CONCERTS : US TOUR : NEW YORK

written  : sahasikumar

 

general:

place: Nassau Coliseum, Long Island

Date: 23.09.2000

Time: 08:00 PM

 

Hi folks, I have been to AR Rahman Live concert was held on 23rd Sep 2000 at Nassaucoliseum auditorium. Tamilians across u.s. travelled a long distance to see this show. Many travelled
for 4 to 5 hours from boston, new hamshire, atlanta, chicago etc. The cost of the concert is also very high when compare to any other american show. It was 25,35,50, 75 and 150$. But
inspite of all this, AR Rahman live concert had 99% of hindi songs. The show started with two tamil songs and ended with three tamil songs. Totally 5 tamils songs in 3&1/2 hour show.
All tamilians who came to show are very much disappointed. Everyone started requesting to put tamil songs ,padaiyappa , kathal desam etc., but with no luck. AR Rahman has highly
disappointed all tamilians over here. This AR Rahman show was marketed as if it is a south indian show, but the show had all hindi songs only. This was very highly disappointing evening. You can also see the fwded mail below, where they were marketing for their next show in california, which is going to disappoint lots of tamilfans, not only by time but also by money. I would appreciate if you can bring this news to the knowledge of entire public in California. Atleast all hindi speak can enjoy the show and avoid more tamilians to get disappointed.

Thank you, SASIKUMAR

FORWARDED MAIL
==============
Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2000 12:09:25 -0400 From:
Subject: A.R.RAHMAN LIVE IN CALIFORNIA To: Subject: A.R Rahman Live in California-Please forward Please forward this to all your friends who love music Variety Entertainment brings the one and only, A.R Rahman for his first live tour of the U.S.Coined as the Biggest Musical Extravaganza to come out of India, A.R. Rahman Tour USA will be the single largest musical production to come out of India. The L.A show is at the famous Shrine Auditorium on Friday, October 6th and the S.F show is at the Cow Palace on October 8th at 7.30 P.M. The concerts will start on time so please arrive early. The foremost singers including Udit Narayan, Sadhna Sargam, Hariharan, Shankar Mahadevan, Kavita
Krisnamurthy, S.P Balasubramaniam, Sukhvinder, Anupama, Chitra, Sujata, Deven, Srinivas, Clinton, will be accompanying A.R Rahman on this one of a kind concert. The show will also feature a fourty-five piece orchestra along with some of the finest dancers from India and the U.S. Also singing for the first time will be Karen, the lead singer from Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber and Rahman's collaboration- 'Bombay Dreams'. The MC for the evening is the talented and funny, Javed Jaffrey. Featured percussionist include Sivamani, Vikku Vinayakram and some of the finest Brazilian players. The sold out New York show on 23rd September at the Nassau Collisieum was attended by over 15,000 people. A.R Rahman performs a mix of his Hindi and South Indian hit songs including from his forthcoming album Zubeida and the single from Bombay Dreams. This show features more than 15000 watts of power on a sound system used by the Rolling Stones, laser and special effects from Broadway Shows and six costume changes. This is one show that you do not want to miss. Check out www.arrahmanustour for details. For online tickets visit www.eindia.com. We are proud to be associated with HCL Technologies, Specsoft and Jamcracker in bringing you this very special event. Tickets are available at selected Indian stores and at the Box Office. For information call 408 737 8500 in Northern California and 562 865 9196 in Southern California. If you are a part of a large
corporation that has a number of South Asian employees, we have worked out special corporate ticket group rates. Please send us an email to this address and we will follow up with your
company's marketing department. Pass this email on to all fans of Indian music. This is the greatest Indian music show ever.. Join us for a night you will never forget!

www.varietyshowbiz.com www.arrahmaustour.com


Hi folks,

Many of them would have read my article in kumudam as well as in this thread. Though i have got a few supported mails, i have also got few apposing replies. I am not mentioning about the quality or the composing of AR Rahman. All i am talking was the disappointment for the tamil only speaking indian people. The show was marketed as if a south indian musical show (which you wud have seen their sample advertisement mail that i have posted last time.) so many tamilians bought the ticket and visited. But the show was in hindi and few tamils songs were played for the sake of tamilians as an eye wash. If they would have marketed the show as hindi then there would not be much of tamil crowd. Only hindi known people would have gathered and enjoyed a lot. If anyone would have attended the show will know how people have reacted and their face impression with lots of disappointment. Everyone wasted their time and money. Particularly Andra people were very much disappointed, because they did not get even a single song in their language. There are lots of hindi shows are happening like bollywood awards etc. But all those show does not cost more than 20$ to 30$. Even american shows in naussau coliseum does not cost more than 25$. But this AR Rahman show costed from 25$ to 150$ where all tamilians paid for and they got cheated very badly.

There also some of them mentioning different url where the AR Rahman show was praised like anything. But all that information are not true. It is for the sake for marketing and to earn more
money than satisfing the respective language speaking AR rahman fans.

This is mails is my personal view and some of the other tamilians view who have attend the show. If this mail would have hurt your feelings i am very sorry about that.

"Fact is stranger than fiction"

With love,
SASIKUMAR