Nimal Mendis

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Nimal Mendis

The distinguished Sri Lanka born singer/songwriter Nimal Mendis
Background information
Born (1934-03-29) March 29, 1934
Origin Colombo, Sri Lanka
Genres Rock, pop, piano rock, Sri Lankan music
Occupations Singer-songwriter, musician
Instruments Vocals
Piano
Keyboards
Guitar
Years active 1958–present
Labels Decca, Colombia Records, Fontana, Metronome, Kandyan Records
Associated acts Mary Marshall sang 'Kiss Kiss Kiss' on Columbia Records in 1958, Singing 'Feel Like A Clown' - Ranee & Raj - with Sandra Edema on BBC TV'S 'Top of the Pops' programme in 1968
Website Under Construction

Nimal Mendis is a Sri Lankan singer and songwriter. He is one of a handful of Sri Lankan musicians to appear on the BBC television programme Top of the Pops in 1968. Mendis was married to his wife Ranjani Mendis for 33 years who died in October 2010. His son's name is Paul-Marie Mendis and together they run Mediaeye Music. Mendis is a long standing member of the Performing Rights Society and the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society of Great Britain.

Mendis was discovered in the late 1950s by Radio Ceylon, the oldest radio station in South Asia. The radio station dominated the airwaves in South Asia in the 1950s and 1960s—the station backed his songs from the start, including "Kandyan Express", turning them into hits in South Asia. People from all over the Indian sub-continent wrote in to Radio Ceylon requesting his songs.

Mendis had been involved with music from his early childhood, and has lived for many years in London travelling often to Sri Lanka. He lived for five years with his wife Ranjani at Le Paradis in the Charente, the South West of France.

Mendis was so moved by the devastation of the 2004 tsunami that he composed a Tsunami song to aid the victims. British Parliamentarians commended his composition in a motion in the House of Commons. Linda Perham MP sponsored early day motion 638.

His Tsunami song has been recorded in Australia, Sri Lanka, and the United Kingdom.

Early years: 1950s–1960s

Mendis has 22 songs published in Britain and has written music for films in Sri Lanka. "Kiss Kiss Kiss" was Mendis's first song that was recorded in Britain and sung by Mary Marshall on the Columbia label. "Kandyan Express", "Cherry Blossom Tree", "Oh My Lover", "Butterfly in the Rain", "Champagne Blues", and "Goodnight Kisses "' were number-one hits in Sri Lanka in the late fifties.

"Kandyan Dance", an instrumental, was his second piece in the West. Recorded by Friedel Berlipp and his Orchestra in Germany it went on to be number two on Radio Luxembourg. It was also released in the United States. Black Pearls & Green Diamonds has eight of Mendis's songs on an LP for Decca by One Two and Three, a folk group in Britain. This Album is now a collectors item.

Mendis appeared on the popular BBC television music programme Top of the Pops with his singing partner Sandra Edema in 1968 as guest artists with his song "Feel like a Clown". The “B” side of the record “Rainbow Land” was the “A” side in the States and today (2013), it has become a collector’s item in the Psychedelic Rock community in the west. They were also featured with the song on Beat Club in Germany that year. Eugene Wright bass player with the original Dave Brubeck Quartet arranged and recorded five of Mendis's songs only with him playing bass. He also arranged and produced one other song, "Singing Fish", with electric guitar, bass, and piano. They were sung by Sandra Edema.

1970s

In the 1970s, he recorded a number of songs in London. Many of these songs were of a spiritual nature. He made a twenty-minute audio documentary on the Way of the Cross called The Passion Report. Another audio documentary called Ferryman was about the tea estate worker and the farmer in Sri Lanka. It traces their history from the British colonial period. He also wrote Bread of Life for the Eucharistic Congress in Sri Lanka.

Mendis has written several memorable songs for Sri Lankan films. He wrote the song "Master Sir" in Sri Lanka for a film, Kalu Diya Dhahara ("A column of black water"). "Master Sir" is about colonial Sri Lanka; the words tell a story about the dignity of labour, a story not about wages but about social justice. The song was recorded both in English (by Mendis and Sandra Edema) and Sinhala (by Neville Fernando). The Sinhala words for "Master Sir" were translated by the late Karunaratne Abeysekera. It has remained a hit in Sri Lanka for over thirty years. Neela Wickremasinghe sang the song on the end title sequence of 'Kalu DIya Dhahara". Over the years Neela sang and popularized a version of "Master Sir" based on the musical arrangement of the English version (time signature, riffs etc). Recently a rock version of "Master Sir" was covered by Bathiya and Santush.

His composition "Ganga Addara" ("By the Banks of the River"), translated into sinhala by Augustus Vinayagaratnam, and sung by Vijaya Kumaranatunga) for the film (directed by Sumitra Peiris) of the same name, is also a very popular song in Sri Lanka. "Ran Tikiri Sina" was written for the same film and sung by Victor Silva and Nirasha Perera. It was also a hit. In 2013 a new version of the song 'Ganga Addara" was sung by Surendra Perera and used as the theme song for a teledrama series of the same name. "Upul Nuwan" was another classic composed for the 1978 Lester James Peiris film White Flowers for the Dead. Indeed, all the songs he composed for Sinhala films have been popular with the public in Sri Lanka.

