Karachi’s Catholic music scene loses its Freddie Mercury

A stalwart of the Catholic music scene, Melvin Clements never really made the mainstream cut

KARACHI: If you were a frequent visitor of the many upscale, five-star hotels or a mere observer of the section of Karachi’s underground music scene that derives from the church choir culture and parish bands, you must have come across this frail, cheerful vocalist called Melvin Clements. He was a rockstar of his community; many of his friends compared his stage presence to that of Freddie Mercury. He had been around for a while, playing for a band called Kashish. Classical rock and jazz was their thing. Church events, school bake sales and weddings were his arenas. He would leave the crowd in frenzy; many Christian musicians aspired to be like him.

Few people knew that in opposition to his outer appearance, leukaemia was eating away at him on the inside. The 35-year-old was on a ventilator at the Aga Khan University Hospital and despite starting to recover, he lost the battle under the dreadful machine on Tuesday morning. His friends and family are finding a hard time to come to terms with the fact that their Freddie Mercury is no more.





Melv, as he was lovingly called, did not hail from a prosperous family. Lately, sustenance had become a major concern for him and he would play at Karachi’s Pearl Continental hotel and Marriott hotel frequently. The irony of times was such that Kashish itself began to lose what its name signifies, pull or attraction. Band members became associated with singer-songwriter Zoe Viccaji to keep the stove burning.

Melv’s friend, drummer Kurt Menezes says, “Melv’s charisma could rival that of Ali Azmat on stage.”

Sounds of Kolachi front man Ahsan Bari knew Melv for a good 12 years. “I used to sing for Gravity back then. He was the very animated sort. He would be literally jumping around all the time,” he says. The singer-songwriter says he couldn’t believe when he first found out about Melv’s health. “Given his outlook, no one could tell what was going on inside him.”



An underground scene maven himself, Bari is of the view that he never saw a better crowd-puller than Melv. “I haven’t in my life seen a better live performer. Already there are very few here who can sing in English with ease and even out of those, only a fraction of them really are good enough.

Bari says it is a dilemma that the best musicians in the country are frustrated. “There are literally no platforms, no labels ... what can one say?”

This is a concern that resonates with almost every second musician you go to. Fuzon guitarist Shallum Xavier goes on to state that this dilemma is very Pakistani at its core. “It’s not just in music. It’s everywhere. When you’re alive, nobody cares. When you die, they all lament,” he says. Melv was like a younger brother to Xavier and the two have been spotted together on stage a number of times. “When I met him two weeks ago, he was in high spirits ... Melv was always like that, you see,” he pauses for a moment. “Being talented in Pakistan is not enough. You need a push. People like us are an exception ... our mainstream is quite complicated.”



Himself a product of the Karachi’s Catholic music scene, Xavier says this is not just about the Melv who was consumed by leukaemia. “It is about all the Melvs and Veronicas and Jasons who are struggling ... playing for church bands, entertaining their own circles. Their talent too merits recognition like the talent of people from other communities.”

Another of Xavier’s contemporary and brother-in-arm, drummer Gumby looks at it slightly differently. “Today, being good is not enough. One should know how to present oneself. Management, promotion, networking are all equally important,” he maintains. He channelises the neglect that many of Melv’s close friends pointed out by saying, “It is indeed unfortunate. He was a very sweet child and extremely passionate about what he did. I don’t think anyone is to blame for a lack of recognition for him ... things are like this only here.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11^th,  2016.

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