This February saw the global competition for the opportunity to play a slot at Hard Rock Calling, the annual music festival at Hyde Park this June, set to be headlined by Bon Jovi. Eliminations were held at five Hard Rock Cafes across the country last month- with Swarathma winning from Bangalore, Bombay Bassment from Mumbai, The Circus from New Delhi, Highway 61 from Pune and Junkyard Groove from Hyderabad. Of these five bands, only two made it to the final 10 in the region (all the Hard Rock Cafes around the world were divided up into four regions).
Four slots are up for grabs – one per region – for the chance to be on the bill at Hard Rock Calling. 68 bands were reviewed and narrowed down to a selection of the top 40 (10 from each region), and two bands from India have made it – one folk rock, one hip hop. India’s hopes in the Region 1 slot now rest on Swarathma (who performed ‘Ee Bhoomi’ and a reggae-tinged cover of ‘It’s My Life’), and Bombay Bassment (who covered ‘No Apologies’ (because nobody had heard of the song) and played ‘[Hip Hop] Never Be the Same’), and bands from basically every country in Europe. Voting is on at the Hard Rock Battle of the Bands website.
The four bands will be chosen on the basis of online voting, so go cast your vote now.
Photo by Mark Hillary
Stream ‘Ee Bhoomi’ and ‘[Hip Hop] Never Be The Same’ below.
Twitter
Facebook