Final countdown

The sitting room of Aroom Studio in Sham Shui Po is just big enough to hold seven of the nine members of Hong Kong band LMF, although not everyone can sit. They offer their guest a stool in the shape of an oversized dice.

Someone mutes the flat screen television, which is tuned to a Taiwanese telethon in support of the survivors of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. No one is smoking. Now and then someone gets up so another person can sit down on the denim couch.

Present: Prodip, MC Yan, Kit, Phat, DJ Tommy, Jimmy and Davy, who runs Aroom. Absent: Wah and Kevin.

A photo shoot has just wrapped up, and Prodip (the band's bassist, graphic designer and leader) asks the photographer if he would like a poster (which he designed), and inquires whether the reporter would like something to drink. The other members sip iced tea from plastic takeaway containers, refuelling after a long day. It's a Friday night, and the musicians have gathered to talk about their last-ever concert together, which takes place on Friday at Kitec's Star Hall in Kowloon Bay.

The event marks the end of a five-album, 20-year journey for LMF (the acronym stands for Lazy Mutha F***a), whose ethos served as a much-needed counterpoint to commercial Canto-pop. 'The band started in about 1991 or 92, when we were putting on underground shows,' says Prodip. 'There were about five or six bands on each bill. Near the end of the night, members from different bands would come together to jam. And that's how LMF came together.'

In the beginning, they were a loose community, with musicians coming and going, including actor Sam Lee (Made in Hong Kong, Dog Bite Dog). Though LMF's roots were in Hong Kong's underground band scene, over time with the additions of emcees Kit and Phat, MC Yan and DJ Tommy (who placed second in the 1996 Technics world DJ championships) they began to fuse rock and metal with hip hop. 'Our style hasn't changed that much over time because we never paid attention to the mass market,' says Davy.