Ayub Bachchu
Ayub Bachchu was a Bangladeshi rock guitarist, composer, singer and songwriter, who was the founder of the Bangladeshi rock band Love Runs Blind and earned success as the lead singer and the lead guitarist of the band. He is considered a pop culture icon in Bangladesh. He was one of the pioneers of Bangladeshi pop music.
Born in Patiya, Bachchu came to Chittagong with his family in the early 1970s. His first band name was "Spider". He joined "Spider" in 1974. He played with the band as the lead guitarist from year 1974 to 1977. Then he formed his first band "Ugly Boys" in 1977, while studying in high school and joined rock band Feelings as the guitarist the same year. He played in the band from 1977 to 1980. In 1980, he joined the band Souls where he played for ten years and appeared in four studio albums including Super Souls, College Er Corridore, Manush Matir Kachakachi and East and West. In 1991, he left the band to form his own band LRB, where he was the vocalist and guitarist for 27 years, until his death in 2018. He released the first ever double album: LRB I and LRB II in 1992, with the band. LRB's third studio album was Shukh, which featured "Cholo Bodle Jai", which became an instant hit. He also received great success as a solo artist. His first solo album Rokto Golap was released in September 1986. He got his breakthrough by releasing albums like Moyna and Koshto which received great success. He released only one instrumental rock album in his career: Sound of Silence, which is the first ever instrumental album in Bangladesh. He has also worked in several movie songs, some of them are Anutopto, Loottoraj, Mon and Ammajan. Ayub Bachchu's debut song, "Harano Bikeler Golpo" was written by renowned lyricist Shahid Mahmud Jangi. LRB's debut song "Ekdin Ghum Bhanga Shohore" was also written by renowned lyricist Shahid Mahmud Jangi which was the first released song of LRB. Bachchu released several best selling-albums with LRB, and as a solo performer.
He has won a record six Meril Prothom Alo Awards, one Citycell-Channel I Music Award with LRB and won the Bachsas Awards in the Best Male Vocal category in 2004. In 2017, he won the Tele Cine Lifetime Achievement Award.Early life
Bachchu was born on 16 August 1962 to a Bengali family of Muslim Chowdhuries in Khorna, Patiya, Chittagong District, East Pakistan. He was the son of Mohammad Ishaque Chowdhury and Nurjahan Begum. The family moved to Chittagong city after the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971. They resided in Jubilee Road. He had two brothers and was the eldest among them all. His daak naam was Robin. He got his first acoustic guitar from his father as a gift in 1973, when he was in class six. He learned to play guitar from Jacob Dias, who used to live in Chittagong. "Spider" band is the first band of Chittagong. From 1974 to 1977 he was playing guitar in Spider band and then he made his own band Ugly Boyz. He borrowed an electric guitar from his friend, Kumar Bishwajit, which was a Teisco Guitar. Bishwajit gave him the guitar after he showed more interest towards it. He was very attracted to the guitar playing techniques of Jimi Hendrix and Joe Satriani. He was admitted to Government Muslim High School in 1975. In 1979, he graduated from Muslim High School. His parents did not support him on becoming a musician. But, after his family saw his passion for rock music, they agreed on letting him become a musician. While studying in high school, Bachchu formed a band named "Golden Boys", which was later renamed as "Ugly Boys". Kumar Bishwajit was the lead singer of the band and Bachchu was the guitarist. They used to do club shows and shows in weddings. The group disbanded after Bachchu joined Souls in 1980.Career
1977–1990: Feelings and Souls
While working with his own band Ugly Boys, Bachchu joined the rock band Feelings in 1977. Feelings' frontman James stated that he saw Bachchu playing guitar at a tea stall. He was amazed by the playing style of Bachchu and he asked him to join the band. In the mid-1977, he joined the band as the lead guitarist and only stayed with the band for next two years until in 1980, he got a contract from Souls, as their lead guitarist Sajed ul Alam had left the band for the United States. Bachchu was playing with Feelings in a club in Chittagong, where Souls' keyboardist Naquib Khan was present. He was amazed by the playing of Bachchu and he talked to lead singer Tapan Chowdhury about it. Both of them saw Bachchu playing in the club next day and they asked him to join Souls. He joined Souls in early-1980 and played with the band for next 10 years as the lead guitarist, songwriter and occasional singer. He had appeared on three studio albums College Er Corridore, Manush Matir Kachakachi and East and West. In the late-1990, Bachchu left Souls and went on to form his own band Little River Band, which later became famous as Love Runs Blind. He reunited with Souls in several reunion shows and has performed with members of the band like Tapan Chowdhury, Kumar Bishwajit and Naquib Khan in several shows. In 2012, Bachchu told The Daily Star that:1991–2018: LRB
