The Era of the Beat Groups in Bombay 1962-1968

Photo courtesy Ardeshir B. Damania of the Gnats

Ardeshir Damania writes about his band the Gnats and the history of the Bombay beat scene in the 1960s:

Although my awareness of western pop music started with the receipt in the mail of a 45 rpm record of Elvis’s “Jailhouse Rock” in December 1957, the era of the Beat Groups in India did not start until the arrival of the British groups on the pop charts like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Animals, Gerry & the Pacemakers, the Who, etc.

The first Beatle’s single “Love Me Do” hit the charts in late 1962, and nothing was the same anymore. 45 rpm discs of the song were released in India on the Parlophone label and sold like hot cakes. Soon hits by other groups from the same genre followed such as “My Generation” by The Who, and “Route 66” by The Rolling Stones. Soon my friends at school were having their hair styled like the Beatles!

The Indian government had imposed a strict non-import policy and it was very very difficult to purchase electric guitars, amplifiers, or any other items needed to start a rock group. Beatlemania was considered “foreign” affliction of an imperialistic power that should be shunned. Nevertheless, I ordered an electric guitar to be handmade by a shop at Gol Mandir Dhobi Talao. The Catholic guitar-maker and violin repairer was always boozed up and took weeks and weeks to make the guitar. Finally, one day when it was ready to be picked up my friend and I picked it up on his father’s BSA motorcycle. All the way from Dhobi Talao to Dadar-Matunga where we stayed people were pointing at us since we had the guitar in hand and looked like the Beatles. The scene in Bombay was ready to explode.

Soon there were rock groups, such as The Trojans, The Brief Encounter, The Jets, The Savages, etc., were mushrooming everywhere. The Jets were playing in 1963 at the Greens Hotel next to the old Taj Mahal Hotel. The Greens was pulled down a few years later and in it place stand the new Taj. Beat concerts were organized on regular basis at the newly-opened Shanmukhnanda Hall at King’s Circle in Matunga since it had a very large capacity and had the best acoustics for that time. Groups like The Trojans, The Savages, and others played covers of the Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Fortunes. They all used locally-made instruments and fabricated amps and speaker modules that just did not sound right and did no justice to the Indian talent.

It was around 1965 that time that we began to think about a name for our group and were leaning towards “The Gnats”. The name was derived from a jet fighter of the same name that served the Indian Air Force well in the India-Pakistan war of 1965 and in addition we were remaining true to color by naming our band after an insect as The Beatles had done! The Gnats were constituted one fine day on the entrance steps on Captain House on Vincent Road in the Dadar-Matunga area of Bombay comprising of Adil Battiwala on drums and keyboard, myself Ardeshir Damania on lead guitar, Keki Patel bass guitar, and Walter Noronha on rhythm guitar. I had got rid of my black and white badly-made guitar and purchased a new one from a shop, Sardarflute, opposite the Chitra Cinema at Dadar. The Sikh instrument maker at least had some knowledge about electric guitar-making and had supplied Hawaiian guitars to such Indian maestroes such as Van Shipley, Hazara Singh and his son Charanjit Singh. Adil Battiwalla used to borrow the Premier drum set from Earuch Sethna, who used to play the drums in his mother’s professional Nelly & Her Band. Keki Patel had a locally made bass guitar which was passable, and Walter Noronha played rhythm guitar with an electronic pick-up fitted over an normal acoustic 6-string guitar. We used the call Walter “Mr Confidence”. This was because whenever we faltered while playing on stage for one reason or the other, Walter would at once cover up the mistakes with his excellent and flawless guitar work.

There was an electronics expert at Kabutarkhana close to BB Dadar Station called Edwin D’souza. Edwin used to make amplifiers using original Mullard circuits. The amps, all valve type, were great but did not have the special effects of imported ones like reverb, tremolo, and echo. Someone had brought a simple echo unit for The Gnats that had a piece of regular open reel ¼” tape that went round and round. The tape had to be replaced after every gig. Apart from that our instruments and electrification lacked sophistication and held us back. This was the case with almost all beat groups until the arrival of The Reaction.

Ken Gnanakan was an accomplished musician and used to be a part of “The Trojans”. The band known at that time as “the Indian Beatles” kept Bangalore, Calcutta and Bombay swinging in the early sixties and included Biddu a prominent pop musician to later left for a solo career. Ken Gnanakan is widely connected all over the world with academic and social programs.

