A HANWORTH resident had a special reason to look forward to the worldwide premiere of the Matrix Reloaded release last week - because he counts it's Hollywood stars amongst his group of friends.

Johnny Kalsi, a drummer from Bear Road, was looking forward to meeting up with his friend, Laurence Fishburne who plays Morpheus in the blockbuster sequel.

They met five years ago, whilst Johnny was playing with one of his bands, The Afro Celt Sound System, in the House of Blues in West Hollywood. Having already seen Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis in the audience, he was surprised when Laurence Fishburne came backstage to see him. Laurence explained that the reason he had come to the gig was because he and Keanu Reeves had listened to their music non-stop during their hours of training for the original Matrix film. They chatted for ages and then swapped numbers.

They have subsequently met up in New York when Johnny went there with his other group The Dhol Foundation, and London, when Laurence was last over, when they went to Harrods for a meal.

Johnny said: Laurence says he was really inspired by the Dhol Foundation and loves the music.'' And of Laurence himself, he is admiring: He's a really safe bloke. A real gent with a great heart and soul. A man of great karma and a seriously intelligent brain. Just a fantastic guy.''

They have kept in touch and Johnny is hoping to meet up with Laurence after the dust from the premiere has settled. He said: I don't want to be part of the hangers on. I'm just a poor bloke from Hanworth, I'll meet him anywhere, but not during all the publicity for the film.''

Johnny himself, has an impressive history. His drumming band the Dhol Foundation has been used for three major blockbusters already: a chase scene in the Bond movie, Tomorrow Never Dies, Martin Scorsese's Gang's of New York and the shortly to be released, The Hulk. He describes the music as leading the way in Asian underground dance music.

He is also due to play at Glastonbury this year, along with setting up a new drummers class in Toronto and touring the US, where he will appear on shows like Jay Leno, David Letterman and Donnie and Marie Osmond.

He has also been asked to play during Nelson Mandela's forthcoming official visit to Ireland. The Afro Celt's new album, called Seed', was released three weeks ago on the Real World label and he is due to finish the Dhol Foundation's second album shortly.

May 30, 2003 12:00