"60s Music Stars From US, UK, Europe, HK Were At My Doorsteps," Says JK Lim.

                                                   

JK Lim's collection of memorabilia that includes show 

  tickets, posters, photographs, signatures and others. 

If you check carefully, you can read 

the names of the musicians and singers 

who signed JK Lim's memorabilia. 

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6 CHATS, COMMENTS

When I asked JK if he could do a write-up like his contemporary HH Chew about the pop concerts he attended he agreed. It took a while but here they are my dear readers, so many you would not believe. But how could he do it? 

I’m like *HH Chew [connection below], chasing concerts and bands and singers! It's mainly due to my home, a building beside the Odeon Cinema in North Bridge Road, opposite Jubilee Theatre near the Capitol Cinema and walking distance to Cathay Cinema. The amusement centres in Singapore 60s were close to each other in this part of town where I lived.

And coincidentally, the girls-only school, the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus [CHIJ] was right smack in the middle of these movie theatres. And the young ladies would come out after school, at about one in the afternoon, in their white and hue blue pinafores.

The Odeon Cinema at North Bridge Road, Singapore

in the 60s. JK Lim lives in the same neighbourhood.

The school is also in the same neighbourhood at Victoria Street.

During the late 1950s and the early 1960s whenever they launched a show there's a hue and cry publicity where the actors and actresses involved, will come and sing a song or two before the show and super stars like Grace Chang [Ge Lan] 葛蘭 - 說不出的快活 電影《野玫瑰之戀 of Ja Jambo fame would have an autograph session at Level 4 [called the Hollywood Room] at the Odeon building. She would have come all the way from Hong Kong. Imagine the crowds that evening with North Bridge Road jam packed like the cinema itself!

On the other hand we had pop singers like, Johnny Lion and the Jumping Jewels from Holland performing at the Odeon. Remember them? He sang 'Let's Make a Habit of This', 'Judy', 'I Like It' and a host of other hits. 

The late Johnny Lion and the neat, 

smooth and velvety Jumping Jewels.

They came from Holland.

This cinema and others were all under the Cathay Organisation and the movie stars Hayley Mills and her father, John Mills came and appeared on stage before the shows. And they still keep coming today, the big stars like the Rolling Stones, Cpldplay, Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift.

Then across the road at Jubilee Cinema, which screened mostly Chinese shows had the Canto [Cantonese] stars appearing, with the likes of Fong Po Po and Chan Poh Choo. Today it's the National Stadium, where groups like Black Pink, top K-Pop groups from South Korea come bob bob bopping along.

The Jubilee Cinema, across the road from 

the Odeon, showing mostly Chinese movies.

Further down the road towards Shenton Way and opposite the St. Andrew's Cathedral stands the Shaw Brother's cinema group irreplaceable, Capitol Theatre. The great Bai Kwang, Old Shanghai diva performed on stage too. I managed to attend. Chinese, English stars! I love them all.

And over at the Cathay, a short distance away, Frank Sinatra, one of the best US 60s crooners, was there. He was truly my favourite and I managed to catch him in his room at the Cathay Hotel above the cinema and got his autograph too after school. I was studying nearby at St. Joseph's Institution. 

Frank Sinatra surrounded by a crowd in his car 

when he came to Singapore in the 1961.

https://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/photographs/record-details/8a5b9995-1162-11e3-83d5-0050568939ad

Crossing to the East side of Singapore, at Guillemard Road. It was concerts galore when Cliff Richard and the original Shadows came. This group included Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch, Tony Meehan and Jet Harris. 

There was Pat Boone and Debbie Boone. It was a wonderment with tickets costing Fifty Cents to One Dollar for hard step-like concrete seats at the Badminton Hall and at the Happy World Stadium.

Yes, yes! 

"Those were the days my friend, 

We thought it'd never end..."

Manfred Mann: Do Wah Diddy.

REMASTERED VIDEO TRUE 1964 

STEREO HiQ Hybrid JARichardsFilm

YouTube video from: jarichards99utube

Fung Poh Poh Hanky Panky 

YouTube Video from: kraftwerk2012

But it did. Now in Singapore concerts cost so much more. A coming one will cost pop music enthusiasts more than a thousand dollars per ticket!

The best deal I experienced was a three-in-one concert for one dollar at the Badminton Hall where I witnessed the Rolling Stones, Manfred Mann and The Kinks. Now that was a record breaker indeed [pun intended].

And I managed to get all their autographs!

Many stars do a transit stop in Singapore here before heading Down Under in Kangaroo county, Australia. These pop stars included: Helen Shapiro, Millie Small, Blue Diamonds, Anneke Gronloh, The 3 Degrees, Stylistics, Manhattan Transfer, Herman’s Hermit and Gilbert O'Sullivan.

Written by: JK Lim. 

Author: JK Lim

With his recollection and

memorabilia from the 1960s.

Images: Google and The National Archives, Singapore.

