‘Big’ rock  There’s something real ‘big’ for the rock music lovers of the Northeast this festive season. The sensational American super rock group Mr. Big is all set to play in Shillong and Dimapur as part of its Indian lap of Asian tour that also includes Bangalore. The three-city rock extravaganza begins down south in Bangalore on October 10 to be followed by the concerts in the Northeast — Shillong (Polo Grounds) on October 12 and Dimapur (DDSC Stadium) on October 14. Mr. Big, as the name suggests, speaks volumes. This hard rock super group comprises legendary bassist Billy Sheehan, who was earlier on David Lee Roth’s solo band, Eric Martin on vocals, Pat Torpey on drums and guitar virtuoso Paul Gilbert (Racer X). Formed in 1988, Mr. Big is revered by their fans and critic alike for their exceptional compositions that include melody, guitar shredding and chorus. Their exciting assortment of heavy metal, ballad, blues-rock cater to a wide range of audience, besides resulting their numbers topping the charts across countries. Some of their biggest hits include To be with you and Just take my heart from their album Lean Into It. Follow up cover ‘Wild World’ which also made it very big on the charts. Their self-titled debut album, released in 1989, brought them considerable success in Japan, a market that has remained loyal to the band since the beginning. It was only with their second album, 1991’s Lean Into It, that the band achieved commercial success in America. Their follow up cover Wild World to made it big on the charts. “We are very excited to come to India. Eric had earlier played in Shillong and expressed the crowd in the country is fantastic. We can’t wait to experience it! Our set list will be a mix of our studio records and a few surprises, so await India! And we shall rock,” say Gilbert and Torpey. So, get ready for the ‘big’ rock!

Super-shoppers  One never knows when the lady luck would smile on them. It was evident in yet another customer-friendly gesture from mobile handset major Nokia that celebrated its festival offer billed ‘Nokia Super-shopper’ from September 15 to 25. The eastern India specific campaign saw eleven winners — one daily — during the period and a handful of these winners were from the Northeast. And for a change, the winners were not offered cash or kind as the prize but they were given the chance to select the items of their choice for an amount of Rs 1 lakh in a select shopping mall. A special function was organized the other day at Pantaloons, Guwahati where Nokia’s Northeast area sales manager Suchet and Bipin Agarwal of Nokia dealer JR’s Cellpoint at Lachit Nagar, Ulubari handed over the gift vouchers worth Rs 100,000 to two lucky winners of Assam — Parag Bhowal of Fatasil Ambari, Guwahati and Simanta Das of Silchar — with which they shopped at the mall with their heart’s out. The interesting aspect of the super-shopper scheme was that the winners were made to purchase items worth Rs 100,000 within two hours. Kishore Roy from Agartala, Tripura is another lucky winner from the region.

Simanta / Mridumoloy