PART III: THE FABULOUS FALCONS, IPOH, MALAYA (60s).
Michael Ho, a school mate and I decided to form a band. We knew a guy called Christopher Choong. He played the drums really well and together with Thomas Ham, we formed a band. Forming the group was easy but we didn’t have funds to purchase expensive instruments.
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We cracked our heads wondering what we should do and our prayers were answered in our schoolmate Robert Ng whose father was a tin miner. As he came from a wealthy family he agreed to be our manager and would purchase all the necessary instruments. Cool!
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In those days, it was really something to have a manager in the band but we didn’t see the necessity to give it a name. We would gather at Robert’s house, a bungalow in Greentown, for practices everyday.
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We worked really hard and played even harder then. The hard work paid off when we got an offer to play in Federal Hotel in Cameron Highlands. We were really excited at finally getting a chance to perform especially on Christmas Eve. But what do we call the band? We can’t just go on and perform without a name.
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So we all sat down and picked our brains as to what name to give. We noticed that Robert’s dad had some stuffed and beautiful eagle-like birds, so as we took one. Robert mentioned that it was a falcon. We unanimously agreed that very minute our group would be named after the powerful, beautiful bird and thus The Falcons as a band was born.
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It was a great experience for us that night in Cameron Highlands playing till way past midnight and seeing people enjoying our music. After our first gig at The Federal Hotel in Cameron Highlands, our spirits were lifted and our confidence as a band grew. We were to play for many more gigs all over Ipoh and we continued to practice to increase our repertoire.
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Image/Original article (edited): Joseph Chin.
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