Blues fest, lah! (The Singapore Blues Festival)

In 1996, the folks at Crazy Elephant launched the first ever Singapore Blues Festival at the Clarke Quay Gazebo. The line-up included veteran rockers Siva Choy and Heritage, plus Don Victor, the Straight Jackets, and Australian guitarist John Hanson. No headliners, but the show had a great vibe -- a lot of over-the-top jamming, plus a surprise appearance by former Straydogs guitarist Jimmy Appudurai-Chua. There were plenty of gaffes (e.g., Heritage and Victor both covered "Hoochie Coochie Man" within an hour of each other), but for a first go, it was a cult classic that drew a respectable crowd.

Crazy Elephant struck again in 1997 with a Blues Fest Sequel, this time with Bluesbreakers alumnus Walter Trout headlining the event. (Rumor has it that Chicago blues legend Hubert Sumlin had originally been considered but was later dropped because promoters didn't think he was a big draw in Singapore -- the justification of selecting Trout being that Singaporean fans were more fluent in the blues of John Mayall & Co. Oh well.) Anyway, Trout, who was supported by the same Singaporean bands who appeared in 1996 (some of whom, err, played pretty much the same set as they did a year earlier), delivered a sturdy set of reverby blues-rock -- but with a S$40 per head entry fee, a lot of people just hung around the perimeter of the Gazebo soaking in the music for free. The lackluster ticket sales were made up for, at least in spirit, at the post-festival jam back at the Elephant, where Trout's keyboardist, Martin Gershwitz, sat in with local guys like Gary Tan, Derek Leong, and Don Victor.

But that was the end of the annual festival. Over the next few years, Crazy Elephant hosted one-night stands by Rick Derringer, Chris Chavez, and Eric Burdon; as for reviving the Blues Festival, though, it didn't seem like it was going to happen anytime soon. Meanwhile, management shake-ups rattled both Bernie's BFD (Bernie went on to start up the now defunct Bernie Goes To Town in October '99) and Roomful of Blues Café (which had lost a bundle on the August '98 Guitar Shorty show), thus eliminating any new players in the Blues Fest game.

As Y2K rolled in, Crazy Elephant and co-organizer R. Segar started mobilizing for Blues Fest III, although by the fall of 2000, the plans changed to staging a smaller-scale "Tribute to Muddy Waters" concert performed by local bands at the newly opened Voodoo Shack. (For more info, check out Segar's Singapore Blues Festival site.)

Any blues bands interested in participating in future Singaporean blues festivals (which are pending, as usual, but let's be optimistic) should get in touch with R. Segar (fax: 65.561.4943; e-mail nine.belowzero@bigfoot.com); Keef Ong (e-mail: keef@crazyelephant.com); or Danny Loong (e-mail: danny@ublues.com