Golden Jubilee for Chandral Fonseka of ‘Kings’
View(s):By Sanath Weerasuriya
‘Music does not lie, nor compromise
Chandral instigated his professional music career with the band ‘Pink N’ Purple’ led by veteran Lincoln De Silva in Moratuwa as a rhythm guitarist precisely on 12th day of June 1972. Though he embarked on long musical journey on 12th June, fifty years ago, he was a popular singer and amateur guitarist during his school days at the St. Sebastian’s College, Moratuwa.
Almost after two years, the band ‘Pink N’ Purple’ faced a split and Lincoln formed his own outfit ‘Super Pink N’ Purple’, while Chandral continued with ‘Pink N’ Purple’ led by Ivan De Silva, who has become the new band leader. The band performed at the then trendy ‘Mascarilla Night Club’ and ‘Coconut Grove’ of Galle Face Hotel and at the Bentota Beach Hotel till 1974.
‘The band was very popular amongst music lovers and party goers as I enjoy the momentum of the night life and the music world. Meantime I switched my guitar playing to Bass Guitar, which I still continue with much passion. Later I joined the band ‘Pioneers’ led by Raj Dassanayake at ‘Akasa Kade’ in Ceylinco Building for a very short period as a standby bassist for Willie Razel from 1974 to 1975’ Chandral explained his early musical days in the scene.
From 1975 to 1977 he played as bassist of ‘Antionette and Gaylords’ led by Antionette De Alwis, the mother of popular Hip Hop star Ashanthi De Alwis, a band which performed at the ‘Blue Horizen Night Club’ at Holiday Inn.
‘During that time I got the opportunity to play along with Royle De Andrews on drums, Clifford De Andrews on guitar, Susantha Perera now performing in Denmark on Key boards, Late Randy De Hoet on vocals while Antoinette was the female singer and the leader of the band. For me it was a complete music school. I learned a lot about music and the performing art’ he said.
Recalling the golden years of his past he said one of the milestones of his professional career was when he offered to joined ‘The Super Golden Chimes’, the last band to be formed by late Clarence Wijewardena.
‘My dream at that time was to play with the most popular ‘Super Golden Chimes’ and I joined SGH led by Late Clarence Wijewardane in March 1977 and I would call those were the best days of my musical life. I had the opportunity to played most of the recordings for Clarence during this period with veteran musicians like Dixon Gunratne, Suriyakumar Weerasingham, Cumar Peries, Nimal Punchihewa and Nimal Perera’ he added.
When Clarence left the band to pursue his solo carrier, Chandral became the unofficial band leader and composed and directed 32 songs for Annesley Malawana and also composed and directed music for the X’Periments, the late M. S. Fernando, late Freddie Silva, Paul Fernando, Antionette de Alwis, Randy de Hoedt and Anil Bharathie.
Some of the popular hits Chandral had composed and directed are ‘Kiyabhu Lathe’- Annesley Malawana, ‘Lagadi-Magadi’, ‘Samoopakaraya’- Freddie Silva, ‘Demapiyan Kiyana Nisa’- Paul Fernando, ‘Punchi lihiniye’ and ‘Kakulu Nangiye’-Anil Bharathi, ‘Oba Labaganna’- Mariazelle and ‘Tharuna Jeevithe’.
During his career as a musician he played bass for many of the artistes for their recordings -namely Shayami Fonseka, Milton Mallawarachchi, Priya Suriyasena, Annesley Malawana, Latha Walpola, Indrani Perera, Angeline Gunatilake, H. R. Jothipala, Mervin Mihindukula and Mariazelle Gunathileke.
In June 1980 Chandral left the shores of Sri Lanka to join ‘Serendib’ led by Indra Raj in Switzerland. The members of that band were Raj Seneviratne on second guitar, late Hassan Mussafer on drums, Rukshan Perera on Key Boards and of course Chandral on bass.
‘This band never performed in
Sri Lanka and I regret it so much as it was one of the star bands ever formed outside Sri Lanka’ he added.
‘Came back to Sri Lanka in December 1981 to get married and formed my own band ‘Super’ with the remaining ‘Super Golden Chimes’ members namely Dixon Gunaratne on guitar, Nimal Perera on drums, Cumar Peiries on keyboards, and late Mike Gunasekere on second guitar and toured Europe in 1982. There I faced a dispute of trust and vacated the band, came back to Sri Lanka and formed my second band ‘Champaigne’ which finally became ‘Kings’ in 1983’ Chandral gone down memory lane.
Formed in 1983 as ‘Champaign’ and changed the name to ‘Kings’ when they had to tour Europe as there was an international band by the name of Champaign. The band returned to Sri Lanka and performed at the Little Hut of Mount Lavinia Hotel for seven years continuously before the members wanted to go on their own ways.
Founder Members of the band in 1983 were Chandral Fonseka-leader/bassist/vocals, Ranil Vas guitar/keyboards/vocals, Shiran Munasinghe drums/vocals and Melantha Perera keyboards/vocals. In 1989 Sonali Sooriyagoda(Lindsay) joined as the female vocalist, Ranil Vas and Melantha Perera were replaced by Aruna Liyanage (Jaya-Sri fame) in 1989 and Geeth Mihiripenna and Arith Ratnawibhushana.
After the split of the ‘Kings’ in 1992, Chandral opened a NAC Recording Studio with Arith Ratnawibhushana and Nihar Hamid of ‘Friends’. He was on to creating side during this period. Chandral wrote few songs for himself and record his own CD and cassette called ‘Deneth Kone’.
‘During this time the NAC studio recorded more than 5000 songs for various artistes and most of the time I was a part of it’ he said.
The band regained its momentum after the reincarnation of ‘Kings’ in 2002 under the leadership of Chandral and up to this date the band is at its full swing .
During mcarrier of music I got the chance of playing with the cream of musicians in Sri Lanka who were much better players and musicians than me. I have worked with more than 40 musicians and 9 female singers in my career span and I take pleasure in thanking all of them at this moment. I have written more than 200 songs and have played bass for more than 5000 songs for different artistes. I have directed music for more than 400 songs, while recording more than 1000 songs. I have made money and provided my family with what I got but, I made more friends than money during this time’ Chandral explained his memorable musical span.
‘I take this opportunity to thank my present band members, AsankaJayawardane, Vinuri Randhula Silva, Nethanga Fernando and Pandula Jayaweera. I am glad that they are here with me today and we are still contributing to the industry by being the resident band at The Hilton Colombo on every Wednesday’ he concluded.
‘Music does not lie, nor compromise, it is a feeling rendered to an audience with love
and respect’.
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