Cats In Love

Trudging on and taking their cause further, Cats In Love will be unleashing its sound and fury of no holes-barred vintage rock n’ roll at Groove Junction (behind the Balai Bomba) in Desa Sri Hartamas tonight, Tuesday night (Feb 24). Show starts at 9pm. Admission: Free.

I caught this act not so long ago at a cosy little nightspot called VR1, where the management provides indie bands with a platform to strut their stuff.

Free live entertainment for the management since they didn't pay the bands anything. What the musicians earned came from the RM25 cover that they charged per head; no free drinks with that. How sad. They bands do this once a month at the same venue, located on the ground floor of Damansara Intan, across the Sprint Highway from Taman Tun Dr Ismail.

The crowd was made up of regulars, the band's friends and a couple of journalists, namely Ann Marie Chandy from The Star and Errol de Cruz from NST.

The bands in the spotlight that night were Square Circles, Cats In Love and Soft Touch, all of whom played sets of original compositions and then covered various hits and popular numbers in the last set.

Square Circles, led by Sujesh Pavithran, was very innovative with Sujesh on acoustic guitar, accompanied by Rama Lohan on lead guitar and two friends on tabla and acoustic bass guitar.

A nice set with commentary songs on what's been happening since the March 8 general election. Square Circles, currently producing their debut album, is using such gigs as a long warmup before releasing and touring the album.

Rama Lohan's Cats In Love followed and it was really great to see how this axeman had incorporated his fave Lynyrd Skynyrd and southern rock and blues guitar riffs into his fretwork, complemented very ably by some fiery Deep Purple-inspired keyboard work froma very young girl named Catherine (I think).

Followibg that was Peter Hassan Brown and Markiza's Soft Touch who did some very poppish stuff, again original, but their's was focused on more global issues like global warming and such, their most memorable effort being a very catchy piece called Song for the Polar Bear.

So, I'm going to post this now. amd hope that you all pass this to your friends.

Gren's friends remember him.

Late musician Grenville Pereira, who played keyboards for famous groups like the Falcons and Alleycats will be honoured by a multitude of friends on March 8.
The list of acts scheduled to perform at this tribute includes his old buddies from the Alleycats and Falcons, plus Antonio (Sweet September, methinks), Alphonse Jerome (La Viva), Heavy Machine, Bala, SWV, Fredo (Flinstones), Vijay David, NRG, Havoc, Extract 7, Hydra, Cash Band and probably more.
The music marathon kicks off at noon on March 8 and should go on until 1am at the Armada Hotel's Wharf. The hotel is located just off the Federal Highway at the PJ Hilton turnoff. If you're heading there from KL, then PJ Hilton's on your left and Armada is on the right. If you're coming from the other end, well, go do your math.
Cold beer at RM10 and food at RM10 per serving.
Call Armada (03-7954-6888), Syam Nair (o12-257-5595) or Pius Benezi (017-884-2414).
ALL proceeds will be donated to the St Nicholas Home for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Penang, where Gren first kicked off his music career with a bunch of blind boys.

The Ol' Skool/CJ's Saga

Whoops. That was a long break, wasn't it? We had quite a bit happening actually and it looks like the smoke has somewhat cleared in the PJ area.
At Jalan Gasing's Ol' Skool Bistro, there was a management hustle going on over the last few months, but it hit the 'selesai' factor a week ago and CalvinG (who's been away in Sabah, opening another nightspot apparently) is back managing Ol' Skool.
His managing partner (the vindaloo chef, no less) is moving out, lock, stock and barrel, and (Insyallah) should be headlining at what has so far been Talking Heads.
The new name - either CJ's or CeeJay's, depending on what the numbers man says.
CJ, who celebrated his birthday and farewell last Tuesday, says that his new nightspot (located in Section 11, PJ, opposite Univeristy Hospital) will also feature live music everynight.
For the record, while CalvinJ was over in Sandakan getting his new place organised, CJ took overv the reins at Ol' Skool Bistro which was kinda running out of steam and got things rocking and rolling again.
Working on feedback from the patrons and musicians, he got things sorted out and well, Ol' Skool Bistro's getting packed again.
It's a formula he will be using again at his new outlet in Section 11.
Well, stay tuned to this and we'll keep you posted on what the music package is gonna be at both Ol' Skool and CJ's new lock, stock and two smoking barrels.
Take care.

Welcome!

We're starting the new year with a friendly blog on live local music since everyone else is on to politix and obamamia. There's a lot going in the music world in malaysia and loads of local talent that keeps going unnoticed.
Most media sites talk about the new music of deejays and synthesised house music and ignoring the hours of hard work put in by musicians and singers.
So, this blog will focus on live stuff that goes at pubs, clubs and concert stages.
If you have something constructive to contribute please do so. This includes your own favourite places and bands.
Do try to keep the recording scene out of this blog as it takes up enough space everywhere. We're looking at giving aspiring artistes who slog for hours every night the break they deserve.
But if you do hear of recording artistes going live onstage somewhere do let us know and we'll head out there and review their minus-one trax.
Our team will be covering all kinds of music so don't let music genres stop you from writing in to us.
And always feel free to forward this to your friends so that they will know where to go and spend their valuable time and money.
The email address for this blog is themusicdetective@gmail.com.
Bye for now. Let's hear it for good music.