SINGAPORE 60's: ANDY's POP MUSIC INFLUENCE IS A PERSONAL MUSIC, MEMORY TRAIL. BLOGGER DOES NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO VIDEOS, AUDIO TRACKS AND IMAGES. THEY ARE UPLOADED FOR FUN, EDUCATIONAL, ILLUSTRATIVE PURPOSES AND HAVE BEEN CREDITED. BLOG IS NOT SPONSORED NOR ADVERTORIAL IN ANY WAY WHATSOEVER. INFORM BLOGGER OF COPYRIGHT ISSUES AND POST WILL BE DELETED IMMEDIATELY. DO NOT COPY THE POSTS; GET PERMISSION N CREDIT ME IF YOU DO. ANDY LIM LA (NOVEMBER, 2008) -
(新加坡六十年代安迪的流行音乐影响力), SUDI MAMPIR !
Jay Shotam passed away on 4th October 2019 Age 71 Lead singer, composer, songwriter and bass guitarist/keyboardist with The Surfers and The October Cherries with several music albums to his credit. A loving husband and father, he leaves behind his immediate family, relatives, friends, and fans to mourn his loss.
Tribute From Stephen Han: I remember the Surfers, with Jay Shotam in the lead, were always practising their songs in a book shop opposite the former Amber Mansion. My house was facing the back of this shop and I enjoyed the music played.
However, someone who stayed at the Cathay Building and didn't appreciate music complained to the police that the noise was a nuisance. As the Surfers were playing within the eleven pm hour they were only told to lower their volume.
I had the pleasure of meeting Jay again at a concert organised by the National Heritage Board in 2002 at Raffles City. The Back To The 60s Show also featured Riem De Wolff (The Blue Diamonds), Vernon Cornelius, Larry Lai, Silah Kassim, and Tan Swee Leong.
Jay Shotam was an easy-going guy and I'm glad to have met him. RIP Jay.
Written by Jay Shotam and Peter Diaz. Peter sings 'Far Away Now' with the October Cherries. Thank you. This tribute is written in good faith with positive intention. If there is any objection, please write on the comment page and the post will be deleted immediately. Thank you.
Peter Diaz read a copy of my posting about '60s Music Aging Pop Stars And Their Book Biographies'. Since he did a biography too (available on Kindle) I agreed to post his summary on the book.
Peter echoed that 60s musicians are all getting on, "Well, I for one, certainly am but I am quite contented with my lot and very grateful to God for the blessings bestowed upon me. You take good care mate. Best regards.
So You Want To Be In A Rock Band: Peter Diaz (Published 2017) "Singaporean musician Peter Diaz recounts with panache and unbeatable positivity his career as a rock musician in this laugh-out-loud autobiography, "So You Want to Be in a Rock Band".
Focusing on his remarkable career as singer/songwriter/guitarist with the October Cherries in the late 1960s and 1970s, Diaz writes for today’s generation of budding rock stars about the trials and tribulations of being a musician in Singapore and going on to seek fame in Europe during the flower-power period of social change and nation-building.
Peter Diaz EPK (Electronic Press Kit): A short video by students from SAE Institute Singapore, pursuing their Diploma in Audio Engineering, featuring a local musician.
With charm and unfailing humor, he describes early days at school when he self-learned three chords on the guitar and then “found” others. As a teen, he competed in a Malaysian Talent Time contest – the equivalent of The Voice or You’ve Got Talent. The experience was exhilarating and rather than “become something” as his dad orders, Peter leaves home (in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) in search of a career in music with fame, fortune and Ferraris (did they even have those back then?) in Singapore, 1967, with $20 in his pocket and no address of relatives to stay with.
With no family to make life easy, and after a brief “career” selling Encyclopaedia Britannica door-to-door (4 sets sold, although 2 orders cancelled!), by luck he auditions and joins The Surfers – later renamed the October Cherries and embarks on 6 years in the band with all of the ups and downs that comes with being young, “wet behind the ears”, naïve – really naïve, rock enthusiasts driven by testosterone and determined to make it big.
