{"id":10532,"date":"2015-12-17T13:36:23","date_gmt":"2015-12-17T13:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2015\/12\/17\/sam-sagoo-a-tribute\/"},"modified":"2016-01-18T10:27:42","modified_gmt":"2016-01-18T10:27:42","slug":"sam-sagoo-a-tribute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2015\/12\/17\/sam-sagoo-a-tribute\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Sagoo – A Tribute"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Saminder (Sam) Sagoo, one of the most popular Asian radio presenters in UK sadly passed away on Saturday, the 5th of December.\u00a0 The funeral was on Wednesday, the 16th of December.\u00a0 Apart from the family and friends, Sam Sagoo has left millions of fans and well wishers all over the world.<\/p>\n

Sam Sagoo was a legend in his lifetime with respect to the knowledge and possession of Bollywood film music of the Golden era.\u00a0 The songs you couldn\u2019t get anywhere either on the electronic media or even in the shops, you could hear on Sam Sagoo\u2019s programme, \u201cBhuli Bisri Yaadein\u201d (old memories).\u00a0 There was not a song, which Sam Sagoo couldn\u2019t play for his listeners on his programme.<\/p>\n

Sam Sagoo came from Africa to UK and he said he only brought his music collection with him.\u00a0 He was proud of his music collection and he treasured and shared it.<\/p>\n

In recent times, \u201cBhooli Bisri Yaadein\u201d<\/span> was broadcast twice a week on Friday and Sunday respectively from 8:00 to 10:00 pm on Radio XL, a Birmingham based Asian radio station.\u00a0 The presenter was none other than one of the longest serving and the most popular presenters of Radio XL, Sam Sagoo ji.\u00a0 On Sundays, Sam ji was helped by the wonderful Davinder, who took listeners\u2019 phone calls and messages.<\/p>\n

The programme featured Bollywood film music right from 1940s (sometimes even 1930s).\u00a0 It included listeners\u2019 request (\u2018farmaishi\u2019) songs, their messages and dedications.\u00a0 Listeners could speak to the presenters off air and could contact them by email, text or letter. Sam ji mentioned every message and responded to them.\u00a0 He noted down their song requests and fulfilled them in the forthcoming programmes as he used to prepare his programme in advance.\u00a0\u00a0 But he did dedicate song or songs to those who contacted him that day or were simply the regular listeners and could not make up that day. He used to wonder why they could not contact him. His listeners were spread all over the world.<\/p>\n

To create a truly nostalgic atmosphere, Sam Sagoo\u2019s programme featured a horse carriage (tonga) on which listeners used to book their seats and there was a doctor on duty from amongst the listeners to take care of any casualties.\u00a0 Sadly on 16th December, San Sagoo could not book seats on his famous tonga for his listeners, who used to queue up for the same.\u00a0 On the contrary, it was his funeral which was carried in the tonga.\u00a0 The horses were in mourning and so were the drivers of the carriage.\u00a0 Following the tonga were the cars and a full coach of Sam ji\u2019s family members, friends, admirers and fans.\u00a0 \u00a0The carriage stopped by his music shop so that Sam Sagoo could pay his last farewell to his most cherished and ambitious vocation, his eternal love, music.<\/p>\n

\"_87225859_bally\"
Bally Sagoo with his father Saminder Sagoo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Coming back to the programme, one of its regular features was \u201cDard ki Surgery\u201d (pain surgery), in which sad songs were played and it started with a song by \u201cSurun ki Dev1\u201d (queen of melodies), as Sam ji used to say, Lata Mangeshkar.\u00a0 After 9:00 pm it was the silver screen time, i.e., the songs were played from the black and white movies.\u00a0 The programme regularly featured the film songs composed in classical music as well as the non-film classical numbers like the raags sung by the master classical singers of the likes of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan.\u00a0 \u00a0Great singers of the yester years, K.L. Saigal and C.H. Atma too were regularly featured and listeners made requests for their songs.<\/p>\n

