Norman (Najeh) Mallouk Biography

I was born in Tripoli, Lebanon on 22 July 1945. I come from a non-musical background and I bought my first guitar after I took a lesson at Amin Azar El Zehrieh Tripoli where I met a lot of musicians. I learned to play through the books. I met someone from Colombia who was visiting Australia and by pure luck was a top guitarist. We became very good friends and I learned from him many new styles such as bolero-waltz- quapango -strumming with all fingers to be able to sing along professionally like Besame-Malaguena etc. This was a good start for me as it was not known to many. 

I formed a new band cerca 1966 made up of a four piece band. My band members were Hasan Su on drums, Elie Akkawi on sax and Samir Hayat on bass and myself as vocal and guitar. We worked in El Haddad all summer in Hotel Barakat. There are two photos of two different groups in a song called (hier encore) on youtube and there is a photo of me playing my goodwin guitar-Organ. In the first photo in the video you see Raymond Abi Arraj on drums, Samir Hayek on bass, Zuhair on guitar, Morris Nahlous on guitar and myself doing the singing. I sang of my composition twice on TV with abusalim el tabl insa hmumack the other at the same program after a lady sang- if i had a hammer in arabic

Prior to coming to Australia I learnt hair dressing as a back up in case I was not successful with a music career. I was lucky enough to have someone offer me their salon with all the accessories included. 

After arriving in Australia on 10 October 1969 I worked as a process worker in Namco for 8 months doing 10 -12 hour days which was extremely difficult due to my very limited English. 

I formed a five piece band which was the first arabic band in sydney. We worked in Mirabel in York St, Capriccio on Oxford Street. At our time in Capriccio there was a break in and all our instruments were stolen. It was a rough place to work at as it was a striptease show every night. We also did a special concert in redfern Maronite Church. In one of the concert While singing Ya mon Cher Quesque Nous Allons Faire ? a fight broke out and chairs were thrown every where. Before this episode we worked for Uncle Tony in Beamish St Campsie. I sang in french, english, italian, spanish. At this time our band consisted of our drummer, Joseph Greige, Morris Nahlous on bass , Joseph Nahlous on keyboard Nazih Sorial on guitar and myself on vocals and guitar. At the time we were living in Dulwich Hill. I formed another band we worked at Chez Paul Restaurant in Parramatta where our instruments were burnt. Included A brand new organ that was to Jhon Sieffs My organist player Also We Worked In Roi Rouge restaurant in redfern

I met with two Spanish musicians who were seeking a guitarist and singer to start working in a spanish club in Liverpool St Sydney. They came to my house and one of them asked me to sing a spanish song while strumming a guitar. He was very impressed and asked me to start the job the following week. This was the beginning of a successful life and years of joy, experiences and discovery. 

In the year 1974 in Lebanon i spent all summer working in El Hadad-Hasroun Hotel in Syr El Kabir with Roger Bendali, Fawaz ElYafi, Tony Abu Dib and Roger Kayruz. I was also a music teacher to Iskandar Hadhity who was a great student along with Samir Hayek who went on and became top bass player 

In sydney i had a job in Telecom in St Peters as a process worker. I got an examiner position in Concord West in a quality control room inspecting goods and materials at the arrival and the departure of all products done in the sections of the workshop. After clocking off I would go straight to  donquixote restaurant to start the show and won’t finish until after midnight. 

After spanish club the owners of capitan torres and donquixote restaurant gave us a job to work in two restaurants on Friday and Saturday nights and i had to entertain the rest of the week at donquixote restaurant until 1976.  The manager asked me to take over 6 nights a week as s one man band. At this time it was very unique and I was the first in Australia with complete orchestra like 5 piece band. It was the beginning of new adventure. I had previously attended a greek restaurant where there were two musicians, a man and a woman playing keyboard and guitar. I asked myself if i can do this by myself and after much practice i worked it out. Using the first roland electronic drums I had the latest in the market back then. I had a Goodwin guitar, organ lesley, bass pedal, modules etc. I was also playing in Gigetto in Crown St whilst playing at donquixote in Albion Place. I continued working there even after they moved to Kent Street and until they closed down. I was able to play the guitar and keyboard at the same time using both hands and both feet whilst singing as well. I got old recorded tracks like- la vie en rose-south of the border-tel3et ya mahla nourha- and normans at donquixote( all instrumental) - they are on youtube but I had to fix up the audio that was recorded on a cassette tape. 

On 17 April 1995 I composed a sound track to a local movie called shifting sands that was showing in the cinema in the city. 

A new chapter in my life was when I worked in an arabic restaurant called  Christina-Bertani-and Sahara occasionally. I also became a partner with Sief’s Music importing general music keyboard modules+ws1 and we became the importer First To Genaral Music Then to ketron keyboard.I was also responsible for the repair work.I was applauded 4 yeas ago on youtube in 5 languages first (Besame Mucho  last (ya shi3bi el habib).  Lastly  i improve and repair any recorded songs on cd- wav file and modify and enhance the sound and singing. 

Four years ago I began creating my own music videos to my songs.