PETALING JAYA: After 50 years, Michael Magness (pic), maestro of the original local pop band, The Strollers, will rejoin fellow founding members in a reunion many thought would never happen.
The 80-year-old will perform with drummer Hussein Idris, 73, and bass player Billy Chang, 75, on April 2 in a one-off performance, which will go down in local music history as “one of the least expected, and one that defies the laws of age and time”.
Entrance to the three-hour event, “Just As We Were”, is free and is on a first-come first-served basis for up to 120 people only due to limited seating at the Hangover PJ restaurant in Dataran 3 Two Square at Jalan 19/1 in Petaling Jaya, from 4pm to 7pm.
The show has been put together by a group of Strollers fans in collaboration with online news portal Free Malaysia Today (FMT) to honour the tireless torchbearers of Malaysian pop bands.
AirAsia has sponsored the flight ticket for Magness from Sydney while the venue, sound and lights are provided at no cost by Hangover PJ.
The unlikely return of Magness to the oldest pop group in Malaysia is seen as a nostalgic celebration of a vintage act that had added a high gloss to the music scene of the 1960s and early 1970s.
“Getting back together with The Strollers is a magical moment for me,” Magness told FMT via telephone from his home in Hervey Bay, Brisbane.
He quit the band in 1973 to pursue the more lucrative business of advertisement jingles, and later migrated to Australia.
On whether he was confident of performing with the others as a band, Magness said: “I’m very excited, but a bit worried at the same time.
“I dreamt of this reunion for a long time. I’m longing to do The Strollers hits, and fans can be assured it will be a fantastic show.”
The Strollers were the first and only Malaysian band to sign with an international recording label to release English songs. The group released 33 songs, of which 17 were original compositions.
The band’s giant single, Do What You Gotta Do, topped the Malaysian charts for eight weeks, while Mid-day Sun, Just As I Am and Silly Joke were among the other smash hits.
What is equally amazing is that none of the members of The Strollers then had any formal music training, and every one worked out their own chords and drumbeats, and played each number from memory.
The concert will also pay tribute to Australia-based Jimmy D’Oliverio, who is unable to make the reunion due to poor health, and to other The Strollers members who had passed away.
Those who have passed on are multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Nand Kumar (1991), guitar sensation Terry Thaddeus (2003), guitarist Amrin Majid (2010), drummer Ramli Yaakob (2019) and lead guitarist Hassan Idris (2021).
The band’s first manager Jap Tan died in 2021.
The gig will also feature current members of The Strollers, Soon King (guitar/vocals), Rodney Steele (guitar/vocals) and Dave Singh (keyboard/vocals).
Guest artistes pop diva Ice and singers A. Radha Krishnan, Vernon Steele, Jason Noah and Colin Jansen will also be performing. – FMT
