RIFLE RANGE BOY

1950s P Ramlee The teachers thought he was mental. Living in his own world, humming to the tunes that emanate from his mind, they were sure he would end up as a nobody. Some even toyed with the idea of sending him off for a psychological assessment, and perhaps to a lesser taxing environment, unlike the grammar school that he is placed in. Collectively they thought he belonged to the loony bin. Surprise, surprise, 20 years on, he was composing music, making movies and winning international awards for his acting skills. The boy grew up to be the one and only, the legendary P Ramlee, a national treasure.   An elderly auntie once told me that she and her husband had decided to leave their first home in Lorong Seratus Tahun in Penang. They were particularly disturbed by the loitering of boys along the roadside, strumming away their guitars and crooning into the deep of the night,  crooning in their high pitched squeaky voices.  They were not thrilled by their unkempt beehive ...

Even before Alleycats came to the local music scene, there was a 15-year-old girl creating waves with her song, 'Kereta Lembu' which is kind of a classic now. She started singing at the age of 13 and carved a name for herself through Juara Kugiran in 1969. After cutting a few albums in the garage music genre and living a 7-year matrimonial life with Adnan Othman (a fellow musician who sang together) which produced a daughter, she left the country. I am referring to the famous singer of Malay songs of the 70s, Helen Velu (Halina Abdul Wahid). I just happened to hear her song on the radio. It was a plagiarized version of LaBelle's Lady Marmalade called 'Senyuman dan Kerlingan". She is now residing in LA and makes periodic returns to the motherland to perform. Helen Velu 2007   Voulez-vous coucher avec moi (ce soir)? ("Do you want to sleep with me (tonight)?" )

Concluding the trilogy of 'What my children got me for my last birthday to get self indulgent and get off breathing down their necks' is a CD of Alleycats' 1987 album 'Aku Kerinduan' (I am missing someone). I am sure nobody would go out to buy this particular CD. It was probably a 'buy 1 free 1' offer after they had bought 'Do Re Mi' (the DVD) and Adele's Live in King Albert's. But I am not complaining... Alleycats - lineup which kept on changing again and again over the years. Shan, the other sibling, disappeared from the scene many years ago. Starting jamming at their town house in Lorong Seratus Tahun in Penang, where FG and WSD crossed paths many years ago, they have reached heights that no Malaysian band has reached. Alleycats always invokes fond memories of meeting back stage in DTSP in USM during one of their many performances there. Back stage, they were just regular guys, no frills, no prima donnas, and the backstage ...

Just recently, the family of a now-deceased local legend and half of the longest standing Malaysian band Alleycats, Loga, was in the limelight for the wrong reasons. It was discovered after a fiery mishap in their modest rented house that his family members were in dire straits despite Loga's stature in the music scene. Ahmad Nifsu He made the same mistake shared by many legends of yesteryear. Like P.Ramlee's numerous strokes of ingenuity which were wholly copyrighted by Shaw Corporation until late, royalty from Alleycat's albums goes straight to the record companies. All there are left with are fond memories and 't erima kaseeeh ' from fans. Many Tamil screen legends were left in a similar predicament. V.K. Ramasamy , who had been in umpteen movies from the 50s all through the 80s, died a poor man depending on friends' goodwill to do the final rites. Then there was legendary Malay singer of the early 60s, R Azmi, who enjoyed singing so much that he wou...