Junoon set to rock Mumbai

Back in 1997, ‘Sayonee’ created a rage in India and garnered uninterrupted airtime on TV. Now, Junoon, the band that composed the song, will hit the stage in Mumbai on April 28. The two-hour long show that aims to attract a crowd of 10,000 will be held at Malad’sInorbit Mall. BeforeJunoon gets on stage, an act spearheaded by Hanif Shaikh (of ‘Paatshala’ fame) will perform. The Pakistani Sufi rock band is also scheduled to perform in Pune, Delhi and Bangalore. Says organiser Darpan Trisal, “We might add on some more cities on the road. Band member, Salman Ahmed has also consented to perform a jugalbandi at the forthcoming WOW awards.” Junoon’s last concert in India was on Feb 6, 2010 in Delhi in support of the Lighting A Billion Lives campaign. Having undergone numerous lineup changes since their inception in 1990, Junoon currently consists of founder Salman Ahmed on guitar and vocals, John Alec on bass, Sunny Jain on drums and Kedernath Havalar on percussion.Salman, who’s currently based in the US, says, “India is the land of ‘junoonis’ and we want to infuse it with some high-octane junooni (passion) soul! Mumbai was the city that embraced Junoon and ‘Sayonee’ first, so our yatra (journey) begins there.” He adds, “Many of my Indian friends including Naseeruddin Shah, Shashi Tharoor, Nobel peace prizewinner Dr Rajinder Pachauri and Nandita Das have told me that our music has been instrumental in promoting harmony between India and Pakistan. So it’s fitting that in the land of Hazrat Amir Khusrow and Khwaja Gharib Nawaz, we come with peace, joy and unity.”