Situated in the warm waters of the South Pacific, the Fiji Islands have been home to a large Indian community for close on to a century and a half.  In recent years Fiji has repeatedly made international headlines as increasingly rancorous tensions between the indigenous Melanesian/Polynesian islander and Indian peoples have led to military takeovers, large-scale emigration and political instability.

But until the islands achieved Independence in 1970, Fiji existed in that languid, everyday-is-a-holiday part of the human consciousness that is attributed to small island states all across the world’s seven seas.  People with cash went there for holidays.  The locals always put up a good rugby team and the people subsisted in quiet leafy villages where they produced huge amounts of sugarcane for the rest of the world to enjoy.

Culturally, Fiji looked to New Zealand and Australia as lodestars and the young people of the islands were not unaffected by the rock’n roll vibrations that started emanating from these two countries. In the capital Suva, and the commercial heart, Nadi, but also in provincial towns across the country, garage bands sprang up like mushrooms. Dances and Battles of the Bands dominated the weekend night life and though recordings were few and very far between, the radio and word of mouth sustained a burgeoning music scene throughout the ’70s and ’80s

In the very centre of this small rock corner of the world, one name still quiets the room and brings smiles to faces when it is mentioned: Maxie Columbus.  I invite you to join me for a musical journey through this guitar hero’s work and leave you with the question: had this man been born anywhere but in Fiji would he have been so absolutely overlooked as a major guitar player?

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Born in Ovalau Island, Maxie’s father James was himself a guitarist and leader of the band, The Empire Old Boys. Their repertoire was mostly Hindi folk and film songs which got the young Maxie’s interest piqued. “Borrowing” his dad’s guitar Maxie, joined by a few school mates began playing tunes around town. In Fiji, the grog shop (bar-cum-liquor store), like the juke joint in the southern US, was the place where music happened. Maxie’s facility with his dad’s Hohner guitar very quickly brought in a dancing crowd. By 1967, the Indian-Fijian maestro was fronting The Mules, the first of several bands he would lead. This clip, recovered from the Radio Fiji archives, captures Maxie with his band in 1974 playing a light island-music instrumental at the famous night spot Bali Hai.

Blues Confection



A year later, Maxie and his group were hands down the band to beat in Fiji. They had beat the existing kings of Fiji pop, the enticingly named Them Insex in the 1970 Battle of the Bands and had dominated the national scene without serious challenge. The musical style, while still instrumental, was harder and more in keeping with what was going on in the rest of world. Maxie’s work on the guitar is magnificent, echoing the chords and fingering of bands like Deep Purple.

Green Onions



Maxie cites Clapton and Hendrix as his early influences. And as he demonstrates in this recent video from his oneonone jam Google + channel, he has absorbed the latter’s extravagant approach. Because the family home was directly opposite Popo’s Grog Shop, guitar role models were not hard to find. He confessed he would listen to any one who played and absorbed whatever he could from them, always keeping an open mind. Certainly this clip demonstrates he is at least with interpreting the Ventures as he is with hardcore R&B jams.

Blues Rock Jam



Indeed, Maxie’s calling card as a guitarist is the long jam. Though his rock god days are behind him, (he’s lost a head full of hair but retains his mo) he is still passionate about making music. As his own channel’s comments demonstrate he not only still fondly remembered by Fijians of all communities and political persuasions, he is humble and gentle artist. This jam is typical of Maxie’s playing and could almost be his sonic calling card: several minutes of glorious guitar picking effortlessly delivered.

Zambesi



Like for so many Asian rock n roll bands, the instrumental bands, The Ventures and The Shadows, were the biggest and earliest influences. As there were no lyrics to sing, rockers whose mother tongue was not English could still be part of the rock world without having to sound fake or forced. And in the case of the dancers and players in Fiji, the upbeat lively music of the Shadows, seemed perfectly suited to long tropical nights and holding your honey close till the moon set over the coconut palms. This wonderful rendition of the Shadows favourite, Zambesi, is a perfect way to wrap up this introduction to one of the great unsung South Asian heroes of rock and roll.