The only doubt I had, and a very mild one, was that the stuff I had heard by the band, which was Ramli's launching pad I gather, was pretty generic stuff - sort of middle of the road AOR - think Whitesnake at their worst - with a helping of dullish power ballads and a smattering of commercial ditties obviously designed to be popular hits. This is fairly typical of music with Malay origins of the decades mentioned. I know this sounds patronising but the imitation of poor models is so obvious it's undeniable. What I was sure of was that the standard of musicianship would be high and Ramli would bring real power and passion both vocally and in terms of creative desire. I was right.
I'm not entirely sure of whom amongst the seven members of the group (drums, percussion, 2 keyboard players, bass, lead guitar and Ramli on occasional acoustic, tambourine and vocals) other than the frontman were original members of Sweet Charity, but every one of them could play. At first I thought the guitarist was just going to throw screeching solos and power chords over everything, but by the third number it was clear he was a splendidly versatile ensemble player and more than capable of providing tasteful lines and licks and blending rhythmically. I should add that these guys were augmented by a string section of around seven or eight players. For the first few numbers you could hardly hear them but in the later part of the evening they came into their own and it was clear just how well-rehearsed the show was.
The tightness of the band came through particularly on the lighter material. The poppiest of the ditties sounded really good, bouncing along unapologetically with verve so that it gradually began to occur to me that they had real affection for this stuff. I can't say I was a complete convert but it was certainly entertaining. Meanwhile the power ballads worked simply because of the gravelly precision of Ramli's voice. He meant it. And then the rocking material did just that, rocked, in a fashion that was not to be resisted. It's a simple truth: when people who are really good at what they do, do it with joy you are guaranteed a good time.
One curious thing. The first number in the encore was a steaming version of Deep Purple's Black Night, the only English song of the evening and, I think, the only cover version. Yesterday morning for the first time in yonks I'd been thinking of the song and how that and Free's Alright Now when originally released marked the first time in my young life that I got excited about music that was not exactly what your mother would want you to listen to. I can recall watching that most crass of all tv programmes dealing with music, Top of the Pops just waiting for Deep Purple to blow everybody else away. It seems that Ramli and co were doing something similar on the other side of the world.
One last thing. the audience were great. Boisterously loud at the beginning they lapped up everything with infectious enthusiasm. Recognising what I take to have been the big hits they seemed to lift the band with their reactions. By the end a lot of them were up and dancing and considering a fair proportion were ladies wearing the tudung this looked incongruously fitting. There was a genuine sense of closeness between the musicians and their fans which was powerfully touching.
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