YEAR 2015 was an interesting year in terms of Backtracks.
In the midst of political, social
and economic issues, we turned
back the pages of time to relive
stories of the struggles, trials
and achievements of local
singers, instrumentalists,
composers and performers.
By chance, we came
across artistes whose music
continued to be enjoyed today but whose lives and livelihoods
had long been forgotten.
As 2015 draws to a close
and 2016 beckons, we look
back at the articles that
appeared in this column.
February 12 – Red Fink
IN 1972, three boys from Indian College High School (now Jai Narayan College) — guitarist Vimal Raj Prasad, bassist Rafiq Khan (brother of Fiji Sugar Corporation executive chairman Abdul Khan) and drummer Tas Raza — got together and decided to form a musical group called Red Fink.
February 19 – Mosese Vatuloka
FEW of Fiji’s most famous artistes can claim to have rubbed shoulders or have performed with music superstars from the Motown era. But for Lautoka resident Mosese Vatuloka, singing and dancing alongside ’60s and ’70s super-groups such as The Temptations, The Drifters and The Platters is his daytime job as a cruise director.
February 26 – Percy Bucknell
DURING his 37 years at sea, Percy Bucknell composed some of the most endearing iTaukei songs ever. Memorable tunes such as Na Bu Ko Drau A Solia — still sung with gusto at parties today to the wistful Biu Ko Suva Nikua, Bucknell has spurned out hit after hit since his first composition Isa Na Yakavi Ni Siga Ni Sucu, a tune composed when he was 25 years of age in 1932. Bucknell passed away in Sydney, Australia, in 1997, aged 90, but his songs continue to be enjoyed today.
March 5/12 – Ben Rabaka
AFTER playing with his band of brothers — Marika, Tom Mawi and Rupeni Davui — at the Golden Dragon for a number of years in the ’60s, Ben Rabaka took up a lucrative offer at the Isa Lei Hotel. He went on to be known as the country’s best drummer and now plans a comeback after 30 years in hibernation.
March 19 – Arjun Sami
RECITING tales from Hindi religious books through song has been the domain of tambura bhajan masters armed with decades of experience tucked under their belt. A 17-year-old Lautoka resident Arjun Sami is rising up the ranks and taking on seasoned bhajaniyas and challenging the elder statesmen of tambura bhajan with his prowess.
March 26 – DJ Peter Gunz
OLD school music for the now generation was the highlight of a hip-hop show at Onyx which featured Australian, New Zealand and local hip-hop artistes and deejays.
April 2 – Waisea Qilatabu
FOR Waisale Qilatabu, sitting around the tanoa listening to the old folk in Naidi Village, Savusavu, sparked an interest in songwriting and has led to the start of a promising music career.
April 9 – Dawn Lanyon
GOSPEL music in Fiji first took off when Litia Daveta — who took the stage name Esther King — left the US singing group The Platters and began performing as a gospel artiste in 1979. However, it was in 1982 when a local version of US gospel singer Amy Grant’s hit single El Shaddai topped the charts on Radio Fiji (now FBC) that the genre firmly cemented itself on the local music scene.
April 16 – The Loyola Club
IN the late ’50s and early ’60s, the best live music and the musicians that played the latest hits of the swing era met and jammed every week in the Sacred Heart Cathedral crypt.
April 23 – Satya Maharaj
SATYA Maharaj’s entry into the music scene in Fiji began when he was invited by his elder brother Nitya to watch and then join one of the country’s hottest three-piece bands, Red Fink.
April 30 – Knox
FIJI’S premier recording and performing artist, Knox, releases Fading, a song about child abuse and domestic violence.
May 7 – Takia
THE band that gave the country one of its biggest hits, Oi Au We, announces its Fiji tour.
May 14 – Old Capital musicians relive a lively musical past
THUNDER, Rainbow, Ajit’s Feelers and Asterix were some of the exotic names used by musicians in Levuka to christen their groups in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s.
May 21 – FRPA 2015 Music awards features revival of live music stars from yesteryear
REV W E Bennet, Ro Cavasiga Raicebe, Jolame Rokodrega, Satvik Dass and Amena Wainibu inducted into the Hall of Fame.
May 28 – Tanoa International Hotel trio
WHEN three elder statesmen of the hotel and resort scene got together and focused their musical talents on reliving songs from the past, the result was nothing short of phenomenal. Peni Nabainivalu, Josua Qaqalia and Peceli Nasau inspired a new generation of appreciators of classic iTaukei tunes.
June 4 – Simadri Narayan aka Simstar
IN the late ’80s, Simadri Narayan, better known as Simstar, performed more than 360 shows over a one and a half year period — a feat yet to be equaled.
June 11 – Michael Kumar
WHEN he fell terminally ill in 1976, a Christian pastor prayed over Michael Chandra Kumar and he was healed. The healing resulted in his family converting to Christianity and sparked a Hindi gospel music career that continues until today.
June 18 – Mushtari Begum
BEGUM was born in 1934 in Fiji and went to international acclaim as a vocalist and performer. She migrated to Canada at some point in the ’70s and was laid to rest there in 2004.
June 25 – Rako Pasefika
CONCERNED about the gradual loss of Rotuman music, tradition and culture over time, Rako is reaching back into the past and reinventing musical instruments and chants in the hope of preserving a lost art for future generations.
July 2 – John Johnson
JOHN Johnson has been entertaining international visitors to our shores since the ’80s. For the past three decades he has played the drums and backed musicians in resorts around the Mamanuca Group.