In 1966 at yet another beat concert at the Shanmukhnanda Hall a new group The Reaction (who had been formed abroad comprising of kids of some Indian professionals and diplomats posted in Europe) arrived on the scene. I was there. A couple of local groups opened the concert. And then The Reaction came on. They had set up their instruments behind the curtains and when the curtains finally opened the audience, yours truly included, let out a gasp! They played a cover of the 1965 Fortunes’ hit “You’ve Got Your Troubles” and Rolling Stones’ “The Last Time”. The Reaction had arrived from Germany with the latest guitars by Vox and Fender and had all the lovely and much craved for professional equipment, especially the Vox amplifiers and speakers with reverb, echo and all the special effects which the local groups, incl. ours The Gnats, did not possess. The effect was nothing short of stunning. With the striking of the first chord the crowd went in to raptures as The Reaction brought the house down!

Thanks to the beat concerts, rock groups were in demand all over Bombay. The colleges in Bombay had their annual day around February or March just before the end of the scholastic year and rock groups were invited to play for a few hundred rupees or only conveyance, or not even that sometimes. The Gnats played the the Annual Day of the Khalsa College at Matunga in 1965 and in 1966 at the Annual Day of the Nair Dental College at Bombay Central. The JB Vatcha School invited The Gnats to play at their fund-raiser for a new gym building and we obliged. That is when an excellent photo of the group was taken by scout-master Jal Khan. This photo has since been lost and is untraceable.

We had made one 7″ Stereo tape recording of the group at my home in Matunga (Five Gardens) area in Bombay using my AKAI M-6 tape-recorder at 7.5 ips speed using two AKAI microphones for brilliant stereo separation. The tape was temporarily left with one of our group’s lead guitarist called Bannerjee. Bannerjee died soon after wards of some rare disease compounded by misdiagnosis at the hospital. He was hardly 18 years old. I did go on a condolence visit to his house but did not have the heart to ask his parents for the tape. Now I wish I had. After 45 years I am almost certain the tape reel is long gone.

Later on, after 1968, I decided to take my studies a little more seriously and sold my guitar to a college friend, Samson from Shivaji Park and stopped playing. Walter soon migrated to England, and Adil after playing at one last gig with The Reaction on keyboard (he played the organ on the cover of The Doors’ “Light My Fire”), left for Iran to play the piano at 5 star hotels and The Gnats disbanded. Most of the boys of our generation grew up and had to earn a living which was not possible in India through playing in rock bands. However, some managed to make a success of it, like Ananda Shankar, and Biddu of the Biddu Orchestra. Biddu separated himself from The Trojans and for some time played the night club scene in Bombay as “The Lone Trojan” before making his way to England in 1973, earning his passage by playing as he went. He had some successes in England writing music scores and even produced an album that was on the charts in 1974-75.

The Jets, who will reunite for a one-night-only concert on March 7 this year, ruled the jam session scene in Mumbai in the mid-1960s. Ralph Pais, bassist of The Savages, another popular band from the era, vouched that among beat groups (as the rock bands of the time were called) the Jets were “at the top of the pile”. Said Pais, “There wasn’t any fiddling and farting and noises happening, which happened even 15-20 years after The Jets wound up. One, two, three, four – bang! They were on. They sounded very tight.”

The Jets with their lead guitarist Michael “Mike” Kirby, rhythm guitarist Malcolm “Muzzie” Mazumdar, bassist Suresh “Bhoj” Bhojwani, three teenagers who met while at Campion school at Cooperage, and drummer Napoleon “Nap” Braganza, a St Mary’s alumni, were pioneers of sorts. They weren’t just one of the first Mumbai bands to play the songs of The Shadows and The Ventures, they were also among the earliest Indian groups to have a look as hip as their sound. Old pictures and newspaper clips show the members clad in matching polo necks (all the rage then with Benlon material), suits and skinny ties.

