MUMBAI: �Shut up and vote', an initiative to encourage the urban youth to vote by Tata tea and Bangalore based NGO Janaagrah plans to conduct a five city music tour across Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.

Bangalore based urban Indian rock band Thermal and a Quarter have been roped in to convey the message.

Thermal and a Quarter, the three member band comprises Bruce Lee Mani, the guitarist and vocalist, Rajeev Rajgopal, the bass guitarist and vocalist and Rzhude on drums. The campaign's Head of media communications and marketing Sarath says, As we were targeting the youth, music was the best platform to reach out and convey the message in a format they understand. It would be a free for all concert across all cities....

While designing the campaign, Sarath mentions that Thermal and a Quarter were the obvious choice. We didn't want the youth to forget about the message after the musical extravaganza and this band sounded committed for the cause. They came up with the lyrics of �Shut up and vote' within 48 hours and we knew the lyrics would connect with the youth....

Through an earlier campaign 'Jaago Re! One Billion Votes', the group had launched a website where youth could register online and get directions for the registration process.

Says Bruce Lee Mani, Through �Shut up and vote' campaign we want to urge the young educated urban youth to stop complaining about the inefficiency of the ruling parties and vote....

The five city tour starts on 20 March and will go on till 28 March, at popular venues across these cities starting with Chennai, with the final leg on 28 March at Bangalore. (Scroll down for the date and venue details of the tour). Mani elaborates, It would be a 90 minute show at each city with the opening by local bands from the city....

The band has penned lyrics for the track �Shut up and vote' for the campaign and would be singing their earlier songs as well. The entire show would be configured around the voting theme. Apart from the theme song, we have several songs in the last decade which are relevant to the campaign....

Thermal and a Quarter had recently voiced their opinions over the Bangalore moral policing issue with their themed track, �One small love' labeling the move as an act of violence in name of culture.

Apparently, the band has also shot a video directed by Rani Jeyaraj and has uploaded it on youtube. Says Sarath, We uploaded the video on youtube about three days back and the video already had 10,000 hits. There has been a phenomenal response to the music by the band and it serves our purpose as the video has facilitated debates and the youth is devoting mindspace and time for the cause. We hope that this awareness gets converted into votes....

The planners have used all media platforms to create awareness about the cause. There are communities floated on online social networking sites to invite youngsters. We have tied up with Radio one who is communicating the message across all stations through their ad spots as well as the content. On the print side, we have tied up with Midday as we are targeting the same TG and would be carrying ads in their newspapers....

Radio One national marketing head and Banglore station head Shyju Varkey comments, There are a lot of activities lined up to sensatise the listeners about how their vote can make a difference. We started off with encouraging listeners to log on to Jaago re website and register themselves across all out stations. With the band �Thermal and a Quarter' performing a five city tour, we are radio partners for the event and would have contests, interviews about the band....

The NGO Janaagrah has flagged a campaign – �One Billion votes' last year when Tata Tea approached them. The campaign was then termed as 'Jaago Re! One Billion Votes' with Tata Tea joining their Jaago re theme to the cause.

Launched about six months back, 'Jaago Re! One Billion Votes' already boasts of four and a half lakh youth registering themselves from 37 cities.

Click her for the video of 'Shut up and vote' by Thermal and a Quarter.

Date - City - Venue

March 20 - Chennai - IT Madras

March 23 - Kolkatta - Presidency College

March 25 - Delhi - Pragati Maidan

March 27 - Mumbai - D Y Patil

March 28 - Bangalore - St. Joseph