“Savages” a very popular Sri Lankan rock band got their biggest break in July 1967 when an American music agency contracted the band to tour South Vietnam to exclusively entertain American troops. Along with the top female singer and two go-go dancers Savages landed in Saigon, South Vietnam in mid-July 1967 totally clueless and naïve about an actual war.
More Than Nine Lives Bassist Evan Balasuriya writes about growing up in his native Sri Lanka, and his personal experiences in the midst of the war torn South Vietnam, where he and the band ducked bullets, hid in sandbag bunkers to avoid in coming enemy rockets, escaped Korean and American sexual predator soldiers, and out smarted drunk and drugged South Vietnamese regular army troops who were notorious killers of rock bands in lonely and isolated roads. During scary and mysterious episode the band also changed managers.
Evan and the band stranded for nearly four weeks in 24-hour curfew Saigon when the Tet offensive took place gives you a new insight to the downfall of the Vietnam war.
More Than Nine Lives describes the fantastic US troop audience responses, and also the unique relationships built between US troops and Sri Lankan band members, when the Savages performed nearly 750 gigs in almost all the US bases in South Vietnam during the thirteen months.
More Than Nine Lives is a remarkable tale of an entertainer’s perception of the Vietnam war like never been told before.
To purchase the book please go to www.morethanninelives.com
