RIP Atwell

It happened, as these things so often do, while trawling the Internet some any newsy tidbits on local music. I was just doing the usual rounds when the Heritage Facebook page caught my eye.

“Today is a dark day ... Heritage’s leader, Atwell Jansen passed away, after an unfortunate accident. Rest in peace, rock the heavens. We love you, always.”

I have to say: I was thrown for a loop. I don’t know why. It’s not like Atwell and I were good friends. Sure, we’d say “hi” when we bumped into each other, although I suspect he did that because he was just being polite and not because he actually knew who I was. (It happens to me a lot, but that’s another story altogether.)

Maybe it’s because I’d just heard them playing at JJ Atlante just last week. And now, Atwell is gone. Needless to say, those closest to him were devastated.

“He was a great musician and a great person and he will be missed by all of us in the band, He was a large character,” Heritage drummer David McGuire told me. “We’re still trying to come to terms with what happened. It’s all a bit of a shock. We were just playing on Monday night and this happened on Tuesday and then he passed away the next morning.”

And yes, the messages from friends paying tribute to Atwell came flooding in.

“You and your band are one of the things that makes me proud to be Singaporean. Rest well, your life has made a big positive difference,” posted Singapore jazz icon Jeremy Monteiro.

“A Big loss - Best Rock Fiddle player I have ever known in Singapore,” wrote Robert Suriya, founder of Singapore ’60s outfit, Naomi And The Boys.

Guitarist Randolf Arriola wrote: “I last saw and heard you when u performed a beautiful intimate solo set at the Esplanade Recital late last year and the experience moved me to tears. Farewell Atwell.”

“He should be honoured and fondly remembered by the music community in Singapore because he was definitely someone who ran with his dreams, and persevered against all odds,” said Danny Loong, the co-founder of popular nightspot Timbre and Barbershop.

“There are a lot of musicians who come and go, but Atwell really paved the way. He showed that you could really do what you loved and what he loved was music. We cannot forget these are people that have never given up - and that kind of gives us all hope.”

Admittedly, while I’d heard of Heritage growing up, I never really saw what the fuss was about until Heritage was part of a bill for the Singapore Arts Festival fringe event called Rock The New Frontier. Also featured were other acts such as Stomping Ground, Jessica Soo, Black Sun, The Oddfellows and some blokes who called themselves AWOL.

Despite being the veteran act, they opened the proceedings and played a mostly-instrumental set. Despite the vagaries of time, one thing I do remember is a song which I mistakenly thought was about the Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse. As it turned out, the song was called The Legend Of The Headless Horsemen. The reason I remember that is because Atwell said that it was inspired by a Disney cartoon. And I remember thinking that they somehow reminded me of Jethro Tull.

At any rate, their music fell on deaf ears that day. It seemed like everyone was there to see Stompin’ Ground. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, it’s just what it was. But I marvelled at how Atwell could make his violin cry and sing.

Sometime later, at the Crazy Elephant pub at Clarke Quay, I saw them do their version of Jimi Hendrix’s Voodoo Chile (Slight Return), with Atwell taking all the solos on his violin, complete with full-on distortion and wah pedal screaming. And then Gordon did his thing with the drumsticks and the coin on the wall. Basically, he’d place a 50-cent coin on the wall and hit it so quickly with his sticks, such that the coin would stay up on the wall.

It was, as Mark Knopfler once said, beautane.

Since then, I’d see the band at various gigs, at JJ Mahoney’s, at the Roadhouse, at JJ Atlante, at some festival shows like Beerfest. And each time I’d see them perform, it was like an awakening of my musical consciousness. And for some of their fans, Heritage ought to be recognised as a musical icon of Singapore, like Dick Lee or Jeremy Monteiro or Iskandar Ismail. If only because they didn’t compromise on their music, they didn’t “play the game” so to speak, and pander, they’ve always come across as the band that stuck to their guns and did what they wanted to do.

And they were very much part of the musical fabric here. The funny thing is, like so many things that have been woven into our fabric, our heritage, as it were, Heritage also became locked away in some part of our sub consciousness, much like many of our tourist attractions. You know they’re there; you just don’t go see them as much. Because they’re there. It seems like it’s they’ve always been there. So you don’t give it much thought. Like Joni Mitchell sang, “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone”.

Until they’re gone.

Atwell’s passing signals yet another turn of the old proverbial wheel. Another prominent marker from that age is gone.

Will there be another Heritage? Will Ashley continue the band?

Talking to Heritage’s drummer David and guitarist Robert, they both said that they’d like to carry on, but they both admitted that they’d be hard-pressed to find someone like Atwell. “Just the way he played the harp,” mused Robert.

It seems unlikely right now. It would be great though. Although, frankly, I have to admit that wouldn’t quite be the same. In some weird way, Atwell was Heritage, just as much as Heritage was Atwell, Ashley and Gordon.

Adios, Atwell. Rock their socks off at the Great Gig in the Sky.