Started by Mr. Gregory D'Souza, the Sunshine band completed 50 years recently. Mr. Gregory D'Souza who trained under Ellu Pinto started the Sunshine band group in 1956 along with 10 other members. Despite the initial hiccups in the first 3years it became a full fledged band from 1959 onwards and was popularly known as "Perampalli Band."

Today Sunshine band has total of 20 people making up three troupes. This helps them to handle up to 3 events at any given time. Franky, son of Gregory D'Souza has been looking after the day to day management of the Sunshine band for over 25 years with the support of his younger brother, Praveen. The band members play a variety of musical instruments including Trumpet, Clarinet, Saxophone, Baritone & Base, Base Drum, Side Drum and Cymbal and play traditional, folk, popular Indian and Western tunes to suit the occasion. So it is not surprising that, the name of SunShine band is heard even outside its long-established base of Mangalore-Udupi coastal regions and in distant places like Bangalore, Shivamogga, Karwar, Koppa, Tirupati, and others. Over the years Sunshine band has actively played in a range of Christian as well as Hindu community events.

Although the honors and accolades have been showering from small associations, the band deserves a much greater recognition for perpetuating this distinctive symbol of our culture. Moreover, there is perceptible feeling growing amongst the brass band enthusiasts that apart from honors, the brass bands should be actively supported in their mission of preserving this beautiful art form by making it essential feature of our way of life. Perhaps the waning popularity evident by the fading of its presence from many a cultural events including some catholic weddings is the major cause of worry for brass bands of coastal Karnataka. Although it is common to see NCC cadets playing the brass band as well as some schools have started to have their own bands, the real challenge would be maintaining the bond of brass band with our popular culture. Today when the world is reinventing every aspect of our everyday life with technological revolution, will the next generation come forward to carry forward this tradition without succumbing to passing trends in music? That is what concerns Franky and his group. Franky is hopeful and he is determined to carry forward the legacy of the brass band with a pledge that he will not let the tradition of the brass band die out in his life time.

Current Members of Sunshine band are:

Clarinet
Mr Gregory
Mr Mervin
Mr Philip. B
Mr Dolphy

Trumpet
Mr Franky
Mr Jacob
Mr Emmanuel
Mr Hilary
Mr Robert
Mr  Praveen P
Mr Ravindra

Saxophone
Mrs Priya Jasmine
Mr Chinnappa

Baritone & Base 
Mr Michael
Mr William
Mr Denzil
Mr Dany

Base Drum
Mr Sadhu
Mr J. Franky

Side Drum
Mr Praveen
Mr Jaya
Mr George

Cymbal
Mr Naveen
Mr Mahesh

Franky of Sun Shine Brass Band, can be contacted at:

Phone:
+91-820-2580393
+91-820-2581666
+91-9845152705

Address:
Perampalli, Udupi (C/o: Adarsh Bakery, Ambagilu)

Also read in Mangalorean.Com: Perampalli SunShine band turns into Gold