Seven Oz joins Jakarta's 1970s rock music revival

Seven Oz joins Jakarta's 1970s rock music revival

By Johannes Simbolon

JAKARTA (JP): The man in black clothes and boots clutched the
microphone. With his eyes closed, he rendered Led Zeppelin's
Stairway to Heaven in his high-pitched voice. He seemed to be in
a trance.

The quick lighting changes flooded the stage, intensifying the
music.

The audience listened to the music attentively while enjoying
their drinks, sometimes following the song and clapping their
hands at the end of each song.

The Classic Rock Pub in Blok M, South Jakarta, that recent
Monday night was filled with the memory of the glory of rock
music from the 1970s as the band, who bills itself Seven Oz,
played songs from such rock giants as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple,
Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, Jimmy Hendrix and Rod Stewart.

The pub's clientele, apparently aged over 30 years old, were
all familiar with the songs.

"Rock songs from the 1970s are trendy now," said Duki Sadikin,
singer and leader of the band.

Seven Oz feels happy with the trend and thinks it part of
their success, since they claim to be the first musical group
here to set the trend.

"Around 1990, when we started playing hard rock music at such
pubs as News Cafe and Jazz Rock Cafe, we had no listeners. People
thought we were playing orangutan music. We had to play other
types of music in our gigs and insert one or two rock numbers,"
he said.

"Today, there are many groups like us. Even young people have
formed similar groups," he said.

The groups include Jakarta-based Acid Speed, which consists of
university students and young workers specializing in the Rolling
Stones; Elpamas from Surabaya, consisting of 30-something
musicians who focus on Uriah Heep, Emerson Lake & Palmer and
Janis Joplin; Jakarta student group Lemon Tea, specializing in
The Doors, Pink Floyd; Bandung student group Time Bomb Blues who
sings general rock songs; and another Jakarta student group
Colors, who play mostly Genesis.

The bands generally play in the Classic Rock Pub, which is the
only place in Jakarta's nightlife specializing in that musical
genre.

Other pubs in Jakarta, such as News Cafe, Jazz Rock Cafe and
Hard Rock Cafe, also present similar music but they don't make it
their specialty.

Some of the groups were created by the Classic Rock Pub.
Initially, Lemon Tea was a group which sang any kind of song. The
pub's manager, Chandra Elias, persuaded the student group to
focus on The Doors and Pink Floyd.

The back-to-the-1970s trend seems to have gained a stronger
following lately with radio station M.97 FM, which started
broadcasting in October, 1995. It proudly declares itself the
only station in town that broadcasts classic rock throughout its
18-hour-long day.

In Bandung, there is also a radio station specializing in hard
rock music called Generasi Muda Radio (GMR) FM. It differs from
M.97 FM in that it does not focus only on the classic rock of the
1970s, but also on other styles, like heavy metal, which emerged
in a later period.

"Most of the songs we broadcast are from the 1970s, but we
also broadcast rock songs from the 1980s, which we think have the
potential to become classics, like Tom Sawyer of the Rush group,"
said Nova Cahya, session manager of M.97 FM.

The M. in M.97 FM stands for males, indicating the gender they
are targeting. The full word is intentionally hidden because the
Jakarta administration does not allow the naming of companies
with foreign words.

"We know that lovers of this type of music are mostly male. It
does not mean, however, that females don't like it. We've also
received letters from females," said Nova.

The radio station aims toward people who were high school
students in the 1970s and would now be aged between 35 and 40.
They number between 300,000 and 500,000 in Jakarta alone, Nova
said, quoting data from Indonesia's Survey And Research.

"The 1970s are just unforgettable. Throughout their life,
people who were raised in that era won't ever forget its music,"
said Nova.

The station now has a rock collection of between 2,800 and
3,000 songs, which they have gathered from local collectors as
well as abroad. They plan to increase their treasure to around
5,000 songs before they can proudly say "It is complete", said
Nova.

M.97 FM has struck a deal to cooperate with the Classic Rock
Pub to promote the rock-of-the-1970s mania.

One of the big events on Classic Rock's agenda is to reunite
Indonesia's former giant rock groups.

Rock music's success in the 1970s spawned many imitators the
world over. In Indonesia, there were groups called God Bless,
Rollies, Ucok AKA and SAS. All made their mark with Indonesian
rockers, as did international groups.

The Indonesian groups have all disbanded but most of the
musicians are still alive.

Classic Rock has tried to reunite the bands but only once, one
night last year, did it succeed in bringing the Rollies together
on stage.

"We did not advertise but relied on the grapevine. It was so
fantastic. There was such a huge crowd that night that many of
them were forced to watch standing from outside," said Chandra.

Although the groups can't be expected to perform with all the
original members any longer -- or only once as far as Rollies is
concerned -- their fans can still see individuals of the groups,
like Arthur Kaunang from SAS and Deddy Stanzah from Rollies, when
they visit Classic Rock; sometimes playing songs on request.

"We still have an obsession to bring the groups on stage, with
all the members present," said Chandra.