The Trailers was one of the most versatile and talented bands to emerge from Singapore in the 1960s. Formed sometime in 1964 by Victor Woo (lead guitar) and Eric Tan (bass), the band had a number of line-up changes before they released their first 45 in mid 1966 with Benny Koh (vocals), Edmund Tan (rhythm guitar), Tony Zee (drums) and Michael Teo (keyboards).
That first single contained the group’s original composition “Do It Right” backed with the instrumental “Thunderball” (Cosdel CSP-1007). The single went on to be a number one seller in Singapore. Check out the fans at a Trailers dance shown on the single’s cover. Sunglasses were pretty hip in Singapore in 1966!
Later in 1966 the Trailers had another hit with their second single, another original, the excellent “Don’t Laugh (You’ll Cry)”, backed with a great version of Little Richard’s “Lucille” (Cosdel CSP-1008).
This was followed in early 1967 by an all instrumental EP, O.B. a Go Go (Cosdel CEP-3001) with new keyboardist Jimmy Chan, that yielded one of their most evergreen tunes, “Phoenix’s Theme”, which apparently is still a feature of many Singaporean Chinese New Year celebrations. Another standout tune is “Alisan”, based on a Taiwanese folk-song that praises the beauty of the Taiwanese maidens from the island’s highest peak. “Ding Ding Song” is also based on a Chinese tune and “Lara’s Theme”, from the film Dr Zhivago, is the odd one out. My copy of this EP is a bit rough, but it has a slightly different cover to all the other copies I have seen.
In late 1967 the Trailers released two more EPs which I haven’t heard yet, but in 1968 they had another line-up change when Patrick Foo replaced Jimmy Chan on keyboards.
In late 1968 they released what I believe is their last recording, the fine Big 4 EP (Cosdel CEP-3003) with the original “I’m Ready Now”, the instrumental “Peter Gunn” and two covers, “Raise Your Hand” and “Gimme Little Sign”. Eric and Victor provide saxophone on some of the tracks on this EP and all are handled very well, although “Gimme Little Sign” is not really my cup of tea.
The liner notes on this last EP claim it appeared four years after the band’s debut, which would date it at 1970, but this is almost certainly wrong. All the Trailers recordings appeared on the Cosdel label, but starting in early 1968 a number of Cosdel artists received international release through an arrangement with RCA. The catalogue number SGE 0005 would place this EP as one of the first such releases. Actually, the Trailers appeared on the first recording that appeared as part of this deal when they backed three young girl singers called the Tidbits, who got to make a record as part of their prize for winning a talent contest. The tunes the girls tackle on that EP are not really the sort of thing the Trailers would go for I imagine. The Trailers, did however, provide the backing on at least three EPs for a pretty cool Singapore singer called Lara Tan, who may or may not have been related to Eric or Edmund Tan.
The band reunited to appear at a couple of 60s nostalgia concerts in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
For more information about the Trailers check out the article by Joseph Pereira that appeared in Fancy Mag a few years back.
Shirley Nair with the Silver Strings
If you have ever seen the Girls In The Garage Oriental Special comp and wondered who the ‘Unknown Artist’ was who performed “If You Ever Go”, I can tell you. It was Shirley Nair and the Silver Strings from Singapore. The song appeared on what I believe was their first single.
At the age of nineteen Shirley had joined a group called the Checkmates singing Beatles covers and other beat songs. That was in late 1964. She did not stay with the Checkmates long before she teamed up with the Silver Strings. It seems the band only released a handful of records backing Shirley, including the songs “If You Ever Go”, “You’re The Boy”, “Too Late For Tears”, “Come Home To Me”, “Don’t Leave Me”, “I Won’t Let You See Me Cry”, “I’ll Remember Today”, and “Two People”.
Unlike many other Singaporean performers of the day, Shirley wrote her own material, at least that’s the case with the stuff I have seen. The overall impression I get from Shirley the singer/songwriter and the Silver Strings is a positive one. These are good pop songs.
Included here are what were probably Shirley’s second and third singles, from late 1965 or 1966. Why the band did not go on to produce more music, I do not know. I cannot find any information about what happened to Shirley, but it seems the Silver Strings may still be performing in Singapore at sixties revival concerts.