And make it big they do. First as The Surfers, then as the October Cherries, the foursome signed with EMI Records and saw huge regional fame with hits including “Far Away Now”, “Beautiful Sunday” and “All Things Work for Good to them that Love God” (is that a title, or what?). With a wonderful eye for detail and hilarious turn of phrase, Peter describes the band’s beautiful successes and devastating failures in Bangkok, Tokyo, Singapore and Malaysia, and then their attempts to take their psychedelic rock music straight into “the lion’s den” of London, the UK in 1971.
Without a Plan A or B, the Cherries end up living in Belgium where EMI Records signs them to four albums. But not before almost starving, living off Leo chocolate and driving all the way to St. Tropez for a gig that isn’t booked! The craziness of their gung-ho optimism and how serendipity keeps them intact endears the reader to Peter’s unflagging optimism and inspires today’s music hopefuls and anyone who remembers “old-school” items such as “vinyl records” and even CDs!
Even though the band’s rock style is influenced by the Beatles and other psychedelic groups of the late sixties, the Cherries never aspired to the drug-taking, booze-drinking, sex-crazed stereotype of rock musicians. Instead, we get to know four dedicated young men whose biggest transgression is growing their hair beyond their collars – learning the ropes of life, love and music as they go. On tour in Karachi, Pakistan, they even learn to keep playing the same song 20 times for a gang of gun-wielding drug lords until said drug lords are too drunk to yell for another encore!
From near-death experiences in the skies and hanging out of a toilet window, to dealing with a tour gone wrong in India, Peter tells it like it really was to be a rock band in the sixties and seventies. You couldn’t make this stuff up!"
(I grant Andy Lim my permission to post the Amazon Website where my Kindle book 'So you Want To Be In A Rock Band' can be found. Thank you for helping me to publicise my book.) Thanks very much Peter for sharing. I hope readers will buy a copy to experience what you did as a rock singer those years.
It’s indie-pendence day as we open the celebrations for the birthday bash at the Outdoor Theatre. Get your fix of great music from some of the most celebrated Singapore bands today.
7.30 – 8.15pm A Vacant Affair
8.45 – 9.30pm B-Quartet
10 – 10.45pm
The Great Spy Experiment 7 Aug 2010, Sat
Relive the sounds of the 60s to 80s!
The Mysterians will perform their hits such as Please Don’t Tease, while 60s heart-throb crooners Henry Suriya and Andy will reunite with the Silver Strings. Top off the evening in a Sing-along with The Mysterians when they play familiar favourites!
Hosted by Brian Richmond.
7.30 – 8.15pm The Mysterians
8.45 – 9.45pm Andy n Silver Strings with Henry Suriya
10.15 – 11pm The Mysterians
8 Aug 2010, Sun
Melissa Fitzgerald – daughter of Thunderbirds front-man Derek – gives new life to the band’s top hits. The talented Vadham family reunites with Moses, performing Gingerbread classic Roses, Regina delivering good ol’ country tunes and the siblings singing Sausalito in tribute to the late Chris Vadham of Western Union Band.
Terry Mortimer of Tony & Terry, and Peter Diaz of The Surfers, will bring you memorable rock and roll hits.
Hosted by Brian Richmond.
7.30 – 8.15pm Melissa Fitzgerald
8.45 – 9.45pm The Vadhams
10.15 – 11pm Terry Mortimer & Peter Diaz
The October Cherries, a group that has existed since the mid-sixties, were a highly successful band in their country Singapore. Unfortunately, music piracy destroyed almost everything. Far Away Now is one of their hit songs that made it to number one in Malaysia.
They moved on to conquer Europe and they are still recording today. Jay Shotam (Lead singer): Far Away Now was on the first October cherries LP entitled, Meet the Cherries, a copy of which was given to Dick James, President of Dick James Music, in the UK, a big name in the music industry. He liked the band's songwriting ability.
In the early seventies when our manager Bal Shotam visited him to try and get a publishing tie-up, Dick James commented on another track on the LP called Na Na Song and said that it might be suitable for a new artist he had called Elton John. Nothing transpired. But Bal recalls another person who was with Dick and him, who heard the songs on the demo tapes.
An edited version, from YouTube: keithyoong (April 01, 2008). Check it out! Great website!
