Ten Years of the LUMS Music Society
In early 1999, while I was a senior at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), we were planning for the annual student variety show called ‘So?’. Now the ‘So?’ is organized jointly by the all the student clubs who want to participate and, being president of Alpha Hour, I was a part of that year’s organizing committee. [I also co-wrote ‘Zahoor: A Musical’ – Dr. Zahoor being our Associate Dean at the time – that some of my classmate and I performed there but that’s another story.]
A lot of the performances at the ‘So?’ were musical ones. Indeed, we started the show with a song from Jahanzeb and Adil Sherwani, had lots of Ali Hamza in the middle, and even ended the night with the hugely popular cover of The Strings’ ‘Sar Kiye Ye Pahar’ as performed by Saad Ansari, Sameer Anees, Jahanzeb Sherwani, and Adil Sherwani.
It was around this time that we all realized that LUMS needed an official music society and so we encouraged the musicians who had performed at the ‘So?’ to start one. That’s what Saad, Jahanzeb, and Ali Hamza did and thus the LUMS Music Society was born.
Fast-Forward to the Present
The Music Society has come a long way since then: They now have their own fully-equipped recording studio (as opposed to the single room next to the gym that we started out with) and they organize all sorts of musical events, some of which you can check out on their YouTube Channel. Also visit their Facebook Group page for event listings, photographs, and discussions.
This year they’re celebrating their ten-year anniversary with a music conference on 9 May and a big concert featuring the likes of Noori, eP, Laal, and Aunty Disco Project on the 10th. They’ll also be launching their official website at that time.
My Association with the Music Society
I owe a lot to the LUMS Music Society because it was through them that I learnt how to play the drums and it was at their launch concert (called ‘The Jig’) in early 2000 that I first performed in front of an audience as a drummer. I even have a recording of the very first song I played at that concert (‘Zombie’ by The Cranberries) with Mehreen on vocals, Vex on bass, and Saad on lead. Yes, it’s terrible of me but I’ve forgotten who was on rhythm guitar.
Even though the actual performance of that song is mostly a blur, I remember that I started out too fast and was mimed to slow down by Jahanzeb who was sitting in the audience. I also made one major error – a hand-spaz miss-hit on the snare drum – that, not only did no one there notice, you can’t even hear it on the audio recording so it obviously wasn’t as big a mistake as I thought it was. I performed in two more songs during that show – Pink Floyd and Alanis Morissette covers, no less – the latter of which was on the bongos which were also new to me at the time.
A few months later, I performed at their first proper, on-stage concert (called ‘It’) in the central courtyard. This time I was on the drums (‘Dosti’ by Nazia and Zoheb), tambourine (‘Smooth’ by Santana and Rob Thomas), and bongos (‘Those Were the Days’ by Mary Hopkin). Later in the year I travelled from Islamabad to Lahore to specifically attend their first big concert (called ‘The Show’) which featured a professional sound system and hired musical instruments. They could afford all this now that they were officially sponsored by LUMS. I last checked-in on them in 2003 when I went to guest lecture at LUMS and they’d already grown quite a bit. Now, of course, they’re the largest club at the University.
In spite of all that, my strongest memory of the Music Society is still that of me, Ali Hamza and Saad packed into a hot, stuffy jam room as we rehearsed a rock version of Nazia and Zoheb’s ‘Dosti’. I used to have a recording of that performance as well but I seem to have lost it along the way, which is sad. That was the first time I came up with my own drum beat to a song (yes, we really changed it around from the original) and I remember being proud of myself for that because I’d grown quite a bit as a musician over those few months.
To Conclude
It’s been ten years since I graduated from LUMS and ten years since the Music Society was formed. Unfortunately, I’ll be missing both my reunion and the 10th anniversary concert because I’m going to be in Australia during both events. That sucks, I know, but I will be there in spirit. And, at the very least, I do get to blog about it and encourage other people to be there on my behalf. Here’s hoping some of you manage to do so.
.jpg){kind=avatar}
Hey,
I just randomly stumbled upon your article. You mentioned being the President of the Alpha Hour back in 1999! Im currently running that society at lums and i believe no one has heard of its history dating this back! From what I heard from my seniors is that this society was formed in 2005?! It’ll be really great if i could hear more about this and maybe have some sort of an aniversary ourselves! Do contact me at the e mail adress give!
Hi Danish. Thanks for commenting. I’ve often wondered what Alpha Hour is up to these days but I’ve never actually gone and checked. Fortunately for me, you found me instead :) Here’s a quick history of the club.
Alpha Hour was originally founded in 1995 by students from the MBA ’97 batch. Their vision for it was an organization where students could examine and discuss exciting and relevant ideas. They’d invite prominent and visionary guest speakers (like Shoaib Hashmi and Alys Faiz) to give talks and would show thought-provoking films.
When I became president in 1997, however, I cut back on the guest speakers and increased the number of films we’d show. Very quickly our film nights became hugely popular and I started showing films every Friday night. Soon after that, I started showing a less-serious movie before I showed the serious one. My overall criteria for the films I chose was two-fold: they either had to be good, thought-provoking films (e.g. we once had a Stanley Kubric festival) or films that you’d want to see on the big screen (mostly blockbusters). Eventually, though, Alpha Hour became all about entertainment: I’d show a light-hearted film (a comedy or a cartoon), take a half-hour break, and then show a serious movie (a drama or an action blockbuster).
The idea behind this shift in focus for the club was that the students at LUMS seemed to need entertainment and a way to wind down after a hard week’s worth of work much more than they needed high quality intellectual stimulation.
By the time I graduated and handed Alpha Hour over to the batch of 2002, it had moved to a different place again. The then-president was also a member of the LUMS Student Charity and so they started asking for token donations to cover the cost of renting the film (I used to rent films at my own or my classmates’ expense) and the rest of the money they’d give to the Charity. They did stick with the light-then-serious movie showing formula, though.
What I like about these changes in the club’s objectives and activities is that Alpha Hour becomes whatever the students want and need it to be. I also like that none of the presidents take it personally when they hand the club over to their successors and find a few months later that the club been changed to do something else entirely!
I have no idea what’s happened to the club since 2003/4. That’s where you come in: what does Alpha Hour do now?
Also, it occurs to me that you probably don’t know why the club is named The Alpha Hour, either. It’s named after the Alpha waves (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_wave) that the brain generates. Alpha waves are generated during periods of waking relaxation and that state often occurs just before you fall asleep at night. It is said that you sometimes get your best, most exciting, and most breakthrough-type of ideas just before you fall asleep. What the club’s founders wanted to do was create a time and place where people would have a whole hour of intellectual and ground-breaking thought and discussion. That they loosely translated into an hour of Alpha-thought time, hence The Alpha Hour :)
hey man I really liked the article it’s wonderful to see that alumni who have graduated 10 years ago are still so much involved in the society. I’m a freshman and part of the music society and may I just say sir that your interest has inspired me to develop more as a musician and my pride has exceeded in being part of the LUMS music society. On behalf of the freshmen in the music society, I thank you :)
Faizan: You’re very welcome :) Hope you have a fantastic time in the music society and that you keep playing music even after you’ve graduated from LUMS. All the best.