The Gypsies

The Gypsies is a Sri Lankan band that performs English and Sinhala songs and have been around since the early 1970s.

History

The band was formed in 1970 by Anton Perera, a confectioner at the Glucorasa company, comprised of his five sons (Sunil, Nihal, Piyal, Nimal, Lal) - all of whom had recently completed high school. Lead singer Sunil Perera, schooled at St Peter's College in Colombo, renovated a portion of his house on Galle Road (in Ratmalana) into a recording studio and began recording their first album. In the thirty years that followed, many changes have occurred in the group's membership that have led to the eight members present today. Sunil Perera and Piyal Perera are the two surviving members from the original line up.

Their early success was due to a series of 5 LPs they released in the 1970s (entitled Dance With the Gypsies). In the 1980s the group released their first audio cassette containing their novelty hit "Kurumitto" ("Dwarfs"), which is a cover version of Dutch musician Father Abraham's "The Smurf Song". With the arrival of CDs in Sri Lanka, they released their first CD "Gypsies Gold" containing 17 songs and following its success there, with two other CDs, "Dance With the Gypsies" and "Singyore", both well received as well. The group has since released other CDs and continues to enjoy success. Sunil Perera and the Gypsies are world famous for their Sri Lankan baila music. The Gypsies have also successfully collaborated with other Sri Lankan stars like Desmond de Silva. They are also credited for having the first ever biala non stop medly.

Their first performance out of Sri Lanka, as the resident band at the Delhi Taj for three months, was followed by successful tours in foreign countries where many Sri Lankans now reside, such as the UK, U.S., New Zealand, Australia and Canada.

They are a highly paid band in Sri Lanka, since they constantly perform at parties, dances and perform at many sold out concerts.

The long standing female vocalist of the group, Coreen Almeida, and Sharon Nesaduray, better known as "Lulu", had left the group. Radhika Rajavellu is the latest addition to the band after the departure of their well known female vocalist Ginger (Judith White)

Line up

*Sunil Perera (b. September 14, 1952, Sri Lanka): vocals and percussion
*Piyal Perera (b. April 25, 1956, Sri Lanka): vocals and percussion
*Niresh Perera: drums
*Kumar Peiris (b. May 30, 1956 - 2006, Sri Lanka): keyboards
*Derek Hepponstall (b. March 8, 1956, Sri Lanka): bass guitar
*Ranil Vaas (b. , , Sri Lanka): guitar
*Dushan (b. , , Sri Lanka): keyboards.

Other artists also perform with them on their tours and they have a female vocalist.

External links

* [http://www.gypsies.lk/ Official Website]
* [http://www.allsrilanka.com/directory/entertain/music.htm Sri Lanka Music Directory]
* [http://www.labaila.com/ Listen to baila on the LA Baila site]
* [http://www.thamari.com Collection of Sinhala Video songs]