This is the end (of the Aus/NZ section, unless anyone has anything to add).
Woah! What a Fantastic post. Absolutely STUNNING array of indies. acetates, test pressings & one offs !!!
One label in particular stood out for me. I thought it quite interesting that the above pictured release was by an outfit I have never ever heard of and so was immediately intrigued. ( Not that I'd heard of any number of other artists portrayed in the gallery, but I'll attempt to remain on topic.)
How was it that an Australian combo would have their record released on a Malaysian / Singapore label?
Not that this phenomenon is by any means unusual, as the two sleeves pictured below will handily illustrate: Brazilian & German respectively. ( I suspect the Easybeats sleeve may appear familiar to a certain forum mainstay)
Anyway, back on track. A minimal amount of sleuthing brought the following to the fore; just who were these masked marvels?
Appears they had quite a CV, as noted in the article below:
http://singapore60smusic.blogspot.com/search/label/Mysterians
An excerpt follows.
Many people have heard of the Mysterians but do not know much about them. Now the truth is revealed as masks are taken off and each bandmate reveals his identity to the public.
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Early Days: Image shows from left, Tony Kwek who is on lead, Bernard Chin or 'Mike' sings, Victor Lam drums, Jeffrey Tan is on rhythm, Patrick Khong is on bass and William Toh (seated) is the keyboardist. Victor, the original drummer of the Thunderbirds, joined the Mysterians when his group wanted to pursue music full time. They had another guitarist, Richard Yeo who had since passed away in a road accident on June, 19th, 1965.
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Why is the group wearing masks? Four members of the group, including their manager, were in the civil service and since moonlighting was not allowed, they decided to play music incognito and for pleasure.
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The Mysterians were never interested to be pop stars and juggling shift duties was a problem. The band ended up playing occasionally, gigs were turned down and they did not appear in many of the pop shows. They were so mysterious that even other pop bands members did not know who they were! But they were 'exposed' in their recordings with Leroy Lindsay. Why?
It was only much later that the group had a regular tea dance slot at the Flamingo Nite-Club in Great World. In retrospect, because of the high musical standards they set themselves to play, there were some who felt that the Mysterians could have been more popular if they had more exposure and played in more stage and TV shows and not kept to themselves. Of course this is only an assumption. Guess their fans will never know.
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Due to work commitment, the Mysterians never went on tours to Malaysia like the other groups. The closest they went to was Johore Bahru, the Malaysian State across the Causeway and about half an hour from Singapore, where, according to one Mysterian, "we were mobbed and chased by Malaysian fans."
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There were also some enthusiasts who felt that the group was ahead of its time. They were not the typical 'Cliff Richard and the Shadows' band as Mike did not sing Cliff Richard songs but compositions by British and American rhythm and blues groups.
By the time they backed Leroy Lindsay on Cosdel/CSP 1010 (image), they were fully R & B. Personally though, were they? This was before other Singapore 60's blues groups came into the picture.
The Mysterians only single on Cosdel with My Girl Les and *Forget The Time sold quite well even though there was not much airplay on Radio Singapore or Rediffusion. Even today people still remember Forget The Time. Singer Mike left the band after the record was released.
There were two more releases afterwards, a single, You've Got To Move On and Searching, and an EP, Forever, They Lied, Is Everything Alright and Down In The Valley. But this time around the band had Leroy Lindsay (image) from the U.K. fronting them. And Searching had shades of Jamaican jive and combo backing. I love the exceptional presence of the harmonica (mouth-organ) in Is Everything Alright?
There were also changes in the band line-up when Michael Gan and Charles Koh replaced Mike and Jeffrey Tan. From 1970 to 1979, James Choa (check previous postings) from The Flamingos Combo and Gaylads vocal group, joined the Mysterians. James Choa is one of the best keyboardist in Singapore.
With new members came a new policy and although they retained the group name, they identified themselves during their performances. They had nothing to hide. The third record shows the very distinguished studious looking gentlemen with their glasses.
Summing up, the catalyst for this explor/exhum-ation was my recalling the Cosdel label as being familiar owing to its taking pride of place in my exceedingly paltry collection of Singaporian beat killers. I refer, naturally, to the Trailers, whose second 45 stands tall amongst any worldwide releases of the era. Including the Yardbirds !
Dig the lyrics-->
