Mumbai hosts first concert after deadly attacks

By Shilpa Jamkhandikar

MUMBAI (Reuters) - British rock band Jethro Tull and Indian musician Anoushka Shankar hope to get Mumbai back on its feet with a concert Friday, barely a week after at least 171 people were killed in militant attacks in the city.

It will be the first major concert in India's financial capital since 10 Islamist gunmen went on a three-day rampage at top luxury hotels, a railway station and a Jewish center.

The Live Earth India concert on December 7, another event featuring international artists, was called off in the wake of the attacks.

"Some people might consider it disrespectful that we are having a concert but hopefully a majority will realize what this is about and what it says," Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson said at a press conference.

The band, on a tour of New Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore, was scheduled to perform in Mumbai last week. The November 29 event was postponed following the attacks.

Proceeds from the Mumbai concert would go to a charity set up for victims of the attacks.

For Shankar, going ahead with the concert was a message in itself.

"As a musician, this is how I speak, how I express the anger within me," she told reporters.

"Our entire tour has been changed by these events and even though the structure of the concert may remain the same, emotionally perhaps we are saying a lot more."

(Writing by Tony Tharakan; Editing by Paul Tait)