Music
A rocking reunion 22 years later, here’s the original members of Malaysia’s biggest Indie pop act.
As far as rock ‘n’ roll reunions go, you couldn’t have written a better script. Some 24 years ago, as the alternative scene was slowly simmering under the radar of mainstream consciousness, four teenage boys got together to form a band and crafted their own brand of “60’s crunchy pop fuzz”.
Although they had been friends, Radhi, Qi and brothers Ivan and Lam (all born in 1977, except for Ivan who’s a year older), first jammed together the day after they bumped into each other at the historic “Ikhlas ‘92” concert on Christmas Day, 1992. “I saw Zainal Abidin on stage that night and thought, that’s what I want to be!” says Radhi.
Ivan, Lam and Qi had already formed a metal outfit called Slime Balls, but Radhi’s presence altered the trajectory; and they swerved in the way of indie pop and grunge. “We had written a couple of songs, but we didn’t have a lyricist, nor a vocalist,” says Ivan. “Hence, you could say that Radhi completed us.”
Radhi also came up with the moniker OAG – short for Old Automatic Garbage – and the boys went all out in perfecting their playing and building their own underground cred. After about a year of gigging, and selling their own demos, the foursome received a call from a producer of a new record label. The producer was Paul Moss, representing Positive Tone, a label that would create their own history with a slew of award-winning local English language albums.
“We received an advance of RM500 for recording our first album and I had never felt so rich in my life back then!” recalls Radhi. They recorded the self-titled album “live” in one weekend, after which Ivan left the country to pursue his studies in Australia.
He would return for the album launch party at the Pyramid Supper Club in Damansara, in December 1994, where they played one of their most memorable shows. “All of us still remember that gig vividly,” says Qi. “And having all of our family members in the audience just made it extra special.”
The gig also happened to be the last time all four would play together. Lam left the band in 1995, also to pursue his studies overseas (New Zealand) and finally, Qi withdrew in 1999 due to personal reasons.
Radhi kept the OAG flying with a revolving door of new members over the years, but that original line-up will always be remembered for producing the biggest-selling local English album ever; eventually selling more than 75,000 copies (and at least another 200,000 pirated copies).
The idea for a reunion gig with the original-four in early 2016 was first mooted late last year by Qi, Lam and a couple of close friends. Of course, the fact that Ivan is now a medical practitioner in Glasgow, Scotland, made the plan much trickier than expected. Since then, Radhi, Lam and Qi have had their own mini reunions via a couple of jamming sessions.
As it became apparent that a full-fledged gig was near impossible to pull off in a short period of time, the guys looked to the middle of this year to make the much-anticipated event happen.
That didn’t stop them from getting together during Chinese New Year though. Ivan had returned to Kuala Lumpur to visit his parents, and the occasion was used for the four to reunite after close to 22 years.
At a jamming space in Tropicana in Petaling Jaya, Qi, Ivan and Lam had arrived first, before Radhi made his grand entrance. They hugged, and high-fived as the cameras from a small group of friends clicked away. They exchanged pleasantries and some naughty jibes, before plugging in their instruments for a rip-roaring jamming session.
With the volume turned up and their instruments plugged straight into the amps, the original members of OAG rocked out tunes they first jammed a quarter of a century ago. It started with “Spastic Youth”, then “Not!”, as well as “Horrible Adorable”.
Another tune was “A Chaos”, the very first song they had jammed together as OAG. There is now a plan to record it in a studio and for it to be released as a single. “We’ve never released this officially before, only on one of our demos,” says Lam, who is now a top advertising executive.
The guys then took a break and opened up a bagful of memories, as Radhi had brought along a ton of photos to trigger raw nostalgia. “I have kept all these memento through the years,” says Radhi, as they sifted through photos of their recording sessions, supermarket shows as well as those wild and fun underground gigs.
The book “How “60’s TV” Changed The 90s: The OAG Story” will be out in bookstores end of April, 2016.
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