I was sad to see an advert for a farewell gig by popular Phuket rock band The FUZZtonez at The Grapevine in Cherng Talay. Sad, as it billed them as “hanging up their guitar straps and putting away their plectrums”. Sad, but not surprised, for Alf Hodges, their legendary frontman and local school teacher, is a good friend of mine, and I knew he had plans to retire sometime soon to the far north of Thailand where his wife’s family reside.
Yes, I’ll miss Alf and The FUZZtonez with Anand on lead guitar, Glenn on bass, Paul on drums, and this is despite them being difficult to find performing. You see, they don’t play professionally here on the live music venue circuit. Yes, you’ll see them at the occasional festival, but that’s usually about it, which is why I always make a special effort to go see them.
I am not alone in this, for the gig was organised as a parting tribute by FUZZtonez fans Curious Itch, a band of local teachers who also performed in support. And I arrived to find The Grapevine was packed out with young expat fans who the band were to soon have literally bouncing off the walls!
But what is the secret of such popularity? How were they able to build up such a strong following, despite being so far off the radar here?
The FUZZtonez origins go back to 2006 when some musicians got together who were disillusioned by the state of the music scene here. They wanted something a bit more interesting, to play songs that were not all from the standard Classic Rock setlist. (Classic Rock is from the 1970s and ’80s, but some would include the early ’90s.)
After getting some songs together, the band quickly took off, soon garnering some encouraging local support. The band’s repertoire included songs by well-known artists, but they would often choose lesser-known ones. They would also try to rework covers in a more exciting style, such as a punk version of Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues, which they were to play as an encore.
Their final gig’s setlist reflects this, the opening song being The Foo Fighters’ 1999 song Learn to Fly from after the Classic Rock era. Blink 182’s Small Things also from 1999 followed, provoking an enthusiastic sing-along from the audience. Another Foo Fighter song Times Like These from 2002 came after. Other popular songs from the later rock era included Sex on Fire and Slow Night, So Long (Kings of Leon 2004 and 2008), Mr Brightside (The Killers 2004) and Dakota (The Stereophonics 2005). The FUZZtonez also played their own excellent Millionaire, featuring a glorious Link Wray-style riff.
I argued in my last article that live music here is still trapped in that pre-1990s past. Okay, so The FUZZtonez also played Classic Rock songs at the gig such as Hush (Deep Purple), Fire (Jimi Hendrix), Ziggy Stardust (David Bowie) and Fortunate Son (CCR), but The FUZZtonez were never remotely stuck in that past.
Also, The FUZZtonez were always a full-on band. There were never to be any quiet, sentimental songs in the middle of the set. Rather like The Ramones who I saw in 1977, they just kept going like a train down a hill. As Alf told me, “We always tried for energy rather than overplayed hits… The idea was to ‘Fuel Your Night’.”
I believe it’s because of such reasons that The FUZZtonez were and will always be loved and sadly missed, particularly by younger expats who want to hear their generation’s most-loved songs performed live.
So farewell Alf, Anand, Glenn and Paul. I’ll miss you too. I can only hope now we’ll get more comebacks out of you than Frank Sinatra ever did!
Andy Tong Dee is a local expat and musician. Find out more about Phuket’s music venues and bands at his website www.phuketmusicscene.com
