Alleycats Malaysia
 
 
 
The Alleycats, Penang’s most famous and lovable export was formed in the year 1968. The band members came from various groups.

David’s first band was called the Super Jets while Loga was with The Originals.
 
  The six-piece band, Super Jets was a hit with the American soldiers on leave in Penang from the war in Vietnam. About this time, David and Super Jets drummer Albert Choo were also trying to form a new band. David formed the Alleycats with Loga and another brother Shanmugam, who played lead guitar, Khoo Eng An aka Johnson Khoo (rhythm guitar), Silly Hock (bass) and Albert Choo on drums. But David felt the new band was still not ready to perform in public, and formed another group called The Beads which entered the inaugural 1969 Radio Malaysia Talentime contest. The Beads won the Talentime for the Penang Zone and went on to compete in the North Zone championship. It clinched that too and went to Kuala Lumpur for the finals. They emerged as champion at the finals as well. The Super Jets had disbanded by then and The Beads and Alleycats decided to
 
merge. The name ‘ALLEYCATS’ was chosen by their then manager Ronnie Chiang Kai Chok, who was putting the band together. They lived and use to hang out near an alley where there’s many cats. So that’s how the name came up.

Alleycats’ original members were all from Penang. “Penang was where we started, and it was the people’s support that encouraged us to strive on,” said David.

The group clicked well, and moved to Kuala Lumpur in 1970 to try their luck there. They managed to secure a three-year contract at the Tin Mine Discotheque at the KL Hilton, which is now the Mutiara Hotel Kuala Lumpur. In 1973, they started playing in Singapore and for the next three years, the Alleycats shuttled between Penang, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Then they hit Hong Kong, first playing at The Memory Disco and later at The Club Capital. They also secured a performance contract in Mocambo club situated in Central, a business sector on Hong Kong island in 1976. It was supposed to be a three month contract but their success in wooing the crowd turned into a nine-year stint (1976-1984) and earned them contracts bundled with TV and concert appearances as promotion. They became a hit with the locals in Hong Kong. It was not until they left Hong Kong to start a new performance contract in Singapore that they were spotted by major recording companies.

The Alleycats were always on top of the musical stage in Malaysia even before they became recording artistes and had spent its early years getting noticed as opening acts before the members went on to perform at clubs and nightspots as far away as Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Bangkok , Taiwan, Jakarta, Hong Kong, London and Denmark.
 
While performing in Singapore in 1977, they were spotted by Eric Yeo of Polygram Records, one of the most respected talent spotters in the industry and the director for most of Alleycats’ albums. Said Yeo, “I felt I was on equal terms with them since I was from the record industry and they were seasoned performers looking for a deal. I’m proud to have discovered them but, above all else, I respect talent and can safely say that it takes two hands to clap. They were the first band I signed. Alleycats was already well-known, but I guess I helped transform them from an excellent club band to a superstar recording act. We  
Eric Yeo
 
definitely broke barriers, simply because the band and I had the belief that we could offer something different. I’m very grateful for the 20-year working relationship with them. I've been in the music business for 30 years, and Alleycats will always be in my heart. Not because of my achievements, but rather the happiness I felt in helping to transform this fabulous band into to such an iconic and legendary band. It's nice to play a role in Malaysia's music history by proving that Malaysian music is not just for Malays but for all Malaysians, transcending skin colours, cultural differences and racial barriers."   

 They became recording artist and their first English album, titled ‘ALLEYCATS’, released in 1978. However that album did not do so well and they were given an opportunity to try
out a Malay album under the new composers Wan Ibrahim and M.Nasir. The line up for this first Malay album, TERIMA KASIH (1978) was David Arumugam(vocals), Loganathan (vocals,flute), Shanmugam(lead guitar), Frank Ong (bass), Khoo Fok Sin (keyboard), Tan Chin Hock (drums) and Chester Danielle Pasarella (saxophone). This album propelled them to stardom with the hit Senandung Semalam and Jika Kau Bercinta Lagi. This followed by the 2nd album ‘PENYANYI’ in 1979 and 3rd album ‘DAPATKAH?’ in 1980. These 3 albums mainly comprised of copyright version numbers from Bee Gees, Boney M and some Philippine and Japanese numbers,etc.  
M.Nasir
 
 
David recalled that the band’s first mega hit in Malaysia was Hingga Akhir Nanti from its 4th album (ALLEYCATS 4) released in 1981. At that time, after coming down to Malaysia for that album recording, the band went back to perform in Hong Kong and its members were oblivious to the extent of their popularity.

