Ska Ska Ska For Tihar: The Ska Vengers Host Benefit Concert

Last year Delhi based rock band Menwhopause spent time at Asia's largest jail working with The Flying Souls, a 10-piece band that formed within the prison premises. This was followed by a performance for all the inmates at Jail no. 7 (read the review here).

They seem to have started a trend as later this month on April 19, Ska! Ska! Ska! for Tihar will be taking place at blueFROG Delhi, raising funds to improve music facilities at 3 jails within Tihar's humungous compound.

Having personally visited Tihar jail to take part in music tuition, founder of Delhi based ska band The Ska Vengers, Stefan Kaye noticed the desperate need for instruments and sound equipment within the facilities at the jail. Recognising the enormous benefits prisoners gain from the study and performance of music, he decided to take positive steps with the help of his band to improve the facilities at the jail. He even managed to persuade the good people at Furtados to donate equipment to music wards in 3 jails as well as providing music tutors.

"With full support from the Director General at Tihar, Mr Neeraj Kumar, we aim to address this by helping to facilitate provision of musical equipment and tutorship in the best way that we know how. Each of the jails within the compound have music facilities. In these buildings inmates receive musical tuition and collaborate musically with others. Many prisoners will leave the jail having acquired musical skills." - Stefan Kaye

The benefit concert at blueFROG will be followed by Ska! Ska! Ska! at Tihar the following week inside Tihar's largest jail which is slated to be attended by over 1000 inmates from the 3 jails within the compound that will benefit from the concert.

The show inside Tihar Jail will open with a performance by breakdance/beatbox and hip-hop collective SlumGods and will conclude with a full set by The Ska Vengers. The shows and work that will take place inside the jails, though not yet finalised, are likely to be documented by a major TV music channel which will be broadcasted as a documentary. This promises to be a fascinating account of the initiative being taken by some of Delhi’s better known performing artists.

The full lineup of blueFROG's benefit concert can be seen below:

The Ska Vengers
The Vinyl Records
Peter Cat Recording Co.
SlumGods w/ DJ He Ra & Wazulu da Ill Dravidian
DJ Uri

For further info on this show and to find out when Ska Vengers are coming to a town near you, head over to our events page here

+

Photo Credit: Sachin Soni