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HIGH on CAMPUS WALL GANG
WITH THE
HANNAH STUART-LEACH meets Anup Vega, Prasanna Abeysekera and Misha Wickramanayake – the long-haired pioneering Sri Lankan rockers still tripping on the enduring spirit of the ’70s
R
umbling along in a clapped-out VW van in the dead of night the road became gradually bumpier. “It’s like rock ’n’ roll, almost heavy metal,” grinned Anup Vega. The celebrated Sri Lankan artist and
former guitarist in mantra-rock band Tapas, clad in a flowing orange sarong with an equally flowing beard and a wild mane of hair – which he took four years growing, and doing nothing else, in his youth – was taking me to visit his village studio, a shrine to his free spirit adorned with sepia photographs, incense and an impressive record collection.
Now 44, Pink Floyd-loving Vega is an eternal ’70s child, a Sri Lankan representation of the infamous hippy trail, having himself been to India in search of peace and enlightenment and still to this day mostly on the road, despite not being quite old enough to have lived through the first roots of rock ’n’ roll in Sri Lanka.
The South Asian island has seen devastation and turmoil the likes of which most Britons today can only imagine, only recently emerging from the ravages of the 2004 tsunami and a vicious 26-year war. Unsurprisingly then, rock music has had a turbulent history, but it has also provided an indispensible outlet for what have now become generations of devoted musicians.
“We invented punk rock – we didn’t care”. Cancer’s Prasanna Abeysekera still walking the walk
During the relatively peaceful ’60s there were golden moments, with Sri Lanka’s answer to The Beatles, The Savage ( famous for entertaining US troops in
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