After some time I was overwhelmed to hear that there is another Reunion Concert of SGC due to the great demand from the fans who missed the first concert. And I got this opportunity to attend this concert, Final Reunion in Sri Lanka which was a great experience.

This final concert was sponsored by Suntel and all the artists; many of those who are domiciled out of the country were bought down to the country with the sponsorship of Sri Lankan Air.

To bring some facts about the band it was formed in the year of 1970 with five members. Clarence the leader & main inspiration to the group who played the rhythm guitar, Annesley who did the main vocals, Dixon Gunerathne unarguably the best lead guitarist of that time, Condrad Gunerathne who Played the Bass, Keyboards and Lead and Srikantha Dasanayaka popularly known as the “SriK” who was rated as the best pop drummer of the seventies. The band played original compositions not copies. And created hit after hit till it became a household name in Sri Lanka. Thereafter when the band expanded many other artists joined whilst some others left. Others who contributed to this band has the likes of Rukshan Perera, Nimal Punchihewa, Chandral Fonseka of the Kings fame, Nimal Perera, Cumar Peiris of Gypsies fame, Paul Perera, Sunil Malewana.
At this concert all these musicians were bought down except there dear leader Clarence who was no more with us. And the concert took off with a medley of popular songs to lovely music arrangements. Even though they were performing together after 27 years the combinations and the arrangements were classic. For me getting a chance to witness the guitar playing of Dixon and the drumming of Srikantha was a great privilege. Even though I have seen many guitarists play the lead to the popular compositions of Clarence there was something special in this performance which I could not explain. One thing I understood was the these songs are naturally evergreen hits due to the lyrics and rhythm; but take any of those songs there is a very nice lead guitar part running in the background in each of these songs which could not be found in many of the songs now. And I was privileged to see the guitarist who played the originals of many of the songs playing them again in this concert. On the other hand Srikantha’s drumming for me was much more outstanding than any other artist I have seen in the recent past. His arms were moving around the drum set as a machine with him covering both the Octopad and the drums himself. Whole through out the 3 hours the concert ran on a emotional setting where the golden voice of Clarence was heard singing a nice song of his to the backing of the band. There were 2 very nice experiences for me. One was a composition called the Accapella arranged by Rukshan Perera. This was a medley of songs sang without the backing of any instrument where all the music is created by the voices & sounds generated by the mouth. At the end of the medley 2 of Clarences songs were sung together at the same time which was a very difficult task with much ease by the members of the band showing their quality and the expertise to the audience. Secondly one of the greatest fans of Clarence namely Mr. Joseph Wisidagama domiciled in USA, who had created a song as a tribute to his hero was on stage specially to grace the occasion by singing the song he composed. He wore a costume similar to what Clarence wore those days, had a similar hairstyle and had a guitar similar to Clarence and strummed it exactly as Clarence visualising as if Clarence was on stage.

At last when the last medley of songs was played the whole audience joined them singing their hearts out. And there would have been a tear everyone’s eyes when the final curtain drew and the last notes faded away.

I am so happy that I was a part of the audience and witnessed this band that played 3 hours of their original compositions. And I am so thankful for Torana for releasing the VCD and the DVD of both the concerts which would be a treasure for any music lover. For any one who is interested on SGC I would recommend buying those CD’s because that would be full of your monies worth.

P.S : Even though we would not ever see this band together, some of the greats such as Dixon and Rukshan was seen on stage once in a while at least which is so nice. And I heard that there is going to be a concert to celebrate the 40^th year Anniversary of Annesley’s music career where both the Moonstones members and the Super Golden Chimes members would be on stage. If it’s going to materialise this would be one heck of an experience to anyone. So keep your eyes open for this occasion.