cucuan
09-02-2005, 01:58 PM
Toh Muda mentioned somewhere that 'Ah Lek' and gang used to play their guitars and sing at the pasar malam in Sitiawan. 'Ah Lek' is none other than Ong Seng Chee (the elder brother of Ong Seng Hee). He was then studying in the Convent. In those days pupils from the St Francis have to continue their secondary education across the road in the Convent. 'Ah Lek' played the lead guitar, Loh Mun Seng (another pupil from the Convent) played the bass guitar, Khoo Kian Chye (ACSian) playing the drums and myself doing the struming. We have a singer (Lee Yim Choy) also from the Convent who gyrate like elvis on stage.
When I told all that to my children they were quite shocked at what I did during my school days. But what shocked them most was when I told them that we have one guy going round to collect money so that we can pay for our supper after the 'show'. It was quite a novelty for the crowd then to see non-Malay boys singing English songs on stage. Well we collected about RM10-00 at each show and at that time that was enough for us to buy cokes, ice-kachang for everyone in our group. There were also helpers helping to cart the drum set, the guitars and self-made ampliers for the guitars.
To show our patriotism then, we always started off and ended our show by playing the 'Negara-Ku'.
In fact our four piece band graduated into playing in the two cinema halls in Sitiawan. One was known as the Sitiawan Talkies which had been torn down and replaced with the current Cathay cinema and the other one was in the Grand Cinema (opposite the post office) which also had been torn down and replaced with shop houses now. But unfortunately, we were not paid by the owners of the two cinemas probably they took advantage of us because they thought we very keen to play on stage. The Beatles were then the craze of the time but none of us were allowed to keep long hair.
Cucuan
When I told all that to my children they were quite shocked at what I did during my school days. But what shocked them most was when I told them that we have one guy going round to collect money so that we can pay for our supper after the 'show'. It was quite a novelty for the crowd then to see non-Malay boys singing English songs on stage. Well we collected about RM10-00 at each show and at that time that was enough for us to buy cokes, ice-kachang for everyone in our group. There were also helpers helping to cart the drum set, the guitars and self-made ampliers for the guitars.
To show our patriotism then, we always started off and ended our show by playing the 'Negara-Ku'.
In fact our four piece band graduated into playing in the two cinema halls in Sitiawan. One was known as the Sitiawan Talkies which had been torn down and replaced with the current Cathay cinema and the other one was in the Grand Cinema (opposite the post office) which also had been torn down and replaced with shop houses now. But unfortunately, we were not paid by the owners of the two cinemas probably they took advantage of us because they thought we very keen to play on stage. The Beatles were then the craze of the time but none of us were allowed to keep long hair.
Cucuan