Ayub Bachchu (; 16 August 1962 – 18 October 2018) was a Bangladeshi rock guitarist, composer, singer and songwriter, who was the founder of the Bangladeshi rock band LRB and earned success as the lead singer and the lead guitarist of the band. He is considered as one of the greatest singers of all time in Bangladesh and a pop culture icon He was one of the pioneers of Bangladeshi pop music.
Born in Patiya, Bachchu came to Chittagong with his family in the early 1970s. His first band name was "Spider" (Which is the first band of Chittagong city). He joined a band named "Spider" in 1974. He played with "Spider" band as a main lead guitarist from year 1974 to 1977. Than he formed his first band "Ugly Boys" in 1977, while studying in high school and joined rock band Feelings (Now known as Nagar Baul) as the guitarist the same year. He played in the band from 1977 to 1980. In 1980, he joined the band Souls where he played for ten years and appeared in four studio albums including Super Souls (1982), College Er Corridore (1985), Manush Matir Kachakachi (1987) and East and West (1988). In 1991, he left the band to form his own band LRB, where he was the vocalist and guitarist for 27 years, until his death in 2018. He released the first ever double album: LRB I and LRB II in 1992, with the band. LRB's third studio album was Shukh, which featured "Cholo Bodle Jai", one of the greatest rock songs in Bangladesh. He also received great success as a solo artist. His first solo album Rokto Golap was released in September 1986. He got his breakthrough by releasing albums like Moyna (1988) and Koshto (1995) which received great success. He released only one instrumental rock album in his career: Sound of Silence (2007), which is the first ever instrumental album in Bangladesh. He has also worked in several movie songs, some of them are Anutopto (1993), Loottoraj (1997), Mon (1997) and Ammajan (1999).
Ayub Bachchu's debut song, "Harano Bikeler Golpo" was written by renowned lyricist Shahid Mahmud Jangi. LRB's debut song "Ekdin Ghum Bhanga Shohore" was also written by renowned lyricist Shahid Mahmud Jangi which was the first released song of LRB.Bachchu released several best selling-albums with LRB, and as a solo performer. He has won a record six Meril Prothom Alo Awards, one Citycell-Channel I Music Award with LRB and won the Bachsas Awards in the Best Male Vocal category in 2004. In 2017, he won the Tele Cine Lifetime Achievement Award.
In October 2018, Bachchu died of cardiac failure in his own residence in Dhaka, six years after suffering from a lung ailment. He gave his last performance in Rangpur City two days before his death. He was buried in Chaitanya Goli in Chittagong, beside his mother's grave.
Early life
Bachchu was born in Chittagong in Patiya at Khorna union on 16 August 1962 to Mohammad Ishaque Chowdhury (father) and Nurjahan Begum (mother). The family moved to the Chittagong city after the Liberation War of Bangladesh. They resided in Jubilee Road. He had two brothers. He was the eldest among them. His nickname was Robin. He got his first acoustic guitar from his father as a gift in 1973, when he was in class six. He learned to play guitar from Jacob Dias (the founder of "Spider" band), who used to live in Chittagong. "Spider" band is the first band of Chittagong. From 1974 to 1977 he was playing guitar in Spider band and then he made his own band Ugly Boyz. He borrowed an electric guitar from his friend, Kumar Bishwajit, which was a Teisco Guitar. Bishwajit gave him the guitar after he [Bachchu] showed more interest towards it. He was very attracted to the guitar playing techniques of Jimi Hendrix and Joe Satriani. He was admitted to Government Muslim High School in 1975. In 1979, he graduated from Muslim High School. His parents did not support him on becoming a musician. But, after his family saw his passion for rock music, they agreed on letting him become a musician. While studying in high school, Bachchu formed a band named "Golden Boys", which was later renamed as "Ugly Boys". Kumar Bishwajit was the lead singer of the band and Bachchu was the guitarist. They used to do club shows and shows in weddings (Mostly in the Patiya Upazilla). The group disbanded after Bachchu joined Souls in 1980.