1980s

In the 1980s, Mendis went into the production of documentary films with Ranjani his wife and Paulmarie their son. Paulmarie, deft with computers and editing visuals, assisted them. He was only seven years old when he accompanied his parents filming in the war zones of the North and East of Sri Lanka. Mendis also did a stage show It's What I Am with Sri Lankan musicians; the highlight was the song "July '83", a song on the riots of that year. He also made two audio cassettes, one for Air Lanka A Taste of Paradise and the other for the Ceylon Tourist Board Pilgrim Places of Sri Lanka.

1990s

In the '90s they formed their own enterprise, Mediaeye. In the new millennium they have brought out an audio documentary, War is my Country, tracing the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka up to 1994. This CD contains archive material over a period of seventeen years with narration, interviews with political and other personalities, songs, and poems. Three of the political personalities have since been assassinated.

Current work

Together with son Paulmarie they are compiling the songs, audio documentaries, and film material on CD and DVD. They formed Mediaeye Music Lanka (pvt) ltd and work closely with various large organizations in Sri Lanka. They have worked with the Sirasa Superstars ( A TV Company that has a show like the X factor) and interact with many of the young musicians and singers in Sri Lanka . In 2009 they completed a ten minute piece for Sri Lankan Airlines for their programme that showcased the new uniforms for the airline in a grand ceremony with the Sri Lankan Presidents wife as chief guest . This piece as well as one of his songs “And A Star” by Generation 4 (four of the Superstars) was used by the airline as a boarding video in 2011 and will be used again during the Christmas season of 2013.

At present Mendis has written three songs for Sunmitra Peries’ new film “VAISHNAVEE” and he is also writing the background score which is arranged and produced by Paul-Marie. In 2013 the first ever Sinhala blues song was written by Mendis entitled "Girls" and sung by Amila Sandaruwan. It was translated into sinhala by Duminda Allahendra who has also translated some of Mendis's new material. A link to the Music Video of "Girls' which was produced by the students of the Digital Film Institute of Sri Lanka can be found in the external links section.

Fans formed a Nimal Mendis Group on Facebook in 2008.

Charity work

Mendis has thrown his weight behind the important Autism Awareness Campaign UK and the UK Autism Foundation. Mendis has backed the call of British musicians for better public services in education, health, specialist speech therapy, and respite care for all people with autism and Asperger syndrome.[citation needed] Mendis released "Open Every Door", a song for autism in May 2007 in the UK and dedicated it to the work of the UK Autism Foundation. The song for autism was personally presented to Prime Minister Tony Blair on April 25, 2007, and to the leading British parliamentarian Lee Scott (UK Politician).

Television documentaries

Dawn of Terror, their first documentary, was filmed on the ethnic conflict, and could be called an anti-war film. It was made for the Centre for Society and Religion in Sri Lanka. The film, although made on VHS, was taken for distribution by Concord Video and film in the UK

Shattered Pearl on women affected by the war in Sri Lanka and the "right to life" was made for Channel 4 television in London. It was a major film by Sri Lankans on British TV at the time. It has been shown in many parts of the world.

Three Women Speak Out was made for "Article 19" in Britain on freedom of opinion and expression, and they edited Z for Zero Concern on homeless children in London for the Children's Society.

Water Water Everywhere, filmed in Bangladesh, is on women and water-management, made for CAFOD.

Blessed Are the Poor compares poverty in Britain and South India and the positive effort people make to change their lives. This documentary was made for the Methodist International.

They have also been researchers for three major British TV productions. Three of their documentaries were at the Monticatini Film Festival in Italy: Shattered Pearl, Seyllan to Paradise, and Stop Killing Start Singing (which was based on three songs). It was the first time that Sinhala songs were featured as a documentary.

Quotations about Mendis

  • "A crusader for creative and original song writing, using the Sri Lankan folk idiom, Nimal Mendis was successful in influencing many a young lyricist and music composer in acknowledging the wealth in Sri Lankan folk music and adapting it with western overtones, to bring about a new identity in music..." (Mahes Perera, writing in the Sunday Observer, Sri Lanka).[1]
  • Ray Horricks, the Record producer of the album "Black Pearls and Green Diamonds with 8 of Nimals' songs says this of him on the record sleeve. “ His work combines an awareness of western melody and harmony with great originality in his story ideas, while there is a very exotic eastern flavor about his choice of words. Also, he features several unusual rhythmic feelings. ‘I tried to capture the peace and simple serenity of Ceylon’s coastline and its Fishing communities as a beginning says Nimal and he has gone on from there. Most of the songs are like nothing I have ever heard before and when it came to making this album I found myself preferring his numbers to the many better known folk items which the three singers have in their repertoire.”

See also

References

  1. ↑ Source: Sunday Observer, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

External links


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