On the other hand, The Savages, the Jets’ alter ego, had Hemant Rao on lead guitar, Bashir Sheikh on drums, Prabhakar Muzumdar on the electric organ, the evergreen Ralph Pais on bass guitar, and Russel Pereira playinmg the rhythm guitar as well as doing the vocals. I guess Russel played the same role as Walter Noronha did for our “Gnats”, that of an anchor when minor mistakes were made and quickly got the performance under control. I am attaching a photo of the Polydor stereo album by the The Savages that I possess. The album is titled “Live” but the applause sounds the same after every number which makes me think it was a canned applause and the cover numbers like “Proud Mary”, “Venus”, “Soul Finger” etc., were never recorded “Live”. For The Jets, making music was never about making money or becoming famous, but simply about having fun. “It was more the excitement of our idols of the time,” Bhojwani said. Their signature tune was ‘The Savage’ [originally by The Shadows] with which they opened every concert.” The Savages also later began to play some original compositions by Remo Fernandes who arrived from Goa to join the group. They merged with The Brief Encounter and in 1974 formed The Savage Encounter.

Some of the last beat group gigs that I personally witnessed were in the early 1970s around 1970-1971 when the disco “Blow Up” at the old Taj was the rage in Bombay. My good friend Burjis Khursetji used to play the organ as well as his Framus electric guitar (similar to the one used by Trini Lopez) with a couple of go-go girls dancing on the side of the stage. Burjis was killed tragically by a stone that was hurled from the Police Chawls that hit his skull as he was driving in his Fiat on Worli Sea Face during the police riots.

Today we are all in our mid or late 60s. Our hairs are gray if not white, and our gait is much slower than when we were prancing around the stages with electric guitars and straps and banging out pulsating songs on our poorly made local instruments.

Ardeshir (“Adi”) B. Damania
University of California, Davis

Websites to see:

http://sierra.mmic.net/malcolm.htm

http://www.timeoutmumbai.net/music/music_details.asp?code=93&source=1

http://www.campion-calls.com/Pages/page-0jets-memory.htm

http://indianbandshub.blogspot.com/2010/09/savages.html

Regarding the photo at top of article:

Neville Stanley’s shop Stanley & Sons was on Arthur Bunder Road, Bombay. The same road where there was a disco called The Slipped Disc where the band Led Zeppelin once played. Neville Stanley had a very big collection of rock albums from the 1960s and 70s and he used to help us by making tape recording of them. I have several tapes made by Neville Stanley with me here in California. It is a pleasure to hear them on my open reel tape decks. Neville died around 1986 from diabetes. His sister tried to run his video and record library but without success. – Ardeshir Damania

74 thoughts on “The Era of the Beat Groups in Bombay 1962-1968”

  1. Thanks Adi, for the article.

    I too was involved with the beat groups of those times and was attached very strongly to the “Savages”. They cllae me their first, foremost and most loyal fan. A word regarding their names, i tis Hemanthrao Hattangdi, Ralph Pais, BAshir Sheik and Prabhakar Mundkur (not mazumdar)

    Correction possible??

    Thanks.

    Warm Regards
    Aravind CS
    (Still not 64)

    1. Sorry for the errors in the names. It is difficult to recall things and names that happened a long time ago. Consider your email as corrections!
      Adi (69 complete)

      1. ADI
        Thanks for the memories. Did not see a name of a fantastic beat group called the Beat Routes. Ivor , one of the members is in Australia . If you are interested in adding them to the “history” I shall try and get you connected. Let me know

        1. The name of the member of theBeat routes in Australia is Ivor DeSouza. He was my classmate and you can get in touch with him . He is quite often in Mumbai.
          Edwin D’Souza ismy bro in law .He was a genius in Electronics and sound. Had his own sound system catering to most of the entertainment halls called Audio Sound Systems.

        2. Was that Ivor who used to stay in a bungalow in a small lane at Bandra near the railway line? He was a good guitar player. He had the first album by the “Ventures” in Stereo and he let me come to his house with my AKAI M-6 tape recorder and record it from his radiogram. I still have the tape, one of my oldest! This happened in 1963-64. I think Ivor was with me in Khalsa College, Matunga.

        3. Was Ivor the one who used to stay at Bandra close to the railway tracks on the West side? He used to go to Goa, I remember and was with me in Khalsa College. Yes, please send me the contact details for Ivor.

      2. You have a good recollection of the past . Thanks for the details and including my dad who was the sound expert of his time. He was the biggest in sound equipment in Bombay for a long time then diversified into fire alarms and smoke detectors. Sadly he passed away in 1992 at 63.

