After that exhilarating first New Year 1970 performance at Sachivalaya Gymkhana, it seemed like a big burden had been lifted from our shoulders. Six months of determination & hard work had finally paid off & we were exhausted & happy. For the next few days, we decided to lay low. There were no discussions about the band as we savored our first experience but we knew that it was just the beginning of a long struggle if we wanted to become true Rock musicians. It was the beginnings of the seventies & the finest decade of music composition was just about to start. All our idols were at their creative peak & were producing incredible music that was to define popular music to this day! As people started recognizing us as being serious music buffs, we were getting exposed to some of the fascinating music of the seventies. Bands like Led Zeppelin (Led Zeppelin1, 2, 3 & 4), Deep Purple (Deep Purple in Rock, Fireball, Machine Head), WHO (Tommy, Who’s next, Quadrophenia) were recording their finest music and we knew that we had an arduous but exciting journey ahead of us.
Our first task was to get our self a regular drummer. We needed somebody who was on the same wavelength & who was willing to put in the long hours that our dreams demanded. We checked out numerous drummers but were unable to really get anyone who could fit the bill. The enormous cost of drum sets & the excessive noise they make could have been the major deterrent towards the lack of availability! Disapproving parents was also a major reason. Also Rock music was not exactly the preferred music choice of aspiring Indian musicians of that time. Hindi Film music ruled the roast!
Compromising on our lofty ideals of getting the next ‘Ginger Baker’, we finally honed in on a gentleman who was much older than us and was actually playing for a Hindi Film Orchestra! Prakash Kenny was a draughtsman working for Siemens and in his spare time played the drums with a local group of musicians. He lived near our rehearsal pad in Mahim & was willing to learn! Thankfully he turned out to be a great sport & soon we started rehearing again. The final “Velvette Fogg “line up at that time was Wilfred Libera on Lead guitar, Prakash Bijlani on Rhythm Guitar, Shyam (Bablu) Lulla on Bass guitar, Prakash Kenny on Drums & yours truly on Vocals.
Now that we finally had a band together, all that we needed were a few performances to get started. As we were soon about to discover, it was not such an easy task after all! Nobody would give us an opportunity to perform as we had no reputation. All our attempts to please the older decision makers went in vain as there were no photographs, recordings, videos, press write ups etc to sell us. The reality of the market place hit us hard & we were sorely in need of some marketing heads.
In those days, ITC the tobacco giant company had a cigarette brand called SIMLA. To promote this brand & reach the young crowd, they had started an All India Rock band competition. It was already in its third year & had built up a strong reputation with some of India’s finest bands competing. Although we felt that we were too green to stand a chance in this competition, Bijlani decided that it was worth a try. At the least, it would give us a goal to aim for & a reason to make music! Thus it was just a day before the cutoff date for entries that we entered the SIMLA Beat contest. The battle of the Bands was scheduled for 10 am, 12 th July, 1970 at Shanmukananda Hall, King’s Circle. Seven Bombay bands were going to compete in this elimination round for a spot to represent Bombay in the All India finals.
Our first task was to make a set list of songs that not only represented the image we wanted to portray but was also easy enough for us to perform well. Having a grand total of just one show experience was not really helping us to find that ideal list of songs that would impress the judges. Our groups of friends were a big help as they served as great feedback to ensure that our feet were firmly on the ground & we did not attempt something silly. We decided to keep it simple and stuck with songs that were our favorites & fun to perform. Rock music is all about attitude and we were hoping that the judges would see that in us.
The Rolling Stones are a perfect example of a band that makes music that is simple and yet so powerful. Their raw appeal & rebellious attitude has moved millions of fans all over the world and they surprisingly continue to prosper even if they are seventy years old. Just imagine your grandfather as a Rock star & you will know what I mean! I am no particular fan of Mick Jagger because as a Singer I thought he just spat his words out & could barely carry a melody. Yet he was compelling enough for us to want to include in our set list for the competition. The song we chose was actually a cover of the Don Covay Soul hit of the sixties called Mercy Mercy. Simple & driving, this song, if played with the right spirit guarantees to get you going.
