FFF... 20 years down the line!

U might want to read this before going any further!

Rolling Stone
December, 2025

The return of five funkmen!

Ever since their first concert Fuel For Fantasy (more popularly known as FFF) had come a long way. 14 albums and over 50 hit singles (including the largely popular ‘Epiphany’) the band had reached success they had never known before. From their first album “Our first rock album” to their last one “FFF: The unsung songs” these guys reached dizzying heights of success. In many ways they seemed to be the perfect formula for the success of any aspiring rock band. Consisting of friends who met each other in college, the band was put together largely due to the efforts of their bassist Golu. They more or less shared the same inspiration of music, played together locally for a couple of years covering many bands in the process and acquiring a style of their own along the way. Briefly separated after college for about 4 years to pursue their own academic interests, the band realized that they were destined to play music together during this time and quickly got back before turning pro. All the while bonded together with a friendship that seemed to surely last forever, in 2008 the rockers of the world stood up and noticed as FFF had arrived. The band enjoyed a string of successful albums and fans eagerly lapped up everything thrown their way from the FFF headquarters (even the abysmal solo effort by Golu proved to be a creative success). Yet…nothing lasts for ever and FFF was no exception. A cliché that surfaces time and again in rock bands, their rhythm guitarist G was rocked with a severe case of heroin addiction and went into rehab for a long time. The band had sworn not to play with anyone else thus stalling all future projects and waiting for G’s return. The wait didn’t turn out to be as simple as they had expected. It was during this time that their drummer Viral would reveal having an affair with Golu’s grad school sweetheart turned wife. This severely cut off Golu’s rapport with Viral and his further involvement in the band. Golu was undoubtedly one of the creative forces of FFF and his distance was a serious impediment. There were other problems too. Sidney (the lead guitarist) proved to be a “dominating bastard” (words used by Golu himself in the December 2010 issue of the “Rolling Stone”) There was a difference in opinion regarding an opening act for rock legends ‘Metallica’. Golu wanted to do it and Sidney did not. To make matters worse their front man Zubin was struggling with a few personal problems of his own. G, after his return to FFF echoed every fan’s feelings when he said, “I never thought I would be returning to a band that would end up doing much worse than when one their guitarists turns out to be a drug-addict”. Somehow they managed one last tour with a replacement drummer as no one in the band was on amicable terms with Viral. FFF for the first time had performed with a lineup different from what it was 20 years ago. The tour was a failure drawing only the hardcore fans. The FFF that people knew and loved seemed lost forever. Their fans prayed for a miracle.

And it came...in the form of G’s relapse to heroin addiction. Depressed by the current state of the band G took to drugs once again and this time found himself dangerously close to death. Convinced he was not going to make it, his last wishes were to play with FFF once again. For this the band put all its differences aside (which included a public apology by Viral) and started jamming again. That was all G needed. He hooked himself back to life with a new found vigour and FFF was back. Their comeback concert was aptly held in Mumbai, India to a crowd of over 50,000, the same place where they were first formed and first performed. Put together in only 2 weeks, the concert was a mess…..G smashed a few guitars, Zubin forgot his lyrics, Viral managed to punch a hole into his snare drum, Golu was rocked with bouts of nervousness and Sidney was just being Sidney. But the fans didn’t mind. They knew that FFF was back and here to stay for a long time!


Sam Etaro
Kick-ass Rock Journalist,
Big fan of FFF,
And part time drummer too. ;)

Disclaimer yada yada: In the above post the only thing that is real is FFF. Everything else is made up and I wrote it for fun. This shud defly not be seen as my view of the way things are going to turn out in the future! Although I wudnt be too shocked if Viral pulls off something like how it is described above :P

And just so things make sense to others too...FFF stands for Fuel For Fantasy...a college band comprising of:

Zubin Jacob(T.A.V): Vocals
Gurzada Pawankumar (G): Rhythm guitar
Sidney David Rosario (Sidney): Lead guitar
Dheeraj Singaraju (Golu, T.A.B):Bass guitar
Aviral Saini (Viral): Drums

who no longer play together as the band members are on different parts of the earth.