    2. Thanks for the walk down memory lane . Such nostalgia
      I am Louanna Angelo , the daughter of Edwin Dsouza . Yes, my home reverberated with sounds of amps being tested, speakers blaring , and music.
      My dad and uncle Berks were pioneerers in the field of music . Thanks so much for remembering him and his legacy to the world of sound

    3. Hi Everyone, great reading about the Bombay music seen in the 60s and 70s. I am well acquainted with all the groups mentioned, but surprised you did not mention the Les Phantoms which were a group comprising Ashley Maben lead guitar,Croydon Maben drums, Harold Manning bass and Shaffi Sherazi rather guitar. There was no group in Bombay that performed Beatles songs like them definitely not the Trojans. Harold Manning is still performing solo in Goa and I meet up with him regularly when I am in town. I was the DJ at the Blow Up from 1971 to 1975 when I emigrated to the uk. Two of the other top groups not mentioned are the Junkies and the Mystics. Those were great days in Bombay.

      1. Hi Keith, Hi Adi,
        I stumbled across this site by accident.
        Keith you were the DJ at Blow Up when I played there with The Brief Encounter (with Nandu Bhende) in August 1972 when I was 16 years old and again in 1974 for two months with Flash (with Glen Gilbanks). Fifty years on, I’m still in the music business in London with my company Silva Screen Music Group and, in a way, still connected with the Indian / Bombay music scene of the 60s as one of my companies looks after Biddu’s music and I recently produced the feature documentary, The Beatles And India.
        Those years were really FAB!
        Thanks Adi for getting this thread together!

      2. Saddened to hear that Harry Mannings passed away a couple of days ago (either 2’nd or 3’rd May 2023) RIP

      3. Hi Keith,
        I knew Les Phantoms as they played at our compound dances…Jubilee Buildings, where Wayne Michael lived and had a band.
        Sadly Wayne passed away on 13 May 2023 in Mississauga, Canada.
        You may have met my late brother Dudley, he was with B A for many years, he also passed away in Harrow, Uk, many years ago.
        Those were great Days of fun and music, do you remember Jeff Fowler? He also had a band.
        He was in Christ Church school with me for 2 years. I was also good friends with Russell Pereira, lead singer with the Savages, before we left for England in the late 1960s.
        Dawn Nee Quinn, ex Byculla…

  2. Hello:

    I am doing some archival search on related note, recording of Obsession ’77 by Atomic Forest, …I have been in touch with Adi re.this article. Madhu Das, along with Joe Alvarez of The Savages were part of Atomic Forest line up. We don’t know who played on Obsession and when this track was actually recorded…

    Obsession: Atomic Forest Lineup?…producer Sharon Prabhakar
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hccr_E7KY3Q

    I would appreciate it if you could write to me…

    Warm Regards

    Jas

  3. Thanks for such an entertaining and informative write-up. Really felt good learning about the early birds of the western music scene in the country!

    Regards,

    Ajishnu

  4. Nice to hear a coment from my good friend Arvind with whom I have totally lost contact. Arvind you could get in touch on facebook.

    Adi thanks for the warm memories of a great era — specially to our generation

  5. Good evening … Good morning Adi

    I just came across all the interesting information you wrote about the music scene in Bombay (Mumbai) back in the late 60’s.

    I don’t know if you remember but me and my friends Suresh (Bhoj) and Ashok formed a band in july / august 1966 (during my summer vacation from college in England) …. We had a really had a great time and played several concerts in Bombay.
    At that time we were known as “The Xmen” …. It was a short ‘summer project’ …
    Bhoj was great on bass.
    Ashok was great on guitar.
    I did my best playing drums … !

    Maybe we met during the short life of the band … ?
    If not, no matter … it was such a great period and “Times Were Good”
    There was a lot of local talent ….. the music scene was in full swing ….
    Instruments were not easy to come by …. It’s all part of the story …
    I have great memories of the precious moments I had playing with Bhoj & Ashok.

    Maybe we can all get together sometime for a “Seroius Jam Session” in one of the clubs or venues in Mumbai …

    All the best to you and “Bravo” for giving all the details about the music scene in “Bombay” in the late 60’s and before we all started getting grey hair.

    I now live in the south of France … and I return to Mumbai every now and then … to see family and friends…. I love it there …. it’s my home town …

    I wish you well …
    Best regards
    Piers

  6. Lovely reading. Although I was only in my pre-teens then, my uncles and older cousins were very much a part of the 60s generation and so I grew up with the music of those times. So it is with great delight that I read your blog and made me remember the wonderful music, the beat groups you’ve mentioned and the heady days then, all of which were reported by The Junior Statesman.

