It is a wonder that there’s not much posting on Butterfingers here, given the fact that they are the most popular and widely known alumni of the Class of 94. It is even a wonder that I never took time to write about them – given that everyone in Butterfingers had had a common ground with me throughout the 5 years we were in MCKK.

It is not exaggerating that Class of 94 is the “Butterfingers batch” – each time we introduce ourselves as Class of 94; the most predictable reaction (especially from the younger batches) is “ooowhh batch Butterfingers eyh?”

Last month when MCKK debaters held their annual dinner, they presented a montage. One of the soundtracks was pretty decent; so I enquired as to who was the band. Lo and behold – apparently the boys picked the song thinking that I would have identified with it instantly (since it was a Butterfingers’ song) and it was a cryptic message of tribute to us the senior coaches. Unfortunately, being ignorant all this while, I sorely let them down.

It made me thinking and I had planned to blog about Loque, Kadaque and Kalai for a while already – this is now perfectly timed with the release of their new album.

So Butterfingers is back with an album “Kembali”. Let’s support them as much as possible – after all they are a talented lot who had battled it out all along to leave their marks in their own ways. If MCKK is so much about rewarding meritocracy, then to a certain extent Butterfingers had earned that reward.

Butterfingers’ members are no stranger to me personally, somehow we had our path (and sometimes words ha ha) crossed all the time.

Loque was my first deskmate in English Set with Jackpie in Form 1. If people were to ask me how to describe Loque then – I only have one word: “gentle”. He was such a gentle soul and was very kind although he was always in his own world. Since he was a bit huge by comparison to others, he has always been quite protective even then – which I supposed explained why he seems to be very loyal to whatever he chose in life (either the grouping back in koleq, his musical crusade etc.)

Kadaque ended up in the AJK Batch together with the rest of us. Being in AJK Batch is not something we want to own up to nowadays (especially with constant threats of full disclosure of the kind of speeches made back then); but by virtue of being in the same committee – we did spend a lot of time meeting after lights off and identifying what to fix (ha ha). From whatever I can recall – Kadaque was least interested to know what was going on with the batch; but he stuck to the AJK Batch all the way till the end of F2. By the time we were in F3 – well that’s a different story altogether; and by F4 I would be damned if anyone of us wanted to regroup as AJK Batch!

Kalai (who was with Butterfingers until a point) was perhaps the closest to me. He was my bedmate in F1 and throughout the five years, we had our ups and down as friends. Kalai was Kalai – he has his antics (you only need to watch our past videos to see Kalai’s antics); so sometimes people judged him by his antics; rather than what lies beneath. As a person, I have always had a respect for him because he knew when to have fun and when to be serious. He was loyal – that much I know personally. Even at our lowest point when he must have felt really pissed off with some of the decisions I made (and he had the right to feel angry) – we maintained a sort of grudging respect towards each other. That respect of each other we maintain until today – so the fact that he managed to talk me to buy life and medical insurance from him (a feat that all others before him failed to do) was a testimony that I actually had a lot of respect for this guy. Weird as it sounds (since we always seemed to be at loggerheads for much of our time in koleq), I often trust him more than some others.

All four of us were also in the Military Band in 1994. Loque and Kalai played side drums and Kadaque was the drum major. In 1994 we decided to split the role of taking the lead on the field (given to the drum major) and of managing the administrative and planning part for the group (given to the President assumed by me). The “sharing” of these functions compelled us to work closer – despite the fact that by then we all were in distinct different groups with sometimes incoherent motives and sphere of influence.

Whatever it was, Butterfingers remains the most unique product out of our batch (ha ha since we were such under achievers, while other batches boast of millionaires or politicians etc. – we can only boast a grunge band ha ha). So this week is Butterfingers’ week here.

Welcome back Butterfingers – make a difference since that is what we were taught in MCKK :-)

FOOTNOTE

Bobo was under constant spotlight last week; being the only self-confessed member of the batch who bought a pirated copy of Butterfingers CD. Perhaps to assist Bobo, Butterfingers has ensured that the latest CD is also available at Kemaman Music Store (the same spot Bobo bought the pirated copy I think – berapa banyak sangat music store kat Kemamang!). So this time around there’s no excuse whatsoever not to buy the original copy.

Link:
Official Butterfingers