Mahesh Tinaikar
Then came ‘Pretty Child’, with Tinaikar’s distinctive guitar work, recorded at 26 on his beloved black Ibanez. It was released in 1990; MTV Asia put its video on heavy rotation, and it won the band a Viewers’ Choice Award. When Indus Creed split in the late 1990s and as music channels turned towards Bollywood, Tinaikar worked with Gary Lawyer, composed television music and formed the acoustic project Whirling Kalapas with Benegal before reviving Indus Creed in 2010 with Balaporia and younger musicians.
Vishal Dadlani said every Indian rock musician since Rock Machine owed Tinaikar a debt of gratitude for “lighting up the way that we couldn’t even imagine until they walked it!” By then renamed Indus Creed — to give the group a stronger Indian identity — they toured Russia and recorded in Los Angeles. There was another reason the band’s rise made for an interesting story. The long-haired guitarist making all that noise was the son of S S Tinaikar, Bombay’s famously strict municipal commissioner, who was quite happy to let him rock on. Tinaikar also mentored young guitarists at Mumbai’s True School of Music. As tributes poured in on social media, fellow musicians recalled the guitarist who had inspired a generation of Indian rockers. Musician Floyd Francisco Fernandes wrote: “At a time in Bombay where the only quality playing we heard was on tape there was this guy. With his black Ibanez and rainbow strap he played with blazing intensity while looking calm af.
He dreamt of playing in a band but had to wait until 18 to pick up a guitar. Tinaikar, who died of cardiac arrest on Thursday aged 63, began his musical journey with Rock Machine in the early 1980s, when he and fellow guitarist Jayesh Gandhi turned up unannounced at bassist Mark Selwyn’s house and asked him to form a band. Their 1988 debut, ‘Rock ’n’ Roll Renegade’, featured ‘Top of the Rock’.
Mumbai : The man who gave Indian rock its stadium-sized sound, Mahesh Tinaikar, was eight when he discovered what an electric guitar could do. Growing up in 1970s Bombay, Tinaikar heard Indian classical and film music on his mother’s radio until his elder brother brought home borrowed LPs of The Ventures and The Shadows. His parents wanted him to study first. It was an unlikely start for Tinaikar, who would go on to become lead guitarist of Indus Creed, one of India’s pioneering rock bands. With drummer Suresh Bhadricha and singer Ian Santamaria, Rock Machine was born. When Santamaria couldn’t get leave for a Goa concert, Tinaikar roped in Uday Benegal, whom he’d heard at a college talent show. Benegal stayed and brought along keyboardist Zubin Balaporia , who arrived with an enormous organ for a casual jam and never left. Rock Machine played Western covers but found a cheeky way to sneak originals into college concerts and pass them off as obscure foreign songs. Nobody wanted to admit they hadn’t heard them, and the songs went down a treat.