Aerosmith came and rocked Bangalore. So did Iron Maiden and Deep Purple. Roger Waters cast a spell on Mumbai, as did Shakira. And Sting rescued Delhi’s reputation. But while Kolkata prides itself on rock ’n’ roll heritage, the Big Ones — to borrow from a phrase from Steven Tyler — keep giving Kolkata the slip.

Bang for buck:

Simply put, we just don’t have the money to draw the A-list of global music to our city. Bringing over a band like Aerosmith involves the following expenses (at least): l Equipment transfer on international flights. Iron Maiden brought around 20 tonnes of audio equipment to its Bangalore gig in March. Bands like Santana are known to travel with more. l Five-star accommodation for band and crew (tour manager to sound technicians to the audio-visual unit). This, obviously, is subject to a number of considerations, ranging from the artiste’s tour itinerary to the recording label’s contract to various sponsor tie-ups. Aerosmith touched down in Bangalore after playing a concert in Dubai, and headed to Copenhagen. If they were not playing Dubai, and were touring South America instead of South Asia, expenses would have shot up. And that’s just one part of the picture.How many sponsors in town would cough up the Rs 10 crore-plus needed for all of this?

Crowded house:

The Iron Maiden gig saw 22,000 in attendance, the Roger Waters show had a 20,000-strong crowd in both Bangalore and Mumbai, Joe Satriani’s 2005 Mumbai show had over 20,000 people lapping up the guitar god’s licks. Ticket prices at all of these were between Rs 1,200 and Rs 2,500 (excluding the VIP and Lounge sections, which were over Rs 4,000). Even if such concerts were to happen in Kolkata, will we really witness 20,000 tickets being sold out at those kinds of prices? We would put our money on ‘no’. The rock crowd just isn’t large enough to pull in that kind of money. And will people from around the country travel to the city to catch a gig here? Calcutta doesn’t have the kind of pull that Mumbai or Bangalore does.

Venue menu:

Satriani playing at the Rabindra Sarobar Stadium — the chosen venue for many a school sports day — was about as surreal as it gets. And then cops came by and played spoilsport only two hours into his set, whereas he played for over three-and-a-half hours at the Bandra MMRDA grounds in Mumbai. The Salt Lake stadium is subject to availability and the whims of politicos, the Maidan is out of bounds, the Victoria Memorial grounds are a no-no. That leaves us with… Nothing. And that is precisely what we have.

Basic instinct:

Even if the venue was worked out, the infrastructure for an international concert like Aerosmith is considerable. The light and sound equipment would have to be brought in from out of town. The security — sniffer dogs, frisking, double-check through metal detectors — would have to be brought in. Even if you work all of that out, where do 20,000 people park their cars? And what happens when the traffic snarls start once the concert ends? Let’s face it, Kolkata is a small town. So next time we call ourselves the Mecca of Live Music sitting in a hanky-sized pub on Park Street, stop to think a second. Do you think Kolkata will ever host a big gig?



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