    I still am a fan of Nandu Bhende.

    Ms. L.N. Tochhawng, Aizawl, Mizoram.

    1. I was happy to go back into those days. How I wished it would go on that way (they say if wishes were horses)
      I was lucky to be involved in music those days as I could not afford a music set. Thanks to my good neighbour Russell Pereira (May God bless him and his soul rest in peace) as he was involved with music being a musician himself. He had all the latest music and we would sit in his house and listen to our heart’s desire. Through him I happen to meet quite a few noted musicians of those days and offcoarse other school colleagues/neighbours from Dadar i.e. Darryl Barry Ralph (Darryls brother Loy ). We sometimes got together and had a real good time.
      I was also looking out for songs from Savages live album as I remembered Russell. If anyone could help me get it. How I wish I could listen to him sing again.
      Anyway thanks for your article. It brought back memories

        1. Dear Adi,

          A beautiful article that took me away from the present and made me daydream for a while before a call took me away from that spot and brought me back into reality. I guess Adi, in your beautiful article you may have inadvertently forgotten to mention a group called ‘The Combustibles’ of the mid-60s. I used to hear their albums on ‘Polydor’ records such as “watch her”, “some peace of mind” etc. Also, not forgetting the Panama jam sessions at the Shamukanda hall once every year. Yes, Adi, gone are those wonderful days of yore…

          1. If I remember correctly two members of the group were brothers, George and Lionel Taylor who lived in Bandra Right?

  7. Hi there -How do i get hold of ‘ The Savages – Live ‘ album or the songs in that album – their version of ‘ Sitting on the dock of the bay ‘ and ‘ Tom paine ‘ was dope.

    pls help- show me the way .

    1. Suresh, are you in Bombay? I am in Calif, but I can make a cassette of the the Savages Live album and bring it with me when I come to Bombay, probably in June (I like the rain). No charge. You can correspond with me on my private email.

  8. i have the live savages lp also the tuckey buzzard ep. anybody got an extra copy of the savages-pain 45 to sell me

  9. Just came across this article which brought back so many wonderful memories…….. we were very fortunate to have grown up in an era so rich with wonderful music created by people who had a genuine love for it! Thank you for this article!

  10. Whatever happened to the REACTIONS I think there were two Brothers Riberro and do you know Nelly’s son (Nelly and her Band” Adil he was a Drummer

    1. Adil died from bone marrow cancer at the Hinduja Hospital in Mahim around 1999. He was being treated in the U.S. at Stanford. When the doctors told him they could do no more, he decided to return to his home in Bombay and passed away soon afterwards. He was my best friend at Don Bosco High School in Matunga. We graduated with SSC in 1963.

      1. Thank you Adi.
        Adil was my idol. He taught me how to play the drums and I exchanged music that we commonly liked.
        We went to the same school.
        He often would take me and a neighbour to his beat shows
        We had the good fortune if listening to all the bands that played at that time, bless his soul.

    2. Hi
      The two brothers were nephews of my neighbour’s, called. braganzas. The two boys visited them on. Their birthdays and often played some accoustic guitar and sang.
      Adil Bathiwalla was my neighbour too
      He had a group called the Beat4 , played drums, then firmed a band called The Waterfront. They comprised of Adil on keyboards, Trilokh Gurtu (son of famous Indian classical singing – Shoba Gurtu) on drums and percussion ( included the tabla in those days),
      Derek Julian on lead guitar and Soli on rythmn guitar.
      They played for a while in Bombay at mainly the The Hell in Worli before trying their luck abroad on tour, without success. On their return they split. Adil went to Iran then Dubai and later died of cancer.
      Derek Julian still playing in Goa somewhere ( look up YouTube) some videos of him the waterfront,his new band .
      Trilokh has made it big time and played and playing along the likes of John McLaughlin, Weather Report (Joe Zwanuil, etc).
      Has his own band.
      He was the first to leave Waterfront and replaced by Ranjit Barot of the group called The People. He has as well made it big and currently played with the John McLaughlin band as well
      Trust that is an update..not sure what ever happened to the Reberrio brothers. I heard they went back to Venice.

