TEN THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT ALVIN FLETCHER

On stage, Alvin Fletcher has a look that is an anomaly. He wears a woolen hat, pulled down to his eyebrows, tight shirts that emphasize his physique, and has a rough-cut, don't-mess-with-me-dude stare.

But if you look closer, when he peers down those glasses and the computer notebook (in place of a songbook), you may mistake him for a bit of a nerd.

Off-stage, a shy, but sly, smile emerges and his demeanour is relaxed and convivial.

"I have a great passion for music. And I take it very seriously," he says of his stage demeanour. Alvin, after all, has seen it and done it all.

From lowly gigs at the seediest holes-in-the-wall to the classiest hotels in the city.

Here are ten things you might not know about this true musician:

1. Alvin is a multi-instrumentalist and can play the lead guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, saxophone, harmonica and the fiddle.

2. He is self-taught and picked up instruments while with the school band back in St Francis Institution in Malacca. By age 12, he was performing in children's radio shows on RTM.

3. Alvin is an accomplished arranger and recently did "Malaysiaku Merdeka" which played on the radio and also teaches the audio programme Cakewalk and MIDI programming

4. He used to play with the Wheelers, a well-known country and western band that grew from a three-piece in Malacca in the early 80s to an 8-piece band at its heights in the early 90s.

They played in almost every state in the country and one very popular country haunt in Damansara Utama that went by the name Gold Canyon.

5. Alvin weighed 127 kgs at one point. This was a throwback from his weightlifting days in school when he kept the weight on to stay competitive in his weight category. In the last five years, he has lost so much weight that he says "a cousin once walked right passed me on the street without recognizing me."

6. He took a five-year break from music after the Wheelers broke up in 1992 and completely changed his career to a 9-to-5 job.

7. In 1997, the music world came calling again and he began moonlighting, doing gigs as a drummer with a rock band and a bassist with a fusion band. "The passion for music drove me to start playing again. I believe music is like any other skill - if you don't keep doing it, you will lose it."

8. In 2001, he was back in the KL music scene with several bands that did the hotel circuit in Park Royal, Concorde, Melia and Impiana.

9. By 2004, Alvin formed The President's Men with Suresh and Clinton. They play at various pubs in KL and PJ and are still going strong.

10. Despite his country, rock and reggae leanings on stage, Alvin enjoys listening to fusion and commercial jazz. He has high regards for bassist John Patitucci and the jazz quartet Fourplay, which comprised Lee Ritenour on guitar, Nathan East on bass, Bob James on keys and Harvey Mason on drums.

Alvin Fletcher plays a regular gig on Wednesdays at the Backyard with Raymond Chia.

(Posted: September 29, 2005)
Link: Pics

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