Vital Signs: A Personal History

Mr Piracha:
Thanks for bringing this fine group to Indian Chokies attention. We in India are so cut-off from Pakistani music scene.

Great historical document on a great Pakistani band. Excellent socio-political insights on the pop phenomenon that was VS. Well done NFP.

Alla jinab... after long time you have written such biographic pop article with ofcourse your own personal experiece ... new paki bands should learn from true masters and all these new pak music crtitics should learn from NFP ...

BTW do tell us who was the female journalist Junaid had that torrid affair with? :)

What happened behind the scenes does not interest me much. All i care is that they made the best music ever and i still cant get enough of it.

Good info here. Didnt know about the political background much. I always thought of them as a pop band that wanted to avoid real guitars and drums, to stay mainstream. You did touch on them being influenced, however they also outright ripped off too. If i recall right, one of AHAs tune was a straight ripp among other modifications.

Can you shed any light on this ?

Did like the guitar intro on do pal ka jeevan.

There is no beating Vital Signs when it came to good lasting pop music. Recently there was again talk of a Signs reunion, but I doubt it with JJ gone all Cat Stevens!
G`one NFP, but i dout if yur old pals Rohail, Junaid n even Salman will be very pleased.

Ohhhhh, i LOVE Vital Signs....:)

Nice article.Somehow firing of Salman and forming of Junoon reminds me of Dave Mustaine and Megadeth.

wow... for me personally this is the best article you`ve ever written NFP. loved the behind the scenes insights. also it`s strange but I agree with your assessment of every single VS album. Hum Tum was very much in the mould of VS2 and was their best album. Aitebar apart from some good songs was not upto the other albums` mark particularly Junaid vocals were a little lacking and the music seemed synthezied and somewhat juvenile especially when compared to sound and direction of VS2...

had a few questions for you if you`d be kind enough to shed some light on:

1) you didn`t mention the bit where Rohail was trying to find a replacement for Junaid and Ali Azmat actually auditioned for the Signs while he was part of Junoon. I saw you talk about it on TV. riveting stuff though for me VS wouldn`t have been VS without Junaid`s voice.

2) I`ve been following Rohail`s Fried Junkies project. he has some samples of his work with Rahat Fateh (I`m sure you`ve heard them) on his website. brilliant stuff. amazing to see how far Rohail has come along as a composer and musician. but why does he not pursue anything seriously. he seems to start projects, gives up and just leaves them in the middle. he even packed up the Fried Junkies for a bit and now the website says it`s back. what`s up with him? is he too much of a perfectionist? is he ever going to release the ``Charkha`` album. probably a better question to ask Rohail but maybe you`d share some insight if you speak or have spoken with him..

Truly funny write-up by a walking mediocrity. Notice the gossipy details that only a tone-deaf idiot could manage to eavesdrop to while ignoring all the music.

Especially hilarious is his making sense of his worlds by connecting Zia`s politics and the ushering in of th Benazir era with the rise of pop-rock in Pakistan.

Listen to this piece by Aamir Zaki..

guitar

#11 kaky, is that a blues homework assignment for a guitar class?

Remember your two other articles in this vain, but they were many yrs ago. One was To V Or Not To V and the other I think On The VS Reunion Trail. This makes a good trilogy. Certainly it was the most meaty.

VS2 was definately the best of all VS albums. However, I`m not as critical of VS-Aitebaar.

VS-2 though can be classified as one of the top five best albums of the past 15 years. Included in the top five would have to be Talaash, Inquilaab, and Duur.

What is the point of this article ???

I mean...even if I liked their sing-song childish music (which I do not).....why would I want to know their internal gossip ? And why would someone make the effort of collecting this trivia and putting it together as an essay ???

NFP,

An excellent narration. Vital Signs is iconic in Pakistan... the only other band that comes close to their status is Junoon- ofcourse both had Salman in common. Junaid Jamshed`s belated conversion to Tablighi Islam is a big blow to Pakistani Music.. and the urban social liberalism in Pakistan.