      1. Aylmer and Errol moved to the US where they had great success. Last I heard, Errol had passed away and Aylmer was performing under the name Raja. Previously, they had lived in Vienna not Venice.

  11. Thank you Adi for bringing back wonderful memories — yes I loved the Atomic Forest at the Blow Up and Human Bondage at the Cellar at CP delhi BUT
    being from Cal my favourite was Great Bear — Dilip Balakrishnan was a genius and sadly died too early.
    Please do continue writing.
    Grateful warm regards
    Gautam

  12. Thanks Adi for the brilliant recall of Bombay’s beat group scene. I was a teenager in the 60s living in D’Lima street Dockyard the place where Bashir Sheikh lived and Lennt Carson lived in the BPT qtrs. I went to many beat shows in college and school and remember the Reaction. They were impressive. I also know Darryl (Dadar) of Brief Encounter who is now playing in New Zealand.
    I am surprised by the omission of Lenny Carson who I saw play lead guitar for ‘The Savages’ and who I also met in the 90s working hard for a plastics mfr. in the suburbs. He distinctly recalled his younger days with the Savages.
    I loved the music scene and remember those days fondly. The pioneers in good music were Nelly and her dance band and Goody Seervai and his amazing band.
    Ronald Miranda

  13. Great article, but no mention of the fabulous MYSTIKS. I first saw them perform in a packed 3-COINS in Poona and I got goose bumps from listening to their rich sounds. Ellis the drummer was the cousin I had never met. He was at home when I arrived for lunch one afternoon in my starchy white Bishops School uniform. He was wearing a pink polka dotted (not bikini) long collared shirt and flares. He was so lively and bright eyed. Ronnie the bass guitarist was also there. They invited us round for the first gig. I was hooked and wanted to drop engineering for drumming. We went almost every packed evening.The bouncers let us in regardless.
    As far as I can remember, Mike was on lead guitar (Gibson semi?) Stuart on rhythm and some one on keyboards.
    I recorded them one lunch time on a cheap reel to reel then lost the tape when we moved to the UK.
    I used to listen to it continously, studying every note, beat and vocal till it was embedded on my brain.
    Oh what I’d give to have it back. I have an 8mm silent footage taken there.
    I am even considering regrouping them for a re-union in 3-Coins just to reproduce that Play list, before we cop it.
    Anyone remember them?

    1. The Mystiks went on to play at the Taj Hotel in the The Mystiks went on to play at the “Blow Up” discotheque in Bombay and their new lead guitarist was Christopher Valles to whom I am now married (I was one of the GO GO dancers then). The new rythym guitarist was Lourdes D’Souza also known as “Chinkie”. In passing, Chris Valles was awarded the prize for India’s Best Guitarist in 1968 at the Shanmukananda All India Beat Contest! Chris and I moved to Canada in 1970, got married, 4 Children, 5 grandchildren now! Chris plays music from time to time at some jams but not professionally any more. He still keeps in touch via Facebook with Ellis and Chinkie. Sadly, Ronnie bass player has passed away. Trust this short info on the fabulous Mystiks keeps you updated. They were a power house band!

      Christopher and Daphne Valles

      1. I remember Chris. If I am not mistaken he also played lead for The Combustibles. And those days he lived in Bandra.

      2. Wow Daphne, I just read this! Fantastic! Did you dance at the Blow Up with Thelma Albuquerque Jackson? Small world.

      3. Hi Daphne:

        Know Chinkie well. He still lives in Alexander Terrace , Byculla. Where. Is Ellis? Lost track of him since the early 70’s. Glad to know that you and Christopher are doing well

      4. Wow! I’m glad I was skimming through these comments – great memories! Those were the days my friend! As you well know, Chinkie is my late husband’s brother.

        1. Hi Jenny,
          Chris Valles remembers you very well as you all played together at terrace show! You were a good bass guitarist, hope you still keep strumming! Chris sends his best regards too.

          Daphne Valles

    2. The mystics used to play in Venice in Bombay, a group of us used to go faithfully to hear them. Does anyone know what happened to the other band members. I had been in touch with Derek…

    3. Yes i remember the Mystiks very well. Saw them play Money Money at the Venice night club in 1969.
      Some more ‘beat’ names never to be forgotten are Brian Sequeira, the 4th Dimension, The Phantoms.

