School of rock

From cassettes to CDs, from iPods to streaming, some Indian bands have stayed put as the world, and music changed. See how four bands recall the time that was, and what it takes to rock on today

- Karishma Kuenzang

The '80s

Indus Creed

Uday Benegal was 17, a month away from his Class 12 board exams in January 1985, when he played his first gig at the Goa College of Engineering, with a band called Rock Machine. There was no internet then, no satellite TV, no malls, no CDs, no music festivals.

The band itself was barely a year old: Mark Selwyn on bass, Mahesh Tinaikar on guitar, Mark Menezes on drums, Ian Santamaria on vocals and Aftab Currim on rhythm guitar. "I had the time of my life on stage," recalls Benegal, now 56.

They'd change their line-up in the years to come. Their name too. Rock Machine was renamed Indus Creed in 1993 and remains one of India's most popular and enduring indie music groups. Benegal and Tinaikar are still part of the band (as is Zubin Balaporia, who joined a little after Benegal).

And fans have stayed loyal. Indus Creed packed out Mumbai's Hard Rock Cafe in 2010 when the band reunited for the first time since 1997. They played an epic gig at the first NH7 Shillong in 2015. "At both those gigs we received a very special kind of love from the audience," says Benegal. Fans come up to tell them they've been listeners right from the start, that their kids are fans too.

"The biggest change is the demand for original music," Benegal says. "People no longer want their band to play covers."

The '90s

Parikrama