1974 A.D.’s Australia Tour 2022

By Mannu Shahi

Arguably one of the most celebrated figures of the Nepali music industry 1974 A.D. is a sensational musical supergroup that rejoices in its four-decade-long extravagant career with its virtuosic musical skills and grounded personalities. 

With each individual member doing great in their separate projects and side hustles, the band reunited in 2019 with the announcement of ‘Nirantarta’ representing the continuation of the original stack of members. 

Formed in the early 90s’, the band categorizes its vast repertoire of music as a mixture of Nepali folk, raga, rock, funk, blues, and jazz. Phiroj Shyangden on vocals/ guitars, Nirakar Yakthumba on bass, Adrian Pradhan on drums/ vocals, Manoj Kumar KC on guitars, Sanjay Shrestha on percussion, and Manose Singh on bamboo flute collectively form the outfit’s most stagnant line-up.

With albums like ‘Time Out (1996), ‘Samjhi Bash Chu’ (1998), ‘Satabdi’ (2001), ‘Jungi Nishan’ (2002), ‘Pinjada Ko Suga’ (2004), ‘On Air’ (2007), ‘Aath Athara’ (2010) and ‘Nirantarta’ (2019); the band also released an eight-track album ‘Hazar Sapana’ on 2016 under the 1974 AD banner albeit featuring some young talents like Rohit John Chettri, Prajjwal Mukhiya, Jacko Wacko and Pratick Baniya.  

Their decision to amend the broken ties delighted a plethora of their followers and ensuing the reconciliation their journey remains a smooth sail. Additionally, the band also delivers this energetic, uplifting vibe and appears ever-ready to experiment further on their already polygonal vocabulary.

And the band has recently shared some exciting news for their 2022 tour dates featuring performances in eight cities across Australia. Starting out at Perth tonight at Magnet House; Darwin on 25th August at Darwin Ski Club; Adelaide on 28th at Dompol Ski Club; Hobart on 2nd September at Uni Bar; Melbourne on 4th at 170 Russell; Brisbane on 6th at The Tivoli; Canberra on 7th at Southern Cross Club; concluding the tour at Sydney on 9th at Round House.

The tour titled “Yo Mann Ta Mero Nepali Ho”, after their patriotic rock anthem is presented by Roteping Entertainment in association with Perth Nepal, Sasha Entertainment, Pop-Up Entertainment, Girish, Solangture, Creative Events, Sharon & Zion, and Hora Hoina Hola Events. 

The tickets for tonight’s show at Perth were fully sold-out a few days ago and 70 percent of tickets have already been booked for the performance on this coming Thursday at Darwin. With a devoted entourage sure enough to appear, the concerts are envisioned in enormous grand scales to contain a huge crowd and well-serve the band’s sonic palate.

Furthermore, the crew landed in Australia on 19th August 2022, post their tour to the UK where they performed a single venue gig in Rushmoor Arena at Fleet Road on the previous Saturday, 13th August 2022. Simultaneously their YouTube handle also crossed over 200,000 subscribers to exclusively relish the group’s creative commodities. 

Thus, quite an adrenalin-pumping schedule for the pioneer rockers filled with hectic and busy upcoming weeks, so best wishes and more power to the group for their iconic music and its much-deserved celebration.