"Right, So where were we?"

Hello, my name is Nikhil Kumar, I am a rock journalist. Well, and that's pretty much it. I get paid by my magazine (which I am not allowed to name on this web-log for purposes of copy right and money)enough to travel around, eat food, and live off a suitcase. Earlier I have followed and written about Nutcase-Champagne and WeSuckTooMuch, and generic heavy metal rockers like I Kill, Murdurous Thugs and the like. But these were bands that had already established themselves in some way, and were situated in places like Delhi, Bangalore, Bombay etc.

I read about this band called Broken Tooth (On orkut, of all places) who were situated in Benares, and having heard highly of BHU rockers from my magazine editor who during his college days had often performed in IT-BHU and called it the Mecca of rock in East UP (Kashi/Mecca...go figure).

I contacted this guy 'Pablo', got his phone number from someplace, and the first thing he told me put me off a bit, Pablo wasnt his real name, not his official name anyway. I told him that I wanted to meet him and interview him and/or his band mates, and get to know what it is like to form a band. He was quite eager (and I believe, I don't know what leads me to think of this, but still, that he was jumping on the other end of the phone) and said that he would be glad to meet me and have pics taken and get published and famous, and I found an excuse to cut the phone at that time.

I first met the band three years ago, I went to Benares, took a room at a small hotel and in the name of Rock and Roll went to meet Broken Tooth.


"Right, so where were we?" Pablo said, keeping his glass of tea next to him.
"You were telling me about the whole idea, the concept, the inspiration behind forming a band." I told him, the interview was turning out to be long and winded, with mostly in-jokes between Pablo, Alex, Adi and PC, the four guys who had come to meet me.
"I had always wanted to be the lead singer of a rock band, you know," He said, "Ever since I was like ten years old and saw Axl Rose jump into the crowd in a concert video."
I laughed, and then saw the serious expression on his face, "Oh..ahem, you are serious. Well, pretty good, pretty good, I mean that is a good starting point, trying to emulate a Guns and Roses music video."
"It was a concert video." He corrected me, and perhaps my laughter had put him off a bit. I decided to turn my attention to Alex. "So Alex, did you too see Slash do some trick on TV and decided you want to be a guitarist?"
Alex smiled shyly and said, "I am still learning, we do have a long way to go, and I dont know, one day these guys asked me if I could play for them...and we played a Green Day song..."
"Let me tell you in detail," PC cut-in, he hadn't got a word in edge wise till now, and when he did he didn't stop, he kept on speaking, interjecting his sentences with 'obviously' (I counted by drawing sticks on my note pad, he said obviously forty two times) and he had a habit of running his hands through his hair, he took a water break too, to go and 'water' his hair. In the meantime Alex was tuning his guitar, Adi was looking far away at some object in the distance and Pablo was scowling at PC.

"Right, so where were we?" Pablo said, almost sarcastically when PC finished his monologue, "You see it was PC's idea, and something that I really didn't contest at that time to have the best guitarist of our College year in the band, add to that two or three enthusiasts who wanted to learn drums, and The Best Keyboard player of the College year we had eight or nine people in the band."
"My God, you could cover Slipknot and stuff..."
"We don't like Slipknot!" Alex said.
"I do..." Pablo said, "Well, at least some songs, I mean 'Before I forget is kind of cool."
"Will we be covering Slipknot?" Adi asked Pablo.
"No, we won't." Alex said "Remember, we don't like Slipknot."
"Before I Forget..."
"Look the question is not Slipknot it is..." I tried to say something.
"Obviously you may think that a nine piece band would be able to cover Slipknot, and obviously we can't cover it because..."

They were a bit incoherent after that, the rest of the interview was like a bad comedy film. From the jottings I made on the notepad, I tried to form a tale of the band."

The band and it's name were products of whimsical fancies of the core band members (Alex, Adi, PC, Pablo). PC thought it prudent to have the best guitarist of the College Year and The Best Keyboard member of the College year as members of the band. He also enlisted two or three drum enthusiasts from his circle of friends.

The story goes on that the Best Keyboard Player of the College Year didn't quite know that he was in the band, and thus never turned up at practices, nor learned any of the songs that the band wanted to do. The Best Guitarist didn't really like rock music, and so turned up at practices but stayed as a silent spectator (a very nice guy, they emphasised), and the two or three drum enthusiasts were just that, 'enthusiasts'.

(Much later, Pablo told me that his band was a lot like Spinal Tap, with a list of temporary drummers, until Nandit came in to the picture).

And so by the end of the first year of their existence the band's strength was cut down to Four from Eight to Nine.