Sunday, August 08, 2010
Happy 45th National Day
I've been at the Esplanade open-air free concert for the past 2 nights.
It is to celebrate National Day this year, and it featured Singaporean bands from the 1960s, performing their own songs and songs famous from that era, e.g. by the Bee Gees.
It was certainly a nostalgic affair, hearing them perform some songs I've never heard of, talking about bands' and artistes' names I've never heard of either.
The 'boy bands', 'rock bands' are now 40-60 years old uncles and aunties, looks totally unfashionable and normal like the ones we see everyday. Even from the way they talked.
However when the music played and the voices came, the musical talent just transformed the whole atmosphere.
Amongst the crowd were similiarly-aged uncles and aunties, who clapped happily to the tunes, and nodded furiously whenever a familiar and nostalgic sounding name was called out.
They were reminising about the 1960s, aka 'the good old days' in their terms, when passion is what they followed, and the world a much simpler place.
It is so evident in the lyrics of those times, comparing love to moons, flowers, days and nights, rather than the dunno-whats nowadays.
There was just this sense of nostalgia around the place, seeing the uncles and aunties, both on stage and off stage, enjoying the times, as wonderfully hosted and guided by the local media veteran and legend who is Brian Richmond.
There was something very authentic, very Singaporean about the whole atmosphere. Talking about the old buses, old places, old music companies that ceased to exist. In perfect Singaporean accent. Every band a perfect imitation of the Elvis, Bee Gees era. Chinese singing Malay folk songs, cracking jokes using Malay phrases.
There was no sense of divide - races, religion, what? There was just a common feel, the sense of togetherness in living through that era, in Singapore.
To me, this is the real Singapore. The good old days where we had ample time in a stable population to build our own identity. Speak our own language. Have our own accents. Make our own music.
This kind of natural racial harmony, the sense of growing up together, the sense of commonhood. Nothing that the state can engineer. It just comes naturally, from the bottoms-up.
It's a pity that we don't have that feeling in our country anymore.
Thank you Esplanade for organising this concert.
And grateful to my luck I managed to catch it.
From here, I've found back the real Singapore.
The Singapore I want to serve, the Singapore I want to fight hard to preserve, and the Singapore I want to be proud of.
Happy National Day :)
lowtide blogged @
11:57 pm
