Shirock 2019: Nazareth comes calling ‘where are you now’?

Nazareth on stage at Bakshi Ground, Ukhrul.

Morung Express News

More than ten thousand fans of Nazareth congregated at Bakshi Ground, Ukhrul, when the Scottish hard rock band came calling ‘Where are you now’?

Besides the local populace, fans and visitors from all North East states and mainland India also came to witness Nazareth live on stage.

And the band did not disappoint as the ground erupted with screams and waving hands to the gritty hard rock and high decibel music.

Nazareth took the stage on the opening night (October 16) of ‘Shirock 2019’, a part of the 3rd edition of Shirui Lily Festival, organized by the Manipur State Tourism department.

The band belted out some 18 of their hit songs including ‘Love hurts’, ‘Dream on’, ‘Hair of the Dog’, ‘Tattooed on my brain’, ‘Love leads to Madness’, ‘Morning dew’, ‘My white bicycle’, and ‘Where are you now’.

Many of the fans, both young and middle-aged, seemed well versed in the lyrics of the band’s love songs.

The most popular songs of the night were ‘Dream on’ and ‘Where are you now’ with the fans singing along with vocalist Carl Sentence “You can laugh at me because I’m crying/You can tell your friends how much/I begged you to stay…” (Dream on) and “I don’t miss all the fun that we had/You were always around me” (Where are you now).

The crowd also responded with equal fervor to “Love hurts’, the song which has remained a staple of classic rock radio and ‘Hair of the dog’, the band's signature song with the popular refrain “Now you’re messin with a son of a bitch.”

Midway into the show, Sentence who donned a black T-shirt with ‘Metallica’ inscribed on it conveyed satisfaction at the response of the crowd and said “It took two days to travel here for you guys.”

The current members of Nazareth, formed in December 1968 in Dunfermline, Scotland, are Carl Sentance on the vocals, Pete Agnew (bass, backing vocals), Jimmy Murrison (guitars) and Lee Agnew (drums, backing vocals). Pete Agnew is the sole remaining original member of the band.