Can you hear the drums, Lobo Lobo?

Lobo Lobo came over very excited wearing a flashy jazzy outfit ldquoMamma Mia can you hear the drums Fernando sorry Dikuna men ring ring why didnrsquot you give me a callrdquo he crooned at meldquoOkay Lobo Lobo I get that ABBA has made a comeback after four decades their new songs are streaming but can you talk normallyrdquoldquoOkay Bossie donrsquot like my singing or wot I am in de Our Blessed Sacrament Parish Virar choirhellip and I have two bandshellip you know or wothellip one is a speciality band for weddings and one quartet is for private parties got it chherdquoldquoSorry didnrsquot mean to put you downhellip just didnrsquot know you were an ABBA fanrdquoldquoSee men I prefer de Carpenters and Perry Como and Englebert Humperdink But de biggest news is de Swedish legends are making a return after long and dat has given us de lsquojoshrsquo to do de samerdquo Lobo Lobo announcedldquoWhorsquos uhm werdquo I enquired with some trepidationldquoOkay Bossie lemme rewind see men in de late rsquo80s my better half Myrtle and her one sass Magdalena were a hit duo lsquoTwo Mpressesrsquo dey called demselveshellip you get de pun me Bot de girls have fust names wid lsquoMrdquo so lsquoEmpressrsquo became lsquoMpressesrsquomdashshersquos de older one and de younger Magdalenahellip ohohoho wot a voice men shersquos like Whitney onlyhellip dey used to sing dat song na of lsquoSister Sledgersquo lsquoWe Are Family I got all my sisters wid mersquo Wen I first met Myrtle at de St Theresas Parish contest we used to both live in Bandra we were neighbours menWe were part of de Christmas choir uff dat Magdalena whe she sang lsquoHark de Erald Angels comersquohellip it felt like all de Angels dey came down to earthrdquoldquoAlso Dikuna men I never tolded youhellip Irsquom a wizard on de keyboards Irsquom like dat Louis Banks lsquophhrrrr phrrrrsquo my fingers fly up down on de keys So myself Myrtle Magdalena and her hubby Quentin teamed up and formed a music band called lsquoDe Party Poopersrsquo We used to play at all big big bashes on shipshellip we played at dat lsquoTalk of de Townrsquo off Marine Drive you know where dey now eat dose pizzashelliprdquoldquoWe used to play at weddingshellip oho ho all de hits lsquoBirdie Dancersquo and lsquoMy Achey Breaky Heartrsquo Den somewhere in de rsquo90s we had solid politics in de band Quentin and Magdalena tought dey were better dan us dey should earn more moneyhellip so I said lsquoTa ta ok by byersquo And for 20 years we had no contact even de sisters not talkingrdquoldquoSo Irsquom guessing everything is hunky dory now and yoursquore all reunitingrdquoldquoArre Dikuna men wid all dis COVID Shovid de sistersrsquo mudder my mudderinlaw made dem kiss and make up and dat goodfoenuttingQuentin is lsquokadkarsquo so we are back as a band But I am de bandleader men I am de bossrdquoldquoOkay so whatrsquos the USP of the musicrdquo I askedldquoDikuna men we play Western pop songs wid a touch of Bollywood De rydems are western and we merge dem wid classic Bollywood lyricshellip solid fun becamerdquoldquoSo can you give me an examplerdquo I asked with horrorldquoSo you know dat Rajesh Khanna movie lsquoHaathi Mere Saathirsquo it has a gaanalsquoChal Chal Chal Mere Haathirsquo so we sing it to de tune of lsquoMamma Miarsquo and lsquoDum maaro Dumrsquo we set it to de lsquoVoulez Vouzrsquo tunehellip arrey full mazaa dis fuzion becomeshellip how de guests dance men its craaazyrdquoldquoSounds amazing Whatrsquos the band namedrdquoldquoItrsquos lsquoLMAOrsquordquo he saidldquoWhaat yoursquove named your band lsquoLaughing My A37 Offrsquordquo I asked stunnedldquoNo no Dikuna menhellip itrsquos LMAOrdquoldquolsquoLobo Myrtle and Othersrsquordquo he concludedRahul daCunha is an adman theatre directorplaywright photographer and traveller Reach him at rahuldacunhamiddaycom