The Doors were a particularly favorite of the band & I was a great fan of Jim Morrison. The man had incredible charisma & the spell he cast as he sang with his deep voice was magical. His whispers that exploded into screams of ecstasy were a true Rocker’s delight! The lyrics were almost poetry while the music was played in a unique style, way different than any other band of that time. For one, they had no Bass player & their sound predominately featured a cheesy organ. The guitarist with his flamenco like strumming & the drummer with his staccato rolls completed the sound that was unlike any other the world was to ever see again. Playing their music was a sheer delight for our band but we faced a major problem as we had no keyboard player. Import controls & ridiculous 300% import duties in India made it impossible for good musical equipment to be available during those days. We were struggling with homemade guitars & amplifiers and the thought of getting an Organ player was far from our mind! Yet we loved the Doors & could not imagine performing without doing their songs. We finally chose “Soul Kitchen” from the first Doors album as it was simple & yet dramatic. The soft, almost whispering verses led to a chorus that was earth shattering. A simple song once again & yet very impressive when played live!
The Guitar was at the forefront of the Velvette Fogg sound & a band that came very close to the music we wanted to create was Credence Clearwater Revival. Being at their absolute creative best, we loved all their songs that had been released till then. It was a tough choice when we finally chose “Green River”, the title track of their latest album that we had got our hands on at that time. We wanted to stay away from the familiar “Proud Mary” so that our audience could always hear something new & refreshing from us.
One of our favorite Indian bands at that time was “The Savages”. They had a great mix of good musicianship with showmanship & they always pleased their fans with some great music. It was a huge & happy coincidence that a few years later the Savages & I developed a close bond but more about that later. A song that they performed very well was ‘Born to be Wild’ & this song introduced us to the band Steppenwolf. We loved the blues laced, against the establishment, drug influenced sound but we were certain that we did not want to perform “Born to be Wild”. That, as far as we were concerned, belonged to the Savages! We used to have long listening sessions those days which lasted hours, sometimes, through the night and the Steppenwolf first album was always a part of the playlist. It was then that the first song on that album ‘Sookie Sookie’ started appearing as a possibility to us. It was a dance track heavily influenced by the Black Soul music of those days. It was only recently that I discovered that the song was actually composed by Don Covay, a Soul legend. In fact, the Stones song we had selected was also written by him!
There was time left for one more song & by now we had started worrying if our set list was too eclectic for the crowd & the judges to handle! The bands & the kind of music we were going to play had almost never been performed before or so we thought. To play safe, we needed to have at least one song that could guarantee to please the audience just because it was well known. At that time, a song had just been released in Europe called ‘Venus’ that had become the rage all over the world. Starting with a solitary resounding guitar chord, it had a melody that was infectious & we decided to make it our last song for the competition.
We finally had a set list that Bijlani & I could live with! A thousand songs had passed through our music crazed minds and we were ready to start rehearsing the songs. However we were still raw at our musical instruments. In fact, Babloo still used a six string as a Bass guitar & we needed amplifiers & a practice pad that would allow long hours of loud music. The only way to make the grade would be to practice for all the spare hours we had after college. From that day onwards we set upon this task with unusual focus & dedication. Bijlani’s uncle had some guests occupying the empty flat that we used to rehearse in & Willy kindly offered his modest Byculla home for us to practice. Although it was a small place, we somehow managed to fit in! I used to often be with my mike in the passage outside his main door, with the neighbors looking in with amusement. Surprisingly, none of them complained! This was a huge compliment to us as Rock music is considered to be noisy & disturbing. In fact, they seemed highly supportive. It was as if they shared our dreams & wanted us to succeed in what they sensed was an important event in our lives.
For the next three months, the five of us practiced with our instruments almost every day. Bijlani kept all us on a tight leash & at no time were we allowed to miss a rehearsal. Fortunately, we loved what we were doing & there were no exams scheduled around that time. After rehearsals, I used to reach our Chembur Bungalow by 12 midnight & had to be out of the house by 7.30 am to reach college on time. This happened everyday for those three months & yet what was really hard work, seemed effortless & easy. We looked forward to every day as we inched slowly towards achieving our goal of getting that special Velvette Fogg sound that was echoing in our heads. It would not be long before that fateful day, 12th July, 1970, the day of eliminations of the 3rd SIMLA Beat contest would be upon us.
