Got hints of Jimi hendrix, jamiroquai, RHCP all blended perfectly into a sort of Annavaru-Groove. Some funky lyrics too.
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The mysterious origins of Rudy David
Though Rudy passes himself off as an ordinary guy, with an ordinary life, the conspiracy theories have to make their presence felt.
First. Rudy is not a mal. How come? Well I heard Rajeev say it for one. The other is have you ever ever heard of a mal called Rudy? Mals generally take any 2 sounds and put them together. Now Rudy would fit this criteria beautifully BUT… there is no one else called Rudy. Do you know a mal called Rudy. NO. Even Titichayan’s wife tatama kochamma wouldn’t know a Rudy in her nagaram (which means town. naragam on the other hand means hell which actually are never too far from each other).
Despite this he speaks perfect malayalam. He claims he was born there. But he is not a mal. So… what is he?
Theory 1
Rudy is from Mars
This astonishing theory actually gains credence once you’ve spotted Rudy’s red hair which is never allowed to grow. But he is actually quite vocal about it. Red hair from the red planet. Obviously his wife would rather not have everyone know she’s married a martian so hence the ban on the beard. But Rudy has that longing for his roots in a follicle sense of course. So Rudy landed up from Mars in Kerala. Why? Simbly.
Theory 2
Rudy has some European roots. But that’s too boring. So on to the next theory.Theory 3
E=mc2
Theory 4
Rudy is actually a vampire. So actually he is about 500 years old and came to the Kerala shores with old Vasco da Gama. Haven’t heard of a Portuguese vampire? Try Rudy. If you ask Rudy ‘Queres beber um pouco sangue?’ He would hesitate a moment. Also check out an unreleased picture of him with his teeth glinting. However one must reiterate that this is a pro vegetarian vampire. What lovely bloody music he makes!
Theory 5
Rudy is John LennonJohn Lennon’s shooting was a silly urban myth. However as the myth started spreading the marketing dudes who were getting tired of Lennon decided they would milk it for all its worth. So with a neat bit of chloroform they parcelled Lennon (Rudy) away for a few months. They got the whole world to cry about him and released him from his house arrest. Obviously no one believed that he was Lennon. He was dead after all.
So Rudy Lennon decided that the next best thing to do was to land up in Kerala. Having visited India before it was a doddle to settle in the land of the mal. A few days of sun got the skin sorted. Learning the language was made simple by the Boney M loving restaurant owner. How? Rudy Lennon would say ‘RA RA Rasputin’ and he would get some appam and stew. And so with the consistent usage of Boney M songs the language issue was solved.
Then came the musical issue… ah well we know how that worked out. He joined some zany band… unknown to most….
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Oh…I'll get you
“I’ll get you in the end” was a Bruce Lee Mani original — lyrics, I mean. The young and spunky Sunil Chandy added some cool touches to it.
I think the first time it was performed was at Christ College before TAAQ was born — we were just the Christ College band then. It was the mandatory ‘own composition’ — a song that could put us ahead in the sweepstakes. While the metal boys bludgeoned it out, screaming of death and mangled wombs and the untold joys of the crypt, we were singing about pretty Marys and red Ferraris.
I ain’t talkin about no pretty mary
I’m talking about my Red Ferrari
Ironically, pretty Mary (Bindu Mary) came into Bru’s life almost the next year. And she has the original scrap of paper on which the song was written.
Download ‘I’ll get you in the end’ on our website
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Tull + Mal = ?
One of the memories that will be filed away in the old steel-trap (hah!) brain from this concert will be this: turning around and seeing a 50+ dude with a humongous beard, eyes closed, snaggle-teeth fully visible, bellowing lustily along with Ian and the boys on Aqualung and Locomotive Breath. Old rockers never die…
Other memories? Of course, me hearties. Walking up on stage all glam for a change wearing painted-on gold-speckled slink (Rzu’s orange pants, Rojew’s pink-glitter shirt, wow), seeing 4000+ people waiting, all the awful bum notes I played, Jupiter Cafe, Bend the World, Prakash falling asleep during sound check (and the wonderful non-veg sandwich episode), the wife running up to give everyone hugs.. so much more. Mr. Anderson (dare we say it like Mr. Smith?) was quite a guy. Meeting the rest of the band, chatting about basses and accordions and small shops in Cornwall. (Now I can definitely stick up my lil finger at parties!).
‘Twas a good gig, methinks. Only wish we had a better soundcheck, and perhaps that that jam with Mr. Anderson happened. Anyway. Can’t complain, old chaps.
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in the beginning we made 'ill get you in the end'
We recorded “ill get you in the end” and “catharsis” for a show on MTV called MTV-U, which incidentally was the TV Show that launched Cyrus the MTV VJ. I believe he’s also going to be there at IIM for Unmaad.
