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.
