Great Indian Rock
Great Indian Rock (GIR) was a multi-city rock music festival in India. The first of its kind, it was usually held annually in cities like Delhi,[1] Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Shillong,[2] with a cumulative audience of approximately 50,000 people.[citation needed] The first GIR was held in 1997 as a two-day festival in Kolkata.[3] The festival is organized by the media and publishing company Entertainment Media Services Private Limited, which also publishes the magazine Rock Street Journal.[4] The festival was founded by rock journalist and promoter Amit Saigal, who died in 2012. Subsequently, according to Mint, the "Great Indian Rock Festival in Delhi called it a day after 15 years…in 2012."[5]
GIR started in the form of a competition amongst bands,[6][7] where entries were called from all over the country in the form of physical cassettes and CDs. 12 bands were chosen out of more than a thousand entries at the end of an extensive week-long exercise of listening to each and every band's music which was personally conducted by the organizers at RSJ. The 12 shortlisted bands finally performed in a grand finale along with an international headliner which was the GIR Festival.[citation needed]
Each edition of Great Indian Rock was also accompanied by an album compiling the songs of the shortlisted bands known as the "GIR Compilation,"[8] consisting of 12 original compositions by 12 bands from various regions of India. The album would be circulated across India through Rock Street Journal magazine.[citation needed] Great Indian Rock stopped being a competition in 2007.[9]
In addition to featuring Indian musicians like Parikrama,[2] Orange Street,[2] and Indian Ocean,[2] the festival has also hosted international artists like Shawn Lane,[citation needed] Jonas Hellborg,[citation needed] John Myung,[citation needed] Meshuggah,[10] Tesseract,[10] and Intronaut,[10] and Satyricon.[11]
References
- ^ "Rock on hold". Telegraph. 2007-08-19. Archived from the original on February 5, 2010. Retrieved 2017-12-20.
- ^ a b c d "Metal fever grips Great Indian Rock". Radio and Music. Retrieved 2017-12-20.
- ^ Thakkar, Drashti (2013-04-15). "Metal, India style…". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2017-12-20.
- ^ "Organisers". Great Indian Rock. Archived from the original on 2012-11-05. Retrieved 2017-12-20.
- ^ Unni, Deepti (2016-11-25). "The economics of music festivals". Mint. Retrieved 2017-12-20.
- ^ "7 Bands you must know from Mizoram". The North East Today. 2017-03-19. Retrieved 2017-12-20.
- ^ "Bombay Black are back and ready to rock India's indie scene once more". The National. Retrieved 2017-12-20.
- ^ http://greatindianrock.in/past_edition_detail.php?past_edition_id=14[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Great Indian Rock". Great Indian Rock. Archived from the original on 2015-01-12. Retrieved 2017-12-20.
- ^ a b c Tagat, Anurag (2017-01-19). "The Return of Intronaut". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2017-12-20.
- ^ NRK. "Satyricons mørke endetid". NRK (in Norwegian Bokmål). Retrieved 2017-12-20.