The Official

In 1997, Hasnol (guitar) and Congo (bass) decided to form a band. Short of a drummer, Hasnol invited Bum to fill in on the drums and shortly after that Hasnol called on Magoo to be the voice of the band. At the time, both Magoo and Bum had other commitments. Magoo was still with his band Invidious while Bum was playing with Lollypop. Both Invidious and Lollypop collapsed and that caused both Magoo and Bum to give their all to The Official.The four of them started to work hard for a month until they decided that they were ready to hit the recording studio. The Official recorded 5 songs for Strange Culture Records (now known as Clockwork Records). Their first EP JB Riot Skins was born. The EP received outstanding reception from all over the Peninsula including Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore. This was an great achievement. But this was only the start. About a year later, armed with newer and better music, The Official produced their first album entitled Remember Yesterday. Their music was a far cry from what it had been on their first EP. All of them had been practicing hard and the hard work paid off when the album emerged with tight guitar sounds, unforgettable bass lines and catchy lyrics. Songs like My Land, Proud To Be Malaysian and Remember Our Roots became instant favorites with the crowds at gigs. In late '99, Hasnol left the band and Sarah stepped in on guitars. They still managed to play at a couple of gigs despite their own commitments. They recorded their Live n' Loud album at the "This Is Oi!" gig in KL on the 11th Nov' 00. But problems with the recording caused the plans for the release of the Live n' Loud album to fall through. The Official lapsed into a period of silence in early 2001 because of personal reasons and commitments. However, after being constantly pestered by friends, Magoo and Sarah decided to make a comeback near the end of 2001. They recruited Amir on lead guitars, Rizal on drums and Azim on bass. After some time, they headed of to record The Officials' second EP entitled A tribute To JB Riot. After the release of their second EP, unforeseen problems forced Rizal and Azim to leave the band. The Official recorded their 2nd album You'll Never See The Last Of Us with the help of a close friend to cover on drums while Amir covered two tasks playing both bass and lead guitars. The Official is now a three-piece band relying on close friends for their contributions on drum and bass.