      1. Oh yes I remember Brian Sequeira, saw him play at the Shanmukananda Hall. He was famous for his Zorba the Greek and brought the house down with his lead guitar. I was just part of the audience. Great days !!!

  14. Wonderful reading Adi, forwarded to me by another Bombay music buff Eric Pinto of Xaviers school and college like myself. I lived in Byculla,

    I would never miss an occasion when the beat groups played, whether at the Slipped Disc or the jam sessions at the Taj on Sunday mornings, at Xaviers College or Shanmukhananda Hall or the various fairs at church or school compounds.

    What you missed in quality instruments you made up in love for your hobby and the enthusiasm of youth. What we lacked in music appreciation, we made up with testosterone filled love for the female gender excited by the music,

    It was a great time for Bombay, an era that unfortunately never repeated itself. I kept a few memories alive with my articles like Cotton Mary and the Aunties of Dhobitalao which went viral several years ago and which you can read by googling my name.

    Love to hear from you whenever you say something of Bombay of the 60s and 70s. I departed from the city’s and indeed the country’s shores for Qatar and later Canada after that.

  15. Hi Ardeshir for this article. Showed it to dad (Eruch Sethna the drummer boy of Nelly & her Orchestra. Dad was a fan of Gene Krupa and had his books well preserved till someone took it and never returned it back. Dad loves the Jazz genre of music and still gets his feet tapping when he listens to some oldies jazz, Ella Fitzgerald and “Satchmo” (Louis Armstrong)being his favourite artists of course… Could be good if you can dig up some old photographs to post them on your blog…

    1. Thanks Khushroo for your comments. Your father Eruch was extremely kind in let Adil borrow his “Premier” drum set. Alas, the 40 minutes recording made at my house in Matunga, where Adil played the “Premier” drums was lost due to the death of Bannerji who had borrowed it. There was one photo taken by Jal Khan at Wadia-Vatcha school where The Gnats played. Before Jal Khan died he gave his entire photo collection to a boy on Jame Jamshed Road. When I contacted the boy for the photo he claimed he never received any photos from Jal Khan.

  16. Hey Ardeshir … Thanks for this write-up. I will input my 5 cents worth !
    My name is Cliff Lee, my 1st.-ever band was The Mascots, line-up of Derek Julian ( lead ), Stewart Julian ( bass ), Richard Tan (drums), and myself (rhythm). We covered quite a few Herman’s Hermits, and other popular songs of the day. We also backed an all-girl vocal group called The Poppets. We were from the Colaba area. The scene was from 1965 to 1966.
    Re: The Reaction in 1966 @ Shanmukhanada Hall, my school, St. Peter’s High School, Mazagaon, was raising funds for school projects. We had a line-up of quite a few bands whose names I forget. But The Mascots was 1 of them.
    After The Mascots disbanded, I was the rhythm guitarist for The Savages in 1968/69. The line-up was Pio (bass), Hemant Rao (lead), Bashir, of course, myself, and perhaps more. I was nicknamed CHANGA. Actually, I met up with Hemant here in Toronto. Unfortunately, Hemant passed away many years ago. I would appreciate if any one could put me in touch with Bashir, hoping that he is very much alive !
    My email address: cliflee_1@yahoo.ca
    My Toronto # : 647-361-8098
    And an open invitation for Bombay musicians transplanted here in Toronto, to jam and/or reminisce our youth !
    I communicate quite regularly with Mike Kirby, who is in New Zealand.
    His father, Joe, built me a guitar.
    Can anyone supply any info of Les Phantoms ?
    Hopefully, someone will arrange a re-union of some of the Bombay bands of the 60s .

    Thanks.

  17. Hey Ardeshir ,
    Campion school n Xaviers college
    Group ‘THE BAD BOYS ‘…not to be forgotten..A short while after the fabulous’Jets’
    We really enjoyed the Birla Matushri,Shanmukhananda Hall,St Xaviers hall n quadrangle ,plus pune Hind vijay..Deccan gym ..gigs..
    Along with me Jeet Surendranath(bass guitar courtesy Mike Kirbys dad),Vinod Grover(lead on a Fender Stratocaster+super reverb amp),Kailash Surendranath(rhythm guitar)and finally our drumming prodigy..late Tony Grover(recently passed away)
    Those were the days ..my friend ..

