13AD…. The band

Founded in the late 70’s-early 80’s, this band from Cochin or Kochi had it all. A fantastic guitarist in Eloy “Magic Fingers” Issac, a great keyboardist in Jackson Aruja, a seasoned drummer in Pinson Correa, a bassist who was a great vocalist too in Paul KJ and last but never the least, a fine vocalist in Glen La Rive, who could mimic voices beautifully. Later George “Kool” Peter joined them on vocal and added a new dimension to the band. Rose and Zarina too joined the band in then the early 90’s adding yet another facet to an already excellent band. Their strength was their note perfect rendition

of songs. No great movers on stage, with the exception of George, they nevertheless floored one and all with their musical prowess. They have released two albums to date, Ground Zero and Tough on the Streets. They were the quintessential nice guys, always smiling, polite and oh-so-humble. The range of songs they could do on stage was amazing. Iron Maiden to Khaled, Michael Bolton to Metallica. It was really mindboggling stuff. I guess it all came due to the fact that they had a contract with Hotel Sealord in Cochin, where they used to play every night. I am giving you all such details here because, sadly, for a band of this quality an stature, they have no website at all. Any one who has ever met them will have only nice things to say about the band. Personally, they were my choice for the best band in India.Sadly for music lovers in the country, the band took a stupid decision to play in a Hotel in Muscat at the height of their career, at a time when they had concerts galore. They thus left for Muscat, did a show or two when they came on annual leave and then split up. Their reason for leaving India was that the money was good, that things were not happening etc. One can’t blame them fully, coz here in India, rock music cannot be a fulltime profession and one has to have a regular job to pay the bills.


13 AD and me….

I had heard a lot about them from friends who had studied at Manipal. Once Ground Zero was released I was hooked. Here was a mallu band with an album release and it sounded good. I heard about them playing at Sealord and went there once. Luckily, there weren’t much people round on that day and I had a field day. All my requests were sung – note perfect…. From Cliff Richard to Scorpions to Pink Floyd… they did it all. During the break, they came up to me and thanked me for the requests, saying that requests made for variety! After they closed at 11pm, I decided to foot it. And, to my surprise, Glen who came riding by, gave me a lift. I was a fan for life and not only for their music!

Many trips to Sealord later (some of them on bike, riding 200+ km just to hear them play!) Naush and me decided to do a show with them. We decided to do it under the Rotaract Banner as both of us and a few of our closest buddies were members.

13 AD .. the Show

We did it… many hiccups later on December 20th 1992. The first date scheduled was on November 20th . We had set the stage up, Reynolds (the sound & light people) from B’lore had come, set up and finished checking.. and then came the call…. Paul’s mom had expired, so the band had cancelled the show. We shat bricks! Disaster on the eve of the show! Reynolds were angels! Felix, the boss, over phone said no problems, no extra charges, fix another date and they would come again! So we fixed another date, 13th December but that too was ill fated. Babri Masjid on 6th. So no show on 13th too. Atlast we did it on 20th. Wheeeew!!!

Whatta show! Opening with Do you wanna get Rocked by Def Leppard, they went on to sing November Rain, Brick in the Wall, Buffalo Soldier, Holy Water, Unforgiven, Didi(!), Hysteria, Black or White, When a Man Loves a Woman, Whatever u Want and many, many other hits, including a couple of their originals. A fantastic show by any standards. The venue was The Gujarathi School Auditorium. It is not a perfect auditorium acoustically but Mike made it sound perfect. The venue is a great one, coz the stage is huge. The hall can seat around 1500 and it has no fixed seats. So we kept the floor empty and had chairs only on the balcony. The crowd picture u saw on the opening page was the crowd for the show. Roataract made money from the show.

Thums Up was the main sponsor of the show. We also had Ace Motors, VNM, Asma Towers and a host of others chipping in.

The line-up…. Glen La Rive, George Peter, Rose and Zarina on vocals. Eloy Issac on lead/rhythm guitars and backing vocals. Paul on bass and vocals. Jackson on Keyboards and Pinson Correa on drums.

This was the first taste Calicut had of a quality rock show with first rate production.

 





For more personal details on 13AD, album reviews etc., visit www.rsjonline.com & www.gigpad.com under articles, reviews.....