A long-awaited stage moment has slipped away for the veteran India rock band Parikrama. The band’s April 30 Mumbai gig — opening for German rock icons Scorpions — stands cancelled after the latter pulled the plug on their ‘Coming Home’ India Tour 2026 citing health concerns. Disappointed but unfazed, Parikrama (comprising Subir Malik, Gaurav Balani, Srijan Mahajan, Nitin Malik, Saurabh Chaudhry, Abhishek Mittal) says it hopes to return to the city soon.Excerpts from a chat with the founder member of the band, Subir Malik…The Mumbai show was tied to the larger Scorpions concert in the city, which now stands cancelled. How much of a blow is this, not just emotionally but financially, for your band?We were really looking forward to the show as it’s been a long time since we opened for an international legend in Mumbai. The last time we shared a stage with global icons of this stature was supporting Iron Maiden. Things do not always go as planned, so we have taken it in our stride and hope we will be back in Mumbai for another show soon. Nothing compares to the experience of being on stage and opening for Scorpions; the money side of it hardly matters to us, and it never has.Concert cancellations often look like a single decision on the surface, but there is a ripple effect — from crew, artistes, organisers to fans — impacting people across the entire live music ecosystem. How do you see this larger fallout?Frankly, more than the band, it is the organisers and the fans who incur the greatest losses. The fans suffer because they have paid in advance for travel and hotel bookings. Parikrama is working towards finalising another show in the same cities for our fans. We have already finalised a show in Delhi and we are trying to organise one in Mumbai soon, as we will also be completing 35 years in June.In an industry where live gigs are a major revenue stream, how vulnerable are independent bands to last-minute cancellations? Do you think there’s enough structural support in India to safeguard artistes?Well, the main band cancelling the gig is not really the organisers’ fault, and for every major concert that is cancelled, we also have multiple successful concerts being delivered. India has developed majorly in the past decade & now has an amazing infrastructure for independent bands & still work is in progress, by comparison, cancellations are not that frequent either.Parikrama has stayed relevant for over three decades. What keeps the fire alive? Can fans expect new music or alternative gigs soon to make up for this loss?We always say that Parikrama was started by a group of young kids 35 years ago for the love of rock and roll, and we are still those kids. We (names) as a band, have a lot of fire in our belly to keep going, and as the saying goes, “This is just the beginning.” Lots of new originals are being written as we speak, and soon you will have a volley of releases.