“We had our first concert at Stadium Negara, Kuala Lumpur in 1981 and it was packed with about 12,000 people. We opened with Hingga Akhir Nanti. The crowd went wild”. Another mega hit, the 5th album ‘KUCHING’ which also won multi platinum sales record was released in that same year with many evergreen hits like Andainya Aku Pergi Dulu, Sekuntum Mawar Merah Sebuah Puisi and Gerimis Senja. The rest as they say is history. Many of their albums gained high sales records and became platinum hits, its no mean feat for anyone to achieve, let alone a non Malay band singing Malay songs and went to the greatest height in the Malay pop music industry.
 
 
Proud moment: Eric Yeo (right) watching as Alleycats’ David Arumugam receives the group’s gold and platinum discs from Polygram’s MD, Joe Chan, on April 19, 1986. – Filepic
 
M.Nasir is the man behind the super hits songs of Alleycats. Meanwhile, S.Amin Shahab has penned the lyrics and breathed life into many of M.Nasir’s compositions for Alleycats hits. They formed a perfect combination that clicked so well with the cats voice and style which produced hits like Hingga Akhir Nanti, Andainya Aku Pergi Dulu, Sekuntum Mawar Merah Sebuah Puisi, Senyumlah Kuala Lumpur, Setahun Sudah Berlalu, Nota Terakhir, Sindrom Kota Raya, Kerana, and many more songs.
The 1980s were dominated by the Alleycats with the most consistent record sales. Their music blended elements of Western folk and pop music with local asli rhythms. The Alleycats are regarded as Bee Gees and Earth, Wind And Fire of Malaysia.
The existence of this band is vital to the Malaysian music industry. They have contributed to the development of the Malaysian pop music and are till today regarded as one of the classic Malaysian pop music bands. The Alleycats have a strong fan base from all walks of life in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Brunei, Indonesia, and Singapore.

What always made us proud was the fact that these were “our boys”, a band of Malaysians who could get everyone rocking along regardless of whether they were up there doing English, Malay, Chinese or Tamil songs. What was even more inspiring was that colour, race, creed and your walk of life did not matter. Despite their shortcomings in Bahasa Malaysia, they have managed to sing their Malay songs in a way that touched our hearts. Imagine this: a multi-racial group singing Malay, English, Chinese and Indian songs with ease in front of multi-racial fans. Whats really amazing is that they can tune up any kind of malay songs, be it ballad, pop, rock, asli, zapin, joget, sad, happy, comical, tragic. That's Alleycats. Even the western rock, blues and latin numbers from Deep Purple, Queen, Dire Straits, Bon Jovi, Europe, Rod Stewart, Gary Moore, Santana, just name it………
 
 
 
It was the same at any venue. Clubs like Uncle Chilli’s Pub, Holiday Villa, Mystery Cafe and La Vida Club, concert stages around the country, shopping malls concourses, the Press Club, school halls. Everyone knew the songs. Everyone partied with the Alleycats. No band can elicit the kind of support or spontaneous reaction from all Malaysians like the boys achieved, particularly at the height of their success. With irrepressible talent and passion for their music, the audience irrespective of race or language, making them true national heroes. As if to illustrate their signficant contribution to the Malaysian music scene, tributes for the Alleycats legend continue to tickle. Popular Alleycats songs continue to resonate all over Malaysia and beyond. The two brothers were also fashionists in their own right. Their Afro-styled hairdos made them instantly recognisable everywhere they went. When they started, we thought it was a fad. Nearly 40 years down the line, those hairdos are still on, although Loga had to sacrifice his when chemo therapy took its toll. And no one can forget their signature ending: Terrrrima kasih!

Another point what people liked most about Alleycats was that their members' talents and craft were more important than all the glitzy promos and glossy video clips. That separated them from almost all the singers, actresses and actors of today. Fans felt great relief when played their evergreen songs over and over again such as 'Sekuntum Mawar Merah Sebuah Puisi', 'Sampaikan Salam', 'Nota Terakhir', 'Andainya Aku Pergi Dulu', 'Suara Kekasih', 'Layang-Layang Terputus Talinya', 'Kerana Kau', 'Seribu Bintang', 'Setahun Sudah Berlalu', 'Senandung Semalam', 'Jika Kau Bercinta Lagi', ‘Suratan’ and 'Senyumlah Kuala Lumpur' captured people’s mind and soul. The Alleycats is considered Malaysia's longest surviving pop band.

The excitement may have died down over the years but the Legendary Alleycats is still on the prowl, having recently released its 27th album, Rasa. Even with several changes in the line up till today, they are still active in performing and recording. With Loga’s demise on 4th June 2007, David is the sole remaining original member of the Alleycats.
 
 
The year 2008, is the 40th anniversary of the band, what an amazing achievement ! Gerard Abisheganaden came in as replacement for Loga and the band still keeps going strong…………….