Ray Anthony: 1977 photo from Straits Times.
An article by Mr Michael Bangar (rhythm guitarist: Silver Strings):
Good Day, Bro' Andy!
I just want to pay a little homage to the two bands that entertained all of us yesterday, 17th December 2017 at Hood Bar and Cafe @ Bugis from 2 to 5.30 pm.
The band included, Fried Ice's Jimi Hendrix Experience Tribute, fronted by Singapore's Jimi Hendrix - the amazing RAY ANTHONY and our very own Pink Floyd Tribute Band called, Welcome To The Machine (with Kiang of The Straydogs fame) on bass guitar and vocals, plus five other members.
After a short sound check, Fried Ice kicked off their first set with Ray, the main man on guitar and lead vocals, Gerry Bheme on drums (two of them from the original line-up), Felly Chitran the band's current bassist and a lovely lady on keyboards named Elizabeth.
They did excellent versions of songs like Stone Free, Fire, Red House among others and ended the set with Johnny B. Goode - a replay of Jimi's rock version of the Chuch Berry classic.
Mr Anthony and his prowess on his left-handed Fender Stratocaster and great vocals mesmerised us. He and the band took the crowd of most seniors, back in time to the late 60's and early 70's. He still has his lightning speed on the guitar.
Then Welcome To The Machine took to the stage with an opening song of which title was the band's name. Beside Kiang on bass, the line-up included a Caucasian drummer, a lead vocalist, two guitarists and a young gentleman on the keyboard. All helped out on vocals too. And great players they all were.
Among other Pink Floyd numbers, the band did superb versions of Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Wish You Were Here and Another Brick In The Wall. They too excelled on their individual instruments.
Then Fried Ice came on for their second set and gave the audience, Hendrix's rock standards like Crosstown Traffic, Purple Haze, Hey Joe, Bob Dylan's All Along The Watchtower and other songs from Hendrix' catalogue.
The crowd shouted for it so they went into Gary Moore's, I Still Got The Blues For You. And the audience sang along...
Images from The Straits Times Lifestyle, Michael Bangar Collection and Google.
So good to see my old band boys Gerry and Ray , 2/3 of Fried Ice Mach 2 (the first drummer was replaced by Gerry). And even more, the wonderful Kiang of Straydog ,who was the people who gave Fried Ice their first public break at their Straydogs Golden Venus t-dance. I have not been in touch you Andy for a long while. I am also no longer with youtube. Instead I am selling my own music on WiX
ReplyDeletehttps://matthewtanmontreal.wixsite.com/hotrockguitar
and giving away my Hendrix covers free on an awesome indie music site . https://www.indiesound.com/index.php?a=profile&u=matthewtancanada
the former will only feature original performed and written by yours truly.
the latter will only feature covers.. with musical (re)arrangement by yours truly.
Youtube was great while it lasted 11,000 views from April -Dec 15 2017
but they were so happy with me promoting my music by myself. So they told me to bugger off. No big deal, it gave me the impetus to now be a true self promoting independent artist with a site i can sell my music and another where i can show off my improvisation rendering of my musical idols. Please continue to support me
when you can, and even though i am no longer a contributor to Andy's site, does not mean I am not grateful to him for reminding me of the good ole Singapore day when I was 1/3 of the super trio Cream Hendrix clone band. No doubt the only trio that existed there. I have a trio too right now, me, me, and me LMAO as everything you hear in my music is performed and produced by me. actually at times there are up to a sextet of matt tan (bass, guitar 1, guitar 2, classical gtr, vocal, percussion, vocals)... i could go for more but my 8 track Tascam won't allow me, unless I bounce the tracks which I am not too keen on doing as most of the tunes are recorded in one shot straight through, mistakes and all, as i like the capricious of the creativity. Last on youtube m another guitar asked me, "how many times do you rehearse a song before recoding it? " to which I told him, "rehearse? what rehearsal? you're talking to a guy who has the attention span of a 3 year old. to rehearse a song would totally bore me to death. i just get the urge to play a song in my head and then it just goes straight on digital recording. sometimes done while watching my favorite mandarin drama, LOL. Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah , Seasons Greeting to all . Cheers from Canada... where we finally get to have the usual -20 C winter . Hate it ! Anyway would like to trade apartment from Jan to March welcome to offer :)
Thank you, Matt for keeping in touch. I am appreciative of the time you took to write in. You are a friend and that's important.
ReplyDelete