One thing for sure though, the day after the concert, I was hanging out with my bro at Ampang Park (where they used to have two of the best record stores in the whole of Malaysia). We were hugely disappointed by the show and felt rather cheated. We started to find reasons to stay on in KL for a few more days, just to make the trip worthwhile. I went and bought my daily newspaper, The Star (a habit I have till this very day), flicked through it and then screamed with much delight!

URGH! A MUSIC WAR! was premiering at the Sentul Cinema that very day! We went back to our uncle’s house in Ampang Hilir, told him that we’re staying on for a few more days and later on took a taxi to Sentul as we didn’t know of any bus going there from Ampang.

When we got there, much to our disappointment, the cinema was pretty deserted. I was hoping to see KL punk rockers coming out of the woodwork. Malaysian “punk” in the early 80s was a very, very rare species. By that time in Terengganu, there were tonnes of punks but in KL? At the time I only know of two guys. One Malay kid who wrote to me from Sentul itself and another kid, a Chinese, living in PJ.

I didn’t have their phone numbers then, so I can’t contact them to come and join me and my bro, but I was expeccting that they’ll be as eagle-eyed as me, notice the screening and come to join all the KL punks at the cinema.

So we sat outside after buying the tickets, smoking and waiting for them to turn up. NONE. Absolutely no KL punks or New Wavers turned up. We were so disappointed. We waited until the last minutes, to no avail. Finally we said “Fuck it! KL sucks!” and made our way into the cinema. Half way through the walk, someone tapped on my shoulder. I turned around and voila! 4 punks were at my side, greeting and hugging us! And you know what? They were all Terengganu kids who had taken a bus down to catch the movie!!

Urgh! A Music War! on wikipedia

If I recall correctly, the opening band was Blues Gang. I recall seeing Julian doing a cover of “Trouble”, then Gillan doing the same while commenting “You may have heard this done earlier”.