And the band played on…

Let me start with music first instead of everything else.

In the southern tip of India, radios played Indian film songs, primarily in Hindi and local languages. All India Radio (AIR) was the main source of entertainment for music, news, discussions, and drama. The feeble sound of the 6:50 morning news bulletin told me my father was awake. As a kid, I was keen on cricket match scores when the Indian team was touring the West Indies or New Zealand. There was no hope that India would win.

A second radio with brownish panels on one end covering the speaker and a red tuning needle was set up in my grandma’s house. It had a fourth band that led to the discovery of Radio Australia during the yellow, sunlit days of April, before the dark monsoon rains arrived. Schools were closed on April and May and they were indeed the happiest months. I loved Radio Australia because of their cricket commentaries and pop-rock hits they played as fillers. Radio Australia had more bass than VOA or BBC, or it sounded so.

A few of these radio stations were louder and energetic in the night. Radio Netherlands was one such station and I remember the station even now because it played the only Madonna song that I still like: Live to Tell. At times a Mandarin station interrupted it with wavering pop ballads. VOA and BBC were close to each other, so that I had to tune them with some soft skill.

Like the rest of Asia, Boney M, ABBA, Cat Stevens, Osibisa, and Bee Gees were popular in the late 70s and 80s. Even in the 90s, a cinema theatre that screened primarily Hollywood movies continued to play How Deep Is Your Love and Staying Alive. Cassette tapes from the Gulf cities like Dubai and Sharjah were sources of Rebel Yells.

It took lots of diplomacy to listen to or to get hold of an album until Indian music labels started releasing albums. After I saw a bass guitarist playing, casually reclined on a sofa, the guitar became my favorite music instrument after the conga drums. I read somewhere that these drums were of Afro-Cuban origin.

On Tuesday noon, it was BBC’s Rock Salad and because of the college I missed most of them. On Thursday evenings, it was VOA’s Billboard Countdown followed by BBC’s Top of the Pops. Rock music peaked the charts over many weeks despite intense competition from Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Stevie Wonder, and others. Bon Jovi, Guns N’ Roses, Poison, Van Halen, Aerosmith, and Def Leppard rocked the charts.

I heard Def Leppard’s hit, Hysteria, first on BBC and could not understand why VOA truncated this song in between. Lead guitar solos and rhythm guitar distortion captivated and jarred the ears along with the thumping bass guitars. Someone told me that the bass guitarist who reclined on the sofa and scared the elderly women in the house was still active with his own music troupe.

It took a few years to transition to CDs, DVDs, pen drives, and computers. Like cassette tapes, exchange of CDs were hard bargains. You know, some guys bargain hard. They needed another rare band or album in exchange. But the supply was indeed scarce. Pirated, low-quality tapes flooded markets in Bangalore and Madras, boundaries that still I had not crossed. While Madras (now Chennai) gifted Grim Reaper, Slayer, Shy, Badlands, Fifth Angel, Vince Neil’s first solo album, Dio, Manowar, and others, Bangalore’s Brigade Road gave Faith No More, Queensryche, Trouble, Vain, Testament, Joe Satriani, Tesla, and others.

Old Bangalore was the rock capital of India with a few electronic shops lining commercial areas blasting hard rock music. Now, rock music is like a needle in a haystack in the city. It may be there, but I don’t know where for sure. Just like the few seconds of glam-rock band Ratt’s song, Body Shop, in the Eddie Murphy film The Golden Child.

Like many others, I did not start a band. I did not go to concerts, except one by Joe Satriani. It was enough. I discarded a few tapes, but retained a few special ones. Somewhere along the way, I lost touch with new music, and it dawned on me that the good old days of the ’80s would never return.

So, what did I listen to yesterday before I went to bed?

• Haze — Dishwalla
• Cult of Personality — Living Colour
• Be Good to Yourself and Raised on Radio — Journey
• Trees — Rush
• Killers — Iron Maiden
• Flame — Cheap Trick (favorite song of my untraceable schoolmate who disliked heavy metal)