In my search for Singapore's 60s instrumental group members, I remember the Cathay restaurant where sea-food was as popular as the bands that performed there. Danny Koh provided the answer that I posted a year and a half ago on the blog when I asked him about this restaurant.*Pianist, tutor and musical director Danny formed two very popular bands, The Fishermen and The Candidates that played to a packed restaurant called The Kelong in the 1970s. (Notes from a letter to Andy on Sunday, 6th June, 2010):
He was with The Trailers for 3 years. The band had a number of **pianists - or keyboardists - before he joined them. The first in the group was Michael, followed by Patrick Foo, then Danny himself and Benson Goh. There were others too but it had been many years since and there was difficulty remembering specific names.
When Danny left The Trailers, he formed The Fishermen and they performed regularly at the Kelong Niteclub which was the old Cathay Restaurant. The original musicians in the group included Benny Chan (guitar) and Amir Samsudin (drummer), both from the Checkmates and Robert Suriya (guitar), who is now residing in Guam. Robert, of course, was from Naomi and The Boys.
After the group disbanded, Danny formed another band called, The Candidates. The musicians were Ramon Rahmat from the BlackJacks, Sanip Ismail, who had since passed away, Leon Lim, who now resides in Vietnam and Leo Fernando, a saxaphonist of stature and renown. This professional band of men performed at the Kelong, Singapore and at the Fortuna Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for some time.
Danny added that when they were at the peak of their popularity, they signed under the RCA label and recorded some songs, but the record was never released for reasons known to the group themselves.
**Danny is a 'pianist' rather than a 'keyboardist', the distinction being clear that he has a Licentiate from the Royal School of Music (LRSM).
*Thursday, January 08, 2009:
Cathay Building, The Kelong, The Flybaits, The Fishermen
Cathay Building, The Kelong, The Flybaits, The Fishermen
Original article: Andy Lim.
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