Terengganu Punk: The Origins of Malaysian Punk Rock
The first proper
punk rock "scene" in
Malaysia started in
Terengganu in 1978/1979. It started in the small town of
Dungun by a group of friends influenced by
British
music magazines such as NME, Melody Maker, Sounds, and Zig Zag, as well
as their brothers and friends studying or living in the more modern
West Coast cities who would pass them the magazines and music.
By late 1979, almost every secondary school in the state had its own
cliques of punk rockers. They would hang out on the weekends at the main bus station in the capital city of
Kuala Terengganu,
with the usual punk rock regalia (badges, studs, safety pins and such).
Too poor to afford guitars or any other musical instruments, there
never was an actual punk band but trading of tapes and zines were
vigorous.
Most of the trading material came from friends studying overseas,
friends living in the West Coast cities and also punk rockers from UK,
Europe and US who were kind enough to send tapes and magazines for free. Irregular trips were made to
Singapore and
Kuala Lumpur (and
Georgetown,
but rarely as it was too far) to dub punk rock records at the music
stores or buy pirated tapes, the only source for good music those days.
Some fishing villages would have the most "punks" and thus became
the center of activities. The main two villages were Kampung Mengabang
Telipot (an hour north to the city) and Kampung Tanjung (right at the
mouth of the city's river system). In Mengabang Telipot, there was a
small punk community library laden with
fanzines,
magazines and music, which the kids would share. This library was
actually a wooden cupboard situated at one of the punk rockers' houses,
it was called as "logen".
The first Malaysian punk rock fanzine came out from this scene. It
appeared in 1986 with the title of Huru Hara (meaning "chaos"); it was
written in Terengganu slang by editor Mamat Hitam but never distributed
on a large scale. The first fanzine to do that was Aedes, which lasted
until 1996; the first punk bands to appear there were
Mallaria and later The Stone Crows. Both put out one rehearsal/demo tape.
There was a lull in activity in the mid-80s for the Terengganu punk
scene, but a resurgence of bands of different persuasions appeared by
the late 80s and early 90s (sparked in part by the setting up of a
larger Malaysian underground music scene based in Kuala Lumpur in
1987). By the mid 90s onwards, there were constantly new bands
appearing in the state and as of 2007, there are still a lot of active
punk-influenced bands such as Dirty Divider and The Goodnight Goodies.
Synopsis:
Lewellen lives with her stern religious zealot grandmother, Grammie (Piper Laurie), but spends most of her time down the hill with her much-adored Daddy (David Morse) in his falling down shack. Daddy is wild and rough and brings home a beautiful but troubled woman (Robin Wright Penn) who has a mysterious history with him and comes and goes when his drink and abuse becomes too much for her. But while she's around, Lewellen’s longing heart reaches for her love. Lewellen is deeply talented and finds comfort and safety, as well as a place to put her hurt and rage, in the music of Elvis Presley. When Elvis Presley comes to town for a concert, Buddy tries to get Lewellen a ticket to his concert and arranges for her to do her Elvis impersonation for a local teenager in exchange for tickets. During the impersonation, the teenager attacks Lewellen and steals her innocence. It is only the caretaker Charles (Afemo Omilami) who can see the spirit in Lewellen and save her soul....