The mad man himself. When he slams the piano with his bare fists, the crowds in the nightclubs, the audiences in the theatres or the spectators in the football stadiums utter a war cry in unison that will put the native American indians to shame.
Jerry Lee Lewis (for the uninitiated, he's not Jerry Lewis the comedian) is the ultimate keyboard performer when man machine and piano machine combine. Forget descriptions and long explanations, just listen to him on YouTube!
And Peter Diaz (read March, 16th blog on Peter/October Cherries) our own Singapore musician, accompanied Jerry Lee on bass guitar when they toured Europe.Key in: jerry lee lewis rocks. Another baby boomer who influenced Singapore's 60s music? You bet.
(1) So what's in a name? It's the person behind the name that counts and Peter Diaz (image), without much introduction, has been in the music scene since the 60s.
Peter, true son of Singapore, joined the 'The Surfers' ('October Cherries' in later years) then. It is one of the most popular recording and live band this period. They enjoyed tremendous success not only in Singapore and Malaysia, but also in Hong Kong and Japan. Then they embarked for Europe in late 1971; Belgium, France and Germany were the next countries they worked in.
In Belgium the band was the very first to record the so-called 'Top 40 Budget Album' comprising of songs from the Top 40 Charts. They recorded 8 albums in all and were a runaway success. Peter composed, recorded and peformed with the band for about nine years, before finally leaving when the band returned to Singapore. He felt that he needed to advance his career and so returned to Europe.
Listen to Peter Diaz sing his own compositions on his website.
(Extract with kind permission from Peter Diaz at: myspace.com/peterdiazmusic)
(3) Peter Diaz returned to Singapore in April, 1997 to arrange the music and collaborate in writing the reunion CD of the 'October Cherries'. Since returning home, he had a few marvelous opportunities and walked away with the first prize writing the theme song for the NTUC Paradigm Club and had the privilege to arrange and co-produce the soundtrack for the movie 'Forever Fever'.
(2) PETER DIAS (image: 2nd left), vocalist and composer for the group, has spent 26 years in Europe. He was 3 years in London, U.K., as a writer for Martin & Coulter Music Publishing where he had a song recorded by Cliff Richard and sung by him on a TV show on BBC.
A contract was also signed with Decibel Music of Belgium because of the popularity of THE OCTOBER CHERRIES in that country. He also wrote and recorded under the pseudonym 'David Scott' for Decibel, an independent record label and publisher distributed by EMI records. Eventually Peter recorded and produced six singles and obtained numerous 'covers' for his compositions, one of which made the top five in the South African charts. He also performed on TV and stage with SMOKIE, SLADE, SHIRLEY and CO., and AL GREEN.
In Hamburg, Germany, where Peter resided for 16 years, he signed a lucrative contract to write and produce for a small publisher, Peter Jensen Productions. Later he published on a free lance basis and worked with Peer Southern Music, recording and releasing three singles, as well as having numerous titles in their catalogue.
In Hamburg, he performed as a bass player with JERRY LEE LEWIS, rock and roll superstar of the 60s. After the show and because of commitments, he declined an invitation to join the group to complete the rest of their European tour.
(Extract above: With kind permission from Peter Diaz.)
The Surfers (image) pressed many vinyl EPs with EMI in the mid 60s and were successful as recording artistes. In 1968 they became October Cherries and recorded under BAAL, their own label.
Peter Diaz ( in brown), lead guitarist and singer of the band, was interviewed by The StraitsTimes in Singapore on February 26th, 2009 and was asked about busking. He explained, "Street busking was the one thing I never did in my life-long career in music. It's quite challenging, since there's no ready audience, or script or microphone. You really have to deliver the goods as well as connect with the audience."
Peter had started busking in town and remarked that with the downturn in the economy, the situation was depressing and gloomy but music "might take their minds off things."
He is well known in Singapore's music circle and has a blog of his own. As The Straits Times mentioned, Peter played with rock and roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis, ('Breathless', 'Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On', 'Great Balls Of Fire'), in the West.
So come on everyone, let's give Peter Diaz some support when you see him on the streets of Singapore. Stop, look and listen because he's really great! And don't forget to contribute.
