Rose Iwanaga and the Avengers came from Kuching, capital of Sarawak in eastern Malaysia. Iwanaga is a Japanese name, but I don’t know anything of Rose’s background or how she came to be living in Sarawak.
Rose Iwanaga and the Avengers are credited as the first band from Malaysian Borneo to make an English-language recording. They are said to have made three EPs in total, but I have only ever seen this one, their debut, which I reckon was released in 1967. The Avengers were James Ong – rhythm guitar, Jimmy Ho – lead guitar, Peter Ho – bass, and Jalek Zula – drums.
James Ong (rhythm), Jimmy Ho (lead), Peter Ho (bass), Jalek Zula (drums), Rose Iwanaga
I love the liner notes description of Jalek Zula as a ‘violent’ drummer. This isn’t obvious from the recording, however, most of which is saccharine-sweet with huge doses of strings added into the mix. I wonder what the band might have sounded like when they played the small nightclubs of Kuching without all the accompaniment? Much better I am sure.
Too Young seems to be the song that most older Malaysians remember from this record, but my favourite is Please Tell Terry, which is a straight ahead pop song and the only one without the annoying strings or horns. This song and Say You’re Mine are credited to Adrian C. Tills. I have not been able to find out anything about Adrian and do not know whether these songs are cover versions or were written for the band. I have seen Adrian’s name on a record from a Singapore singer also, so perhaps he was a local.
What became of the Avengers is a mystery to me, but I have read that Rose was still performing in Kuching nightclubs until at least the late 1990s.
Rocky and Jacqueline on their wedding dayRocky Teoh Beng Hock was born in Taiping, Perak, Malaysia in 1946 and was killed in a car accident on 9 September 1990, the anniversary of Elvis Presley’s famous debut on the Ed Sullivan Show. The connection is significant as Rocky Teoh was renowned as ‘Malaysia’s First and Best Elvis Presley Impersonator’.
When I first heard of Rocky I was reminded of Anthony Burgess’s stories based on his experiences in Malaya in the late 1950s. In one of those stories four young small-town Malays, besotted with American rock ’n’ roll, spend their days sitting in cheap cafes practicing the English they have learnt from American films. Each day one of the four wears the uniform they bought cheaply from a hard-up British serviceman. Not an army uniform, rather a pair of drainpipe trousers, a serge jacket with a velvet collar and a string tie. I imagined that Rocky Teoh came from a similar background, but was surprised to learn that he came from a slightly later generation. When 19 year old Rocky cut his first record in 1965 other teenagers around the world were being swept along by Beatlemania, but Rocky Teoh dreamed of being Elvis Presley.
Rocky’s recording career was brief, from 1965 to 1967, but he is said to have released in that time two singles, twelve EPs and two LPs, but I haven’t seen all of these. Many of the songs Rocky recorded were ones that had been made famous by Presley previously, but he was not entirely an imitator as he sometimes used different arrangements and also recorded some of his own songs, such as his second release, Jacqueline, dedicated to his girlfriend, later his wife. The tune for Jacqueline is an adaptation of a Chinese popular song, a technique utilised by Rocky in some of his other compositions as well.
Rocky and his band toured throughout Malaysia and Singapore from 1965 to 1967 and also toured in Thailand in 1966, always playing to packed houses. Rocky certainly projects the image of a cool rocker on his record covers and I can imagine he spent considerable time in front of the mirror perfecting his smile-cum-sneer and Elvis-like stance. Many of Rocky’s old recordings have recently been re-issued on CD by the Rocky Teoh Fan Club. You can visit their website here: http://www.rockyteoh.com/ You can also see more photos of Rocky on this site.
History, photos and music submitted by Steven Farram.
Lilis Surjani (aka Suryani) was very popular in Indonesia and neighbouring countries from the early 1960s to the early 1970s. President Soekarno of Indonesia made life difficult for musicians and singers in the early to mid 1960s because he wanted to rid Indonesia of Western influences and wanted rock ’n’ roll to be outlawed. Lilis found herself in trouble in mid 1965 because of her stage attire, presentation and choice of songs.
