Passion for music and food keeps DJ Harpo in the groove
ON SONG DOWN GREGORY’S ROAD: The vinyl record is coming back much to the delight of Harpo. For someone who was brought up on a wholesome diet of visceral music accompanied by the hiss and crackle of the turntable creating a rich sound, the return of vinyl is testament to the fact that though styles might change, class is permanent.
“People are buying records again. They are going away from CDs and opting to buy records. Vinyl is back,” says a pleased Harpo Gooneratne. He is happy that the wheel of life has turned a full circle. Just like a record.
One of the first, and probably one of the best, DJs (disc jockey) in Sri Lanka is taking time off his crowded schedule to have a chat about what makes him tick. It is simple. It is still music. Has always been and will be forever.
“I have always liked to connect with people and the best way to do that has been through music,” reveals Harpo as he gets ready to start a long day overseeing his burgeoning business as a restaurateur.
Food is the other passion in his life, and together with music, has turned Harpo into a household name in Colombo. Music and food have gone hand-in-hand like starcrossed lovers ever since a teenaged schoolboy left St. Thomas’ College in search of a life that has “never a dull moment”.
He has found it in spades. Always on the move and on the go, Harpo is kept busy by his six outlets including Curve, Colombo’s happening place for the baby boomers – he is one of them - as well as those from younger generations.
Easy-going charm
Every night he finds the time to visit all his restaurants, from The Bayleaf to The Commons, before ending up at Curve where he meets and greets patrons and friends with an easy-going charm as the music plays on with bands taking centre-stage.
Music has been the force behind his life. And it was not always a live band playing the Doobie Brothers hit ‘Long Train Running’ or Earth Wind and Fire’s ‘September’, but rather a mobile discotheque which he controlled like a master of the universe.
“Making people happy gives me huge satisfaction. If people are happy, I’m happy,” says Harpo as he sips hot ginger water at his Bayleaf restaurant. “If I play good music and serve good food that is enough.”
Like Barry Manilow, music was his first love. It all began soon after he had reached his teens when his parents used to take him and his brother to house parties where he listened to bands playing, dreaming that one day he too would be able to send crowds into raptures.
“There were no DJs in Sri Lanka then. It was always bands. I used to watch them thinking it would be nice if I too could play an instrument.”
Harpo, 55, never fulfilled that wish – his only regret in life is that he didn’t play the drums – but he was lucky enough to get to know the late Gabo Peiris through a friend of his who used to work at Gabo Travels.
“She knew I wanted to be a DJ and she hooked me up with Gabo. I remember it was August 1, 1980 when I first touched a console. At that time no one had a console, the only one was probably at the Trip Discotheque.”
Gabo had regular gigs down South with hotels in Bentota brimming with tourists crying out for good DJs to play music. Harpo was perfect for the role. With an Afro haircut, he looked like some cool dude straight out from a trendy London night-club. But it wasn’t easy to follow his dream. “I had just started a three-year course at a private hotel school in Colombo. It was five days a week, Monday to Friday and from 8 to 5. The hotel gigs down south was on a Wednesday night as well as on weekends. On Wednesday, soon after classes, I rushed to take the bus to Aluthgama from in front of the Fort Railway Station.”
Appe Kade bite and bicycle ride
With his Sony Walkman playing cassettes, Harpo would spend the bumpy bus ride listening to his music repertoire. He would arrive around 7pm, have a quick shower at a rented house, cross the road to the Appe Kade for a quick bite before heading to the Dungeon Disco at the Bentota Beach Hotel on a bicycle doubling his electrician Raja.
“We started at 9pm. There were no troubles those days and the hotels were packed with tourists. I used to finish around 3am in the morning and rush back to catch the first bus for Colombo. I told the conductor to wake me up at Dehiwela (we lived at Boralesgamuwa) and catch some sleep. I would go home have a shower and head for school.”
