The show must go on, yet it wasn’t. By the mid-seventies, Kochi’s all-girl bands had faded away. Let the music play. However, it didn’t.
Was Kochi’s all-woman band scene ahead of its time? And was being a woman not in tune? ‘Those were the days, my friend… We thought they would never end,’ recalls Pamela Anna Mathew, MD, OEN, who was a guest singer with the all-girl band group, ‘Missing Links’. As well as being one of her favorite numbers, this was a sentiment she shared with the audience. In the time the band had formed, with both my sisters playing guitar and drums, I had already joined the family business,’ said Mathew, who went on to become the president of the Cochin Chamber of Commerce, the Kerala Manufacturers Association and the Indian Council of Industrial Institutions of Kerala. Work had taken precedence over music, and the show had ended, at least for her.
Introducing the first chord
‘Losers Weepers’ (1969-’72) struck the first chord in this trend. Women on stage were frowned upon at that time. Lata Verghese, nee Chandy, the lead guitarist of the group, remembers, ‘Back then, it was unheard of for girls to rock. Because people couldn’t accept this, we were thought to be losers and we would weep at our plight. We named our group Loosers and Weepers for this reason. We would have given it another name if we knew we could get so far and play in other cities besides St. Teresa’s College’.
‘I don’t remember who coined this name, but we once believed that music provided the missing link in man’s evolution,’ says Shalet John, guitarist and singer of the band ‘Missing Links’. ‘Before the curtains were raised, the introductory piece, ‘Link Connector’ would be played. We were trained by Emilie Isaacs of Elite Aces. All of us had music lessons with him since we came from musical families. Although there was opposition from our relatives, my mother, Anila, and Sunila’s mother would come with us to the shows. Our parents supported us completely’.
Parents’ support
Parental support was vital to the success of girl bands. ‘My father’s only demand was to wear a sari and perform when outside college, so here I was rocking in a sari at the Woodstock Festival at Thiruvananthapuram. My parents would accompany me to the shows outside the college,’ recalls Lata. Her other group members were drummer Kumari Koshy who is now a Canadian university dean, rhythm guitarist Shubha Sathyendranath, bass guitarist Sheila Chandrasekharan, and English department head Sheila Mammen.
‘We were introduced as the Paul sisters (Shalet and Rita) and the Mathew sisters (Anila and Sunila). It all began at St. Teresa’s College and we had the support and encouragement of Mother Sophie and Sr. Carmelita. We performed for Lunar Nights, for Miss Cochin Contest and the All Kerala Beat Festival. We used to charge Rs.1,000 for the shows. Those were very exciting times,’ Shalet recalls her meeting with pop icon Usha Uthup. As Usha performed at Hotel Casino, she wore a gown and a Shirley Bassey-style haircut. ‘I was blown away by her stage presence so much that I ran up to her and took her autograph’. Today, Usha Uthup and Shalet John jam together whenever they get together.
Was the city in tune with the girls strumming a new note? ‘I’m not so sure’, Anila says recalling an incident. ‘We could hear the hooting as we adjusted our instruments behind the curtains at the All Kerala Beat Contest in Town Hall. All of us were very nervous. When my sister Sunila started playing the drums, there was complete silence. It was impossible to believe a girl could play the drums so well. We came out trumps at the competition’.
Thus, the Eves quickly gained a large following and received applause. Heartthrobs was another group. ‘Strangely there was not much hooting as we expected and we had quite a fan following,’ says Shalet, smiling at the thought. Says Sr. Carmelita, whom all these ladies owe this wonderful phase in their lives to, ‘those days it was uncommon to have girl-bands. We had the first girl string band, maybe in the country. I remember the Law College boys would tease Loosers and Weepers and change their banner to Loosers and Sweepers. I asked the girls to ignore it and it died down. But all these girls had music in their blood. Emile Isaacs and Pinson Correya tutored them. Synchronizing the alto, tenor the first and the second voices was what I used to do and of course encourage them. Cotton Fields was one popular number they played’.
‘We even experimented with fusion music, which was a big hit’. Shalet John calls it raga rock. ‘So Big wheel keep on turnin, Proud Mary keep on burnin, Rollin, rollin, rollin on the river… ..the ladies crooned and music peaked a new scale in the city. But it was short-lived. It had to be. We all got busy with other things. Further studies and marriage came in the way and things came to a natural end,’ says Shalet.
Read more: BJP plans a ‘grand celebration’ of Yogi Adityanath’s 4.5 years of legacy
Miles Isaacs, who groomed these women, said, ‘I can tell you one thing – they were hard workers. They knew their music. There were no lip-sync and tracks in those days, unlike today. These girls were not bothered about their looks and figures as you find now. It was just pure love for music’.
The girls had performed as planned. ‘Their hearts were guiding them, and they faced the music with all their might, so that they could live the life they wanted. For we were young and sure to have our way. La la la la…Those were the days… my friend we thought would never end’. Is there time for one more?
Post Your Comments