Radiodiffusion Internasionaal Annexe


The Tremolos
June 24, 2008, 7:58 pm
Filed under: India

Crazy Girl

The Tremolos were from apparently from Madras, which is the capital of the southern state of Tamil Nadu, India.

For the most part, the majority of the music produce in India, is either Filmi or Classical.

Filmi is the music of India’s film industry, the most well known is the Hindi music of Mumbai (formely Bombay, and refered to as Bollywood). But since there are 23 official languages in Indian, there are many other studios, most notable are Tamil in Kodambakkam, Telugu in Hyderabad, Malayalam in Kerala, and Kannada in Karnataka as well as others.

The two main streams of Indian Classical music are: Hindustani music from North India and Carnatic music from South India. The prime themes of Hindustani music are Rasleela (Hindu devotionals) of Krishna and Nature in all its splendour. Carnatic music is similar to Hindustani music in that it is mostly improvised, but it is much more influenced by theory and has stricter rules. Classical music of India is best represented by such musicans as Ravi Shankar, L. Subramaniam, Ali Akbar Khan and Ustad Vilayat Khan.

But popular music that falls outside of the film industry and Classical music, is not very common in India. You could probably count the number of rock ‘n’ roll records released during the 60’s and early 70’s on one hand. And most of that were covers of American and British songs, as can be found on the Simla Beat records of 1970 and 71.

I have not been able to find out anything about the band. If you have any information, please contact me.

Catalog number NE. 1007 on HMV of India, released in 1969.

◄●►◄●►◄●►◄●►◄●►◄●►◄●►◄●►◄●►◄●►◄●►

Update: September 26, 2016

I received an e-mail from Mahender Laxmandas:

My name is Mahender Laxmandas and I composed the tune “Crazy Girl”.

We started as a three piece band in 1963 and played for dances and weddings in Madras India.

As we became more popular we had four more members join us and we were the most popular band in Madras.

We also toured places like Bangalore, Trichy, Pondicherry and most of South India.

I am currently living in Melbourne Australia.


2 Comments so far
Leave a comment

Hi I have enjoyed the rare music that you have found. Being born in India, I have heard the Mustangs and Tremolos and The Savages – all ‘garage’ bands. Do you have Usha Uthup singing Bombay Meri Hai? It was her original version that the Jetliners of Ceyon copied. I also want to ask if you know of a song sung by a female (Indian or Anglo-Indian) called I’ll never ever cha-cha with you…it was a novelty number. Love to hear back.

Kerry

Comment by Kerry Edwards

Dear Kerry,

the song you´re asking for, I´ll never cha cha … is by Mina Kava
from 1967. Soon to listen to at my Blog (that also refers to this fantastic site) http://www.hindustanivinyl.blogspot.com.
Sems like there are many more unknown Indian “Psych” acts than one could imagine.
Beside thanks for all inspiration and treasures I found here!

Florian

Comment by Florian




Leave a comment