Nafid Imran Ahmed

Rock, also called Rock and Roll, a musical style that arose in the United States in the mid-1950s and through both the assimilation and evolution of other styles and the gradual broadening of the name itself came to be the dominant form of popular music, spreading as well to Europe and other parts of the world.

Over the years rock music has also spread its wings and new types of music has evolved, such as rhythm and blues, country, hard rock, heavy metal and alternative. The legendary musicians who made this possible will always remain in the heart of the music lovers. Great musicians and band groups such as Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marly, Elvis Presely, Rolling Stones, The Byrds, Cream, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and more are treated as 'Rock Gods' now.

This year Dhaka is certainly flooded with concerts. And world famous soft drink company Pepsi has made this possible. In Bangladesh, Pepsi has provided the much needed platform to reach music to its' consumers, the youngsters. Not only in Dhaka, Pepsi has organised concerts in Rajshahi, Chittagong and many other cities of the country. With music, Pepsi concerts always have a noble cause, such as helping the cancer clubs and blood banks. This time Pepsi came up with something quite different. A tribute to the rock legends was paid through the concert 'Rock Fest' where front ranking bands LRB, Vikings and three underground bands Cryptic Fate, Art Cell and Glad Tiders played all time favourite English numbers of the rock legends. This concert was also in aid of a young cancer patient Mehdi Hassan.

May 5, 2001. The weather was gloomy all day. The concert was scheduled to start at 3:30p.m.and few minutes before that it started to rain. But fortunately, the rain ceased after a while and the show started an hour later. The rain slowed down the audience from coming to the concert and by the time it started there was a very little crowd at the Army Stadium.

Famous group Dream Theatre's 'Overture' was the song with which Cryptic Fate kicked off Pepsi's Rock Fest. By then people were outside the ground and filling in the galleries in small numbers. Next song was Black Sabbath's 'Paranoid'. Though new to many, Cryptic Fate started their journey quite some time ago. They already have two albums released and have performed in many mini concerts. They are quite famous for their heavy metal numbers. The audience of the Rock Fest were all rock fans and they loved the heavy metal. The audience cheered as they started playing Iron Maiden's 'Aces High.' The first Metallica number of the day was 'Master of Puppets.' Cryptic Fate played the number in a unique manner. It was amazing to see three young musicians play such good music. Another Iron Maiden number 'Witcher Man' was next. Then they played the intro of their Bengali number "Brishti Bheja Dine' but did not play the whole song as it was a tribute to the rock legends. The audience went wild as they played another two famous Iron Maiden numbers 'Number of The Beast' and 'Fear of The Dark'. Next they played songs, which were a little different in comparison to the earlier numbers. U2's 'Cry In The Name of Love' and 'Where The Streets Have No Names' captivated the audience at the Army Stadium. Dio's legendary number 'Smoke on The Water' was next, to delight the audience. Cryptic Fate concluded their performance with the famous U2 number 'With Or Without You'.

Glad Tiders took over the stage next. The audience waited patiently as they took their time to set up their instruments. Beginning in 1991 the band came a long way and partook in the Benson & Hedges Star Search 1999. Recently they have released an album and have distributed 3000 copies of it free. The reason behind this was that they wanted the audience to listen to their music and judge for themselves weather they liked it or not. Glad Tiders started off with the famous Led Zeppelin number 'Lonely Lonely'. Without a break they started playing Eric Clapton's 'Cream'. The crowd enjoyed their performance. Then they played another Led Zeppelin number 'Black Dog'. The crowd loved this one too. Next Glad Tiders played one of their own numbers 'Psychotic Love Affair'. The superb drumming of Daiyan fascinated all.

Vikings was next to come. Before they started rolling they called in young cancer patient Mehdi Hassan on stage. Mehdi said, "Pepsi has done a lot to save my life. This concert was rescheduled three times because of the Hartal. But the effort of Pepsi and Army Stadium has made this possible." He continued, "Pepsi has also gave me a donation from their previous concert. I am really grateful to them." He also asked the audience to pray for him.

Vikings started off with a super hit Bon Jovi number 'Livin on a Prayer'. Suddenly the concert became alive. The audience sang and danced along with the flow of music. One after another they enthralled them more with 'Broken Heart', Bryan Adam's "Please Forgive Me' and Rainbow's 'I Can't Let You Go'. Video projection screens and light waves made the music even better. Next they performed another Bryan Adams number 'Summer of '69'. The audience loved their performance. Another Bon Jovi number 'You Give Love a Bad Name'. Air Supply's 'Lonely in the Night' was the next number. Vikings concluded their performance with the super hit Bon Jovi number 'It's My Life'.

Art Cell was unable to perform at the concert. Next came the band everyone was eagerly waiting for LRB. They cheered as Ayub Bachhu walked on stage. The audience was ecstatic with the band starting off with Pink Floyd's 'Shine on Your Crazy Diamond'. They went wild as they next started playing Red Hot Chilli Pepper's 'Californication.' Without a break LRB played on Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', 'Guns N' Roses's 'Don't Cry', 'Let Me Stand Next To You, Fire' and Eric Clapton's famous number 'Cocaine'. The audience went wild they sang and danced with the music. Next LRB played Dire Strait's 'Saul tan's of Swing'. The audience was moved to watch Bachhu's smooth guitar works. 'Roadhouse Blues', the famous number of The Doors awaited for the audience next. With U2's 'With Or Without You' and Bob Marley's 'No Woman No Cry' LRB's English performance came to end. For the thirsty audience LRB played four Bengali numbers and with this the Pepsi Rock Fest came to an end.

All in all, the performance by all the bands was wonderful to say the least.