Nandu Bhende
Created By : NANDU On 2012-03-01 06:20:54
Back in the late sixties, as a young teenager who had just joined college, life was like a roller coaster ride. Sex, Drugs and Rock n’ Roll was the magic mantra in those flower power days. After girls, music was my paramount interest and I desperately wanted to be involved in its creation. Although I had no idea how to go about doing it, I was blessed to have been born at a time when it was at it’s creative best. The Beatles, Stones, Who, Doors, CCR, Jimi Hendrix and countless other great artistes were at their peak and new great music was being produced by the hour! The numerous beat shows in Bombay at that time, with bands like the Reaction, The Jets, Beat 4, The Savages etc. had got me hooked and I was ripe to join the Rockers of the world.
It was on the very first day of college, as I climbed the stairs to get to my new class that fate dealt its first hand. Another student asked me for directions to the same class and I asked him to join me. This was how I was to meet this young man who would go on to make such a big difference in my professional life. Prakash Bijlani, who played rhythm guitar, was an avid music freak. He was already an experienced guitar player as he had formed a group when he was in school in Bishops, Pune. He was very keen to form a band in college and within a few days of our meeting, I was recruited to be it’s new member. It wasn’t too clear what role I was to play but it seemed then that my enthusiasm and long hair were enough qualifications!
The founder members of this brand new group ’with no name’ were Prakash and I and we then set about looking for other like-minded music lovers to join up with us. We met up with Dick who was a foreign student from Africa whose biggest qualification was the possession of two electric Hofner guitars. At that time, just looking at the guitars was heaven for us, as good music instruments were unheard of. Dick agreed to join the band after much kowtowing but the only thing we had, besides our unbridled enthusiasm, was Prakash’s beat up Indian made Spanish guitar!
We used to go zooming down in my car with the system playing loud and pretending to be Rock stars. I used to sing along with the music and Prakash decided that I was not too bad as a singer. It was then decided that I could share the lead vocal chair along with him. To be fair, I had already done some singing as a school kid, along with my sister, when I sang for the Youth program on Radio. We used to sing Cliff Richard and Beatles songs with piano accompaniment from the staff pianist, Hubert. I could also keep the beat rather well and as there seemed to be no drummer in sight, Prakash decided that I should be the drummer too. Visions of the Dave Clark Five were shooting through my brains as we set off on yet another drive down Marine Drive. Prakash also had a music-loving neighbor, Babloo, who used to do violin tuitions and so we recruited him for the Bass guitar chair. We now had the beginnings of a band, Prakash on lead/vocals, Dick on rhythm/vocals, Babloo on Bass guitar and yours truly on Drums/vocals.
One day we took Dick’s electric guitars home and after some heavy tinkering, played them through transistor radios. It was truly exciting to hold the electric guitar in your hands and hear the sound emanating from the speaker and we really felt that we were getting somewhere. Unfortunately, Dick, who was older, did not feel so. He left in a huff when he realized that we were too green for his liking. I guess there was no way we could hold on to him just on the basis of our enthusiasm! What followed this event was an even bigger drawback and nearly the last straw. The incredible cost of a good drum set (Rs 3000) made me realize that there was no way I could ask my Dad for that kind of money and not get blown apart. I had to chicken out of the drummer’s stool and we were back to square one!
It was truly disheartening and for some time we felt that our dream of having a Rock band would stay just that. Fortunately it was not long before Prakash and I got our heads together and came up with a plan. This dual setback had got us into rethinking our strategy to get this band off the ground. We decided that it made more sense to team up with existing new musicians and try and get somewhere through them. Somebody who had more experience, more money and more importantly some equipment!