Andriani
I usually find something enjoyable in 60s Indonesian girl-singers’ records, although some are bit too twee even for me. I had thought that was probably true of Andriani (it says Andraini on the cover, but I am sure this is a typo), who judging from her picture was very young at the time she made this record.
I had actually seen a full album of Andriani’s with the same cover as this EP, as well as one other EP before I finally grabbed this one. When I got the record onto the turntable and dropped the needle into track one I heard a more than reasonable pop song coming out of the speakers, so I was fairly happy.
But Bandel (Stubborn), the second track? I almost didn’t believe it; a wailing garage guitar intro and a driving distorted lead-in. It calms down a bit after that, but the distorted guitar makes another appearance about half way through and the whole song moves along at a nice pace. The other side of the EP is another two okay pop-tunes.
This EP was put out by Istana Stereo, which I am fairly sure was a pirate record label based in either Singapore or Malaysia. It was a common practise for these pirate labels to take an album and turn it into a number of EPs, usually with the same cover, but often numbered volume 1, 2, etc.
My copy has absolutely no information about Andriani or her backing band, but I bet the album that this was ripped off from has at least one other garage-fuelled track lurking in there somewhere.
M. Rahmat dan The Teruna (M. Rahmat and The Youth)
Both the singer and the band are presumably from Singapore, where this EP was recorded. I have seen a few other records by M. Rahmat, again with backing by The Teruna, but with songs also by female singer Asmah Attan.
All the songs on this EP are good, but the stand-out one for me is Mula Bertemu (First Meeting), with some strong guitar and a driving sound. M. Rahmat has a strong, deep voice; a fact that may have inspired another song on the EP; his cover version of Indonesian baritone Alfian’s Semalam di Cianjur. On that song The Teruna provide a swinging, cha cha backing. The other songs are Elly and Peristiwa di Pantai (Episode at the Beach), and all accept Cianjur are credited to M. Rahmat.
Alfian
The vibrating deep baritone of Alfian Harahap (aka Nasution) was one of the most distinguishable voices in Indonesian pop music of the 1960s. His greatest hit was Semalam di Cianjur (A Night in Cianjur) recorded about 1965 for Remaco.
The song was reportedly written spontaneously by Alfian in the studio and concerns the singer remembering the wonderful night he spent in the East Java town of Cianjur and his promise to return some day. One explanation of the song I have heard is that Cianjur at the time was a transit stop for travellers through Java who would overnight there and continue their journey the next day. So the song could be about a romantic encounter in a travellers’ hotel.
Following the success of Semalam di Cianjur Alfian’s subsequent Remaco recordings were released in Singapore by Philips under license. I feature two songs of Alfian’s from that period, Relakan (Acquiesce), from a Philips EP, and Andaikan (Suppose), on a record with the Pop Sounds label, which appears to have been a Malaysian subsidiary of Philips. On both EPs Alfian is backed by the band Arulan led by Jarzuk Arifin. I would say these recordings were made in 1966. These two songs contain some good guitar work; the other songs on the two EPs are more subdued.
Alfian remained a popular singer until the early 1970s when the Indonesian music scene began to be dominated by bands and solo singers were out of fashion. Alfian chose to retire from the music industry and spent several years working in a warehouse on the Jakarta waterfront. In 1978, however, he was involved in a traffic accident and spent two years recovering.
In 1980 he returned to the music industry working for a record company as a coordinator and supervisor of new singers. He also re-recorded a number of old hits. In 1992 he passed away as a result of diabetes and heart problems. His son Tonny, who is said to have a similar voice, has recorded a number of songs made popular by his father.
M. Ishak
I don’t know anything about M. Ishak & the Dengan Five 55 except that he was from Singapore and has three other songs backed by the Young Lovers on a compilation called Nostalgia a Go Go Klassik.
This EP is pretty solid, with three good songs: “Selamat Tinggal Bunga Ku,” “Joget Si-Hitam Manis” and “Oh! Salina”. I’d say only “Chari Lah Ganti Ku” doesn’t cut it for me.
“Selamat Tinggal Bunga Ku” was written by Johar Bahar. The label describes these as ‘Stereomono’, but they are all actually in stereo, with nice separation of the guitar and keyboards.
I wonder who the Dengan Five 55 were.