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Article 5
Rock On
One Muggy Night in Mumbai ...
(
Published in Times of
One afternoon, in the winter of 1972, I got a call from an excited Ramzan, the owner of Slip Disc, the happening discotheque and live band show place of our time. He told me that Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin were in town and are to visit the Slip Disc and perform that evening so please get there as early as I could. If only you could imagine the excitement and turmoil that took place for the next few hours in the life of this fledging young Rock singer! A hundred telephone calls later I was on my way to distant Colaba from our bungalow in Chembur and reached the Slip Disc to find it almost full. And this was a good four hours before their scheduled arrival! Good news sure travels fast and as we waited for the arrival of our Rock Icons, we prepared for their performance with a last minute check on the music equipment available. Those were the tough days of import control and we had really poor stuff that was scrounged and smuggled with the help of relatives from abroad and rich benefactors. We were hoping that this would not mar the enthusiasm of the Rock Superstars who were used to the very best!
As the next few hours slowly crawled and H hour
arrived, the Slip Disc began to burst at the seams and the crowd was getting
difficult to manage, It was weird seeing a discotheque with no music playing,
filled to capacity with people just waiting for the stars to arrive and the
excitement levels were at danger levels. We received minute-by-minute
information about the progress of their arrival from the Taj Mahal Hotel where
the duo was staying. Fortunately it was just a hop skip and a jump away and
Ramzan was in their room waiting to escort them to his noisy club on Bombay
The next hour was like a blur to me especially after all these years, as just too much seemed to be happening. As Robert and Jimmy were busy signing autographs for the crowd that descended on them, for a brief instance, I could not help but feel a sense of disappointment on seeing my idols in person. I had imagined a very strong male and macho presence especially from the tall Plant and their music exuded such incredible energy, yet both of them were so soft-spoken and almost effeminate in their behavior! Their apparent frail exteriors made me more aware of the thousands of misconceptions that we must have been carrying around with us. Don’t forget we did not have television at that time and we were always craving for information. We only had their music to inspire us and we were using our imagination to carve out the entire personas of our idols!
Soon these thoughts were out of my mind as it
was time for the duo to perform. It had been decided that Xerxes Gobhai, the
talented bassist from the Human Bondage and Jameel Shaikh, the drummer from my
band would back them but nobody had any idea what they would perform. There was
just no time to get into any details, as anything would do for us music-starved
fans and before we knew it, Led Zeppelin, Bombay Bombay
In later years, the story of the Plant/Page visit took on an unbelievable aura around it and everybody seemed to have different recollections of that night… myself included. But I guess that is what legends are made of. Today it even seems ridiculous as it to how much hysteria a couple of Rock Stars could generate! Yet this was the barometer with which you could judge the passion with which we loved our music. Please, keep the fire burning and Rock on!
Nandu Bhende
http://nandu_bhende.tripod.com
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