RDB - Yaadan, A Tribute to Kuly

A tribute song and video for Kuly, who passed away from a brain tumour in May, has been released by RDB to remember their brother. Yaadan was composed by the group's father Harjog Singh, who also wrote other RDB hits including Oh Preeti and What. Manj and Surj provide the vocals on the track and a verse is sung by their father. Nindy Kaur will release a track featuring Kuly’s vocal and a hook line produced for her by Kuly before he passed away.

The video for Yaadan is incredibly moving. It shows photos and film clips of Kuly throughout his life. He is shown performing and making music as a part of RDB and also at a much younger age. Manj, Surj and their father are silhouetted against the screen showing the pictures of Kuly.

Fans of RDB are being encouraged to make a donation to Brain Tumour UK in memory of Kuly through a JustGiving page. Brain Tumour UK funds research, provides support and raises awareness of the condition.

Yaadan can be downloaded for free from RDB’s Facebook page or from soundcloud.

RDBtv Shows on Youtube

Episodes of the RDBtv show, an online music TV programme made by producers RDB, are once again available to watch. Today about 20 episodes were uploaded to the Three Records channel on youtube. They were made in 2004 - 2005 and include an episode which showed the making of the video for Dil Mera.

75 episodes of the RDBtv show of around 30 minutes each were made between 2004 and 2007. They contained interviews with musicians, a top ten chart and news. Presented by RDB, the shows give an insight into the industry and took bhangra fans backstage at events such as the Asian Ball in Manchester and the Zee Mela. There were interviews with big name artists including Jassi Sidhu, Raghav and Juggy D.

The shows look unpolished and slightly dated in places, but the energy and enthusiasm still comes across. The power of hindsight makes the shows even more interesting to watch and it is a great record of bhangra in the mid naughties. In one episode Manj mentions that Tigerstyle are doing production work for Gunjan and Bikram Singh, American artists that "are going to be massive". Kuly featured heavily in RDBtv and the shows are a sad reminder that he is no longer with us.

In today's world where music stars are in constant contact with their fans through facebook and twitter, the concept of RDBtv seems quaint. But back in 2004 the show was revolutionary in a way that younger music fans might not understand. Youtube and social networking barely existed and most artists hardly bothered with personal websites. TV interviews with bhangra stars were rare and the interviews that appeared in magazines were often too basic. RDBtv was the closest some people had ever been to their musical heroes and they could watch the show at anytime as often as they wanted for free.

These shows still make great viewing and I spent most of my evening watching them getting nostalgic. When they were orginially removed from the internet, RDB were just beginning to break into India. Now that some episodes are online again they act as a history of bhangra at that time. I hope that the rest of the episodes will be uploaded soon.

Medhi Hassan Passes Away

Medhi Hassan, the Pakistani singer who became known as "the King of Ghazal", passed away today at the age of 84. According to the Times of India, he was admitted to the Agha Khan hospital in Karachi where he was put on a ventilator a few days before his death. He had been suffering from a lung condition and had suffered a major stroke almost a decade ago.

According to an estimate by his son Arif, Medhi Hassan sung around 20,000 songs in Urdu, Bengali, Pashto and Punjabi. Lata Mangeshkar once described his voice as the "Voice of God."

Mehdi Hassan was born on 18 July 1927 in a village in Rajasthan in India into a family of musicians. When he was 20, he migrated to Pakistan with his family after the Partition of India. He worked in a bicycle shop and as a mechanic before receiving an invitation to sing on Radio Pakistan in 1957. He sung hits for the Pakistani film industry and had fans in India including former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Teri Meri Kahaani Review

Teri Meri Kahaani is the next big film from Bollywood releasing this month. Starring Priyanka Chopra and Shahid Kapoor the film is a love story set in three different places in three different eras. Sajid-Wajid have composed the music and features the usual Bollywood playback singers including Shreya Ghoshal, Mika Singh and Sonu Nigam.

The opening of Mukhtasar, which starts the soundtrack, sounds like the beginning of a bad eighties tv advert, but it gets better as the song goes on. Wajid's vocals are brilliant, but his vocals are drowned in a thumping beat. The remix of Mukhtasar is tolerable and adds even more electronic beats on top of Wajid's vocals.

It seems like every Bollywood soundtrack these days needs a track from Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. Allah Jaane is Rahat’s track on this album. It’s typical of what we have come to expect from Rahat - lyrical and beautiful. In a film that spans three different eras, it is clever to have a song that sound timeless.

Fundraising In Memory of Kuly From RDB

Fans of RDB are being encouraged to make a donation to Brain Tumour UK in memory of band member Kuly Ral. Last month Kuly sadly lost his battle with brain cancer in Houston, USA where he had been undergoing specialist treatment. A JustGiving page has been set up to collect donations. So far 23 donations have been made raising £1,750.

Brain Tumour UK funds research, provides support and raises awareness. According to the charity malignant primary brain tumours take more years off the average person’s life than any other cancer. They are the most significant cause of cancer death amongst men under 45 and women under 35. Around 8,600 primary brain tumours are registered in the UK each year but research by brain tumour charities suggests the true number could be as high as 16,000.

Anyone wanting to make a donation to Brain Tumour UK can visit www.justgiving.com/Kulyrdb