In a newspaper article in August 1965 Lilis promised that she would no longer sing ‘Beatles-like’ songs and apologised for her previous ‘mistakes’. Lilis made her amends and produced a number of songs with an Indonesian nationalist theme that were more likely to be approved by the ruling regime. One of those songs is Pergi Perjuang (Depart Warrior), where Lilis is backed by guitarist Zaenal Arifin and his Zaenal Combo. This song is as about as close as you can get to rock ’n’ roll and not call it that. The song’s theme though is one that would have appealed to Soekarno with Lilis singing that she hopes the young warriors going to battle perform their duties as ‘defenders of the nation’ and return victorious.
This song reflects the fact that Indonesia and Malaysia were involved in an undeclared war from 1963 to 1966 as Soekarno viewed the newly created state of Malaysia as a British colonial plot and vowed to ‘crush’ it. Soekarno was particularly peeved that the former British colonies in northern Borneo had become part of Malaysia as the rest of the island was Indonesian territory. Indonesian troops carried out covert operations in north Borneo throughout the period, but were repulsed by Malaysian, British and Australian forces. Although Soekarno was sidelined politically in late 1965 the Crush Malaysia policy took a bit longer to wind back, but friendly relations between Indonesia and Malaysia had been fully restored by the late 1960s. What may seem surprising is that Pergi Perjuang was also released in Malaysia and seems to have been quite popular. It is the Malaysian release I feature here.
I also include Lilis’s post-Soekarno era song Perahu Bertolak (Ship Departs), probably from late 1966 or 1967, which has some good guitar work. This Malaysian release has no liner notes, but I have read that Lilis’s backing band here was Band Arulan led by Jarzuk Arifin.
Lilis Surjani went on to record numerous other songs in rock, pop and regional styles. She still performs regularly although she has been battling cancer for the last few years.
Lilis Surjani’s Pergi Perjuang is only one of many songs from Indonesia that relate to the conflict with Malaysia. There must have been songs made in Malaysia with the same theme, but I haven’t come across many.
One that I do have, however, is a good one. The song Bekalan Satria (Warrior Skills) by S. Mona Rita and the Kingstons from late 1965 or 1966 has the singer worrying that her soldier boyfriend (or husband) returns safely from the battlefield, but that he does his duty as ‘defender of the nation’. The nationalist theme is continued cryptically in the song Buat Tatapan (Observation) as the singer complains about a cheating lover and laments that she had ever forgotten her responsibilities to the homeland. What does it mean? I don’t know.
The Kingstons were Ungku Safian – Lead Guitar, Mokhtar – Rhythm Guitar, Rahman – Bass, Ungku Fadzil – Organ, and Kamar Dean – Drums.S. Mona Rita is a good singer and the vocal is mixed very high in the mix. The Kingstons are more than competent and add many flourishes to the sound. Buat Tatapan has an unusual drum and organ interlude towards the end that at first hearing doesn’t seem to belong there, but presumably it is meant to reflect S. Mona Rita’s thoughts that ‘love is false’. The other two songs on the EP are good too, but are slower and much more subdued.
Nancy Sit (aka Nancy Sit Ka Yin) was born in Hong Kong in 1950 and is today well-known in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore as an actress who has starred in many popular films and television serials since the mid 1990s. She also hosts a popular radio show in Hong Kong. Older fans may remember that Nancy begun her career as a child actress at the age of nine and appeared in many films until the 1980s, when she retired from the entertainment industry. She returned to the screen after divorcing her businessman husband, who apparently left her and their three children to go with another woman.
Others may know Nancy from her mid to late 1960s career as a singer of A Go Go music (aka Hala Hala). Four of Nancy’s songs appeared on the Girls In The Garage Oriental Special compilation album: Love Potion No. 9, Hanky Panky (both in Chinese, but presented here in English-language versions), Come Back When You Grow Up and Fever. The liner notes to that album made much of the spelling mistakes that appeared on the covers of the original records and the fact that many of the female singers did cover versions of songs originally sung by men, but did not change the lyrics to reflect the change in gender of the singer. Both of these things can be found on the records presented here, but even more so. In the printed lyrics for Love Potion No. 9 the cop Nancy kisses on Thirty-Fourth and Vine has also been made a woman! On the other hand, the printed lyrics for Hanky Panky are the original ones, with ‘a pretty little girl standing all alone’ and a boy asking can he take her home, but Nancy sings about seeing a boy and asking him to take her home, ands adds ‘I didn’t have to tell him what to do’.
