The Blue Stars

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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.

In all honesty, I didn't know much about the Blue Stars as I was just a little kid at the time, but I do remember always trying to sneak into their practice sessions. They would practice at the home of David Moss who lived in the same block as me. Kids like me were always fascinated by the band boys, perhaps we were the groupies of those days! Alas, most of the time, we pesky kids were always booted out during their practices.

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

The Pest Infested

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The Pest Infested band was formed in 1967 by Princess Elizabeth boys John Ali and Ernie Koh.
In the beginning, they had Francis Chan (lead guitar), Sng Cheng Chuan (drums), John Ali (Rhythm guitar) and Ernie Koh (Bass guitar/Vocals). This was the founding lineup and the band specialised in hard core Blues music.

In the early days, the band played gigs mainly in British forces camps and at 'Tea Dances' but soon had opportunities to play support at the Golden Venus Nightclub at Orchard Hotel.

Back in the late 60s, Golden Venus Nightclub was the apex for band boys. If you were somebody, you had to be playing at the Golden Venus. I guess the nearest thing today would be like comparing it to Zuok or St James today. They also landed a stretch at the London Scene at Hotel Malaysia - another happening place at that time.

As common with bands in the 60s, there were lots of lateral movement among musicians, back ups and vocalists. So it was not uncommon for band members to leave and new musicians joining the band later.

For Pest Infested, quite of number of estate boys played for the band and later moved on to others. Musician who did some time with Pest Infested included
Gerry La Chica (The Flybaits)
Robert Suriya (Naomi & the boys)
Richard D'Silva
Jack Elias
Lim Thian Soon (Straydogs)
David Ng, bassist
Chris Ong, lead guitar
Philip Hardie.

Even Rex Goh auditioned once for Pest Infested but found he wasn't compatible with the blues genre that Pest Infested played. Rex Goh later became the guitarist for the Australian group, Air Supply.


I managed to contact Tony Cheong, one of the final members, who wrote me as follows:-

Hi James,

Here is the pic of us (above photo), it was taken near our practise studio at Chestnut Ave in 1974. Before Chestnut, our equipment & studio was at a kampong house in PEE ..... remember the forested area at the fringe of the estate, beyond Kum Sung's block. 

We rented a whole kampong house with grass laid compound from a family who had moved out, for just $40/month. And we would practise & blast our rock music & no one would complain cos the  nearest kampong house was about 70 m away. Cool huh!

The guys you see in the photo are actually 3rd generation PI, except for Ernie(founder) & Shah(2nd gen). Well, we went on to play for another 4 to 5 years until our day jobs became too much of a commitment to continue the music. 

I think the last gig was at a club called Queen Bee at the Queens hotel at Mt Elizabeth.

I remember your dad Tann Yean, he used to hang out with my dad & Ernie's father, Koh Keng Kwee.

Cheers,

Tony

Tony Cheong (right), with members of the band Humble Origin.
L-R: Terry Tan, Bernard Koh(standing) & Tommy Tan.

Sadly,  most of these talented local bands slowly faded away in the early 70s in part due to clampdowns by the authorities. I guess band members found it hard going with all the restrictions and connotations with hippie culture and drugs at that time. Pest Infested disbanded around 1978.

If you wish to hear a sample of the music of the 60s, click here. (This is not the Pest Infested but I am still hoping I can find a recording of them somewhere)

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The decade of the 1960s were the heady days for local bands in Singapore. 

Among whom were names like Susan Lim & the Crescendos, The Quests, The Trailers, Naomi and the Boys, Straydogs, The Thunderbirds, Shirley Nair and Silver Strings, October Cherries and The Siglap Five. These local bands were mostly semi-pro but many could hold their own against international names in the recording industry.

From Princess Elizabeth Estate, there would emerge a number of boys who would go on to support and join a number of these bands.  Our own ‘resident’ bands were the Pest Infested and The Blue Stars.

I can still recall them practicing in their homes. You just can’t soundproof the old PEE flats against loud amplified guitars and drums! However, estate residents were mostly tolerant and the boys knew well enough not to play all through the late evening.  

Pest Infested started playing at Sng Say Juan’s home at the 7 storey block and occasionally at Ernie Koh’s house next to the bus terminus.

Pest Infested
L-R: John Ali, Lim Thian Soon, Ernie Koh, Richard D'Silva, John Chan.

I also remember always trying to peek into the practice sessions by the Blue Stars who were located in the same block as my home. But many a times I would be kicked out from their place as they didn’t want pesky kids disturbing their practices.

In those early days, there were already quite a number of families in our small estate getting their children interested in music. The Phua &  Moss girls at blk 21 played the piano. My Indian neighbour Tanga played the violin while her brother Menon played the classical guitar.  I know of the Thomas girls, Diana and her sister, who learnt their music at the Trinity College. I am sure there were many, many others as well.

Musicians who were connected to Princess Elizabeth Estate and who would later gain fame in the local music scene are Ramli Sarip,  known today as Papa Rock, and Moliano Rasmadi.  Ramli and his brother would form the '70s band Sweet Charity, while Moliano would form the band Lovehunter.

Don’t worry if you have not heard of any of them. I will try to dig out some details about our own home grown musicians and post them on this blog at a later time.

As for myself, I was one of the early converts to the then new musical instrument, the electronic organ.  I started learning it with my sister back in 1967 and I actually obtained Grade V of the ABRSM. 

Alas, I then discovered that I really had no musical talent. I guess it was my father who was more interested in showing off his children than his children being musically inclined. LOL. 

However,  I did redeem myself by becoming a church organist for many years (St Joseph & Mary of the Angels).  So at least my meagre talent did not totally go to waste.

This was my very first organ, a basic Yamaha Electone B6.

Later upgraded to a better Yamaha Model D-3 with all the bells & whistles.

You may be surprised to learn that my music teacher was actually a rock band artiste, so the focus of my lessons were always modern pop pieces rather than classical. My teacher was Mr Patrick Foo who was the keyboard player with the 60s band, The Trailers. When not performing on his gigs, he ran a music school that was located at a shophouse on Orchard Road. Today the same spot where the shophouse stood is occupied by Orchard Towers.

Orchard Road shophouse where I had my music lessons.
This stretch now occupied by Orchard Towers.
(Picture from NHB PICAS)

When we first bought our little Yamaha B6, Ernie Koh and John Ali from Pest Infested came over to our house to look at the organ. At that time keyboards were not usual with electric bands and they were interested to see if such a new kind of instrument could be used with their band.

My next blog would be on the estate bands, Pest Infested and The Blue Stars.

Do send me an email if you have information on our estate band boys.

If you would like to hear what the 60s band sounded like, I recommend you visit
JoeWuSeattleWAUSA youtube channel for a sample. Click here.