During my teenage years, I used to attend many Singapore local music gigs around the island. Back then, we could attend gigs in many public spaces such as the old world trade centre outdoor atrium, old Nanyang Polytechnic Jurong campus, the old substation garden, Insomnia at Bugis, Fire disco, YMCA, The heeren, pubs such as Area 22, Roomful of Blues back at Macpherson, Moods around Scotts road. We could go jamming at Boon studio at Macpherson. Buying local music cassettes at Roxy Records & Trading, tower records or BigO magazines at Holland Village mama store. BigO magazine is online now. Check out their features, they got nice articles.
I kept some of the materials such as tickets stubs from 1997 onwards. I didn’t own a camera then, hence didn’t manage to have any photos from those times.
I used to be in a band, with a name called Mavis Birth, it was not founded by me but I was introduced to the band by a friend. We played Britpop style of music. I was the bass and back then, I had an Ibanez bass guitar choose by a friend for me, which I really loved and I still use Ibanez guitars today. We had a gig in Nanyang Polytechnic Jurong campus.
It was a lovely time growing up as a teenager being part of the music community. We attended ska gigs, punk rock gigs, death metal gigs, black metal gigs. It had been some of the most memorable days of my life and I always revisit this part of my memories with great joy. My favourite gig had to be a death metal gig at Insomnia in Bugis. ❤ ❤ As the energy and commitment of the musicians and audience made it a night to remember. I also loved going to ska gigs with trumpets and dancing. ❤
Some of my favourite bands are Sideshow Judy, Great Spy Experiment, Caracal, Humpback Oak, Force Vomit, 7nightatseas, Serenaide and so many others. I really wonder what happen to Sideshow Judy.
Recently there is an ongoing project collecting memories of the substation. I contributed 2 photographs of gigs documentations for it. Hence I got down to write this blog post as well.
ong xiao yun 