WOMAD

The Bollywood Band

From United Kingdom

The Indian film industry is the equal of America's in the sheer quantity of its product - and its range of quality is just as diverse: hence the name "Bollywood" (a contraction of Bombay/Hollywood). Music is a central part of Indian film, and the playback singers who provide the soundtracks to which the actors mime are the highest-paid artists on the set. On the streets of the cities, songs from the movies are hugely popular. Indian cinema's "Golden Age" is generally held to have lasted from the early fifties until the late sixties, and many of the classic songs from that era remain a part of popular culture.The Bollywood Band play classic and contemporary film hits, including the outrageously successful 'Oye Oye!' This track, which began its film life in the early nineties, became so popular on the streets that the police are rumoured to have fined anyone yelling out its chorus, on the grounds that it had become a public nuisance. This may be an urban myth, but it indicates the popularity of film music better than any statistic ever could.The Bollywood Band, Europe's only Indian-style brass band, also play hits by Alaap, the leading British bhangra outfit, and instrumental versions of songs by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The band's usual line-up features nine musicians, playing trumpets, saxes, trombones and dhols, the large Punjabi drum which features heavily here this weekend. The band has been together for five years, playing at Asian festivals in the UK and in Europe.