(8) Hong Kong Pop Anders Nelsson And MING, The Kontinentals 70s - Original Compositions

This Long Play costs me S$10.00 and it's worth every dollar I paid. Can you guess where this group Ming comes from and who the members are? The 70s fans should know them better.

Born in Berkeley, California, U.S.A. of Swedish & American parentage Anders Nelsson brought this group together. The original line-up consisted: Ronald Chan, bass, Mario Bernardo, guitar and vocals, Maria Wu, drums and vocals, Anders Nelsson, guitar. Nelsson was supposed to plan, write and produce but resulted in him fronting the group.

They had several hits in Hongkong and Asia, most in Thailand with Reason Why and Malaysia with This Time Tomorrow between 1973 and 1976. When the group disbanded after three years, there were some changes and Hardy Li joined with keyboards. Mario Bernardo left the group and was replaced by Johnson Tang with guitar and vocals.

Nelsson wrote his first published song, I Still Love You and it was recorded as the second single by his first recording group The Kontinentals on Orbit Records in 1965. It spent a couple of months in the Hongkong charts in late 1965 and early 1966. It was recorded in Cantonese too.

Recorded in 1974, the above EMI/Columbia vinyl (image) is S 33ESX-221 with Reasons Why, It Doesn't Matter Anymore, Missing You Did Ya, Peace Of Mind, Merry-Go-Love on Side One. 

Ming: Never Comin' Home. 

YouTube Video by: sai kit hon

Side Two has: White Eagle, Never Coming Home, Another Morning, 13 Down And 8 To Go, Aren't You Satisfied and Wiseman. Except for It Doesn't Matter Any More by Paul Anka, the others are by Anders Nelsson. MING not only had local/original English compositions but adopted harder guitar-based styles and emphasised instrumentation over singing.

His company, The Melody Bank produced a large number of jingles for advertising, film soundtracks for Hongkong films, and songs for local artistes that included George Lam, Alan Tam, Rowena Cortes and Kenny B. According to his biography, he 'spearheaded the successful promotion of Kenny G to superstar status in Asia.'

The Kontinentals

Article and extracts have been taken from:

1. Wikipedia.
2. http://andersnelsson.com/biography.htm

Image: Andy Lim Collection.