After Bachchu got out of Souls in the late-1990, he came to Dhaka in 1991 and in January he married Ferdous Chandana, with whom he had a relationship since 1986. He formed a band named Yellow River Band on 5 April 1991 with Saidul Hasan Swapan on bass guitars, S.I. Tutul on keyboards and Habib Anwar Joy on drums. When they were performing in a club in the mid-1991, they were mistakenly called the Little River Band, which Bachchu liked and officially named his band. But, after they heard about the Australian rock band of the same name they changed their name to Love Runs Blind in 1997. In April 1991, LRB did their first ever concert in the University of Dhaka, a concert that was arranged by BAMBA, celebrating the downfall of autocratic leader Hussein Muhammad Ershad. In January 1992, they released the first ever double album: LRB I and LRB II. The band's third studio album Shukh, was released in June 1993. It included "Cholo Bodle Jai", which regarded by some as Bachchu's greatest work. They released several albums in the 1990s and soon became one of the most popular rock acts of Bangladesh. In 1996, they performed in Bengaluru, which was their first concert outside Bangladesh. LRB is the only Bangladeshi artist to perform in the Madison Square Garden in New York City. In 2018, LRB got disbanded after Bachchu's death.Solo career
Early solo work: 1986–1988
While working with Souls, Bachchu had already recorded and released two album: Rokto Golap and Moyna, both of which mostly contained pop rock songs. Some of the songs on those albums also contained classical music fusion and featured instrument like tabla. Rokto Golap, contain pop rock, classical and also adhunik bangla songs, while Moyna is an album that features pop rock and hard rock songs and helped him get his breakthrough. It has sold an estimated 60,000 copies in Bangladesh. Released in September 1986, Rokto Golap is his first solo album, released by Zahed Electronics, which contains the first hard rock song released by him, "Anamika". The album featured Ahsan Elahi of Feelings on drums and percussion. Manam Ahmed of Miles on keyboards. Bachchu played both the bass guitar and electric guitar on the album. Ahsan Elahi and Manam Ahmed are also featured in his second album. The second album Moyna also features Emon and Mintu on keyboards and Khayem Pearu on bass guitars.''Koshto'': 1995
Bachchu left Souls in the late-1990 and formed his own band Love Runs Blind on 5 April 1991. The band released the first ever double album in Bangladesh: LRB I and LRB II in 1992. Bachchu didn't release a solo album for seven years. After the release of LRB's Ghumonto Shohore in 1995, he went on to record the album Koshto in the Audio Art Studio, where Ghumonto Shohore was recorded. The album came out in October 1995. The album is regarded by many as his best work. It included hit songs like "Koshto Pete Valobashi", "Koshto Kake Bole" and "Jege Achi Eka". The album was produced by Bachchu and co-produced by Azam Babu and musicians were S.I. Tutul of LRB on keyboards and Ahsan Elahi of Feelings on drums and percussion. By the release of the album, it was well received by fans. By 1996, the album had sold over 300,000 copies and is one of the best selling albums of Bangladesh.''Shomoy'' and ''Eka'': 1998–1999
Though Bachchu left Souls because of his love for "rocking, powerful guitar music", his solo career was mostly pop rock, soft rock music. Since the beginning of his career, Bachchu had a fascination for blues, jazz and funk. He's love for those genres reflected on his band, LRB's music, but he wanted to do blues, jazz and funk in his solo career. By the early-1998, Bachchu founded his own studio AB Kitchen, which later became a label. Bachchu had already released two double albums with his band LRB: LRB I and LRB II in 1992 and Amader and Bishmoy in 1998. He wanted to release double albums as a solo artist. The recording sessions for his fourth album Shomoy and fifth album Eka started in the mid-1998 in his own studio. Both albums were released in early-1999, "Shomoy" by Soundtek Electronics & "Eka" by Sangeeta. Both albums wasn't well received by fans like his previous album. About this two albums Bachchu said that:''Maya'': 2000
In the year 2000 Ayub Bachchu went to America tour & he made a solo album contract with Shaheen Rahman. Ayub Bachchu completed 3-4 songs for the album but the album never released.