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Generation 69
Generation 69 officially formed in late '96. Although the band members had
gotten together since 1995, it was not until a year later that they began
to rehearse cover versions of the Last Resort, Angelic Upstarts, The
Business, Peter & The Test Tube Babies, etc. The line up then consisted of
Kojack on vocals, Wan Shah on guitars, Kim on bass & Pekjal on drums.
In 1998, Pekjal was sentenced to prison due to one charges too many & this
resulted in the delay of their debut 'Skinhead' demo. A few months back,
Ismail had been invited as 2nd guitarist & he then got his cousin Boy Amin
as a substitute on the drum seat. The band finally got in the recording
studio & 'Skinhead' demo was released in February 1999. This line-up was
one of their best so far & things were to remain unchanged for the next 5
years.
After receiving rave reviews both in & out of Singapore about their tape,
they proceeded to record their 2nd demo - Trouble on the streets. It was
released in November 2000 after much discussion within the band itself.
The band has now gone from strength to strength in releasing all their
albums & have even been in some top-notch compilations around the world.
2001 saw the band signing on the dotted lines of the contract with
Malaysian's top streetpunk label, Clockwork Records for their debut
'Strength Thru Strength' album. It was finally released on the first week
of 2002 but the band did not manage to play any gigs to support this
release as Wan Shah was too busy doing national slavery. That particular
album had also caught the eyes of Europe's elite & best in DSS Records. A
deal was struck & DSS liked the band so much that they helped them
re-release 'Strength Thru Strength' for sale worldwide. Generation 69 had
become the first-ever Oi! band to have their album released by a European
label.
For 2003, Generation 69 were ready to go in the studio again to record
their 2nd album titled - 'Not Just Another band'. This was in response of
the struggle they had for the past 7 years throughout the band's difficult
times, They were banned in a lot of places (ain't telling where's that!),
someone got backstabbed, ran into financial difficulties, favourism
amongst fellow-musicians & had their wives left them with their tails
between their legs. But the major news turned out to be the sacking of
vocalist Kojack after some serious in-band discussions. Generation 69
became sick of all that & the thought of splitting even came to mind. What
could happen next? Amidst all that, they persevered & now, only the future
could tell what lies beneath the iron curtain...
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