Half a decade of musical journey

During a musical journey of nearly fifty years since 1968 I have been involved in a number of musical bands. These involvement s wer e either as a player (member) in the respective bands or accompanied by them during performances. Many of them are just blurred and distant memories while some are as fresh as the morning dew.

In 1968, which was my first year at secondary school, I joined a band without any name as a drummer – then I had never touched a guitar and was completely without any skill with the instrument. For our first stage performance in late 1968 (third school term) we used the name Saratok Playboys.

Our band was made up of all Form One teenagers aged between 14 and 17 – those days some Iban young men entered Form One at the age of twenty; my brother Jon who was in Form 1A in 1968 was aged 20 and became a member of the senior football team whose members were mostly younger than him.

Led by Daniel who later became a penghulu, our four-piece band comprised John Timbang (now deceased) as rhythm guitarist and vocalist (he was very much into songs by Cliff Richard), Kenneth Sang Tuah (a banker and later a priest) on bass guitar and yours truly on drums.

I did not join other bands during my five years in SMK Saratok though a few other bands made up of school boys were formed and some did accompaniment for songs that I performed on stage in the school between 1969 and 1972. However, I can neither recall the names of those bands nor their members’. Between 1973 and 1979 I played in various school and varsity bands either as lead or rhythm guitarist as well as vocalist. One of those bands was Revival of Elvis Presley Band that I led in 1977, formed in Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Minden Campus in Penang immediately after the demise of King of Rock and Roll Elvis Aaron Presley on 16 August 1977.

We started with me on lead guitar, Carter Ballang Kapong (Kelabit) on rhythm – Idris Jalla (now Dato Sri) also played for a while with us on rhythm – while Joing Mideh (Bidayuh) played bass and Sabahan Makibin Bodok (now deceased) was on drums. On and off, Penangite Edwin Khoo, a winner of one national guitar award, also joined us as lead guitarist, especially when we performed outside campus where I had to be ‘Elvis’. Edwin did Elvis music – both by The Jordanaires and Sweet Inspiration – extremely well. In 1978 another talented Sarawakian Aldram (Bidayuh) entered USM as First Year Science student.

A man with years of guitar experience and talent Aldram (now Haji Mohammad Adaham) brought some changes to our genre. In addition to rock and roll we also started playing hard rock, especially popular hits by Deep Purple, Hollies, Bad Company and others. We won a top place at one contest held at an open space, Youth Park, Penang in 1978, thanks to an almost perfect rendition of ‘Highway Star’ by the talented fingers of Aldram and my very much younger ‘rock’ voice.

This reminds me of an earlier ‘partnership’ with the popular Itoled ‘Blues Gang’ in 1978 when they played in USM’s Lecture Theatre A where I was priveleged to perform two rock and roll numbers ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ and ‘Hound Dog’ passing my ‘audition’ in front of Penang’s RTM director with flying colours. He immediately slotted me for a performance at their local show scheduled about two weeks later.

This performance with then highly ranked and widely popular Blues Gang was spectacular but over time it has become a distant and almost blurred memory. In 1979 at Rajang Teachers Col lege (MPR and now IPG Rajang), Binatang (now Bintangor) where I taught for almost five years, necessity put me into leading musical role again.

Together with few other talented lecturers we initiated a band ‘The Rajang Sound’ with me on lead guitar, Sebastian Legak (now deceased) an Iban was on rhythm guitar, Alias Abu Bakar (Malay) played the bass and Sagim Suar (a Bidayuh) was on drums while Josak Siam (Bidayuh) took to the keyboard and sometime did vocals too. Later three others, namely Carter (my aforesaid USM buddy), a Kelabit and Solomon Bulan (also a Kelabit), Midil Demang (Selako) alternately stood in as rhythm guitarists.

Also in our band as vocalist (he was more into Cliff Richard) was another Iban colleague Michael Nelson (now a pastor). Our repertoire included hits by Elvis, Cliff Richard, The Shadows, Hollies, Bee Gees, The Dawn, Credence Clear Water Revival (CCR), Deep Purple, Bad Company, Lobo, John Denver, P Ramlee and a few other popular artistes or bands.

We took part in the Education Department’s sponsored PSKPP (Pesta Sukan dan Kebudayaan Perkhidmatan Pendidikan) contest at Brooke Hall of then Batu Lintang Teachers College (BLTC and now IPG Batu Lintang), Kuching in 1981. We were neither top three nor last three out of the nine teams taking part. But it was an interesting episode as all those attending had to become temporary BLTC trainees for being its temporary hostels’ occupants. It reminded me of life in school’s dormitories between 1968 and 1972, except for the latter’s cleaner and at times, sparkling toilet bowls.

Later while serving in various schools there were a number of occasions where I played with bands whose names and members my memory is not so gifted to recall. These included encounters outside the schools, namely at functions in and outside Sarawak. For example, in 1990 I was priveleged to perform in Alor Setar in front of then Minister of Education Sdr. Anwar Ibrahim (later Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim) and Regent of Kedah (now Kedah Sultan) at a dinner held in conjunction with Malaysian School Principals Conference and Forum on Education. Only two from Sarawak attended.The other principal who attended with me was Dona Babel who headed Kuching’s SMK Tun Openg. She later became Kuching Resident and then served for one term as Samariang State Assembywoman.

Lately I had the opportunity to perform at two functions in Kuching and was given backing by two bands respectively. On 7 October during ‘Lanterns of Unity’ walk at Kuching Waterfront I teamed up with a Siburan-based band D’Pilip’s led by Pilip Obet. Others in the bands are Pilip’s three sons Erol, Andy and Kid plus another keyboardist Sam.

Pilip is the son of late Obet Amin who played saxophone in a band together with legendary Iban artiste late Brangko Bayang of the ‘Balang Semaya’ fame. D’Pilip’s was extremely good for rock and roll accompaniment. Last Saturday, a day after my 63rd birthday, was an awesome moment of music and songs with Kuching’s renowned Maya Band led by Johnson.

This Muara Tuangbased band has been performing since 1980s and has backed twice Elvis of Sarawak titleholder Wilfred Vincent Ragam for his Iban songs recording in the 80s. Naughty lban emcee and artiste the late Reynolds Gregory at a function added an ‘s’ to Maya and became ‘Mayas’ which means ‘orangutan’ in Iban earning a great laughter from the audience.

Johnson told me this before I appeared with them for a performance at my beloved cousin Jennifer Lendai Kundat’s wedding at Riverside Majestic Hotel, Kuching on 21 October. Maya is a six-piece band. Among others, some popular bands in the state that I had the opportunity to perform with (since the 60s) included D’ Rangers (of Oya Camp, Sibu); The Royalists (Kuching); D’ Claps (Siburan) and Nasib Teruna (Sibu).

A band is like a family, an institution. There must be a total understanding, giving and taking attitude to hold it together or a crack will cause the band to disintegrate and its performance lacklustre and uninspired. To be a good band leader, one must make sure these virtues are fully practised and realised.