Fossils | The Pioneer of Bangla Rock Band

Fossils is an Indian Rock Band, formed in West Bengal, India. Fossils were created back in 1998 when the Bangla Rock band was coming into the scene. It is considered one of the initial rock bands of Bengal. Their music is flavoured by a blend of blues, and rock.

Formation

Rupam Islam formed Fossils, who is also the lead vocalist of the band. They performed their first stage show in 1999 at Nazrul Mancha. On the same day, Rupam Islam announced the name of the brand. They initially did not get a very encouraging audience. They had to go through hostile objections to rock music. Although their music was not accepted by the audience, still they decided to stick with the band. Slowly, people started loving the rock genre and hence the band was established.

Career

They also had to go through a lot of rejection from several record houses. But soon in the same year, they launched a contract with Asha Audio. And by the end of the year, their first recording for the album began. The album released in 2002 and gradually it gained popularity with time. 

In 2004 they released their second album and it was the highest budget Bengali band album. ‘Thums up’ party sponsored it. The band started gaining popularity. 

In 2006 they released their third album ‘Mission F’. Their 5th album released in 2009, it was a concept album named ‘Fossils 3’. Mayookh Bhowmick, Indrajit Dey and a team from the Kolkata music academy chamber orchestra were guest contributors to the album.

Fossils’ official fan club ‘Fossils Force’, launched in 2009 on the occasion of the band’s tenth anniversary. Fossils engaged in activities such as blood donation, and social welfare. They also contributed to the people affected by Cyclone Aila. They also did a tour in the United Kingdom and Bangalore the same year. In 201, they did a tour in the United States. In 2011, they visited Bangladesh for the third time. Fossils Las Vegas, United States of America performance became a massive hit.

Their sixth album released in City Centre II, Kolkata in the year 2013. For the first time, they released they launched it on an online streaming platform before the physical release. In 2017 the seventh album released ‘Fossils 5’ with 4 songs. Fossils released their 8th album in 2019 with three songs.

Members

Fossils currently have Rupam Islam as the lead vocalist, Deep Ghosh as the rhythm guitarist, Allan Temjen Ao as the lead guitarist, Tanmoy Das as the drummer and Prasenjit ‘Pom’ Chakraborty as the bass guitarist

Achievements and Awards

According to Radio Mirchi, ‘Mission F’ became the best-selling album in Kolkata in the year 2006. The Rolling Stones India magazine featured Fossils in 2008. ‘Fossils 3’ won in the Best Non-Film Album category of the Anandalok Awards 2009. Published by Ananda Publishers, and written by Rupam Islam, “Rupam on the rocks”, launched at the Kolkata Book Fair. In 2010, Rupam Islam won a National Film Award in the Best Playback singer category for the film Mahanagar@Kolkata.

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