*HH Chew's story about meeting Skeeter Davis:

https://singapore60smusic.blogspot.com/2024/02/skeeter-davis-was-friend-unassuming-hh.html

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Dr Lim Boon Keng's Kampong @ Paterson Hill

                       *Grace Chang: Ja-Jambo: Video MrHuang HK
                                
Ms CY Lin has been a regular contributor of this blog. In a recent reply to my last posting about Hari Raya songs and kampongs, she mentioned the happy days she spent living in a bungalow with a unique roof and playing with friends of different nationalities. Below is her letter.

Hey Andy,

1 Paterson Hill in the 1950s - 1973 fits the category of a kampong where different races lived in close proximity, and children played and learned from one another.  This was the residence of Dr Lim Boon Keng, a pioneer physician and social reformer who founded Singapore Chinese Girls' School.


My family of six rented a room ( S$30/- monthly rental raising to S$50/- in the later years) in his huge two-storey bungalow which had an atap roof.  He and his family lived on the upper floor and leased out some rooms on the same level to British forces personnel.  The ground floor rooms were for the locals. (The image is only an illustration and not the home of Dr. Lim. Image 2 is a S$50/- Straits Settlement Singapore currency which was still used in the 1950's.)

Each room was relatively large but all tenants shared a common bathroom and a toilet. Having a benign landlord in the good doctor, my ingenious father was able to single-handedly partition three small bedrooms, a washing area and a kitchenette.  Later, with us as his helpers, a toilet was added - talk about child labour!

An outhouse was turned into a sawmill run by a three-generation Chinese family.  Another became a motor workshop.

My siblings and I played with Dr Lim's grandchildren, his Malay gardener's children, the Chinese  kids and some Indian-muslim ones from the house on Grange Road.  We spoke English, Malay, Hokien and Cantonese.


There's **a big field in the compound with fruit trees for the picking - cherries, rambutans, chikus, pakia (guavas) and buah susu (passion fruit).  The larger trees offered respite when the weather was hot - we'd be climbing and resting in our little tree house.  


Those were happy days.  And yes, 1 Paterson Hill was also the birth place of the pop group ***The Decibels. 

Lin.

Footnote:

*Grace Chang, with her beauty and vivacity , could have been an icon even today.  She had appeared in more than 30 movies from 1953 to 1964.  Her 1957 movie Mambo Girl was a very big hit. Chang was one of the most popular stars from town to kampong. She would be 82 this year (2015).

The song, Ja-Jambo could be a musical representation of what the world was in the 1950's, raw, wild and waiting. We had WWII, and after 15 years of settling in, would have awakened to a new dimension in life. 

**Could be why the area is called Orchard Road since an orchard is a big field with lots of fruit trees.

***Read about The Decibels:

http://singapore60smusic.blogspot.sg/2012/01/decibels-65-band-in-making-part-one.html

http://singapore60smusic.blogspot.sg/2012/02/decibels-band-in-making-1965-1970-part.html

Grace Chang 葛蘭 'Mambo Girl' 我愛 Cha Cha Waterloo Street Rojak

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1950's Chinese Music Education:

She drew the crowd to the cinema like pieces of iron to a magnet. She was not only an actress but a singer and an accomplished dancer. And she was beautiful. Following Hollywood's movie musicals this lady did the same to Chinese cinema.

She was born in China, grew up in Shanghai, went to Hong Kong in 1949 and began her career there. Grace Zhang/Ge Lan or Zhang Yu Fang is still a favourite today.

There is a lot of Western influence in her music and except for Zhou Xuan (previous posting), appeared in the movies mostly in cameo roles or solely on the soundtrack. Grace Chang was foremost an actress although she starred in musicals.

Her movies were very popular in Singapore. She started from 1953 and after starring and co-starring in nearly three dozen movies like Mambo Girl, Spring Song, Air Hostess, Wild Wild Rose and Sun, Moon And Star her popularity soared and she was considered, for some time, the queen of musicals.

In 1959 she sang on NBC/US television on the Dinah Shore show. Between 1950 and 1960 she also made records for the Bai-Dai label. Some personal favourites are, I Love The Cha-Cha, Carmen, *I Want Your Love (wo yao ni de ai), Oh Calypso and I Want To Fly In The Blue Sky.

I would rush to the Cathay Cinema at Prinsep Street to watch these musicals. It was also the first time, as a teenager, had seen such a pair of long legs! Or did she really have them? I could have mistaken her with Cyd Charisse.

 

Grace Chang Sings the  Cha Cha.

YouTube by loveisblu

She was lovely and sparked the screen with her personality, enthusiasm and genuine smile. Grace Chang was a favourite of my mother too and we would both watch her movies at the Queen's Cinema. I remember her appearing in a technicolor movie [this fact had to be ascertained since not all movies then were in colour] called Air Hostess. She and a host of other girls were an eyeful. At that time these girls were sumthin'.

The Indian rojak (spicy, tasty meal) at Waterloo Street and the National Library came afterwards. Rojak is an Indian salad popular with the locals that's filled with tofu cakes, prawns and hot-chilly potatoes.

And the biggest upset? Not a stomach upset but not collecting her vinyl records a long time ago, especially her 78s RPM records, which would be treasures today.

*I Want You To Be My Baby - Georgia Gibbs.

YouTube Videos: DurianDave & boogetman65

Image: http://www.softfilm.blogspot.com/

Original article: Andy Lim Collection.