  18. It’s a pleasure to hear of all the groups during my time but as you know I am still very well alive as I used to play for THE BUSY BEES from Mazagaon.We too played for several best contests at the Simla beat contest and even won and was presented by Sanjeev Kumar when he was still there and even in St Mary’s High School Talent contests and Beat Shows.I was the bassist for the Busy Bees.We were not a Rock band but played all types of pop music.We played in alot of Weddings,Socials,get together,Dances,parties talent contests and more.We were not a bad group at the time but it as you know we were a good and friendly group.

  19. Great article. Brings back many memories. We were all aspiring rock guitarists. We formed a band at Campion School and won the best combo prize in 1968. Band consisted of Ashok Dhariani ?? lead guitar, Rahul ?? Bass guitar, Rishi Kapoor Drums, Wayne Rodrigues vocals and myself Russell Chatterton rhythm. Not the best but we enjoyed it. Nice to see a response from Cliff Lee. Sad to say Derek Julien passed away recently from COVID.
    Does anyone remember Mike Berry? He played with Unit 4 +2 I think.

  20. Such a beautiful and nostalgic article. This was the music and beat groups from my time. I went to most of the shows at Shanmukhananda Hall and also saw the various groups playing at the Blow Up, Hell, Slipped Disc. Besides Lionel and George Taylor of the Combustibles their lead crooner was Maxim Crudgington who could really bring the crowd to their feet with his superb antics on stage. I visited him at his sister’s home here in Toronto some years ago. Sadly one of his legs had to be amputated due to gangerine.
    Thanks and keep up the good work.

  21. Hi everyone. Always great to read about my Dad! I am Ken Gnanakan’s (Trojans) son, Santosh.

    Sadly, Dad passed away in May 2021, at the age of 80. He had lived a full life and did it his way! 🙂 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Gnanakan

    Thanks to him, our home was always filled with music. During the lockdown, he got all of us to regularly record FamJam videos, which he posted on Facebook. Here is one of them – https://www.facebook.com/ken.gnanakan.7/videos/10158408140726234/.

  22. Btw, does anyone know what happened to the rock band, “The Atomic Forest”? They were active in the early 70s, a psychedelic hard rock band with a single album called, “Obsession 77”, with Keith Kanga, Nandu Bhende, and a few others, I have forgotten their names. If I am not mistaken they even performed alongside Led Zeppelin!

    1. Jerry De Moss on drums (fab drummer…heard he went to Israel back then? Not sure where he lives at present).

      Abe was on lead guitar ….excellent feel!!
      Does anyone know where he’s now?

      Cheers
      ps: I was like 8 years old when the Jets did a concert at the Gloria Church Hall. All the Beatle-head bands were playing on the stage on the church grounds (during the church’s annual 7 or 9-day fair, I think it was) but the Jets had their own show in the upstairs hall. Packed hall. Slick band.
      Uniforms. Left for a tour to Germany right after…

      Yes, Derek Julien passed. Man, what a guitarist/musician he was…..RIP Derek

  23. I am Nandu Bhende’s wife. Happy to read your article. I have 5 scrapbooks full of articles and photos of Nandu, and his shows, from the time he was 16! It brought back many wonderful memories. My daughter Amrita Bhende DeSouza, who now lives in Auckland New Zealand, and heads Mktg in a corporate group. She also sings at Rock shows with various bands, and is taking her dad’s legacy forward. Her husband Rohan is a computer wizard, makes customised apps, and is also a jazz drummer, playing at various shows.

  24. I’m bass guitarist from the band mind rockers from mahimwith Ignatius on drums steeve on mic Shubert leads we played many shows contest weddings n parties n also at sanmukhand hall simla beat contest along side Nandu famous song I’m so.glad just marvelous but could not win as there were talented groups I’m happy to readabout the past review of the sixties now I’m in my seventies enjoying life

  25. I was in a Cathedral school band called the Noise Boys (!!) with John Pestonjee, Romesh Velu and Jangoo Chowna, and we played school socials. We also had a few gigs, notably a week’s residency at Venice for the mid-morning “Jam Sessions”. I was in a band called CDY (don’t ask) with some Americans in Tarapur, and in my last year in Bombay I was in an all-Indian (except for me) group called The Sages Of Rama. I knew Biddu when he was The Lone Trojan, and sold him a red polo neck that had been badgering me for for ages. I met him by chance in London on the King’s Road a year or so after I left India, in 1968. Happy Days!

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