The passion for music kept him going for three long years, plus the fact that his reputation as a DJ kept growing. He was helped by Gabo having the best equipment like mirror balls and smoke machines, and more importantly the latest songs. “If a single was released in the UK, we would have it the next week.”
It was the height of the disco craze. Club-goers were dancing and swaying to The Bee Gees and Boney M. Bell-bottoms and shiny skin-tight shirts were cool. Girls rocked in cat-suits made from spandex and adorned with sequins. A svelte John Travolta was showing movie audiences how to do the Hustle in Saturday Night Fever. And right here in paradise, Harpo and Gabo had their version of the famous New York discotheque Studio 54.
But it was time to move back to Colombo. The mobile discotheque was born. Parties bloomed like desert flowers after a heavy rain. The Women’s International was one of the first venues in Colombo to open its doors to Harpo – 4th December, 1982.
30 bucks a ticket
Harpo shows a ticket from a scrapbook. It was only 50 rupees for a couple – 30 rupees if you were going stag – and the party train had moved to Colombo for good.
“Lots of people started booking us. We played for the Lions, the Leos, the Girl Guides, Jaycees as well as at house parties.”
Disco music pounded out from Ramakrishna Hall, Hotel Sapphire and Hotel Galaxy. Then on the last day of the Battle of the Blues, after the final ball had been bowled and hit, the Battle of the Discs began at the Taprobane, Harpo and a whole lot of Thomians against Gabo, the Royalist.
In the west, Disco was synonymous with sex drugs and rock n roll. So no surprise when Harpo’s father was upset when he discovered his son was spinning records.
“My dad freaked out when I told him I was going to be a DJ. He was on the verge of storming a night club, but thankfully that night it was closed (at Ranmuthu). Eventually he understood what I was doing and was very supportive. A lot of people thought discos and night clubs were shady. It was not the best of professions.”
Play music what patrons want
Meanwhile, on the other front, Harpo had graduated from Hotel School. Armed with paper qualifications on the hotel trade and invaluable experience how to keep a crowd on the dance floor (“today most DJs play music they like. You have to study the crowd and play music they like. It is a gift”) he was ready to take on the world of hospitality.
He began at Ramada Renaissance (now Cinnamon Lakeside) as a DJ. The hotel soon discovered they had an uncut diamond in Harpo and he was soon handling all the entertainment. In no time he was in charge of the Library, running the restaurant side of it too. The lobby came under his purview too. Before he knew it, 10 years had gone by.
“My function was basically to look after all the entertainment and events at the hotel.” He made his name, so much so that when an opportunity arose at the Hilton Hotel, he took it. The Blue Elephant night spot was the in-place in Colombo and Harpo was soon in the thick of it all.
Plans to open a Windows of the World restaurant cum night club on the 37th floor of the World Trade Centre were shelved by the LTTE bombing of the Central Bank. Things were grim, yet Harpo stayed true to his calling, and took the ultimate step, deciding to venture out on his own in 2004.
“I used to manage other people’s headaches before. But I have always lived by the rule that you must do something you like and you must have a passion for it. I have been on the road for 36 years but my passion still drives me.
Remembering names
“I tell my staff (200 of them) all the time that when people go to a restaurant, what they expect is good food, good ambience, good service and clean toilets. It is a simple equation and if you get it right then you have won your customer.”
Then of course there is the personal touch of Harpo – the knack of having an elephantine memory and being able to greet his customers by name.
“Knowing your customer makes a big difference, especially if you acknowledge them by name. Everyone likes to be recognised, it is human nature. It is a huge thing and it all comes with having the passion to do it.” Harpo still yearns for the good old days when music was not all about computers but being able to listen on the head phones and mix it manually. So more reason being happy that vinyl is making a comeback.
So what are his expert views on today’s music? “It is just one beat now. All boom, boom, boom. It is a different era I guess. I tell my daughter to stop that bang-bang music. My dad used to shout at me too to ‘stop that bloody loud music’. I’m now telling my daughter what my father said to me. Times have changed, but things are still the same,” he laughs.