The Night Before Christmas by the De Lanerolle Brothers!

The De Lanerolle Brothers are always a treat to watch, having put on a number of concerts both here at home and overseas year around. The brothers always end the year off with a bang staging their Christmas show which is eagerly looked forward to by their ever growing fan base. This year’s concert titled “The Night Before Christmas” was held a few days ago at the Hilton Colombo. The evening’s dress code was smart casual with a touch of red and I was pretty surprised to see that people actually took the trouble to stick to it except of course for a extreme few who couldn’t care less.

Rohan being the talkative out of the two brother always manages to have the crowd in his hands from the moment the he said 'Good Evening' and then Ishan just needs to sing his first note for everyone in the room to go “Wow”. Starting off the evening was “It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas” being played off the sound system and compere Hans Billimoria welcomed the audience as Rohan and Ishan came unto stage along with Ishan’s students to sing some interesting renditions of Jolly Old St. Nicholas, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Up On the House Top,  A Holly Jolly Christmas, Santa Claus is Coming, Jingle Bell Rock and Jingle Bells. It certainly was lovely to see the kids having so much fun on stage which did bring a smile unto my face after quite a nasty day on the road.

The kids made their exit and the brothers made White Christmas and Joy to the World sound as if Christmas was already here!  And that concluded the first half. Ding ding - DINNER TIME! Excited as I was, it was quite a disappointment as the food was not the greatest and sadly they ran out of food! During the break, Rohan and Ishan tried terribly hard to fix the situation but sadly it was some time before the food came back to being served! Kudos to the brothers for coming out and apologizing to their guests for the mishap, which certainly was not their fault.

Following the break the Old Joes Choir who were crowned World Champions in the Barbershop Choir category at the recently concluded World Choir Games in Riga, Latvia took the stage with an amazing rendition of “Have yourself a merry little Christmas”. This was followed by the brothers taking the stage again to sing "Have yourself a merry little Christmas" and Ishan took over the lead vocals to sing "I’ll have a blue Christmas without you" which was simply phenomenal. The Old Joes Choir joined the brothers for the final few numbers of the concert and brought it to a fantastic end which left the audience asking for more!

Comments from the audience

Very good. Really enjoyed it. – Sunila

Compared to last year it was not that great. The sounds could have been better, and the food was bad. – Rajeev

It was a beautiful show and I'm feeling very festive. – Harshini

I liked it. Feliz Navidad was the best because it had an added twist. – Fr. Felician

It was lovely, and I enjoyed myself thoroughly. – Shirani

It was a fantastic show, and I'm glad they had it this early as I'm already starting to feel Christmassy! – Nilani

Good show! – Robert

The music was fabulous but the sounds could have been better. The food was not what I  expected it to be. – Denzil

By Reihan Stephen
Photos by Pradeep Dilrukshana