Real professionals. No wonder they were
called the best band in
India
.
Started out as Rock Machine in 1984 in
Bombay
,
they released two albums in that name, Rock n Roll Renegade and Second
Coming. They have played in
USSR
,
UK
,
the Middle East etc before any other Indian band could. They have opened for
Bon Jovi and
Europe
.
They later wanted a
name for a worldwide audience and christened themselves as Indus Creed. The
y
released a self-titled album. This one featured a new sound with a lot of
Indian instruments and influences
blendingin beautifully. They had started
that sound in Second Coming with the song Pretty
Child, which found a place in this album too. The video for the song won the
best asian video award from Billboard.
The band is no more. Uday and Jayesh
are now on
New York
with a band called Alms for Shanti, playing the club circuit there. As early
as in 1991, I had sent a letter to them asking them if they would do a show
in
Calicut
.
They had responded then with an astronomical figure as professional charges
and I forgot all about it!
But what impressed us then was their
professionalism. The reply letter was a printed booklet with rates, travel
program, stage plan, terms and conditions, including the number of bottles of
mineral water needed!So when an opportunity presented itself, it was with
trepidation that we took it on. But we managed to pull it off.
Indus Creed. the show.......
Gujarathi Hall and Reynolds again.
September 1995. ..making Waves.. the name was born then. An excellent show. A
bit of charm was take
n away in the first 45 minutes or so as the band
insisted on using their sound engineer only, despite Mike’s experience with
the problem hall. But once they got the hang of it, they did a great job of
it.
The songs were mostly originals with a just a few covers, namely Pearl Jam, Beatles etc all Creedised versions. Uday really got the crowd
stomping despite the lack of popular covers. The first time that
Calicut
saw Clay Paky
canners in action and Bose stage monitors and side fills.
Reynolds bought out
the best stuff they had coz it was Creed, I guess! There were no real
sponsors.
We lost some money on that show. One of our friends, Ganesh Bhatt,
who realized the enormity of Creed as a band shelled out the whole amount we needed, can you believe it ?! The show
happened only due to his generosity. Accommodation was provided by Vythiri
Resorts and Malabar Palace.The line-up. Uday Benegal on vocals. Jayesh Gandhi
and Mahesh Tinaikar on guitars, Mark Sellwyn on bass and vocals, Zubin
Balaporia on keyboard and Adrian on drums. Sound engineer was Vijay
Benegal.