Full information was given about all the songs played \/ Apart form the singer\/s and the film, information was provided about the year the film was released, music director and the poet of the song as well.\u00a0 In most of the cases, detailed information was given on the aspects surrounding a song, such as, the actors it as filmed on, the history of the making of that film, etc. Sam Sagoo ji had a wealth of knowledge which he shared with his listeners.\u00a0 He used to say he had only one \u2018vice\u2019 during his childhood: to watch the movies, that \u2018vice\u2019 was the only deed which was serving him now.<\/p>\n

Once a month, Sam Sagoo played the songs he liked, which were based on a theme or word, etc.\u00a0 Once he played the songs sung by Lata Mangeshkar composed in classical music.\u00a0 Another monthly feature was \u201cSaaz aur Awaz\u201d (songs in vocal and instruments).\u00a0 That was also very popular with listeners, who used to miss it if it didn\u2019t feature in a particular month.\u00a0 In this feature, first a song was played instrumentally and Sam Sagoo ji used to tell which instruments were used and then the original vocals of the song were played.<\/p>\n

In the programme intervals, classic old theme music of popular Radio Ceylon was played.\u00a0 So the programme really took its listeners to the Golden era of film music and to their memories as Sam Sagoo ji advised them, \u201cYadon mein kho eeee jain\u201d (get immersed in your memories).\u00a0 Actually one of the regular listeners confirmed the same when she shared her memory on Radio XL about \u201cBhooli Bisri Yaadein\u201d.\u00a0 In a tearful voice she said she used to create a romantic and nostaligic atmosphere by turning off the lights and lighting candles to listen to the programme.<\/p>\n

\"samsagoo001\"Sometime back he had started to narrate, once a week, the history of Bollywood film industry and especially the music right from the start of the industry and after taking through the early years had entered the 40s era.<\/p>\n

Apart from entertainment, Sagoo\u2019s \u201cBhuli Bisri Yaadein\u201d also served the social and humanitarian causes.\u00a0 In 2010, the programme raised money for the floods affected people in Pakistan.\u00a0 Most recently it managed to raise on the same pattern, money for Nepal Disaster fund.<\/p>\n

The procedure was that listeners put their money (minimum \u00a33 on a song) on a song or songs selected by Sam Sagoo.\u00a0 There were thirty songs and Sam said he selected those on the basis of listeners\u2019 requests over the years.\u00a0 Then based on the money pledged, the songs were rated from 30-1.\u00a0 The Nepal Disaster Fund programme was spread on three Sundays featuring 10 songs each.<\/p>\n

The songs were played from 30 onwards and names of those who pledged money for that song were read out. \u00a0The amount they pledged individually was not mentioned, but the total money pledged on that song was revealed.\u00a0 The programme was a hit and listeners showed great interest.\u00a0 Everybody was waiting anxiously to know the number one song.<\/p>\n

At last after an impatient wait the Number One song was announced and it was a hit form the 1946 Movie \u201cAnmol Ghadi\u201d.\u00a0 Sung by Noor Jahan and Surendra Nath, the song was written by Tanveer Naqvi and the Music Director was the all time great, Naushad Ali.\u00a0 I am sure everybody must have guessed the song by now: \u201cAwaz de kahan hei\u201d.\u00a0 The song received \u00a3464 and one listener actually put all her \u00a3200 + (if my memory serves me right) on that song.\u00a0 Of course Sam Sagoo only said this listener has pledged all her money on one song, so somehow it was revealed she put her money on that song.\u00a0 After the hard work of Sam Sagoo ji, the total money this programme managed to raise was \u00a32294.<\/p>\n

Apart from \u201cBhooli Bisri Yaadein\u201d, Sam also presented a Punjabi programme on Tuesday night on Radio XL and said in that programme too mainly the old songs were played.<\/p>\n

As said above, Sam Sagoo ji had a huge fan base. Apart from UK, fans listened to his programme in Africa, Canada, USA, Pakistan, India, Australia and many others far flung places.\u00a0 He was truly a global music icon. RIP, Sam Sagoo ji.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saminder (Sam) Sagoo, one of the most popular Asian radio presenters in UK sadly passed away on Saturday, the 5th of December.\u00a0 The funeral was on Wednesday, the 16th of December.\u00a0 Apart from the family and friends, Sam Sagoo has left millions of fans and well wishers all over the world. Sam Sagoo was a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-desixpress","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}