Indus Creed… the band

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. They released a self-titled album. This one featured a new sound with a lot of Indian instruments and influences blending in 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 taken 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 money, 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.