The Blue Stars was one of the 60s era pop bands which originated from Princess Elizabeth Estate.
As was usual at that time, it consisted mainly of male instrumentalists on electric guitars, drums and other instruments and backed up with a female vocalist.
 |
The band comprised the following members:- (L-R)
- Brian Ward, piano, vibes and rhythm guitar.
- Jeffrey de Souza, vocals, lead guitar and trumpet
- Ian Moss, drums
- David Moss, vocals, tenor saxophone and bass guitar
- Patricia Pestana, Vocalist
- Larry Besapa, bass guitar.
To find out more of the Blue Stars, I tried to locate some of the band members and managed to contact David Moss who kindly returned my email with details of his band. This was what David wrote....
Hi James
First let me congratulate you for producing such a wonderful blog bringing back fond memories of the days gone by. You must have done a lot of research to be able to cover life as it existed then in that old estate. And those photos ... where did you get them? I enjoyed the article on Pest Infested. I hadn't had the pleasure of seeing or hearing them perform but heard that they had a huge following of rock and blues fans. They were formed a couple of years or so after the Blue Stars disbanded.
Unlike Pests Infested, we played mainly dance music and the old rock & roll hits that were popular in the 60s. Patricia Pestana was a soloist in her own right and joined us as and when a female singer was needed. She was also known as the "Connie Francis" of Singapore. We played for the British forces here, at corporate dances, fashion shows, concerts and other popular venues.
Today, Ian lives and works in Sabah, Brian and Patricia reside in Western Australia. Larry and I still live in Singapore while Jeffrey has sadly passed on.
The timing of your email coincided with a surprise visit by Brian from Perth. I had not seen Brian for decades. And of course that gave us the chance of catching up on things while reminiscing the good old days. Here's a recent picture of Brian (on the left) and me at a local restaurant.
I hope this little piece of data is helpful and thank you for your interest in our Band. And of course, keep up the good work!
Sincerely
David Moss
Wow this is really fabulous James. Congratulations on getting such a clear and sharp photograph of the Blue Stars and for meeting at least one member.
ReplyDeleteHi Andy,
ReplyDeleteYes it was very fortunate for me to be able to get in touch with David from the band.
It was a good thing that old PEE residents were very close, so it wasn't all that tough as someone would be in contact with somebody else and so forth. The old network is still very strong.
I am now waiting for more info to come back about the other musicians from PEE.
Hi
ReplyDeleteThis brings back memories . I lived on the Hill in Singapore between 1962 and about 1967. My dad was company secretary at Hume Industries and my second home was at the Mosses house , with all the kids in the family they never even noticed all the extras that were there also. I knew all the guys in the band but being a bit younger wasn't really old enough to go out and watch them perform. We had such fun over there . I remember learning to play table tennis, our sessions on the ouja board , playing mahjong and tennis and so many other things. I think I was also in love with Ian at the time !! My name was Toni Kerger, so if any of the family read this I say hello and thanks for the memories...of course I'm now a grandma..but not too old to remember all the good times
Hello, I found some pictures that my grandfather took while in the military in vietnam. There are pictures of a concert somewhere on that side of the world and the bass drum says "the bluestars" and the bandmembers seem like they could be these guys. Seems like there may be a female vocalist too. Do you know if they performed for troops during the vietnam war? Seems like this would have been between 1969 and 1973. I can't find any other info about the band online
ReplyDeleteI knew these guys in the 60's They lived near us in Singapore. They did have a female singer. They were older than me and there were lots of kids in the family so we hung out at there place. They sometimes rehersed at home. Three members were Moss brothers. I made conntact with Ian the drummer several years ago. They are in their 70's now. I don't know if they played to the troops during the Vietnam war as I had moved back to Australia by that time.They were based in Singapore.
ReplyDelete