July 9 – G4 Charity Benefit Tour
FORMER Maxi’s Mules lead guitarist Maxi Columbus, jazz fusion player Robert Verma, former Ulysses fret-master Bobby Blue and youngster Adrian Narayan came together to raise funds for the child protection program of Medical Services.
July 16 – Simione Kuruvoli
NOWADAYS, Simione Kuruvoli uses his hands to knead away aches and pains as a sports masseur. But wind the clock back to the early ’70s and discover when Kuruvoli used his hands and feet to drive the beat of a band called Maxie’s Mules from behind a drum set.
July 23 – G4 wows Suva
FROM the moment veteran singer Jimmy Nathu belted out the opening lines of Deep Purple’s 1972 hit Smoke On The Water, the Royal Suva Yacht Club was set for a night of incredible rock music.
July 30 – Ronald Jai
AT the Fiji Performing Rights Association 2015 Music Awards this year, Ronald Jai stood out from the rest and practically stole the limelight with his on-stage antics and old Hindi film hits.
August 6 – Maxie Columbus performs at Golden Dragon with Jimmy Subhaydas
ALMOST 45 years after he first walked up the stairs of the Golden Dragon nightclub in Suva, rock guitarist Maxie Columbus revisited the place where he literally earned his stripes as a musician and played a rock infused version of Sai Levuka Ga with local crooner Jimmy Subhaydas.
August 13 – Harry Tivaknoa
HARRY Tivaknoa is revered among the Rotuman community as a living legend and the composer of many songs that are now regarded as classics. Since his first foray into the world of music performance and composition in 1980, Tivaknoa embarked on a personal crusade to document traditional Rotuman music and to pen songs that have become the hallmarks of Rotuman culture over the years.
August 20/27 – Jimmy Nathu
IN what can only be described as a sterling music career, Nathu emerged on the music scene in the late ’60s after being coaxed by then photo-journalist Bharat Jamnadas to perform with Saimone Vuatalevu’s Quin Tikis at the Old Town Hall.
September 3 – Ngaire
IN 1990, Ngaire Fuata recorded and released To Sir With Love. Her rendition of Scottish pop star Lulu’s 1967 hit took the number one spot on the New Zealand charts for six weeks. The achievement made Ngaire go down in the annals of music history as the first person of Rotuman descent to score a major hit single.
September 10 – Suva Swingers
IN the 1940’s Suva was awash with live music groups that played mostly instrumentals. One of the most popular was the Suva Swingers. The band’s core members included guitarist Cecil Dass, banjo player Peter Moore, Noel Woo on clarinet and Geoffrey Houng Lee on the piano.
September 17 – Gary Apted tribute
GARY Apted is gone. But his legacy will live on in the stories that will be told and retold — his childhood antics among family and friends —and his support for live music among the musicians who were given the opportunity to showcase their talent at Traps, a business borne out of his love for the art.
September 24 – Taj Mahal’s 1974 visit to Fiji
WHEN legendary US blues and alternative artiste Taj Mahal visited Fiji in the late ’70s and ’80s, nobody really knew who he was except for local jazz legend, Tom Mawi.
October 1 – Mantis album is re-released
MORE than 40 years after five of Fiji’s top musicians – percussionist Rupenu Davui, keyboard wizard Ronnie Samuel, bassist Joe Heritage, drummer Paul Steven and guitarist Waisea Vatuwaqa — released Turn Onto Music, the album is re-released because of its underground culture status. Mantis, was forged out of the Dragon Swingers.
October 8 – Luke Uluiburotu
LEGENDARY pianist Tui Ravai had an ear for talent and one instrumentalist that was critical for him was bass guitarists — and one of them was Luke Uluiburotu.
October 15 – Lautoka’s live music scene
MORE than four decades ago, the space Bodylife Gym in Lautoka occupies was known as Whiskey Town, a nightclub owned by a family bearing the Patel name. It was the hottest live music venue in the West and a regular meeting point for professionals, couples and those primed up for a night of dancing.
October 22/29 – George Moore
AS a bassist, George has played with all the local greats and toured extensively with Danny Rae Costello.
November 5 – Ratulevu Sorovaki
LIKE many musicians of note, one of the country’s most innovative guitarists passed quietly away. He looked after his diabetic mother until she passed away in the ’90s by performing gigs at the Bali Hai nightclub in Suva.
November 12 – Ilisapeci Tamani
GROWING up in Suva in the ’70s, I remember many a night sitting by the radio listening to the sweet melodic sounds of the Phoenix Choir and found the only surviving member Ilisapeci Tamani living in Lautoka.
November 19 – The Phoenix Choir
THE Phoenix Choir will go down in the annals of Fijian music history as one of the greatest vocal groups ever to have emerged from our shores. Ilisapeci Tamani tells the story of how the group was formed.
November 26/December 3 – Buli Ratu
BULI Ratu’s life in the music industry has been a roller coaster of career highs and lows. And after four decades, the Narewa, Nadi, native was ready to give up the passion that had consumed him since he first went on stage in 1975. This year he launched Lagilagi, an album that features some of the world’s best reggae musicians.
December 10/17 – Daya Nand
FOR someone who never attended school, Daya Nand has travelled on all-expenses-paid overseas trips, performed to thousands and achieved success on a level that many a learned scholar would envy.
December 24 – Thomas Dean
FIJI’S first licenced busker, 62-year-old Thomas Dean, instead of waiting for work, creates opportunities for himself by performing on the streets of Lautoka.
