.. and if you live in Bombay, are also giving you free entry to their gig at Blue Frog this Thursday.

Here are the details from their mailer:

Shaa’ir + Func is back! And this is the first live preview of the new tracks that the band has been busy writing!

S+F is currently looking for a name for the new album, which is due Mid-November, so here’s your chance to maybe get a word in. Think up a album name, or a few, and send it in*… the five most creative, quirky and entertaining names get free entry + 1 to the gig Thursday night. See you there!

Email your album names to info@shaairandfunc.com, tweet @shaairandfunc. For inspiration, you can preview the new album on http://www.myspace.com/shaairandfunc

Date: 6th August 2009
Time: 10:30 pm
Venue: Blue Frog, Mumbai
Entry: Rs. 300 (or free before 9pm OR if you win the contest!)

Func (www.func.in) will be performing a solo DJ set after the S+F set

Shaa’ir + Func’s latest music video for ‘Do It Again’ can be watched here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvmsUE_aNVQ
More live videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/func666

*Send in your entries before Wednesday night at 12 a.m. (midnight).

Join in: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=98853992823

Raghu Dixit is currently in the UK, playing a whole host of gigs, from the prestigious WOMAD and LOVEBOX to pub performances in London, Birmingham and Cardiff. Raghu Dixit always manages to charm an audience into getting up and dancing with him with about the same energy and enthusiasm as he performs with onstage. We’ve seen this happen on countless occasions - people will be chatting and generally chilling, Raghu will go up on stage and about 20 mins later, those same people will be dancing like crazy people and the crowd just keeps multiplying like magic. The energy at an RDP performance is contagious!

Raghu started off this tour with a gig at the Lovebox Festival, one of the UK’s top festivals; a fantastic event at Victoria Park in London and soon had Londoners singing along in ‘Indian’! While on tour, OML brought Raghu some really exciting news - he was going to play WOMAD (World of Music and Dance), the biggest world music festival and a veritable dream for any musician. Not only that, but Raghu played a prime-time slot of 8:00 p.m. - 9.30 p.m. on the Saddlespan Stage and had an audience of 6000 fans going crazy! Besides WOMAD, Raghu has also played a club gig at The Von Underbelly as well as a Gibson showcase to 70 odd music industry professionals. From festivals to clubs to showcases, that’s a nice little tour RDP is on!

They’ve still got two more gigs in Birmingham to go before they’re back home to curd rice and appams. Gaurav, the bassist for RDP does a great job in keeping the blog well updated and you can follow the tour there - http://raghudixit.com/blog

Shout out to Paul Knowles, Kaz Sahota and Lorraine from Jenral Group, Paula Henderson from WOMAD, Stephen, Martin and Jon from Lovebox, Clare Edwards for making this ‘last minute’ tour a big success.

PS : And big thank you’s due to Sareata Ginda and Rajeev Talwar for looking after the Bengaluru boys in London

News just in - Vijay Nair just won the British Council’s International Young Music Entrepreneur of the Year Award! He becomes the first Indian to win the prestigious Award, beating out the competition from across the globe and we’re all incredibly proud of him. Insider info said that his presentation was insightful and supremely entertaining, both of which he is well known for.

Earlier today, Vijay spoke at the ‘India Focus’ talk at the Great Escape Festival in Brighton along with Arjun Sankalia (Sony Music), John Leckie, Katrina Larkin (Big Chill). OML bands Swarathma and Indigo Children both play at the festival too, along with Advaita and Medusa, as a part of the Soundpad showcase. Soundpad is an ambitious project by the British Council which saw legendary music producer John Leckie producing fresh tracks for 4 Indian bands.

Vijay will be in the UK for a while more, rounding up a few weeks of hard work and long meetings with a well deserved time out at the Download Festival 2009 to catch some of the best hard rock acts around. The IYMEY win is a great start to what we’re sure will be a fantastic trip.

It’s a first in the history of contemporary Indian music. Indian Ocean has set a number of trends in the past. And here it is with another one.

Hot off the presses. A 110 minute rocking ride through some of the band’s best-loved numbers.

The DVD is a two hour presentation of a concert performed by the band at the Garden of Five Senses in Delhi. The DVD has eleven songs including some of the most popular and loved compositions of the band. The list includes one of the first compositions of the band, the instrumental Melancholic Ecstasy, as well as songs from every Indian Ocean album, including Boll Weevil (Desert Rain), Kandisa, Hille Le, Kaun (Kandisa), Jhini and Bhor (Jhini) and Bandeh (Black Friday) The DVD also includes a previously unreleased song (Bula Raha).

Indian Ocean have always thought of themselves as a band that is best performing live. The synergy between the band members is best seen on stage, and the excitement generated by the response of the audience pushes the band to greater heights. We had dreamed of a live DVD for years, and are really pleased and excited that this dream has finally borne fruit.

Head straightaway to their website - http://www.indianoceanmusic.com and get your copy NOW!

Sometime in mid-march we got an email from Shiv (Bamboo Shoots) who was visiting India for two reasons:

1) To get married

2) Touring India with his band.

We figured we could help him with point no 2. By the time Bamboo Shoots were in India, we had a couple of shows lined up for them and once they were done with the wedding celebrations, instead of a honeymoon, Shiv along with Avir, Karl, Ahmed and Ankur set off on a 5 city tour across India.

Bamboo Shoots played Zenzi (Mumbai) , One Lounge (Pune) , Turquoise Cottage (Delhi), Blue Frog (Mumbai), Someplace Else (Kolkata), Kyra (Bangalore) and The Living Room (Delhi). You can read about their tour experiences on their well-updated blog here. CNN-IBN did a story on them, watch it here.

Their shows have got some great reviews and we can assure you they will be back soon to promote their new album with Epic Records.

We had a great time working with them and they are the best example of how international indie acts should strategise and work the Indian market. We hope to see a lot of indie acts tour India soon.

We are currently looking college for kids to intern with us for 2-3 months on special projects. More about working with us here.

OML has won the prestigious British Council IYMEY award, which recognizes entrepreneurship in the music industry. Bobby (Director, OML) won it in 2007, followed by Gaurav (who won it for Radioverve and and has since become part of OML) in 2008 and Vijay (who was finally old enough to apply) won it in 2009.

Vijay will be visiting UK as part of winning the award and will also be a part of UKTI panel about Indian music industry at The Great Escape festival in Brighton.

OML bands Swarathma and Indigo Children will be showcasing at the festival as well.