Did you grow up in Dhaka in the 80s? Are you of that generation which tuned into Bangladesh radio at 2pm to listen to World Music?
Do you still recall saving up tiffin money to buy locally published magazines: Song Hits, Rock Connection, Ultimate Rock or Metallion?
Or maybe, as a music lover, you used to come to the capital three four times a year to have songs recorded into cassettes from vinyl!
Well, if you fall in one of the categories mentioned above then the name Rainbow is very much a part of your growing up.
Magnetism of the 80s
In the early 80s with the band music scene exploding and being part of a band an obsession among the urban youth, the Rainbow Gali (Rainbow alley) in Elephant Road was the afternoon and evening haunt for the hip and the young.
All the top musicians thronged the alley because apart from Rainbow, there were two other recording shops here: Soor Bichitra and Rhythm.
I am talking about 1983-84.
Just close your eyes and drift back to the period: Afzal Hossain, Humayun Faridi ruling the small screen, Knight Rider, A -Team, Gemini Man, Kojak on TV, the best clothes available at Pearson’s, baggy trousers in fad along with Hara jeans, Sohel Rana rocking the screen with Shobaike janai salaam, Johnny amar naam, Bonalim chocolate, Manola C’est Bon cream, Lollipop craze triggered by Telly Savalas in Kojak, Khadim’s hockey boots, large billboards with Raja condom adverts, Wild Boys by Duran Duran blaring in the stereo, Bruce Springsteen laying the foundation of the ‘must catch the American dream’ with Born in the USA album, Michael Jackson shoes flooding the market and Rainbow recording centre becoming the ultimate happening place for a rendezvous.
That was more than forty years ago, much of it is lost but wait, the lustre of the Rainbow may have faded but it’s still there, and when I went last week during the day, the small recording centre with vinyl, cassettes and CD’s did not seem like a place struggling to remain relevant.
Instead, people now come here by the dozens every day because they desperately want to touch the past of Dhaka – the period when life was placid, demands general, outlook less complicated and, ideology, without pretence!
Moklesur Rahman Mukul has been running Rainbow for over two decades now; back in the 80s, the whole operation was looked after by Kabir Bhai, the recording maestro who turned into a sort of urban legend.
Kabir Bhai left for Down Under long ago, but his shadow remains because in the 80s, Rainbow and Kabir Bhai were synonymous.
He introduced the unique ‘Rainbow’ style of writing alphabets which is a class of its own.
With each cassette recorded from a chosen vinyl album came the handwritten list of songs and the album name – aesthetically appealing, unconventional, exuding understated sophistication.
So, how is Rainbow surviving so many years later when the 80s and everything that the era featured are lost in the abyss of time?
The Rainbow Resurgence
Well, we are here and business is thriving, adds a smiling Mukul Bhai who has given his life to Rainbow and recording music after Kabir Bhai left for Australia.
Growing up in Elephant Road and known among my contemporaries as ‘Elephant Road er TOTO (my nickname)’, the evolution of Rainbow happened right before my eyes.
Opened in 1981, and soon becoming the major hang out point for the youth of Elephant Road, the alley which had the original Rainbow studio became known as Rianbow’r Gali (Rianbow alley).
That was the age of albums and vinyl: music lovers came to recording studios and had songs taped in blank cassettes.
Let me refresh your memory a bit: remember, TDK, Sony, Hitachi, Media?
I bet you do and of course TDK D90 was the top of the range blank cassette.
Coming to the present, the alley now is overtaken by tailor shops with Rainbow moving to the side road.
But it’s still there, operating amidst all the clothing, IT, computer fixing stores: the melody among the machines!
“We record music for others because genuine music lovers want top level sound,” says Mukul Bhai, adding enthusiastically: “the core business now is collecting and selling vinyl albums because there’s been a resurgence of turntable-based music appreciation among the current day urban middle class.”
So much so that reportedly, a person in Dhanmondi has opened a music lounge where nostalgia freaks can book sessions and under a dim light, enjoy a chinwag, vinyl albums of choice played on the turn table, hot brew and a precious dive back to the glorious 80s.
Mukul Bhai tells me that in the last month, he sold albums worth Tk. 2.5 lakh.
This shows the intense desire among modern-day music aficionados to collect albums, observes Mukul, saying: “I also have several orders to get turn tables in working condition.”
Naturally, new turn tables are not on sale in shops but there is a demand for reliable second-hand ones which come with amplifiers.
Feroze al Mamun, a former banker turned agro entrepreneur, is a regular at Rainbow and he says: “I have been coming here almost every day for over two decades and am seeing first hand the craze with long play albums.”
Surely, this is a bonanza for Rainbow because at one point, closure of the shop seemed inevitable, remarked Mukul Bhai.
Three New Yorkers and a Professor
As we were talking, a man along with his wife and son came near Rainbow’s entrance and tentatively asked in what can be called a distinct New York accent: “is this the famous Rainbow Recording Shop?”
Hell, yeah, this is it, we said in unison and thus Rainbow opened its doors to Abdur Rahman, a New Yorker, his son, Abdi and wife.
We live in NY but came to Dhaka for a visit and when looking up places to buy vinyl, the name Rainbow popped up, added Abdur Rahman.
When I go to a new city, I try finding places selling vinyl and it’s this undying passion that has brought me here, observed a beaming Abdur Rahman.
For me, album stores are like great archives, capturing what people were listening to in a particular time and city, added an eloquent Rahman.
It was not easy to find the place as they had to change rickshaws several times and the heat was enervating.
An urban odyssey indeed!
Following his illustrious father, the son, Abdi, a fifteen year old, is also a music connoisseur in the making, and his favourite is 80s sensation Sade.
Sade’s Smooth Operator was a global hit in 1983 and played in most Dhaka music stores in 1984.
“I collected a Best of Sade album from Singapore,” said an excited Abdi who is visibly thrilled to have come to Rainbow.
From the collection of albums on offer, Abdur Rahman bhai picks up Chris de Burgh’s ‘Into the Light’ album, featuring the super hit number Lady in Red.
As the New Yorkers leave looking elated, Asrar Chowdhury, a Professor of Economics at Jahangirnagar University, also a noted flautist, walks in looking debonair in a green jacket, red pocket square.
Just came from an interview, he said with a smile.
Asrar Chowdhury is a dyed in the wool Al Stewart fan and when I ask him if this is the ‘Year of the Cat’ (title of Al Stewart’s famous 1976 album), he concurs with a wide grin.
“This is definitely the Year of the Cat because in September this year, the album will celebrate fifty years.”
I bought my firs cassette player in 1985 and thus began my visits to Rainbow, which makes it a little more than forty years, observed Asrar.
So, what is the magnetic pull of Rainbow, I ask and Asrar gives a reply worth a million Dollars: “it’s like Hotel California (hit number by Eagles), you can check in but you can’t check out.”
Being an Al Stewart fan, I sometimes get rare albums collected by Mkul Bhai, adds Asrar.
Well, for music lovers, album hunters and those developing claustrophobia swamped by too many mercenary ideals, there’s a place, where taking a ride to 80s Dhaka is still possible.
Vinyl lovers can easily contact Mukul Bhai: 01724288955.
I decide to take my leave, bagging Boney M’s 1977 vinyl album ‘Love for Sale’, feeling exuberant and alive.
Mukul Bhai understands the feeling, switches on the stereo and an evocative number from the rock band Rainbow with Joe Lynn Turner as the vocal fills the air:
Do you remember me
On the street of dreams
Running through my memory
On the street of dreams……..
