For the past decade, the general trend has been that the Pakistani music scene goes into a strange sort of humdrum after the end of the 10 week Coke Studio period.
Even though the indie band culture is developing in the country, especially in Lahore, and the Pepsi Battle of the Bands proving its prevalence, the release of Coke Studio is the single greatest event on the entertainment industry’s yearly calendar. So it makes sense that much of the year revolves around the period in which Coke Studio comes out with its thirty or so songs over a span of ten episodes. And the subsequent time is
Yet this time around there is a simmering underneath the surface which may indicate something monumental. The prospective rising of an old titan ready to shake things up.
Only a few days ago, living legend, Coke Studio mainstay, and Pakistan’s only real rockstar Ali Azmat hinted at a reunion of 90s ‘Sufi Rock’ band Junoon. In a facebook post on his official account, the rockstar asked his followers “How much they would like to see Junoon getting back together?” The results of the polls, that Azmat displayed on his page the next day were surprisingly pathetic.
Only 50% of the opinion givers were in favour of a reunion while 22% were unsure and a mind boggling 28% against. This poll alone made fans feel that this was just Ali Azmat toying with their feelings. Playing a cruel, cruel joke on them. After all, Ali Azmat has vehemently denied any chance of a reunion since the band broke up in 2005, speaking on the topic only to speak ill of Salman Ahmed and deny rumours even more forcefully. In fact, when a possible meet up was brewing for Coke Studio, he was the one to quash any hopes in people’s hearts.
Yet despite this, the comment on top of the poll result was strangely un-Ali Azmat. He said “As per public poll for Good music never gets Old, the band Junoon that rocked the 90’s with their original lineup vocals Ali Azmat , lead Guitarist Salman Ahmad and bassist Brian O’Connell is one of the bands that fans all over the world want to see together.”
This statement alone meant his fans were seeing hope again. And then today, Salman Ahmed, who currently holds all right to the Junoon name, tweeted out an old song from Junoon’s Silver Jubilee last year. It obviously did not involve Ali Azmat. Yet Salman’s usual cryptic and often political, twitter presence indicated a strange sort of melancholy. One of captions he gave was “Only Love can take you beyond your limitations . There are no impossible dreams only infinite possibilities.”
Does this mean that the band is getting ready for a one last performance in grand fashion? Hard to tell and generally very unlikely. But could it be possible? Junoonis can only hope against hope that these two can stand each other for at least a while.
