‘AN ASSEMBLAGE OF THE UNEXPECTED !’

The above title describes the overall scenario of the MCOBA Musical Extravaganza 2008 to which I am privileged and greatly honored to be apppointed as the Producer by the Chairman of this great event Dato’ Faidz Darus ( better known as Frankie to his close friends) who is ably guided by Nik Azmi (Bull) to produce it for this year’s Annual Dinner at the Istana Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.

The Chairman and later Mcoba’s President and the General Committee emphasized to me the theme of the show to be a sixty minutes musical concert with a fair mix of songs, both Malay and English at as low a budget as we possibly can and yet one that stands out as the best yet for this year’s annual dinner. With this task given to me and the concept that forms in my mind over what is expected by my friend the Chairman and Mcoba’s GC , there is no way that I can produce anything that can be considered as worthy of being named a musical extravaganza, without the able working together of my dearest friends Abdul Rahim Ismail ( Vic ) and Zainal Annuar ( Steve Mc Queen ), who had in the old College days been associated in College musical concerts. I told Frankie that Vic will be the Musical Director and Steve our working associate for the show.

Eventually Vic and I met to talk about the show and the choice of songs we mutually agreed upon. We thought of a Musical Concert, unique in concept , music and songs with a cast of old boys singers who are experienced in College shows of their time. Frankie did his bid to publicize our need for singers, who I had expected to be not less than fifteen in all, but eventually we only managed to get ten When eventually we did assemble our musical team, both of us realized the monumental task that we would have in our hands to produce a show from our assemblage of the unexpected. We would need hundreds of hours of practice ( which eventually totalled more than 300 hours ) to mould and perfect our songs.

The Concept
- part Broadway and part an assortment of popular songs done in Solos, Duets and Group

The Music and Songs
- a rich selection from Broadway and charted songs spanning the generations

The Cast
an assortment of old boys who assure themselves that they can sing ( not necessarily well ) and from amongst which we get both professional musicians and singers, bar and bathroom singers and those who aspire to be singers in our concert. Their age range is from the early forty to the early seventies with hopefully a cumulative experience of over seven hundred years of singing in their various working lives.

Thus I am privileged to introduce our music cast as follows :-

Frankie ( Dato’ Mohd Faidz )
- an ever enthusiastic musical person who reminisces on the success of the 1985 Mcoba musical show in which he was a cast member , and the desire to stage one again for old time sake. He works very hard to convince his fellow MCOBA GC members that another show of the kind should be staged for this year. Frankie is very firm, kind and considerate to his team and he himself proves to be a worthy singer to the group. His debut song is "Gonzalez".

Vic ( Abdul Rahim Ismail )
- the most hyper sensitive man on musical notes and sounds, and who is himself a personified "tuning fork" as evidenced from the musical scores which he makes the group perform to his perfection. Vic constantly works himself up to hyper stage when it comes to songs sung by his member cast and in the process provides them an intuitive in-house training and experience in music. Having pursued Jazz Music Performance courses at Jazz Academy in London and Berkeley College of Music in the USA, you can expect nothing less than the very best from him when it comes to music and singing, to both of which he himself excels as proven from his interpretations of "Route 66 ", "That Old Black Magic" duet with Fred and "New York, New York " in the Concert. Vic’s own version of "My Shawl" as the signature tune of the College music concerts of the early fifties and " the Caravan" are well remembered and still reverberate present generation musical concerts of the Hargreaves Hall. His accolades in the musical world in Malaysia are numerous but suffice it to say, we can only accept nothing less than excellence from Vic for this year’s show.

Fred ( Tunku Dato’ Farid )
- a very close friend of Vic always working together in any musical presentations from their College till now. Fred is an old hand when it comes to the evergreens and used to be a working encyclopedia of popular songs of his days, memorising hundreds of songs to the detriment of his studies, but of late, he experiences almost blank recollections of all these songs and memory lapses at actual singing performances ever since the late eighties. Working on this Concert poses his greatest challenge ever yet considering the old boys audience who never take kindly to poor performances. Fred has done , produced and directed many musical shows and stage plays both at the College, The University of Malaya, the Royal Lake Club, and at family gatherings, performed in a television musical show with Julie Sudiro and the late Zain Azman and led by the late Tony Soliano as the band leader, and "A Saturday Night Star" of the Radio in the eighties .Singing is his forte.

Syd ( Syed Elias )
a well-grounded and very experienced singer and harmony accompanist as evidenced from his ever untiring contribution to harmony singing for the Concert group. He is ever ready to explore and learn new songs and harmony techniques from Vic and is the backbone of the Concert. Being himself still a sportsman just as he had been during his College days and a corporate leader, he spares no time when it comes to anything that has to do with the College. and believes in only the best for everything he does. All along he shows admirable temperament even when others are stretched with the musical demands of Vic. His renditions of "the Banana Boat Song ‘ brings nostalgic memory of the good old College’s scouts campfires.

Hans Almerbawi ( Hussain Shaari )
- Named after his hometown of Lubok Merbau in Kuala Kangsar , Hans is an avid evergreens singer and pianist who sings his favorite evergreens at any occasions that demand his singing talent. His ever untiring and determined attitude to produce only the very best for the Concert remains exemplary to the rest. He is ever ready to accept any directives from Vic and Fred with an open smiles which indicates nothing short of acceptance on his part to do his best to execute. His voice reverberates in "Nothing Like A Dame" and "Speedy Gonzalez" .

