Barry Walker: Off-Beat, Multi-Racial Diverse Music Part One

Barry Walker came twice to Singapore recently but because of circumstances we never met. He wrote to me and has been kind enough to share his stories on this blog. Here is episode one of his pop music experience on our little island during the mid 60s:


Barry Walker today

"I first visited Singapore in 1957 as a young boy on my way to Kuala Lumpur with my father who was with the British Intelligence Corps.

I used to listen to as much music as I possibly could via a little speaker on our wall which I believe was called Rediffusion which transmitted one or two hours a day and a station from Australia very early in the morning, on an old valve radio. I was really smitten by The Everly Brothers, Elvis, Ricky Nelson and The Ventures among others.

I lived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaya for four years and returned to the U.K. in 1961.  On my return I finished my schooling and joined the army as a Boy Soldier progressing to Senior Military in 1964, still retaining my musical interests.

Barry Walker and In-Sect at RAF Changi Mess

In 1966 I was posted to Singapore where a friend of mine John Reeves introduced me to The Figures. The original line up was Eugene Kwok - Keyboards, Victor Yeo – Rhythm Guitar, Patrick – Lead Guitar, Albert – Drums and Anthony Ho – Bass Guitar joined by me (image left). We hit it off and started practising really hard in a little government flat where all the local people would come to watch and listen. We cut our first record and started playing all over the island. *Charlie Charles had arrived in Singapore on his first military posting and took over from Albert on drums.

Eventually the hard work paid off as we started playing at most of the Army, Navy and RAF clubs in Singapore regularly before ending with the final line-up. The man responsible for getting our bookings was Fernando Young. The Dukes was a group that I sang with occasionally because when their singer couldn’t make it I would take over.  When they completed their residency at the Princes Garni Hotel, The Figures / In-Sect took over and played for more than a year.  This venue was where tea dances were held on Sundays.



Can play off-beat la?

There used to be a guest band every Sunday so two bands would play from about 2.30/3.00 to 6.00/6.30. The standard of musicianship was always very good and the place used to be packed. The strange thing was, most of the audience always used to ask ,“Can you play off beat lah?"

We never did find out what this meant. Fernando also managed this location. We also played at The Golden Venus with The Straydogs and various other local bands.


On Wednesday evenings there used to be a thing called Vespa Malam in Orchard Road which coincided with Pasar Malam (night market) so many people would stop and watch the various bands playing. We also played at The National Theatre and at The Capitol (the legend of local cinemas) on Sunday mornings. 





There were maybe 10 to 15 different artistes appearing all of whom were totally different. It used to start at 9.00am on the dot so we had to be there at some unearthly hour to set up and were then told roughly what time we would be on.



 Musical Express @ The Capitol Cinema.



All this was after always having played on Saturday evening, finishing around 1.00am, packing up all the equipment, driving back, unloading the equipment and trying to snatch maybe an hour's sleep before starting all over again for The Capitol and when that was finished, clear out and off to the Princes Garni for the Sunday tea dance. I don’t think many of today’s bands could have coped with that.  We must have been mad!

We had a guy, Colin Burnett whom I believe was the original roadie in Singapore who ensured all the equipment got from A to B and also helped us to set up. Some of the amplifers and PA systems were very heavy, especially on some of the stairs we had to negotiate to get to where we were playing. It was tough but very rewarding especially musically. By the way, we also had very demanding day jobs.

Calling for The Straydogs.

I don’t really recall an invasion of Western music. It was fantastic being part of a band that was always very multi-racial without realising, and also the diverse kinds of music each band member liked. I had records that I had bought over from the U.K. but Singapore was a great place to obtain any music you wanted really with a few exceptions."

*Formed in 1977 to promote Ian Dury's album New Boots and Panties on the first Stiff Records tour of the U.K., Charlie Charles was a member of  Ian Dury & The Blockheads. Charles passed on in September, 1990 and Barry was one of his pall-bearers.

For more articles about Barry Walker, his band members and his correspondence click his name under Labels below. Similarly with Eugene Kwok and The Straydogs.

Images and Article: Barry Walker (Copyrights Reserved). No parts to be extracted for use in any publication.

(Excuse the poor paragraphing. Blogger has no control with the template. BlogSpot still hasn't remedied this problem.)