Nancy covered some great songs in the 1960s and her records are a lot of fun. Her backing bands seem pretty competent for this type of music as well. On her Hala Hala A’ Go Go EP on Squirrel Records she sings Wooly Bully, Hang On Sloopy (with a great little scream near the end), Love Potion No. 9 and Shakin’ All Over. The same songs appear on a Silver Horse EP, but with a different cover. The Squirrel record is from Singapore, and I am not certain, but think the other one is from Hong Kong. On her I’m A Believer EP Nancy tackles the title track, and Hanky Panky, Hippy Hippy Shake and Pretty Flamingo. All good stuff. I also include here a song from one of Nancy’s Chinese-language EPs. The songs on this record are not A Go Go, but popular Chinese songs, although judging from the photos of Nancy on the cover they were also meant for dancing. I can’t understand what Nancy is singing about here, but I get the impression that as great as her English-language A Go Go songs are, her voice may well have been better suited to singing in Chinese.
Dara Puspita, Jang Pertama, Mesra Records, Jakarta, 1966
Dara Puspita (Flower Girls) was Indonesia’s most successful girl band of the 1960s. While there were many popular female vocalists in Indonesia at that time, they nearly all relied on the services of a backing band. Dara Puspita was one of the few girl groups who actually played all their own music as well.
Dara Puspita hailed from the city of Surabaya in East Java and first formed in 1964 with the line-up of sisters Titiek Adji Rachman (Titiek A.R.) on guitar and Lies Soetisnowati Adji Rachman (Lies A.R.) on bass, along with Susy Nander on drums and Ani Kusuma on rhythm guitar. In April 1965 Lies left the band for a month to finish school and was replaced on bass by Titiek Hamzah. When Lies returned she took the place of Ani on rhythm guitar and Titiek Hamzah stayed on as bass player. It was with this line-up that the band set out to conquer the world.
In 1965 the band relocated to Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, and soon gained a reputation as a sensational live act, bashing away on their instruments, screaming out their songs and jumping up and down. Even though it was often hard to hear the songs through all the mayhem, audiences thought it was great and often joined the band to dance around on the stage.
The band’s stage act and the songs they played were clearly influenced by contemporary British bands such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, whose music at the time was banned in Indonesia. The Jakarta band Koes Bersaudara (Koes Brothers) was actually put in gaol for playing rock and roll, but it seems that Dara Puspita was never seriously troubled by the authorities, although they were warned not to perform Beatles’ songs. Dara Puspita had a number of close connections with Koes Bersaudara: members of KB wrote a number of songs for Dara Puspita, KB’s singer Yon was romantically linked with DP’s drummer Susy, and the two bands sometimes appeared on the same bill. The bands actually appeared together on the night that was to lead to Koes Bersaudara’s arrest and imprisonment.
Dara Puspita, A Go Go, El Shinta Records, Jakarta, 1967
Why Dara Puspita was never targeted by the authorities is a bit of a mystery, but was probably due to them being still relatively new on the scene in Jakarta and having not yet released a record. In late 1965 the political situation in Indonesia swung 180 degrees and rock and roll could be played again with impunity, so when Dara Pupita’s first album, Jang Pertama (The First), was released in 1966 they had little to fear. There is no mistaking the influence of other bands’ music on many of the songs here, such as the Rolling Stones’ Satisfaction riff in Mari-Mari (Come On, Come Here) or the Dave Clarke Five’s Glad All Over in Tanah Airku (My Homeland).
Dara Puspita followed up their first album with the self-titled Dara Puspita later in the year and in 1967 put out two albums, Green Green Grass and A Go Go. The title track from the latter album, and the song Believe Me, are good examples of the band’s beat credentials.The band was a popular attraction in Indonesia and also in the region, playing to enthusiastic crowds in neighbouring countries, such as Thailand and Malaysia.
In 1968 they took the almost unprecedented move for an Indonesian band of trying their luck in Europe and spent the next few years touring in England, Holland, France, Belgium, Spain, Germany and Hungary. They even played in Turkey and Iran. While in England they recorded two singles for CBS and recorded another for Philips in Holland. In late 1971 the band returned to Indonesia and played a number of concerts, but enthusiasm was starting to wane and in April 1972 they played their last show.