The Fonzz ( Ahmad Fauzi Samad )
- the professional singer very well-known in stage and TV performances in a class of his own when it comes to Elvis Presley’s songs and performances. He and his wife Ayu render an ever helping hands when it comes to professional advice and guidance to the group and besides doing his solos in the Concert he never considers stooping too low to be in the chorus group. They both have admirable attitude to ensure group success and spare their precious time to be present at most of the weekly practices. His two Elvis numbers " I need your love tonight" and "Kiss me quick" leaves an indelible mark to any College concert.

Steve Mc Queen ( Zainal Annuar )
A very unlikely nickname for a person of his physique, height and face compared to the actual Steve Mc Queen but nevertheless Zainal seems not to mind the nick name given to him by his classmates of the sixties. He tells us that he was so called Steve because he admires the film star so much then that he almost always quote and imitate the Star’s style of talking and possibly acting too. However, Steve is a pro when it comes to creating special rylics to popular songs to create jokes and calm his attentive listeners who used to be the rich towkeys who got themselves half drunk by the time Steve presented his special songs. He has his own style of singing which is a trade mark to his success as a singer-cum-master of ceremony at prestigious functions of the past in Ipoh, Perak. His rendition of "Walk Away" typifies his singing style.

Sam ( Ramli Samjis)
The ex-Navy Commodore cum crooner who enjoys songs of the fifties, sixties and seventies and himself having a wide collections of these songs. He prides himself as a crooner and initially has misgiving to do the rock number " See you later Alligator". Now he prides himself to have done it . Displaying a non-tempremental personality, we cannot paint him as the Commodore of Malaysian navy. At the College then he was an all-rounder in sports whilst excelling in female roles for College concerts.

Ben Zoule ( Zulkifli Sidek )
is nothing short of "Abang Zul" in Malay although there is nothing to suggest that he was that old or had the look enough to qualify as "abang" to his Form mates of the time. Ben is more remembered for his excellent Quran readings of those days. He presently teaches English at a corporate institution and has appeared in numerous radio and television programmes on Islamic teaching.

Wooer ‘s ( Rosli Mohd Ali)
special Eistein ungroomed hair looks and dressings cannot fail to make him prominent in the group, not so much as a singer to which role he tries very hard to excel but definitely as the man who has his hands full almost all of the time with odd-things that are thrown to him to do for the show.. He is about the most hard working member of the concert with his hands full of tasks to complete. He is an architect by profession and yet he is almost always seen at Mcoba penthouse be it night or day.

Mat Bab (Azli Abdullah )
is forty two and the youngest in the team. Seemingly shy and needs his tobacco pipe to give him the smoke screen to boost up his confidence with the high expectation of both Vic and Fred. Most of the concert’s songs being not of his generation he does well to overcome this handicap.

Gus ( Ghazali Baharin )
who moonlights his Mcoba’s executive secretary’s duties to join in the team for the show. Besides contributing his singing skill he is also the procurement executive for the group and Mcoba itself. A likeable character, his booming voice is significant in the chorus team.

Stitch ( Dr. Anis )
He is the surgeon with a saxophone and flute in his medical bag, who simply cannot resist the slightest opportunity to play them whenever and wherever opportunity arises for him to display his musical talents. For a person who only picks up the saxophone at the later years of his life ( in fact when he started working ) it is marvelous that he could find the time to do it despite his busy schedules as the surgeon of Subang Jaya Medical Centre.

Thus we have the assemblage of the unexpected who sacrifice their time and give their hearts out and best efforts to try to achieve and perform the best ever Annual College Dinner concert of the years. I am indeed very privileged to be associated with all these Collegians.

But of course I cannot forget the valuable and untiring assistance of our keyboardist Wan Azhar, the regular supply of food and drinks from Jim and others too numerous to name, Yusof Abu Bakar on lights and sounds, Hakim and his boys, Michael Voon on choreography and Alla (Azura Abal Abas ) on costumes and props, Ayu (the Fonzz wife) who help out with the dances and "Friday Girl" presence on our songs, and The Fonzz (Fauzi Samad) himself who assist us in full in all aspects of the show, and not forgetting our overall Production Boss (Bull - Nik Azmi) and our Concert Chairman Frankie ( Faidz Darus ) with his ever presence and ready assistance and advice to the team. Of special mention, without the harmony work by the untiring duo of Syd (Syed Elias ) and Hans Almerbawi (Hussain Shaari) and the patience and talents of Jimmy (Ahmad Ali) of RTM who help out with the recordings and the ever talented musical directions from Vic (Rahim Ismail), there is no way that we could ever dream of doing what we do. What can I say more. The overall success of the concert can only be realized through the comradeship of all those concerned for which I am forever grateful and as Ben and even Vic say on separate occasions, this may well be our last hurrah with the hope of setting the benchmark for all future Mcoba Annual Dinner concerts ! However the credit overall is back to MCOBA which spares no efforts and money to stage this year’s musical extravaganza "world premier" .