R.I.P. Dato' A Rahman Hassan

It's very hard to post two posts in a row like this, and I've been avoiding this blog for months knowing that the latest news was so sad... but another Pop Yeh Yeh legend also left us this year...

Dato' A Rahman Hassan passed away on June 13 2019. 

Here's a photo of Dato' with his band, Orkes Nirwana, and his first wife, Datin Azizah Muhamad (also a singer in the band)



Photo by Juhanis Yaacob. 

Read my previous posts about Dato' A Rahman Hassan here, and here.

I will soon be posting some interview footage of Dato' A Rahman Hassan and some clips of Orkes Nirwana in the rehearsal studio - clips from the movie I'm working on.   

Here's an article from the Straits Times. 

R.I.P. Kassim Selamat, lead singer of the Swallows

Legendary Boyanese / Baweanese singer Kassim Selamat of the Singapore Pop Yeh Yeh group, The Swallows, passed away on May 26, 2019.

Here's an article in English from Bernama.com :

Here's a photo i took with Kassim Selamat in 2010 when Cikgu Yusnor Ef introduced me to him.

And here's an article in Malay from BeritaHarian.sg - Singapore's biggest Malay language newspaper. They write about his incredible career, and also mentioned how I traveled to meet him and played his music on my radio show here in the US.   The photo in the article below, on the left,  was taken by his daughter when I last visited him.

Here's a song I always loved by The Swallows.  When we met in 2010, we ended up driving Kassim Selamat home and he sang along to his greatest hits CD in the car the whole way.  This was one of the ones i remember him singing along to in the backseat with the cool breeze blowing through the window.

Oh Fatimah - The Rythmn Boys perform two sold out concerts at the Esplanade

Last March, the legendary Rythmn Boys, who backed artists such as S. Mariam, A. Ramlie, Jeffrydin, Adnan Othman, G. Yusoff, Novel, Sha'ari Omar, S. Ahmad, M Amin, Ramlah Aziz, Aziz Jonid,  and many others, played two sold out concerts at the Esplanade in Singapore. 

Adnan Othman performed with them for the first time in 30 years. S. Mariam, who was one of the group's main singers for many years, also performed that evening.  M. Amin, and A Ramlan, singers who still perform regularly with the group, were also there.  What a reunion! 

You can watch video of the concert HERE! 

Here's an article about the concert (in Malay). 

2016 Richmond Times Dispatch article about researching Pop Yeh Yeh, etc.