Susy was keen to keep going and together with Titiek Hamzah recorded a number of albums using the Dara Puspita name, but it was really the end. Today only Titiek Hamzah continues in the Indonesian music industry, where she has had great success as a song-writer, but the music of Dara Puspita lives on and their records now command ridiculous prices with collectors.
Koes Bersaudara, To The So Called The Guilties, Mesra Records, Jakarta, 1967
Koes Bersaudara (Koes Brothers), first formed in Jakarta in 1960, consisted of five brothers, Koesdjono (Jon), Koestono (Tonny) [or Tonny Koeswojo], Koesnomo (Nomo), Koesyono (Yon) and Koesroyo (Yok). Jon left after the band’s first album, released in 1961 or 1962. That record was made under rather primitive conditions as the studio was so close to the railway lines that the band had to stop recording whenever a train went by.
The band’s early music was influenced by other musical brothers such as the Kalin Twins and the Everly Brothers, but by 1965 they were caught up in the prevailing Beatlemania and began adding Beatles songs to their repertoire. This might have seemed a wise move commercially, but it was not a sound choice politically. Indonesia’s President Soekarno had condemned rock and roll as a symptom of Western decadence and tried to have it banned. He had previously railed against Elvis Presley, but by 1965 he had his sights fixed on the Beatles and all Indonesian bands that played ‘Beatles-like’ music. Koes Bersaudara was one of the most popular bands in Indonesia, but their records were banned from radio and they found it difficult to find venues to play.
caricature of Koes Bersaudara from the Harian Rakyat (Peoples Daily)
One of Soekarno’s main allies in his war against rock and roll was the Indonesian Communist Party. On 14 March 1965 this caricature of Koes Bersaudara appeared in the Party’s newspaper, Harian Rakyat (Peoples Daily), accompanying an article complaining that Koes Bersaudara had landed a gig playing in the restaurant at Jakarta airport. Harian Rakyat thought that this gave a bad impression to foreign visitors.In June 1965 the band got a job playing at a house party, but only got through a few bars of I Saw Her Standing There, when rocks were heard being thrown on the roof. An angry mob outside the house demanded that Koes Bersaudara apologise for playing forbidden music. Tonny was able to calm down the mob and the brothers returned home, but the next day they were called into the Chief Prosecutors Office and after several hours interrogation they were placed in gaol. The brothers were not sentenced in any court and had no access to legal representation.
The brothers stayed in gaol for three months with almost no contact from the outside, then one night, without warning, they were released. Koes Bersaudara were released just a day before the whole of Indonesia was thrown into great turmoil. On the night of 30 September six army generals were kidnapped and murdered. The army, led by General Soeharto, claimed that this had been part of planned coup and assumed power to restore order. Soekarno was sidelined and remained president in name only. In 1967 Soeharto had himself declared president and held the post for the next thirty-one years.
Soeharto’s regime reversed many of Soekarno’s policies and rock and roll could once again be played on radio and in live venues. Koes Bersaudara’s first record made after their stint in gaol, To The So Called The Guilties, released in 1967, contains a number of songs about their experience, such as the title track, Di Dalam Bui (In Gaol), Voorman (Gaoler) and Poor Clown, which is generally believed to be about President Soekarno. Even though Poor Clown is sung in English, the lyrics are spat out with such venom that it is hard to decipher what is actually being said. If anyone thinks they know, please share it! The album also contains other good songs of a more general nature, such as Hari Ini (Today) and Untukmu (For You).
Koes Bersaudara became Koes Plus in 1969 following the departure of Nomo and went on to be one of the most popular Indonesian bands of the 1970s. Gradually the brothers dropped out of the music industry, but Yon was still performing using the name Koes Plus into the 2000s. Koes Plus recordings are still relatively easy to obtain, but for my money the brothers’ best music is found on their rare early records.
Steve Farram
To The So-Called The Guilties
When your heart is down And you sit in front of the court The lawyers do something for you They judge the right against the wrong While you don’t know what happened behind To the so-called the guilties (chorus) They try to differ From good to bad The court may sentence you Prison or even death Then beat afast That you feel what’s in your heart If you forget the Lord Yes … the Lord above
This site is a work in progress on 1960s garage rock bands. All entries can be updated, corrected and expanded. If you have information on a band featured here, please let me know and I will update the site and credit you accordingly.
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