Those Foggy days…(part 1)

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!

Out of the Box

Yesterday, I got a chance to attend a very interesting event. It was about a game that I, as a Rock singer/ Voice trainer have really little to do with but probably occupies the maximum space in the leisure time of most Indians. I am talking about Cricket, a game that has millions of dedicated fans in this country. The banquet Hall of the Taj Land’s End was swarming with some of the greatest icons of the game and the occasion was the book launch of Harsha Bhogle’s “Out of the Box”, a book about Cricket in changing times.

Sachin Tendulkar launched the book in the presence of an audience that comprised of Lalit Modi, Sanjay Manjrekar, and Rajdeep Sardesai along with stalwarts of other Indian games like Dhanraj Pillai, Michael Ferreira etc. There were also a sprinkling of film stars, page 3 celebrities besides the dozens of photographers and Press professionals.

In the panel discussion that followed the book launch, the subject of the losing popularity of Test cricket to 20/20 cricket seemed to become the main topic. Lalit Modi, as CEO of 20/20 and BCCI official, was roundly criticized by Rajdeep Sardesai for the shoddy and uneven development of the game while Lalit Modi defended his position with the argument that the consumer was king. It was also interesting to see Cricket players and officials discuss the development of other sports and games in the country although the declining fate of Cricket in the rest of the world was also loudly lamented!

As usual, the discussion was great entertainment and food for thought etc. but the ‘take home’ was sadly missing! Except maybe for what somebody, who was not a part of the panel discussion, said when he was asked about his suggestions to increase the popularity of Test cricket. It was the little genius, Sachin Tendulkar himself! Taking a leaf from his own experience, he remembered the time when, as an eight year old school boy he went to watch the India v/s West Indies Test match in Mumbai. It was an experience, the memory of which was forever etched in his mind and it ignited his passion to start him on a journey that would lead him to finally become of the greatest cricketers of all times!

If only BCCI allowed school children to watch Test Cricket free on certain days, it could lead them to become Test fans for the rest of their lives. Just a 10% success rate would be enough to guarantee the proliferation of Cricket for generations to come!