KARACHI: Till early this year, it was not even conceivable to get the famous Sufi rock band from the ‘90s, Junoon, back together. It happened in August when a biscuit-manufacturing company announced that it had managed to persuade the three principal members of the group — Ali Azmat (vocals), Salman Ahmed (guitar) and Brian O’Connell (bass) — to return as a band and do a gig. It happened.

One thing led to another, and today, Dec 25, Junoon are doing their first major concert, after a long, long time, at the Moin Khan Academy at 5pm. It is one of the most highly anticipated live performances of the year. It seems that the good old days of music concerts, too, have made a comeback in Pakistan. Recently, Ali Azmat took part in a show where Strings and Ahmed Jehanzaib also performed. Ali Zafar and Atif Aslam too are involved in two big solo shows in the month of December in Karachi. This is indeed a positive development.

Back to Junoon. The band was formed in the 1990s. By that time both Salman and Ali had made their presence felt, individually, playing for other musical outfits. And both had earned formidable reputations –– Salman as a guitarist who could play the most convoluted of riffs with effortless ease, and Ali as a vocalist with a powerhouse voice. This writer distinctly remembers a New Year’s concert that took place in Clifton in the early ‘90s at which Ali exhibited his vocal range by singing cover tunes as varied as INXS’s Need You Tonight and George Michael’s Faith. At the same time, his Yaro Yehi Dosti Hai had a distinctly identifiable local flavour.

Salman and Ali (later joined by Brian, a friend of Salman’s) decided to exercise their creative selves alongside each other and Junoon came into being. It proved to be one of the most successful bands in the history of the country. Junoon came out with more than two dozen albums and their concerts would be packed to capacity.

What followed was all but inevitable. As it usually happens with successful groups, difference of opinion on several issues began to create cracks in Junoon’s ranks, so much so that there came a time when Salman and Ali wouldn’t be seen together. The wheels came off Junoon.

Ironically, the volatile sociopolitical goings-on in the country in the beginning of the 21st century prevented live music shows to happen, anyway. The law and order situation had impacted upon all spheres of life, including art.

Now that Pakistan has resumed breathing a sigh of relief on the political front (after an effective fight against terrorism), Junoon’s reunion is nothing short of a welcome sign. What remains to be seen, though, is how the band woos the millennials, the listeners of the likes of Imagine Dragons and Ed Sheeran.

PS: According to the programme written on tickets, the venue’s gates will close at 5pm. Sources say that Junoon will try their best to arrive at the academy as soon as possible and begin the gig on time in order to spare their fans of any kind of inconvenience.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2018