Human Bondage’s founders reunite for multi-city tribute tour

BENGALURU: India’s early rock legacy returns to the stage this January as founding members of the seminal 1970s band Human Bondage reunite for a three-city concert series titled Tribute to Human Bondage, presented by BLR Airport with Air India Express as official travel partner.

The tour opens in Bengaluru on 16 January before travelling to Goa and concluding in Mumbai, offering audiences a rare revival of the raw, rebellious sound that shaped India’s formative rock years. The concerts bring together Human Bondage founder members Henry “Babu” Joseph and Ramesh Shotham, joined by jazz vocalist Radha Thomas at select venues, alongside contemporary jazz-fusion outfit the Rajeev Raja Combine.

Bengaluru serves as a symbolic launchpad for the series, marking a homecoming for a band deeply intertwined with the city’s early rock movement. Human Bondage, active through the 1970s and 1980s, remains a touchstone for Indian rock aficionados, known for blending Western rock and blues with a distinctive local sensibility.

Rajeev Raja, frontman of the Rajeev Raja Combine, said the collaboration was deeply personal, citing Joseph’s influence during his formative years as a musician. Henry Babu Joseph described the tour as an emotional reunion, revisiting cities where the band originally performed during its early years.

Beyond nostalgia, the series positions live music as a shared cultural experience, foregrounding musicianship, improvisation and collective energy over digital consumption. The concerts aim to introduce younger audiences to rock music in its most elemental form—unfiltered and performed live.

For BLR Airport, the collaboration reinforces its positioning as a cultural hub that supports live arts beyond transit spaces. Air India Express said its association reflects the airline’s wider engagement with India’s cultural ecosystem, including its ‘Tales of India’ initiative, which showcases indigenous art across its aircraft fleet.

Tribute to Human Bondage is powered by BrandMusiq and managed by StreaminLive. Tickets for the Mumbai show on 17 January at Fandom are available on SkillBox.