The Alleycats is a

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two regions: Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo's East Malays ...

n band which was formed in 1969, and gained popularity in the late 1970s. It consists of musicians from

Penang Penang ( ms, Pulau Pinang, is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, by the Malacca Strait. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay ...

who were popular in their home state earlier on in their career.

History

There were earlier line-ups of this band but the original line-up mentioned were the ones that took the Alleycats to great height of achievements musically. The Alleycats was always on top of the musical scene in Malaysia even before it was signed up as a recording band. This line-up secured a performance contract in the Mocambo Club situated in Central, a business sector on

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta ...

island in 1976. It was supposed to be a three-month contract but the band's success in wooing the crowd earned it three yearly contracts bundled with TV and

concert A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide variety ...

appearances as means of promoting the band. It became a hit with the locals in Hong Kong. It was not until it left Hong Kong to start a new performance contract in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borderin ...

that the band was spotted by major recording companies. The Alleycats started out in 1978 by signing a contract with

Polygram Records PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be ...

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

to produce an album. It went to

to record its album in Dragon Studio. Later, Lion Studio in

was responsible for mastering the Alleycats' albums. Its first released album was ''Terima Kasih (Thank You)'', with their first single ''Senandung Semalam (Yesterday's Serenade)''. The existence of this band was vital to the Malaysian music industry. With more than twenty recordings, it had contributed to the development of the Malaysian music industry and is still regarded as one of the legendary Malaysian pop music bands of all time in the country. Despite the changes, the band is still active in performing and recording. The Alleycats have a strong fan base from all walks of life in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guinea. In ...

, and

Band members

Current members

David Arumugam Dato’ Thiagarajan K.R. Arumugam (born 3 May 1950), known by his stage name David Arumugam, is a Malaysian musician and singer who is one of the founding members of the band called Alleycats. He is the elder brother of Loganathan Arumugam. ...

- vocals (1969 - present) *Glenville Charles Salay - vocals *Priyadashini Loganathan (also known as Dasha Loga) - vocals *David John - drums *Nazaruddin Abdullah - lead guitar *Loh Kum Swee (also known as Jimmy Loh) - bass guitar *Prawing Aroonratana (also known as Mike Prawing) - keyboards

Former members

* Loganathan Arumugam - vocals (1969 - 2007); died 2007 *Tan Chin Hock - drums *Shunmugam Arumugam - lead guitar *Chester Anthony Passerella - saxophone *Khoo Fook Sin and Grenville Pereira (Gren) - keyboards *Frank Ong - bass guitar *Ramesh - lead guitar Their music is said to be influenced by

Air Supply Air Supply is a soft rock duo formed in Melbourne, Australia, in 1975. It consists of Englishman Graham Russell (vocals, guitar) and Australian Russell Hitchcock (vocals). They had a succession of hits worldwide, including eight top-five hi ...

Phil Collins Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English singer, musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and lead singer of the rock band Genesis and also has a career as a solo performer. Between 1982 an ...

Bee Gees The Bee Gees were a musical group formed in 1958 by brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio were especially successful in popular music in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers in the disco music era i ...

Billy Joel William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American singer, pianist and songwriter. Commonly nicknamed the "Piano Man" after his album and signature song of the same name, he has led a commercially successful career as a solo artist since th ...

, David Gates & Bread, Santana and

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. On ...

. Most of the Alleycats albums were produced by Eric Yeo. Most of its hit songs were penned by music supremo

M. Nasir Dato' Mohamad Nasir bin Mohamed (born 4 July 1957) is a Malaysian-based Singaporean poet, singer-songwriter, composer, producer, actor and film director also known as a Sifu in the Malaysian music industry. Early life M. Nasir was born on Ju ...

with the lyrics composed by S.Amin Shahab. The M. Nasir/S.Amin combination were most noticeable on hit songs such as ''Hingga Akhir Nanti (Till The End)'', ''Andai Aku Pergi Dulu (If I Go Before You)'', ''Sekuntum Mawar Merah Sebuah Puisi (A Red Rose And A Poem)'', ''Setahun Sudah Berlalu (A Year Has Passed)'', ''Seribu Bintang (A Thousand Stars)'', ''Nota Terakhir (This Last Note)''. On 27 December 2019, former bass player Frank Ong died of lung cancer aged 54.

Death of Loganathan

Loganathan Arumugam, a vocalist of the Alleycats, died on 4 June 2007 following an 8-month battle with

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, malignan ...

. His death was deeply mourned by Alleycats fans as reported in the press and media. A
Alleycats Music Video Competition
held as a tribute to the late Loganathan Arumugam of Alleycats was conducted between 25 June 2006 – 25 July 2007. This was jointly organised by NGT Solutions (M) Sdn Bhd and Universal Music Malaysia, with the support from Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC). It was in line with the government's initiative in encouraging contentpreneurs to develop local content and to be able to identify creativity in the minds of Malaysians. A year after the loss of Loga to lung cancer, the Alleycats was the lead artiste in a concert organised by the Lung Foundation of Malaysia (LFM) to raise money for its activities. Established in November 2005, LFM is a non-profit Foundation geared towards offering support for patients afflicted with lung diseases to enable them to lead a better quality lifestyle with minimal suffering.

Discography

References

External links

Puisi Cinta Romantis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alleycats People from Penang Musical groups established in 1969 Malaysian pop rock music groups Malaysian people of Indian descent Sibling musical groups Universal Music Group artists Malaysian funk musical groups Malaysian disco groups