(1) The X-Periment: The Idaly Sisters: Soul Sauce

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PART 1

Believe it. It's all in one Long Play, Latin-Boogaloo, soul sisters in short, short skirts and one of the best bands in the late 60s. When the Idaly Sisters, cut a vinyl with The Experiments it featured the blending harmony and distinctive styles of two of the best groups of recording artistes in the 60s.

After some shuffling of band members and a change of name from Comancheros (song title) in late 1965 to The Experiments at the tail end of 1967, the versatile group was well known for their appearances at the Hilton Hotel, Golden Venus and other hot spots in Singapore and Malaysian cities. Starting out as a Hindustani band the group concentrated on soul music afterwards. The Soul Sister, Brown Sugar phenomenon started its craze in the region then.

The line-up for the LP (image) was Mervyn Nonis (Electric organ, Piano/Harpsichord/Vocals), Tony Shotam (Lead guitar/Tenor Saxaphone/Vocals), Frisco Lim (Drums/Vocals), Kenny Barket (Bass Guitar/Vocals), Joe Chandran (Lead Vocal/Guitar) and Siva Choy (Guitar/Glockenspiel/Vocals). 

Their final official title on record was X-PERIMENTS.The pictures were taken at The Baron Nightclub in Singapore under Bernard Salosa's Production.
Reference: RCA Victor Long Play: SGS0001.

"I jammed during varsity when they had lunchtime concerts and with a guy called Joe Peters (best double bassist in Singapore) who later formed the NUS Band and the NUS Music Department in the 70s. Actually this was how I got my first job in the IT industry whilst playing as a musician.

It was fun playing 3 months here and there - the Jade Lounge at Ming Court Hotel with David Ng/Julai Tan Quartet, The Rang Mahal Restaurant at the Oberoi Imperial, a Japanese club and restaurant called the Okoh at Supreme House and on the ground floor of Hyatt Hotel (if you walk through the main entrance today, the lounge was on the right side.)

There was no future in the local music industry. You must have heard about Joe Chandran and the X'periments - he became spiritual - after his stint at the Los Horizon discotheque at the Shangri-la. [Extract by Peter Chan from, 'Good Morning Yesterday' by Lam Choon See.] 

Idaly Sisters: Unchained Melody 

YouTube Video from: nostalgia hassny

NB: 

According to a Straits Times report on 3rd October 1984, X'periments two recordings, Soul Sauce (as shown above) and another Chinatown Rock released in 1978 were unsuccessful.

Image/original article: Andy Lim
Extract: Peter Chan.