Special Fan Requests In Malaysia, Kerispatih And Sammy Simorangkir At The Reunion Concert

Music groups Kerispatih and Sammy Simorangkir together with promoter Tiger Wong Entertainment at a Jakarta studio, Wednesday (8/2). (Amad Faishal)

JAKARTA - The Kerispatih band group will hold a reunion concert inviting their former vocalist, Sammy Simorangkir, to involve local music promoter Tiger Wong Entertainment (TWE) on February 24 in Malaysia.

The Kerispatih reunion concert with Sammy Simorangkir was a special request for their fans in Malaysia. This will be the first collaboration between the band fronted by Fandy Santoso (vocals), Anton Suryo (drums), and Arief Morada (guitar) with Sammy abroad.

"We are both surprised and happy to have won the trust of Tiger Wong Management for a gig in Malaysia. It turns out that there are still a lot of fans waiting for us and Sammy. Maybe they miss it because we haven't played there for a long time and want to reminisce with Kerispatih's songs," said Fandy, quoted from Antara, Thursday.

Fandy said Kerispatih will collaborate with Sammy to perform old and new songs as well as perform songs from Sammy's solo project to quench the thirst of their fan, Mahapatih.

"We performed Kerispatih's songs with a new version as well as Sammy's songs as well. It will be fun to be able to perform Sammy's songs. We will also sing together," he explained.

Regarding royalties and permits for the use of old songs, guitarist Arief Morada explained that his party had coordinated with the management of their former keyboardist, Doangdobadai Hollo or Badai. During his time as a Kerispatih member, Badai created many songs including Demi Cinta, I Must Be Honest, Remember You, Inevitated by Time, Equal Errors, and others.

"We really respect him and there has been communication and agreement for the songs to be performed. Everything has been taken care of and fine," said Arief.

Arief added that his band and Sammy have collaborated on gigs in Jakarta several times. So, continued Arief, there will be no difficulties in preparing for the upcoming reunion concert.

"It's not complicated, because we played with Sammy several times. Maybe it's just a matter of increasing the duration of the performance because Sammy's songs will also be performed," he said.

The TWE promoter explained that this was their first major concert project abroad as well as an opening for a large-scale similar event.

"TWE is working with local promoters there, to find out who the singers or band groups are in demand by the masses. It turns out that Kerispatih and Sammy are highly anticipated. In Malaysia, we will also conduct an in-depth assessment of the next concerts in Southeast Asia," said TWE promoter Armand Maulana.

Armand added that Kerispatih-Swarjan will appear in the hall with a maximum capacity of 2,400 spectators in Malaysia. Furthermore, said Armand, TWE will try to bring one of the treasures of Indonesian dangdut for the stage at Axiata Arena Malaysia, which has a audience capacity of more than 10 thousand people.