Very few artists in Bangladesh have spent their entire life in music and achieved tremendous success, Sheikh Monirul Alam Tipu is certainly one of them.
Tipu is widely popular among fans as the drummer and band leader of legendary rock band Warfaze. But beside that, he is also renowned as percussionist, lyricist, producer, rhythm composer etc.
Born in 1970, Tipu’s influence for music in his early days came from his family. His eldest brother was a Hawaiian guitar player and his other elder brother was a sportsman. His elder sister was a Rabindra and Nazrul sangeet singer and his youngest sister was a classical dancer.
Tipu’s first instrument was Tabla and he started to play it at only six years of age. Before playing drums, he even used to play Conga, Bongo, Timbale and various other percussion instruments.
He later started playing drums in 1981. He was self-taught.
Tipu passed his matriculation exam in 1985 and attended high school at Notre Dame College, Dhaka. That period was a crucial part of Tipu’s music career as he met quite a few young and talented people during his College days. From his friend circles bands like Rockstrata, Warfaze, In Dhaka, and Aces were formed. These four bands are often considered as the pioneer force to start heavy metal genre of music in Bangladesh music industry during mid 80s or early 90s.
Also read: Warfaze fifth in Top 10 Hard Rock Bands around the world
Tipu’s journey with Warfaze began in early 1986 as a drummer, co-founder and his college friend Kamal (Ibrahim Ahmed Kamal) was already at the band at that time as one of the founder member. Tipu and Kamal, these two eventually became the pillar of Warfaze over the decades and established themselves as legends in rock music scene of Bangladesh.
Initially Warfaze mainly performed heavy metal English cover numbers in late 80s. After adjusting their line-up, Warfaze produced their debut album in 1991 and later it was established as one of the best albums in Bangladesh band music.
Tipu took the leadership of Warfaze in 1994 and in that same year, Warfaze released their second studio album Obak Bhalobasha.
Till date, Warfaze have produced eight studio albums over their 36 years’ history and Tipu has been one of the integral part of Warfaze’s success.
Warfaze's Album Oshamajik was released in 1998. After release we headed towards Music Vdo of Oshamajik & Nei Proyojon....
Posted by Sheikh Monirul Alam Tipu on Wednesday, May 13, 2020
Warfaze had many ups and downs regarding major changes in lineups in numerous occasions, but Tipu held the band together against all odds and thus, it became one of the most successful rock bands in Bangladesh music industry.
Apart from Warfaze, Tipu was also actively involved as a drummer in another legendary band during 90s era, Winning. Tipu was part of Winning’s two studio albums, Winning and Ochena Shohor, which were released in 1991 and 1995.
While Warfaze played hard rock, progressive rock and heavy metal, Winning was pure melody and a combination of soft or mellow rock. Tipu was part of both these different projects, Warfaze and Winning, and became successful with both the bands.
UAE Tour - Winning (1995)
— Sheikh Monirul Alam (Tipu) (@tipu_alam) June 17, 2020
Lineup :
From left -
Sheikh Monirul Alam Tipu (Drums & Percussion)
Late Imran Ahmed Chowdhury Mobin (Bass)
Biplob Ashraf (Keyboard)
Zaman Ali Chandan (Lead Guitar & Vocal)#Winning #UAETour1995 #UAE #SheikhMonirulAlamTipu #BangladeshiBandMusic pic.twitter.com/Eu9osdYU3P
There were few occasions where both Warfaze and Winning hit the stage in the same concert. In those cases, Tipu had to play with both the bands, which created much hype about him during the 90s.
Although Tipu is mostly famous with Warfaze and Winning, he also worked with Pentagon, which has a very different genre of music as they usually play percussive & Latin music. Tipu joined Pentagon in 1999 and played as a percussionist. He played in two studio albums for Pentagon, Shei Ami and 8 o’clock.
Tipu also worked in various other projects or albums as drummer, percussionist, rhythm composer or producer with many bands or solo artists in his illustrious career like Niloy Das, Different Touch, Renaissance, Mehreen, Shahed, Pothik Nobi, Chandan (Winning), Selim Reza etc.
Tipu was also involved as a managing partner and production director of Ektaar Music from 2001 to 2006. During that time Ektaar, a Bangladeshi record label based in Dhaka, have worked and produced albums with several bands like Warfaze (Moharaj album), Bangla, Pentagon, Renaissance or solo artists like Arnob, Habib Wahid, Hider Hossain etc.
Presently Tipu is the General Secretary of Bangladesh Musical Bands’ Association (Bamba) since 2005.
At the age of 50, Tipu is still going strong with Warfaze, performing in regular concerts and working on their upcoming album. Tipu is also actively working with Bamba to establish various rights for musicians including solving copyrights issues.
Fans can hope Tipu will carry on his brilliant journey in the music industry and continue bringing positive changes in the Bangladeshi music scene in years to come.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Sheikh Tipu (@sheikh.tipu) on Oct 8, 2020 at 5:29am PDT
FactBox
Name: Sheikh Monirul Alam Tipu
Music career:
Warfaze: Drummer, Band leader (1986- Present)
Albums : Warfaze (1991), Obak Bhalobasha (1994), Jibondhara 1996, Oshamajik (1998), Aalo (2000), Moharaj (2003), Pothchola (2009), Shotto (2012)
Winning: Drummer & Percussionist (1988-98)
Albums : Winning (1991(, Ochena Shohor (1995)
Pentagon: Percussionist (1999-2009, 2019- Present)
Albums : Shei Ami (2002), 8 o’clock (2009)
Influences :
Home : Shahbaz Khan Pilu from Renaissance, Ahsan Elahi Fanty (Nagar Baul, Feelings)
Abroad: Ian Anderson Paice from Deep Purple, Neil Peart from Rush, Steve Gadd etc
Trivia:
* Started playing Tabla as the first instrument at the age of 6.
* Participated in Notun kuri as a solo instrumentalist (Tabla) and received nominations
* Started playing drums in 1981 and learned by himself
* First played drums professionally at a programme in BTV with ‘Bishforon Musical group’
* Before joining Warfaze, Tipu played with two bands named ‘Stars’ and ‘Scorcher’ and also played in various musical groups.
* Played with Azam Khan in his band 'Uchcharan’ as a drummer during 1985-86
* Worked in the album of Late Niloy Das titled as ‘Kotoje Khujecchi Tomaye’
* Worked in albums with bands like Different Touch (1989), Renaissance (2004) or solo artists like Mehreen (2000), Shahed (2002), Pothik Nobi (2002) etc.
* At present, Tipu (Warfaze) is a Child Rights Advocate of UNICEF Bangladesh
