UNDAY 9 May 2010: The whole Media Prima gang was seen to have conquered Hard Rock Cafe Penang at around 8pm. There was nothing that could have stopped them. Even Faizal Tahir and his band was forced to take up the sits on the upper floor. General public and families were squeezed to use tables at the edge of the broad space in front of the stage.
A handsome sharped featured DJ stood up and said "Yo MPB dudes in the house. I am Seelan Paul. It gives me great pleasure to present to you the band whom didn't want their names to be mentioned because they were afraid they may "kechewa" all of you. We have Azhar from PWS. Johan from Finance. Eddie from CSD. Iesta from PWS... and of course him who does not need introduction, Ahmad Izham Omar, our Head of Radio...". At this point Faizal Tahir was screaming something to Izham from the upper level... and all Izham could reply was "I Love You", his phrase of the month after having said the same thing when winning the Anugerah Industri Music award for best album for Faizal, "Adrenalin".
So the night started. D'Kechewas, even without their usual vocalist, M. Zul, started rocking with Iesta on the microphones with his husky voice calling out "Mustang Saaaalllllyyyyyyy......" flanked by Eliza and Dato' Kamal on backing vocals. Swift strokes of Izham's keyboards coupled with Eddy's intense drum beats and heart pounding bass by Johan, could only make the Media Prima gang rock the night out as Azhar fills the air with the best blues guitar riffs.
It wasn't enough with just the blues jam. D'Kechewas continued with the evergreen Every Breath You Take with Azhar on the original infamous guitar picking of The Police's mind soothing arpeggio.
Eager to proceed to a more relaxed jamming session in the hotel room, the band then embarked on their last song for the night (or so they thought). The Beatles' I Saw Her Standing There was appropriate for a last song as a tribute to the great 60's/70's band. Even Hard Rock Hotel in Penang had mosaic of The Beatles all over the place and photos in almost all the hotel rooms.
Just as D'Kechewas was leaving the stage, the Media Prima gang screamed for more with their leader Dato' Amrin shouting "We want more,.. We want more.. " Somewhere at the back Pak Mus of Harian Metro was yelling "Jerat Kugiran,... Jerat Kugiran.. " with the rest of the crowd continuing their cheer for more of the band. Almost reluctantly, D'Kechewas went up the stage again and started whispering to each other. The drums started rolling again and the keyboards and bass hit the C chord with Iesta going "Gadis idamanku.. hanya engkau yang satu.. hadirlah.. dalam mimpi-mimpi ku.. " The rest was history. People started to sing along espcecially at "Rozana... " Such a classic Malay rock by Search will always leave a stain in the hearts of audience aged 30 and above (like what we had that day) - a stain that makes them sing along the lyrics even when they thought they did not memorised it. Of course Azhar's guitar solo mimicking Hillary Ang's masterpiece intensified the screamings.It was a night to remember by the Media Prima gang especially D'Kechewas. As Iesta had put it "Media Prima made my dreams come true.. " in his Twitter. The only professional musician in the band, Ahmad Izham Omar, was actually nervous initially (having to perform on stage with a bunch of amatuers) but later commented "I'm glad I agreed to do this coz the sound in Hard Rock was much better than the Media Appreciation Night 2 nights ago.. " Azhar was more interested remembering how he had been the first to listen to Sheila Majid's demo tape and Eddy was finally satisfied with the feedback speakers surrounding his drums.
As for me, a humble bassist, I can only hope that no one from the crowd that night noticed my errors in the chords (Every Breath You Take chorus - Izham had to yell "it's C !!,.. it's C !!.. "; and Rozana chorus where Iesta gave me a short look in the eye with a read in between the lines "What the F U X are you doin mate!"). One thing's for sure, now we can say "I have performed at Hard Rock!!!"The Bassist of D'Kechewas
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Special Thanks to D'Kechewas as listed below:
Keyboards: Ahmad Izham Omar (the Sifu)
Lead Guitars: Azhar Borhan
Rhythm Guitars: M. Zul (absent)
Drums: Eddy
Bass: Johan
Vocals: M.Zul (absent), Tengku Iesta
Backing Vocals: Eliza, Dato' Kamal
Tamborines: Dato' Kamal
DJ publicity by: Seelan Paul (courtesy of Fly FM, Hot FM and One FM)
