Indus Creed Win Big At 2013 JD Annual Rock Awards

Drummer Jai Row Kavi and Navin Deshpande of MixTape accepting Band Of the Year award on behalf of Indus Creed from Radhakrishnan Nair, Editor-in-Chief of Rolling Stone India and actor/model Yukta Mookhey Photo: Prashin Jagger

To quote Uday Benegal, frontman of Indus Creed: “There couldn’t be a better time to make rock ’n roll in the country.” The eighth edition of JD Annual Rock Awards was indeed a celebration of original Indian music with the Rolling Stone Jam Sessions where artists from various bands got together to cover some of the best-known (and not-so-well known) Indian tracks including Zero’s “Lucy,” Junkyard Groove’s “Imagine” and Workshop’s “Pudhe Sarka.” The annually reuniting band, Zero’s bassist Bobby Talwar said, “Indian bands covering other Indian bands. We couldn’t have imagined this a few years ago.”

Rohit “P-Man” Pereira kept the house in splits as always, as Sameer “Daddy” Malhotra held the stage together as the host for the evening. A few categories saw more than one winner and it was a close competition in the other categories as well, considering the caliber of artists nominated this year.

List of winners

Best Band: Indus Creed

Best Album: The Silent Sea by Advaita

Best Song: “Boitha Maro Re” by Papon

Best Female Vocalist: Vivienne Pocha

Best Male Vocalist: Papon 

Best Guitarist: Bruce Lee Mani of Thermal And A Quarter

Best Drummer: Jai Row Kavi of Indus Creed

Best Bassist: Tony Guinard of The Ska Vengers

Best Keyboardist: (Tie) Jason Zachariah of Jason Zachariah Band & Zubin Balaporia of Indus Creed

Best Metal Band: Skyharbor

Best Emerging Artist:  Blek

Best Live Music Venue:  Blue Frog, Mumbai

Best Producer:  Shantanu Hudlikar

Best Album Art: (Tie) The Silent Sea by Advaita and Topiwalleh by Swarathma