After 34 years of silence, The Great Society is roaring back to life taking the stage on November 15 for a once-in-a-lifetime performance on the Shillong Cherry Blossom Festival stage.
The (almost) original line up of Lou Majaw, Rudy Wallang and Ferdy Dkhar are all there while long time admirer and renowned concert promoter, Keith Wallang will channel the spirit of Sam Shullai and Bert Cooper Kharshiing on drums.
This historic reunion is more than a concert; it’s a celebration of the icons who paved the way for the Shillong music scene to thrive.
Known for their unmatched passion and authentic sound, The Great Society became a household name, beloved across generations. These pioneers of Shillong’s vibrant music scene have inspired countless artists and music lovers across India and beyond.
From its beginnings in the 70s (1977), The Great Society has symbolised the passion and skill that this region has for western music and enhanced its standing as an assembly line that constantly and consistently produces skilled rock musicians.
Their bread and butter were community fetes; some hard earned as marathon gigs lasting from 3pm to 3am the next day and yet they always left something for themselves and became one of the first bands to organise their own annual concerts called ‘Euphoria’.
They personified the DIY ethos before the term itself was coined with not just independently releasing original music and organising their own concerts but by building their own sound system; improvising for speaker cabinets with tea chests and crates and sometimes lugging woofer, tweeter and box in jeep trailers and boats overcoming heat, cold, suspicion and skepticism. It is through this indomitable spirit of adventure, daring and invention and their commitment to musical excellence, against all odds, that The Great Society finds itself in that rarified strata of being ‘peerless’.
But this is no encomium to past glory because through the current achievements of its individual members, The Great Society has also shown itself to be a school of great learning. Lou Majaw, Rudy Wallang, Arjun Sen, and the late, great Sam Shullai could well be the ‘Fab Four’ of Indian rock and roll but the band has nurtured and inspired countless musicians and aspirations, some who have played for The Great Society and some who do what they do because the idea of The Great Society exists.