It was around this time that my cousin, Nissim arrived from the States with a Fender electric guitar and an Ampeg reverb amplifier in tow. He became an instant hero in our eyes and we started frequenting the rehearsals that the band he was trying to put together were having at his place. This was the first time that we met semi professional musicians with some experience. These were exciting times as we actually talked to people who had performed shows and owned their own equipment. We had already picked up a lot our self but here we got an opportunity to get guidance from experienced hands. My cousin, Nissim, was a great help, as not only did he have the best equipment, he also had the best music!
In those days, good music equipment was rare to find. A good guitar, a foreign amplifier, a wah wah pedal were worth their weight in gold in India. I remember asking the sound systems guys in the city for reverb and nobody had heard about such a thing! To make western music in such trying times was indeed a miracle but there was no way that we were going to be stopped. I sometimes marvel at myself, at the determination with which we went about getting this done and I must admit that Prakash was an incredible help. Together, we seemed to surmount all the hurdles that presented themselves at regular intervals.
We spend our days struggling with the task of making music that could sound decent without any decent equipment. Babloo bought a second hand homemade six-string guitar and we decided to pass it off like a bass guitar. Prakash bought a new Indian electric guitar from a local music store while I bought a mike, which we would connect to archaic Ahuja amplifiers that made more noise than music. We were desperately in need of rescue and just as all looked lost, a miracle took place that was to fast-forward our entry into show business. My cousin Nissim got an offer to join one of Bombay’s best bands "The Combustibles" and we managed to convince his former guitar player, Willy Libera, to join us. Not only was he better experienced than all of us, he also came up with a show for our band to play! The New Years’ Eve Ball at the Sachivalaya Gymkhana was to become the day when we were to make our professional entry on the music scene for the very first time.
In our numerous preoccupations and countless crisis’s, we surprisingly had clean forgotten to name our new band. We also had no drummer till now! We decided to solve the drummer problem first by hiring a professional musician even if it meant paying him the entire amount that we were to receive for the show. Some friends recommended Erwin, the son of the famous Bombay trumpeter, Chick Chocolate, and we promptly landed up at his house to request him to perform with us. Thankfully he agreed and we set up rehearsals in Prakash’s uncle’s empty flat. We also had to hurriedly prepare a list of songs that could befit a show of this nature. Fortunately, there was another band playing along with us. Mickey Correa and his band was one of Bombay’s old standards and we were thankful that we would not have to attempt to do any Waltzes. That would have been an absolute disaster! Our first song list included a fair amount of the Beatles, the Stones, CCR, Bee Gees, Jimi Hendrix, Steppenwolf and a song, which is identified with me even today, "Nights in White Satin".
The next fortnight was hectic as we hired some amplifiers and got ready for Erwin to come with his drum set for a few rehearsals. In all this mess, we had still not managed to name the band. Willy came in one day for rehearsals and said that they needed the name immediately as the advertisements had to be given to the papers. For many days we had been toying with the idea of a few names but none of us could agree on one. One idea was to have a name with the standard ’s’ at the end, like the Toys or the Savages but I was dead against that concept as it had been done to death. However, I could not come up with any name that would not get corrupted with a ’s’ added to it. We finally got tired of it all and reluctantly gave the name "the Love Machines" after a book I happened to be reading at that time. Willy promptly passed on the name to the organizers but as the show date approached, we were already embarrassed by the name and desperately wanted to change it.
It was too late for the ads but as we rehearsed, the concept of the band was slowly evolving in Prakash’s and my head. Jimi Hendrix was a major influence on us and his "Purple Haze" was one of our favorite tracks. We were also reading some foreign Rock magazines where the new drug influenced music with it’s psychedelic imagery was highlighted. Suddenly the beginnings of the name hit Prakash and I. It had to signify a vibe and the words velvet and fog were used in different sentences in an article. Prakash decided to put them together and voila, we had a name! Yet somehow ’Velvet Fog" did not seem to work for me. I decided to change the spellings! Those days I was crazy about French (maybe because I was in love with my French teacher!) and so Velvet became "Velvette" and Fog was changed to "Fogg" after Dr Fogg from Jules Verne’s “Around the world in Eighty days". (That movie was some trip!) We had finally come up with a name that everybody could agree upon and be proud of. It was only much later that we heard that Mel Torme, the famous singer, was known as Velvet Fog. In fact, I don’t think we knew Mr. Torme existed!
