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RIP Jap Chong

SINGAPORE - I know: I needn’t have been shocked to learn that another one of Singapore’s music legends joined the great gig in the sky. I didn’t really know Jap Chong. But when I heard the news that he died from a heart attack, I still felt a little, well, upset.

The Quests' "classic" line-up: Henry, Vernon, Reggie, Jap and Wee.

The Quests' "classic" line-up: Henry, Vernon, Reggie, Jap and Wee.

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SINGAPORE - I know: I needn’t have been shocked to learn that another one of Singapore’s music legends joined the great gig in the sky. I didn’t really know Jap Chong. But when I heard the news that he died from a heart attack, I still felt a little, well, upset.

Now, being in this business means that I get one or two perk that other people don’t get. No, not Free Fruit Fridays; but the chance to speak to or meet some of my music heroes. The list of those I’ve had the good fortune to shake hands with is a long and varied one, from Michael Stipe to Karen Mok; Steve Vai to M Nasir. But the meetings I’ve treasured the most are those with the musicians who helped to shape the sound of this little red dot. I mean, you don’t get to have nasi biryani with Ramli Sarip or sip tea with Dick Lee every day, you know? (Okay, some people do, but I’m not one of them.)

And I have to say that one of my biggest thrills was meeting up with The Quests back in 1994. It was because of The Quests that I felt that I could be in a band. I’d first heard about them in the 1980s (don’t ask me when exactly). A deejay - I think it was Roger Kool - played Shanty on the radio.

At the time, I was very into the music of bands like The Beatles and The Shadows, but when I was told that Shanty was by a Singapore band, I was stoked. Wow, I never knew a Singapore band could play music like that. (At the time, all I knew of Singapore musicians was Dick Lee, and maybe Tokyo Square.)

I was hooked. And I spent the next few years scouring for more music by The Quests. I was lucky, I discovered Don’t Play That Song (You Lied), because it came on the radio. (Hey, we didn’t have Google, YouTube even personal computers at the time, yeah?) Thanks to radio, I discovered other Singapore gems like Naomi And The Boys, The Thunderbirds, The Crescendos, Sakura and others.

But I never forgot The Quests. So when I was offered the opportunity to talk to them, I jumped at the chance. They’d just released an album featuring re-recordings of their classics, called In Quest of The Quests and they were prepping for concert spot on the Rolling Good Times concert that year. Which was why I found myself talking to the “classic line-up”: Jap Chong, Henry Chua, Vernon Cornelius, Lim Wee Guan and Reggie Verghese.

They were all very amiable and regaled me with anecdotes of what life was like being in the biggest band from Singapore in the ’60s. I was quite surprised to learn that it was Jap who sang lead on Jesamine - I’d assumed that Vernon did all their vocals. I remember telling them that was my favourite track on In Quest... well, bar Shanty. Jap seemed a little embarrassed by that remark.

I also couldn’t help noticing that all the other members deferred to Jap throughout the interview. At one point, Vernon, who was ostensibly the band’s front man, called him “the main man”.

It was Jap - real name Chong Chow Pin - who, after watching the concert by Cliff Richard And The Shadows at the Happy World stadium, decided to rope in his friends, Raymond Leong, Wee Guan and Henry, and form a band.

Forget that none of them were proficient musicians. They decided to give it a go anyway, with Leong on lead guitar, Jap on rhythm guitar, Wee Guan on drums (“so that he can hide behind the drums and cymbals,” Jap quipped) and Henry on bass. Their drum set was basically made of biscuit tins, and Henry couldn’t even play guitar, let alone bass. (Jap said that he convinced Henry to play the bass by telling him that because it only had four strings, not six, it would be easier to learn to play than a regular guitar.)

The band’s name, by the way, was taken from the school magazine of Queenstown Secondary Technical School (now Queenstown Secondary School), where Jap and Raymond were students.

The Quests started playing gigs, joined talent competitions and, after a couple of years, landed themselves with a recording contract. As Jap told it, they had accompanied singer Wilson David, the Elvis of Singapore, to back him up for his audition with EMI, because he told them that they had an audition too. So they were surprised when they were told otherwise. Nevertheless, Jap and the boys managed to blag their way into getting an audition themselves and the EMI peeps liked what they heard and offered them a contract. (Ironically, Wilson David didn’t get signed by EMI, but by rival company, Phillips.)

The Quests were tasked to write their own songs. Within two days, they had two: Shanty, written by Henry Chua, and Gallopin’ by Reggie. The single, Shanty b/w Gallopin’, shot to the top of the charts, and the rest as they say, is history. (A quick aside about Shanty: While it’s Reggie’s lead guitar that is the feature of Shanty, you can’t ignore Jap’s excellent and deft rhythm guitar work on that song, particularly with those arpeggiated sweeps.)

A few years later, I bumped into Jap again, at a bar in Emerald Hill. I think he seemed a little embarrassed again when I requested Jesamine, but he nevertheless indulged. I had few opportunities to see Jap and his band, Penny Lane, in action. Work, family, just life in general kept getting in the way. Never mind, I used to say, I know where Penny Lane is playing, if I want to see Jap in action, I can just go there. Well, I guess I won’t be able to do that any more.

It seems a little unfortunate that Jap’s passing is in the same year as the 50th anniversary of Shanty. (And I would definitely have loved to see the guys do a concert this year to celebrate that fact.) But Jap had apparently been suffering from heart and kidney ailments for quite a while. Yet, if you check out the concert footage from the Quests’ gig celebrating Queenstown’s 60th anniversary celebrations last year, you wouldn’t have guessed it. He was full of get-up-and-go.

But while the man may be gone, he isn’t forgotten. Not if the online posts from his fellow musicians are anything to go by.

His Quests bandmate Henry posted: “Sad day for music ... We will miss you, but your music lives on in the people you have touched. You are now safe in the Lord’s arms.”

“Adieu to my fellow 60s friend JAP May he RIP,” wrote singer Veronica Young on Jap’s Facebook page.

Steve Bala (of The Bee Jays) wrote: “We will sure miss a great guy like you........you full of love and music buddy.......respect every bit of you..........now go and sing with the angels and rest in peace brother.”

A “beautiful person” was how Jimmy Appudurai-Chua, the former Straydogs guitarist, described Jap. “One of the best rhythm hands I know - a great strummer. He had a beautiful voice and I am honoured to be one of his friends,” he told TODAY. “When we were touring (with The Quests) in the Push Push show with Keith Locke, he was always very friendly and good to us. I was in a support band, The Meltones - small time! As a person, he is very likeable and very approachable. He was a star - you could tell, just by looking at him, (he was) always smart and well-dressed, his personality burst out. Very well-like by all. I shall miss him.”

We won’t be able to see The Quests reunite any more - not quite in the same way. But perhaps, it’s not so much a time to mourn, but to celebrate the music and the joy that Jap gave us, with the Quests, with Penny Lane...

As John Lennon once said: “You have all the old records there if you want to reminisce. You have all this great music.” Yes, we do have all this great music. And thank you for being such a big part of it, Jap.

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