For Alibeta...and other junoon fans.

Entertainment Media
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Junoon rocked Prospect Park on Saturday, the 30th of June, 2001. After psychedelic rockers Church of Betty had got the crowd good and ready for the Kings of Sufi Rock, Junoon launched the chords to “Zamane ke Andaz”, just as the last shards of sunlight were saying goodbye to New York City. The multicultural audience was a rainbow of color itself, augmented by the beautiful lighting display. The Creator himself must have taken notice, as the heavens started to add their own special effects with massive lightning bolts threatening the continuation of the show! Finally clouds erupted into thunder and heaving torrents of rain. This did not douse the passion of the band nor their Junoonis that night, as Junoon continued till the city curfew allowed!

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Im sure Alibeta u have already seen these pics.
I know this concert is old news, but I just followed the ‘crying heavens’ link on their home page. Nice touch.
What they fail to mention though is the fact that the moment the “heavens started to cry”, the park management announced the concert over…and junoon had sang a mere 3 songs at that stage. And what else do they fail to mention…the semi-riot that took place once people heard the concert was over

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It did restart, and it was funny, with the pouring rain, and the aunties and bajis using their thinny thin dupattas as umbrellas

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Im sure it helped

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. Anyway…they didnt play a lot. just another 5 or 6 songs after the restart.

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akif, yah these are on junoon's official site.
i liked how the heaven's crying bit was described in there too.

and as for the rain. god what is it with junoon and rain !!
same thing happened in toronto when the show was to start at 3 ..... but instead, it got delayed to 5.
there was so much rain - pourin down real hard. and yah, ladies "cheekhing" at the rain ..hehehehe.
and guys were getting soaked like crazy.

akif how did you yourself find the show?

[This message has been edited by aphrodite (edited August 06, 2001).]

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How did i find the show? it was a UN sponsored AIDS concert..in line with Salman Ahmeds christening as the UN ambassador of some sort…so it was pretty widely advertised in/around NY. I saw the promo in a local paper

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Yeah!
I did see the pictures on the junoon website! THis was the first concert they performed on the Andaz tour. Didnt know about the concert being over thing. I thought the concert went on despite of the rain.

But New Yorkers got there Junoon grove on and weren't disappointed as they got a chance to see Junoon again! And the second concert was free too!

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I wonder if Salman Ahmad could be encouraged to use his powers (UN rep) while he has them. ie: make money for donations around the country....

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on second thought, i think you are asking me about how i liked the show

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well the show was ok..it did leave a lot to be desired, but the sound system was great, and the rain and thunder was a nice touch indeed.
Plus, i have always seen lots of mixed crowds in junoon concerts, but in this one, I can honestly say that close to half the folks were indians. As a matter of fact, there was a section where people were waving the indian flag

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The funniest part…an indian family, next to us, was singing and dancing along…and well, the fact is, they knew bits and pieces of most of the songs. When they started “jazba junoon”, everyone sang along…so did the indians…and when Ali Azmat went into that line…sab ki nazron mein, Pakistaaaaaaaaan, it was funny watching the indian folks trying to decide whether to sing along that bit or not

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most of them did

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The only drawback…it was a short concert. but good as always

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Didnt know about the concert being over thing. I thought the concert went on despite of the rain.

yeh Alibeta…once the rain started, the park manager came in and announced that the concert was over. Well…thats the last thing folks wanted to hear after just 3 songs. That resulted in them tossing water bottles, soda cans and what not on the stage..resulting in NYPD replacing park security…and loud chants of ‘we want junoon, we want junoon’. Salman Ahmed was the one who eventually negotiated with the management and the group came back after a 10 min layoff.

But New Yorkers got there Junoon grove on and weren’t disappointed as they got a chance to see Junoon again! And the second concert was free too!

the second one was one that was better off not held. The worst junoon show i ever saw. Tired and lazy band members…incomplete band show…and the most primitive band equipment…so much squealing in salman’s guitar that he had to continue strumming in between songs, in order to drown out the squealing. totally not worth it. It was an unprepared concert. worth the free price

[This message has been edited by Akif (edited August 07, 2001).]

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hehe .. actually yeah, i wanted more like your opinion on the show ,

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i think that’s so cool how indians chose to attend the junoon concert.
actually indian girls decided to show up and scream at 'em like how we are when it comes to us pakistani girls and indian actors ..

whether to be taken seriusly or not - but i think it’s great cuz in one way or another, its passing off a msg wrt music and what its bourndaries are etc etc.

and you know, the jazba e junoon song, before he started to sing it, ali was saying to us in the crowd how … it’s for everyone, the indians, the bangalis, pakistanis - everyone.
some pakistanis didnt’ like that because they felt that that song was strictly a pakistani message; but, oh well i don’t think i care about that.

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Yaar AKif
About the last show. I dont blame Junoon! I blame Dr. Raza! I mean three concerts in three days! Thats like torcher. Performing on stage is very hard. Especailly concerts with junoon where you have to really Sweat and move around to get the crowd going.

For three days travelling to three different locations. Going to three different venues is hard. I wouldnt have been surprised if they were tired and the concert wasnt great in Detroit but for some reason it was!

I did hear about the concert being bad in NYC. Lekin they just wanted to make it up to the New Yorkers because of the rain waghera in the first concert!

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100% agreed Ali…
The group was tired, but the crowd was more than grateful to them for showing up on such short notice…coz the show was organized on a very short notice. And yes, their manager is to blame for this. 3 shows in 3 days in 3 cities so far apart is not fair on the band. And the equipment they gave them to play with was stuff that Tarannum Naaz had been using for her classical songs. What a mismatch. Anyway…the show was a dud, but the songs and junoons showing up made up for it

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[quote]
Originally posted by X_Communist:
*I wonder if Salman Ahmad could be encouraged to use his powers (UN rep) while he has them. ie: make money for donations around the country.... *
[/quote]

I wonder of there are any real "powers" at all in this position.

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Aaj khare to hay! Allah khare karay Salman Ahmed ki. Muzna ji haath dho karr parin hay Salman kay!