Finally the day arrived and we were naturally nervous. All our friends and cousins had bought tickets to witness the occasion and as our turn to play approached, I actually felt relieved. After months of struggle, we had finally reached this point and it was gratifying to know that dreams can be realized. You only had to dream those dreams hard enough! The show went off rather well for a first performance and after that fateful day on 1st January 1970, life for me was never the same again! Nandu Bhende
Created By : NANDU On 2012-03-01 06:16:04
Networking is all about meeting people & nothing is more important when we meet people for the first time than first impressions. Did you know that it takes just a quick glance, maybe three to seven seconds, for someone to evaluate you when you meet for the first time? In this short time, the other person forms an opinion about you based on your appearance, your body language, your demeanor, your mannerisms, and how you are dressed.
Clinical psychologists have said that we subconsciously do it, as it is a part of our survival instinct. It comes naturally to us and that even though we know it is not an accurate way of evaluating another person, we still do it. I would like to warn you that while we instantly judge others, we also slip up on signals we ourselves give out, which makes us arrive at business or social events looking anxious, shy or hostile, without realizing it.
With every new encounter, you are evaluated and yet another person’s impression of you is formed. These first impression can be nearly impossible to reverse or undo, making those first encounters extremely important, for they set the tone for all the relationships that follows.
So, whether they are in your career or social life, it’s important to know how to create a good first impression. Here are some useful tips to help you do this.
Be on Time
Someone you are meeting for the first time is not interested in your "good excuse" for running late. Plan to arrive a few minutes early. And allow flexibility for possible delays in traffic or taking a wrong turn. Arriving early is much better that arriving late, hands down, and is the first step in creating a great first impression.
Be Yourself, Be at Ease
If you are feeling uncomfortable and on edge, this can make the other person ill at ease and that’s a sure way to create the wrong impression. If you are calm and confident, so the other person will feel more at ease, and so have a solid foundation for making that first impression a good one.
Present Yourself Appropriately
Of course physical appearance matters. The person you are meeting for the first time does not know you and your appearance is usually the first clue he or she has to go on.
But it certainly does not mean you need to look like a model to create a strong and positive first impression. Unless you are being interviewed to become one!
No. The key to a good impression is to present yourself appropriately.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and so the "picture" you first present says much about you to the person you are meeting. Is your appearance saying the right things to help create the right first impression?
Start with the way you dress. What is the appropriate dress for the meeting or occasion? In a business setting, what is the appropriate business attire? Suit, blazer, casual? And ask yourself what the person you’ll be meeting is likely to wear – if your contact is in advertising or the music industry, a business suit may not strike the right note!
For business and social meetings, appropriate dress also varies between countries and cultures, so it’s something that you should pay particular attention to when in an unfamiliar setting or country. Make sure you know the traditions and norms.
And what about your grooming? Clean and tidy appearance is appropriate for most business and social occasions. A good haircut or shave. Clean and tidy clothes. Neat and tidy make up. Make sure your grooming is appropriate and helps make you feel "the part".
Appropriate dressing and grooming help make a good first impression and also help you feel "the part", and so feel more calm and confident. Add all of this up and you are well on your way to creating a good first impression.
Finally A Winning Smile!
"Smile and the world smiles too."* So there’s nothing like a smile to create a good first impression. A warm and confident smile will put both you and the other person at ease. So smiling is a winner when it comes to great first impressions. But don’t go overboard with this – people who take this too far can seem insincere and slippery, or can be seen to be "lightweights"; not to be taken seriously!
Conclusion
Yes, it is said that humans take only 7 seconds to judge another person This is exactly why people feel that first impressions are very important; important enough to say that the first impression is the last impression!!!
Created By : NANDU On 2012-03-01 06:04:44
Please call studio for details.
Created By : nandu On 2012-03-01 04:59:15
Dear Sir,
Can you please help to get your album copy of Non Stop Disco Zamana And Disco maaza.
Created By : vinodparulekar On 2011-07-18 02:23:39
|
