History
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Semih Firincioglu, a graduate of '69, is one of the oldest Echo members that I know. For that reason I wanted him to talk about the history of Echo music band in TAC, and he said, "I don't know when this Echo tradition has started, but Echo was in TAC when I first entered to high school in TAC in 1962. The serious works of Echo started with Milliyet Song Contests. The first contest took place in 1968 and TAC joined the elimination stages and eliminated. As I remember, these people were in that year's Echo band: Ahmet Kardam (guitar), Cemal (drums), another Ahmet who succeeded with music business later and Haldun Emrealp." After Semih Abi graduated, he became a director in theatre and he composed many songs for dance/theatre. Meanwhile, I am searching the establishment of Echo and the comments made supports Semih Abi's words, so Echo is quite old, but it became more popular with Milliyet Song Contests. |
The Echo of '69: Vecdi Geray (guitar), Ali Ipek (guitar, vocals), Haldun Emrealp (bass), Semih Firincioglu (org/harmonica), Ayhan Sicimoglu (drums). We got the 3rd place on composition and the 6th place on performance this year, as I remember.
The Echo of '70: Vecdi Geray (guitar), Hamdi Demirel (bass), Semih Firincioglu (org, harmonica, vocals), Ayhan Sicimoglu (davul). As I remember, we got the 2nd place on performance and 3rd place on composition this year.
The Echo of '71: Mehmet Cagis (guitar), Ugur Cinar (drums), Kemal Yegenoglu (bass), Semih Firincioglu (org/harmonica), Cevdet Basacik (vocals), Vamik Kural (vocals). We got the 4th place on performance this year, as I remember. |
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Echo '89 is giving an outdoor concert in front of the old Lounge. Erkut is playing flute, Selim is playing bass guitar, Selim is with his bass guitar and Hasan is with his electro guitar. Ozer (keyboard) and Burak (drums) is not in the picture. When the former drummer of the band Serhan went to USA in grade 10, Burak changed his place from bass guitar to drums and left vocals and rhythm guitar for Selim. After Hasan graduated, he continued to play professionally for a while in Ankara with a new group which he established with Baler from TAC. |
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On the picture above, Evren Madran ('86) is playing guitar and Echo '89 is attending to him in the Milliyet Song Contest which was held in Adana. We joined this contest with the song written by Evren and it was not a contest that we succeeded usually.
The pictures on the left and below is taken from the Milliyet Song Contest attended by Echo '69. Ali Ipek was the vocal of this group (on the left), and the picture near it shows Haldun Emrealp who was the bas guitar player of the group. |
| Ayhan Sicimoglu (below) was playing guitar in Echo '69 whereas Vecdi Giray (on the right) was playing guitar in the group. As I've heard, Ayhan Abi continued to succeed in his music life later. In the 1st century ceremony, Ayhan Abi and his friends showed us what meaned acid rock. Maybe with the joy of coming back to TAC, Ayhan Abi forced his drum to make it louder; consequently, he ended the concert with a broken bell. In my opinion, Vecdi Abi looks like George Harrison on the picture on the right. I'm sure that they were impressed by the Beatles. Ayhan and Osman Abi were in the 1st century concert too, and I remember that Baler played bass guitar for them. By the way, some names and dates may be mistaken, because I gathered them part by part. If you know something in here is mistaken, let me know. |
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The second oldest group which came to the 1st century concert was Echo '72: Mustafa Emre (flute), Alp Bekisoglu (rhythm/solo), Adil Oykan (bass), Ugur Cinar (drums) ve Refik Kutluer (flute/org). Alp Abi mentioned that he was proud of being a member of the first school-established band 'Colors'.The group was set up with Alp Bekisoglu (rhythm), Levent Baykal (bass), Ugur Cinar (drums) ve Mehmet Cagis (solo)'dan kurulmustu.
Evren Madran's name is very significant for Echo; therefore, I have to mention about him. His contributions helped to create new groups and make new organizations in the school. The picture on the left was taken while Evren was composing in a concert in Izmir American College. |
Mavi Sakal was established by the members of Echo '83 (Murat Abi was grade 11 when I was prep; therefore, they should be the Echo of '83). Murat Tumer (drums), Kaan Altan (guitar), Tibet Agirtan (guitar, vocals) Cevdet Tosyali (vocals), Ozan Akca, (flute), Emin Ersoy (bass guitar) continued their music career in Istanbul except Cevdet Abi and Ozan Abi. The group changed sometimes as the years passed by. The band published their first album, Cektir Git, on 1992 and their second album, Mavi Sakal 2, on 1993. They published their third album on 1997: "Mavi Sakal 97: Iki Yol" Mavi Sakal gave two concerts in Wembley Stadium in England last december, as a subgroup of Status Quo. |
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"Cektir Git" album of Mavi Sakal had rock melodies; I don't know if their style changed later. The group has their own website; you can have a look if you are interested. The picture above is taken from their webpage, and it shows the group in their high school years. I guess this picture was taken on the scene of the Stickler Building. The one on the middle is Scott Andersen.
Echo 96 added the songs of old Echoes up and created a new CD. The front and back covers are just like it can be seen on the left. You have to buy the CD if you are interested about its contents. Maybe a song written by the Echo of your class is in the album; have a look. |
Prepared by: Cuneyt Altinoz (TAC '89)
Translated by: Emir Aydin (TAC '10) |
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