Beatles of Malaysia: Mike and Herb - With The Falcons

A May Gift for Andy and Readers

Thanks, Mike and Herb for the present

UP TO 1,250 VIEWERS - 12 COMMENTS

When life was simple and the air was pure in Malaysia, two very young boys went on an adventure not many have experienced, perhaps not even today. They did a 240-day pop singing tour of Peninsula Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak, and Brunei.

                                         Yesterday and Today

And don't forget their audiences were rural folks who had hardly any electricity or drinking water, let alone a TV or radio set.  But when the heard that the Malaysian Beatles were in their kampong, they headed to the nearest cinemas on bicycles, in carts and rickety trishaws, buses, vans, and cars, to watch the mop-hair pair in action. Together with this duo, other top Malayan pop artistes were on stage too. The shows were a treat indeed.

Then they came to Singapore and at the National Theatre, the crowd broke loose...

I must thank Mike and Herb, who wrote all the way from Down Under, for sharing their experience with me and my readers. Let's open this gift.

Hi Andy,

After reading your latest blog on the Ipoh Falcons from Malaysia, it brought back memories of our time with them and I just had to write something about them.

The Falcons were our first group when Herb and I started.  We did a solid eight-month tour with them and we performed in every state and town in Malaysia.  

We started in Alor Star then did all the east coast (Kelantan and Terengganu) and also most large towns on the way.  

We were performing almost every night and in most cases two or three shows daily.  The tour took us to many towns like Batu Pahat, Muar, Telok Anson, Seremban, and other towns.

Our eight months’ tour was organized by Cathay Organisation and we performed at all their theatres.

Rocky Teoh was with us and we had a great time with him especially when we were driving in his Sunbeam sports car.  He loved speed and for us, it was thrilling to be visiting many towns this way.  

On one occasion, Rocky drove us to another town for a visit and we got back very late and the show at which we were due to perform had already started. Management was frantic when we turned up late.  

We had to hurry into our stage clothes and quickly got on stage.  The Falcons had already started playing for the show.  Rocky was also late for his performance as Malaysia’s Elvis, but all the drama was soon forgotten once we took to the stage and did our performances.

Our shows also took us to Kuching (Sarawak), Brunei and all of Sabah.  We must have performed in well over 100 towns in Malaysia and the fans were unbelievable everywhere we went.

The Ipoh Falcons (Christopher, Tony, Tommy, and Thomas) were a great bunch of guys and very talented musicians too. We had so many good memories and stories of our eight-month tour and I must say Rocky Teoh turned out to be a really good friend until his untimely death at an early age.

After that, Herb and I went to Singapore where we joined the Silver Strings for the start of the 1960‘s pop scene.

After reading your blog on the Ipoh Falcons I wanted people to know that Herb and I started our music career with them. 

Kind Regards,

Mike

NB: 

Readers might have noticed the billboards were put up along the Malayan roads near the cinemas they were appearing at. These show-posters were colored and hand-painted on canvas and common in the '60s. They were an attraction and could draw passers-by and drivers.

              

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