ulasan Hardcover book + dvd + double cd : Sweet Charity 40 Years Bagaikan Bermimpi concert

Nearly two years ago on 31/5/2009 four surviving members of Sweet Charity performed their 40 Years Anniversary concert at the Singapore's Esplanade Concert Hall. I was there my report is here. Guess all the photos in that blog are gone but never mind, check out some photos of the majestic hall that night from the hardcover book first.

( as usual , click all photos to enlarge )






Sweet Charity is arguably one of the pioneer and the best rock n roll band to ever come out of Singapore and popularise Malay language Rock N Roll music in the early days of Malay Rock N Roll in the 1970s. There will be people who vouch for other bands in the early days such as the original Unwanted, but Sweet Charity has maintain their legendary status even 40 over years later.



A concrete proof - On Sunday multitude of mature gentlemen and ladies with whole families in tow and also younger fans, turning up on a Sunday afternoon in the Esplanade and Queue Up patiently for an hour just to greet the Sweet Charity members.



Above photo is my copy of this release and Ramli Sarip is kind enough to ask and write my name on it which I blurred here haha.
The rest are of course Rosli Mohalim, Rahman Sarbani and AJ. I asked Rahman about the upcoming shows with Blues Gang and I asked him " How long will Sweet Charity be playing? ", with all due respect to Blues Gang, if I go , I will only be looking forward to see Sweet Charity, the rest I am not so keen..




Ignore the background and environment at the time I took these photos.

ok.. the book is serialised, seems its printed a few thousand copies. Mine is 0835.
Hardcover, full colour printed on quality paper.
Thickness is about 60 over pages, all photos are taken from the Esplanade show, there is an essay on Sweet Charity especially in relation to their 40 years anniversary show. The essay did mention on the fifth surviving member missing that night.
Lots of very nice quality photos and lots of photos of the fans..












Now lets talk about the double cd and dvd release, knowing that I like to find fault in locally produced live releases due to their incompleteness when compared to personal bootlegs taped by fans in the audience.





UNFORTUNATELY on cd and dvd - NO BLACK NIGHT. As those who went that night knows, Sweet Charity plays a rousing singalong version of Black Night from Deep Purple. This is similar to the vcd of their 2008 PWTC Kuala Lumpur vcd which excludes Lazy, another Deep Purple song. I guess this has got to do with copyright issues.
UNFORTUNATELY on cd and dvd - NO JALAN MALAM ( Walk at night ). A very nice closing song is not included here for whatever reasons.
UNFORTUNATELY on dvd but the cd has it - THE DVD portion as far as I know do not include the hilarious and nostalgic FUNKY CHICKEN segment. Yes, the cd version has it but not the DVD version. Seeing AJ dancing those dance of 30 - 40 years ago, being egg on by Ramli, is a history lesson haha.

maybe i upload the missing songs on youtube, i mean from my poor quality personal audio bootleg i made.



There is this page ( above )...Sweet Charity has done it with a lot of taste, and respect. People were saying how come there is no mention at all of the late bassist and keyboardist - Syed Hassan and Masrom, during the Sweet Charity show, but seems from the two pages on this book featuring the family members photos of the original band who were present on that nite and also this tribute page in the book, answers it all.



In conclusion,

I think this is a very well done , fantastic book on a very significant moment of a great band and also its fans.
If you view the dvd, you can actually see lots of camera shots of the audience which is made up of people of all ages. I think I highlight it in capital - PEOPLE OF ALL AGES..
So its a sort of a document to show the power Sweet Charity has on the masses, a recognition of the true , the original mat rock and minah rockers of the 70s.
The song Batu ( Stone ), has an intro of Ramli Sarip walking down the history of Sweet Charity and also Singapore, speaking of places, villages, landmarks, schools that are long gone, and only remains a memory.

So looking at this book , hearing the double cd, and watching the dvd is not just Malay rock n roll. Its much much more than that.






Skarang, bebual melayu lak pasal sweet charity esplanade ni -

1) cd and dvd - takde black night, takde jalan malam. Nasib baik, aku dah pekik2 part " RABA!! RABA!!! " haha. malu siak kalo ada video aku pekik tu part.
2) Audience shot banyak, selamat la korang yang masuk kat dvd ni haha...
3) dvd takde AJ joget funky chicken dan step anak abu tapi cd ada lak.
4) aku suka buku ni, Sweet Charity tulis pasal arwah Syed Hassan and Masrom dan foto family members dorang... touching dan penuh makna.
5) apa lagi eh....aku pun tak tahu apa nak highlight...cuma buku kulit tebal ni nye kandungan memang best dan jugak dvd dan double cd memang aku puas hati la...takde komplen sangat.

Nanti senang aku upload semua foto, setiap page buku ni dalam multiply aku....
maybe lagi seminggu kot haha.. kalo aku rajin la.