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The immense staying power of sheer talent
The Alleycats line-up during the 1980s. |
THEY gave us evergreen hits like Sampaikan Salam, Sekuntum Mawar Merah, Hingga Akhir Nanti and a host of other chart-busters.
But they were also loved for their mean covers of favourite pop numbers and rock ballads, ranging from songs by The Beatles and Deep Purple to more recent Robbie Williams and Maroon 5 hits.
This versatility and ability to keep up with the times earned the Alleycats a huge fan base keeping them timeless. Afro-haired brothers David and Loganathan Arumugam were instrumental in the band’s popularity.
David’s first band was called the Super Jets. The six-piece band was a hit with the American soldiers on leave in Penang from the war in Vietnam. About this time, David and Super Jets drummer Albert Choo were also trying to form a new band.
David quit school mid-way through Form 5 and formed the Alleycats with Loga and another brother Shanmugam, who played lead guitar, Khoo Eng An aka Johnson Khoo (rhythm guitar), Silly Hock (bass) and Choo on drums.
But David felt the new band was still not ready to perform in public, and formed another group called The Beads which entered the inaugural 1969 Radio Malaysia Talentime contest.
The Beads won the Talentime for the Penang Zone and went on to compete in the North Zone championship. It clinched that too and went to Kuala Lumpur for the finals.
The Super Jets had disbanded by then and The Beads and Alleycats decided to merge.
The group clicked well, and moved to Kuala Lumpur in 1970 to try their luck there. They managed to secure a three-year contract at the Tin Mine Discotheque at the KL Hilton, which is now the Mutiara Hotel Kuala Lumpur.
In 1973, they started playing in Singapore and for the next three years, the Alleycats shuttled between Penang, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
Then they hit Hong Kong, first playing at The Memory Disco and later at The Club Capital. It turned into a nine-year stint.
Their first English album, called Alleycats, released in 1978, did not do so well.
But their first Malay album, Penyanyi, recorded almost the same time, did.
The following year, they recorded another Malay album, called Terima Kasih, and on it was Senandung Semalam, which propelled them to stardom.
They were still in Hong Kong, unaware of their huge popularity back home in Malaysia.
Their watershed year was 1980. Hingga Akhir Nanti from the band’s fifth album became a huge hit.
But it was not until two years later that they performed at their first major concert at Stadium Negara in Kuala Lumpur to thousands of fans.
The rest, as they say, is history. The band went on to record 29 albums. The latest one, Rasa, is yet to be released.
The group had several changes in its line-up. Nevertheless, the two core members of David and Loga stayed on.
With Loga’s death, David is the sole remaining original member of the Alleycats.