We were approached by someone from TV 18 to do a shoot. The dude who called us was supposed to come to college to get permission from Father Principle (Princy) before shooting us cos we were still a college band and stuff. On the way to college, this dude lit up a joint in the auto and Vishak and i took a few drags cos we had to keep up the rock star image and all. So we went in for this meeting with Princy totally stoned. Surprisingly Princy said he’s cool with anything except nude chicks in the video J
We then started off the process of shooting the video. This dude wanted us to go to Bangalore Majestic and take off our shirts and play. Majestic btw is this totally F’d up crowded market area near the Bangalore Bus Terminal. We had to use all our diplomacy skills to get him to believe that it was a bad idea. Finally he agreed to do a shoot in college campus itself.
Lights camera action – Bruce and Chandy jumped into this pond which had a few frogs, fish, tadpoles etc in it. Luckily for me i set up the kit on one side and man the trip was completely hilarious. Since there was no sound and amps etc – it was just lip sync and acting stuff. This TV 18 guy then made us set-up our gear on this mound of grass outside the college main block and started shooting us from a maruthi van which kept going round and round that mound of grass. He almost fell off a couple of times.
I wish we could somehow source that footage from TV 18. Somebody, anybody who knows anybody please to be helping digging this one out. It will be fun to watch that one.
But before all this we had to actually get the songs recorded in a studio.
We had exactly 1,000 rupees and expected to put down two tracks.
Going against words of wisdom from the musician gods in Bangalore at that point – which included stuff like “dude it takes 5 days to get your snare drum tuned in the studio daaa” and “Its pointless macha, you cant record 2 whole tracks within 1K ” etc etc, we just went up to Ebby Studios in Banaswadi (this was a completely way out joint in 1996).
The engineer there Mr. Augustine decided to give us a chance. He just said, pay me what you have, don’t worry about the time etc. do your thing. Man that was one of the big moments for TAAQ. So I borrowed Jeff Popes kit, Bruce borrowed Ajay Phillips processor and guitar i think and man we just blasted off in the studio. The result was an instrumental called “Catharsis” and the second one was “Ill get you in the end”. 2 songs made solely by the power of rock n roll.
Power to Augustine from Ebby studios – we are eternally grateful for what he did for us Back in 1996.
Oh and about the MTV-U show: some folks said they saw us, i think some guys in Kottayam said they saw the show, or maybe they were bullshitting after a few bottles of toddy. We never heard from that TV 18 Guy, none of us saw the program.
VJ Cyrus looks like a major body builder and is totally rocking now after 10 years. -
We're giving away CDs FREE!
Here’s some news to flash! We are giving away Flying Machine Special Edition CDs of Plan B. 1000 of them in all, distributed free, on the way out of the gig on 3rd of Feb.
If you’re going to wait for the Tull encore, you might just not get a CD
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Ian, here we come!
February 3. April 1.
2006. 2001.
Jethro Tull. Deep Purple.
It’s been five years since our last historic opening act.
When Deep Purple came to Bangalore, we opened with a pulsating all-original set.
But I, Bijoy Venugopal, wasn’t there. I had been exiled to the San Francisco Bay Area, on the eve of the dotcom bubble-burst. So I sat there with bated breath, mailing senti little epistles to my friends who were stirring in the garnish to make steaming hot history.
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taaq tull
When TAAQ meets Tull will we be tactile? How will we react to meeting ian ettan andhisson?
Predictors:
Rajeev will smile and laugh a lot; arms will be folded
Bruce will regain his quasi ‘foreign’ stage accent and talk a lotRudy will probably be the most sane and smile and make good conversation.
Chandy will stand moodily in a corner trying to look cool.
Other predictors?
- Show will start late.
- TAAQ will get a good mixture of cheers and jeers. ‘We want f@#$ing TULL!
- TAAQ will rock
- Tull will rock
and maybe we’ll shake the band members hands. A TAAQTULL experience.
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Tull Tales
It’s happening. TAAQ will open for Jethro Tull on Feb 3rd 2006. There’s even some talk of jamming with Mr. Ian Anderson. As you can see, we’re all very calm and composed. Pictures of serenity, you might say. Somebody gave me a Tull DVD for Christmas, very uncharacteristically. Tull played here last in 1996 – I couldn’t go, didn’t have the money, hadn’t really heard much of their music yet. TAAQ started up in 1996. They’re here again in 2006, and here we go. Picture of Serendipity?
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Taaq'in about a revolution
Liberté. Egalité. Fraternité.
That’s what this space is all about. To liberate ourselves from silence. To give equal voice to everyone who has a right to speech. And to unite all TAAQies.
If the punning on TAAQ makes your bones grate, do let us know. We’ll give you a free upgrade to business class — which means an hour with Sunil Chandy.
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