Gumby & Omran, Faraz at studio – October 16th & 17th (Rehearsal Pictures)

By Madeeha Syed

‘We sold our souls for rock’n’roll’ – Omran Shafique

This weekend has been a great weekend for music. After a very long time, two back-to-back gigs took place in Karachi. One was a small intimate session featuring the likes of Omran ‘Momo’ Shafique, Louis ‘Gumby’ Pinto, Kamran ‘Mannu’ (all three form the basic line-up of the official Coke Studio House Band) and on vocals was a newbie who was simply Emaad (no last name).

The other was a much talked-about event, The Sound of Hope (SOH), which featured the likes of Ali Azmat, Faraz Anwar, Noori, DJ Faisal Baig at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture. I didn’t go to the SOH. Mainly because this month has left me totally ghareeb and I wasn’t shameless enough to ask the band(s) if I could tag along with them. Especially considering this was a show for charity (helping out the flood victims). There was zero sponsorship, the guys were performing free-of-cost (FOC), footing their own expenses and were relying on ticket sales to cover them.

I heard it was absolutely awesome. A tiny part of me regrets not begging, borrowing or stealing money to go and see it.

{Read complete blog post on the rehearsals/behind-the-scene look at the gig}

Photography by Madeeha Syed
www.madeehasyed.com
www.twitter.com/madeehasyed

Photos of the reheasal that took place at Gumby and Omran Shafique’s studio for a cover gig that Gumby, Omran, Mannu and Emaad did on Saturday and for Faraz Anwar’s slot at the Sound of Hope concert on Sunday.