistes Mohammad Siddique, Sardool Sikander and Babbu Maan urged the government and the Indian music industry to check the raging music piracy and bring the DJs business under the control of a licencing authority under Section 14 E of the copy right Act 1957.

Sardool Sikander lamented that an artiste toils hard by performing ‘riyaz’ and practising dedication in life to earn name and sing a few good songs spending a lot of time and money. How disgusting it is that anyone personifying the real artiste performs on commercial scale on a CD. Instead of paying the artiste for his lifelong hard work, people prefer to engage a DJ who can present the songs of 20 artistes in one CD, no credit to the creation of the original artiste. We have taken up the issue with the Chief Minister as well as the state Director-General of Police to issue licences to DJs and ensure payment of royalty to the singers as has already been done in the metros. We are, however, moving the court to secure justice, he said. Besides Sardool Sikander, Mohammad. Siddique, Babbu Maan, Pammi Bai, Satwinder Bugga, Hardip Mahinangal, Jaswant Sandila, Sukhwinder Grewal, Jagtar Jagga and Kaler participated in the deliberations.