2008 was a tumultuous one for the world: recessions, terrorism, wars and all sorts of nasty things. The trickle down effect eventually reached our music fraternity (for the lack of females that were available for comment!) and its seedling industry. How do the rock and pop gurus who cared to talk to us think the year affected them? Read on for their best and worst moments in 2008.
AHMED ALI BUTT
Finishing the album Feedback was the best moment and the current state of the music industry is the worst.
ALI HAMZA
I think the best moment was when I wrote this song Bhanware in an hour or so. It will probably be featured in the upcoming album or the one after.
I don’t know what the worst moments in music making are. Till you have achieved something, all of the rest are the ‘worst’ moments!
ALI NOOR
I don’t have a worst moment. The best moment was when we released the video of Doh Dil and did the music for it.
BILAL MAQSOOD
The worst experience first: It happened in Dubai, Oct 2008. We were performing with Shaan and Overload. The sound check was just OK. We were not too happy with it but then we thought that we would still be able to manage with it. Overload finished their set and it was our turn. We went on the stage, plugged in our instruments and from there onwards it was our like our worst nightmare.
We played the first song just by sheer guess work. Faisal couldn’t hear his vocals, I couldn’t hear my guitar. All we could hear were the drums and harmonies on stage.
We took a little break and tried to fix the sound. The second song started and the sound became even worse. In order to make our vocals clearer the sound technician pushed all the faders up to the maximum and all the mikes started to feedback. Our stage was resonating with all sorts of squeaky sounds. Then we took another break and told the sound technician to bring everything down.
I ended up singing Anjane with no drums, no guitar and just extremely loud vocals. We apologised to the crowd and explained the whole situation to them. We wanted to leave the set in the middle but the crowd didn’t let us go. So I think we managed a couple of more songs but it was getting too frustrating for us, so we apologised again and left.
The best music experience for us would be the launch of our fifth album Koi Aaney Wala Hai, which was released in May 2008. We spent four months in the studios to record it and are extremely happy with the result. Koi Aaney Wala Hai is definitely our best work till date.
FAISAL RAFI
Well, the best music moment from 2008 for me was the Munchkin’s gig. A few days ago, they rocked it out: it was loud and noisy and I needed that!
The worst moment was Dino’s album, I mean he should quit! Personally my best moment was recording Ustad Fateh Ali Khan and Nafees Ahmed, the sitar player. It was the first time that they were singing and playing together and I was seeing it for the first time as well. Personally I don’t allow the worst to enter my studio!
FARHAD HUMAYUN
The best moment was at the Rafi Peer World Performing Arts Festival, where I did a solo performance: I wasn’t expecting any audience to be there that night. I’m not a singer and I sang as well, and I got a good round of applause, which was encouraging and it opened new doors for me.
The worst thing about 2008 is that we did not play much, but whenever we played we played well and got a good response. But we could have played a lot more.
FARHAN ALI
The best was when I did instrumentals with Farhad Humayun and Shahzad Hameed on the World Performing Arts Festival’s Music Night. The worst was when were backstage, waiting to play on Fusion Night with Fariha Pervaiz in the same festival and the blasts happened – the performance was cancelled
HAMZA JAFFERY
The best moment was performing at The System. I was really ill, I had a chest infection, I thought show barbaad ho jayay ga, but the show went really well. The sound was really good. The best monitoring we have had on stage ever. The worst moment hasn’t happened as yet and it won’t happen.
HANIYA ASLAM
My best would be right after the album release, when everyone heard our work and the feedback started coming in. The worst was falling backstage at the LSA! The only saving grace was that I didn’t fall on camera!
HAROON RAHID
The best music moment in 2008… I did a lot of fantastic shows, a brilliant show in Norway on the 14th of August 2008. The Prime Minister of Norway was there, it was a terrific show. I signed a record a deal with Universal records, a major record label, to launch me in a big way in India. Furthermore, I recorded some brilliant new songs.
The worst moment I would have to say, is the state of affairs in the country, when things are so in the country, people are more concerned about the turmoil, rather than paying attention to culture arts and music, they are pushed down priorities.
I performed a show at the hockey stadium in Lahore, right next to the Al Hamra, and while I was on stage, two or three bombs went off. That was very disheartening that we were trying to put on this great event, unfortunately, seems a shame that such things have to happen.
HAROON SHAHID
The best moment for me was winning the Rafi Peer and Levi’s Rock Club and the worst was the night those blasts happened during the World Performing Arts Festival.
HASIL QURAISHI
Best moment: Apart from the Sahil record which I was working on concurrently, I did loads of production work with people. One of them was this guy from dubai whose album I worked on. Adding to that, the Sahil record should be out mid next year.
The worst: some Pakistani singer singing in some Shahid Kapoor movie!
JAFAR ZAIDI
The best and the worst… the best should be the fact that I had a chance to collaborate with some of the top musicians in Pakistan for my album. I guess I don’t really think there has been a bad moment for me musically so far this year… not that I can think of anything honestly.
OMRAN SHAFIQUE
Mauj winning a few awards, including the Best Rock Song at the TMAs was a highlight and not getting the Mauj album out this year was obviously a huge disappointment!
SAMEER AHMED
The best moment would have to be when Co-VEN finally got into the studio to start recording our next album. We have been working on these songs for some time and we’re very excited to finally record them.
The worst moment has been the recent bombing of the World Performing Arts Festival. That was very unfortunate.
SHIRAZ UPPAL
The best moment was when I sang Secret of Success for A. R. Rahman’s upcoming film Boys. The worst was that a lots of concerts were cancelled because of security reasons.
SAJID ALI GHAFFOR
The worst: Things were really bad in the country, others artists also suffered and as a result we couldn’t have enough gigs. Things are always looming even when having a good time. Even the fun had lost the ‘fun’ factor. The best was probably that we enjoyed playing gigs in Lahore. Apart from that we had a concert in Berlin on the 28th of November 2008.
SHALLUM XAVIER
The best for me was our live concert in September in Trivamdrum, Kerela, India. It was a part of their annual harvest festival; it’s the biggest one in Kerala. Before us, Pakistani bands were not even allowed to enter the state. And we performed for a large number of people, around 30,000.
And the worst was when I got to know about the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. We had a tour beginning from the 4th of Dec to the 22nd. For me that was very shocking.
WAQAR AHMED KHAN:
My best moments were: my first gig with the Mekaal Hassan Band on the 30th of April 2008 at Peru’s Café and my first gig with Ali Azmat on 19th of October 2008 at the Bahria University in Karachi.
The worst moment was when the MHB concert was cancelled due to a series of blasts at the Rafi Peer Festivel. We were on our way to the venue, when that happened. It was very sad!
ZULFIQAR ALI KHAN Aka Xulfi
Performing songs from the album Jilawatan with a completely different arrangement using violins and cellos at The System II was one of the best moments. Thinking of these songs in an absolutely alternate arrangement was an experience of its own. Though it was quite an intense experience for me, composing new melodies and arrangements for the songs, but was quite a fulfilling one. The new instrumentation actually bought a new life to the songs, not just for the audience but for me as well.
Secondly, this was only the third concert of mine that my mother has attended; her presence made it one of my most memorable. Worst moment: there was nothing that bad.
Published in Images, Dawn on Sunday January 4, 2009
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