New Delhi: Metallica fans all across India must be offering special prayers to the officiating deity of heavy metal as the thrash pioneers prepare for their maiden tour of the country later this year. The thorny question remains – will India see a repeat of the Akon and Bryan Adams fiasco?
The band celebrates the first Grand Prix race ever held in India with a performance in Delhi on October 28, 2011. They will also perform in the Bangalore Palace Ground on October 30 as part of the Sonisphere Festival.
Metallica has a huge fan following in India with sellout concert tours and CDs selling impressive numbers of copies without any radio airplay or MTV exposure.
However, a question that organizers and sponsors of the show are loath to deal with is the question of security and proper planning for the band’s performance.
India was left red in the face in February this year when Bryan Adam’s much awaited concert was cancelled after the police refused permission over security reasons. The organizers also ended up selling more tickets than the capacity of the ground which could only cater to about 6000 people at a time.
Similarly, in the month of April, Akon’s Pune concert was cancelled because reportedly the organizers did not have the required foreign artiste performance license. The announcement led to a huge ruckus created by angry fans. The Senegalese-American R&B singer had to shift his concert venue to the national capital.
Is India even prepared to host international stars?
The organizers of F1 Rocks (part of the opening ceremony for the Formula 1 Indian Grand Prix) have since long been in talks with the band and finally, efforts seem to have paid off. Even when word came out that Metallica would perform, Indian fans remained sceptical. Only when Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo confirmed that they would be coming to India, were fans assured that the concert was finally happening.
Since 2003, there have been rumours that appear religiously every year about the band’s performance in India. This scepticism in itself speaks volumes about the people’s faith in the organizing authorities.
Meanwhile, the event’s organizers had announced that they would start selling tickets for the concert from May 4 but they announced a “delay” in dates. There is no clarity on when exactly the tickets will be made available. One only hopes that Metallica fans in India are not disappointed this time.
South Asia and India in particular has emerged as a hot music destination for foreign artistes looking to break into its young market. Lady Gaga recently teamed up with Bollywood producers to remix her songs for the South Asia market.
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