AFTER playing with his band of brothers — Marika, Tom Mawi and Rupeni Davui — at the Golden Dragon for a number of years, Ben Rabaka took up a lucrative offer at the Isa Lei Hotel.
The scene at the Lami hotel was electric in the 60s.
Entertainment at the tourist haven consisted of trapeze artists, acrobats, magicians, dancers and people walking around performing bizzare acts.
“When you talk about entertainment, the 60s was when it all happened,” the 75-year-old shared.
“I have never seen anything like it since then.
“People talk about the ‘wow factor’ and that’s what it was like back then.
“From the moment you walked in until the time you left, it was like being in another world.
“The Isa Lei was the place to be because it had everything that Fiji had never seen before and all under one roof.
“It was like the circus had rolled into town and set up at the Isa Lei and the people loved it. That’s why they drove out there night after night.”
Rabaka was brought in to play as part of the band at the hotel and also to provide drum rolls, rattles and cracks to accent performances by show artists.
However, one moment in Rabaka’s musical journey still brings a glint to his eyes.
Prior to taking up residency at the Isa Lei Hotel — now a Seventh Day Adventist Church facility — he met a youngster who created a ripple in Fiji’s music scene that is still reverberating today.
Just when he thought he had seen everything, Rabaka met a partially blind 18-year-old who literally blew his socks off and raised the bar for the local music fraternity.
“I was at the Golden Dragon one day and an old man came up to me and said ‘my grandson wants to play music, can you give him a chance?’
“Something about the way the old man asked got me curious about the boy.
“So I asked the boy what he wanted to play and he confidently said he wanted to play drums.
“I played the first set and called him up to play the second.
“I handed over the drum sticks and, man, he blew us all away.”
That moment marked Sakiusa Bulicokocoko’s entry into the music world.
And Fiji would never be the same again after his debut performance. Bulicokocoko would go on to record chart busting albums and even ended up playing on US reggae group Big Mountain’s song, Kalapana Way.
Rabaka said Bulicokocoko’s rise to stardom was no surprise.
“His sense of rhythm and timing and feel was far beyond any musician I had ever met or performed with in Fiji or overseas.
“He did things that we had never thought of doing with the drums.”
After playing the backbeat on a few numbers, Bulicokocoko asked if he could sing.
When Dragon Swingers vocalist Ken Janson handed over the microphone, the boy from Namara, Tailevu drove the club to silence.
“We were already freaking out about his skills on the drums and then blew us all away again with his singing.
“Sakiusa’s control of the mike and vocal ability was amazing — we realised that we were in the company of a music genius and an awesome entertainer.
“I am just blessed that I gave him his first go and that I was there to witness his genius.”
Rabaka said it was hard leaving the Golden Dragon to take up a residency at the Isa Lei but eventually he took the offer.
“I never entered the music scene for money but as the crowds grew and demands became bigger to perform, money played a big factor because of the hours we spent rehearsing and honing our skills.”
Rabaka said after being asked several times by the manager at the Isa Lei Hotel to perform there, he caved in when the money that was offered was similar to what people earned overseas at the time.
“The Isa Lei offered me double what I was getting at the Golden Dragon and Ken came back at me with a counter-offer.
“Eventually the figure we reached was 40 pounds a week and this was big money at that time!
“People used to take leave and go overseas to get this kind of money and here I was earning this while doing something I loved right here in Fiji.”
In 1972, after a few brief stints at various venues, Rabaka took up an offer at the Flagship Resort (now The Pearl) at Pacific Harbour.
This is where you can find him these days, relaxing at Mokosoi — the place he has called home for the past 42 years.
Although he had been absent from the music scene for more than three decades, Rabaka has been keeping a watchful eye on the quality of musical ability.
He said he has noticed a slow decline in the quality of musicianship over the years.
“There are quite a lot of young people playing music but I feel that they lack the passion and commitment to be the best that they can be.
“A lot of youngsters get caught up in vude because it earns them a living and they don’t seem to want to develop beyond this music.
“This is a real shame because the scene has stagnated.
“Everyone’s playing the same thing, there’s nothing different.
“And as the saying goes — variety is the spice of life — and this is very true for music.
“Fiji used to be home to the top musicians in the Pacific and if we want to achieve this again, we need variety, passion, commitment and most importantly — humility.”
