Ahead Of The 50 Years Of God Bless Concert: Achmad Albar Reveals The Difficult Phase He Has Experienced

God Bless, from the left: Abadi Soesman, Donny Fattah, Ian Antono, Fajar Satriatama, and Achmad Albar. (VOI/Ivan Two Men)

JAKARTA - The formation of God Bless occurred in 1973, when Achmad Albar, Donny Fattah, Ludwig Lemans and Fuad Hassan performed rock songs at Taman Ismail Marzuki, Central Jakarta.

Since then, God Bless has continued to grow and become the legendary Indonesian rock band. They will also hold concerts as the peak of the 50 year celebration of their work.

Remembering the five decades of God Bless' journey, Achmad Albar was grateful that the personnel had gathered again for a big stage. He said many things had been passed, which made God Bless stronger and more inseparable.

"There is an up and down for sure, but again we are grateful that we can still gather with strong tolerance and respect each other for each other. That's what's important," said Achmad Albar in Senayan, Central Jakarta last week.

Talking about the difficult phase, God Bless' journey in the second year met a big obstacles, they had to lose Fuad Hassan and Soman Lubis who died in an accident.

"The phase is difficult, yes, of course there is, it means there are difficulties, even since the beginning of 1974, we have lost two players in an accident. From there there there are players who have to change," said Achmad Albar.

There was also Donny Fattah who had to go to America for a year. But we are grateful for everything, finally we can reunite, "continued the vocalist who is familiarly called Iyek.

Achmad Albar hopes that the God Bless concert which will take place at the Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium, Central Jakarta on November 10 can be enjoyed by rock music lovers in the country. In fact, he wants to celebrate his golden age by touring other cities.

"We hope that many will watch it. This is an opportunity that seems difficult, can't be repeated again. This celebration is a climax for God Bless," said Achmad Albar.

"What we also hope for, we can still bring big concerts like this out of town, to Central Java, to East Java, and to other areas," he concluded.