Story and Photos by Robert Lorimor

It was the King of Thailand’s birthday and a warm British Sunday afternoon in Bangkok. The staff had come out to setup the tables on the west lawn of the British Club. They spread their white linen over the tables and arranged the silver around the plates in their proper arrangement. And when everything was “right and proper,” the staff stepped back. A small stage had been set beneath a large over-hanging tree strung with glowing Christmas lights.

Then the bands came one by one. All nine of them: Celtic Colours, Stranded, Rick and Iggy, Simon & Friends, Bastard, Cannonball, Inuendo, Soi Dogs, and Flow. These ladies and gentlemen rockers set out their musical instruments and tuned them in preparation of the show. And when it became time to play, their music punched the air and rattle the neighbor’s windows—as if telling the Thais this was the “right and proper” way to host a little British music festival. Yeah, we can rock too. This is Britstock.

The day was December 5th and the event was the second annul “Britstock” at The British Club in Bangkok. An unique event because the band members were “mostly farang” and “mostly English school teachers by day.” Sure, most of these guys are school teachers, but they can really rock, they sound great. They put as much soul into their music as their day jobs, probably more.

The afternoon began with the music of Celtic Colours; their style of rock and fiddle folk music had crowd showing their Irish colors and stomping their feet. They were followed by newcomers Stranded, their music had a good rocking beat. Rick and Iggy stepped up next and performed their folk acoustic duo; Iggy played some their numbers with his harmonic. Next up was Simon & Friends who played some rock with a mix of bit Jazz. They were followed Bastard, their hard rocking got the blood and tempo going.

Because this was the King’s birthday today, most bars were closed for the Thailand holiday. Rick Fafoutas, after finishing his set with Iggy Halentine, reflected this about the event and his peers. “Normally we don’t get to see all our friends together like this. We get to meet good friends and hear their music we normally don’t get to hear because we are always playing in other bars.”

The sun was setting now and reflecting off the windows of the nearby hotels. However, the evening was just beginning. Cannonball stepped in and belted some heavy rocking blues with Keith at the keyboard. They were followed by Inuendo who had just reformed their band with their new lead singer Richardo. Both of these bands got the crowd on their feet dancing to their rocking blues. Jeff and the Soi Dog Band took the stage and their blues gave another boost to the event. Special thanks went out to Paul Williams of Noriega’s for organizing the event. Paul, a guitar player himself, got up and played one number with Soi Dogs.

The crowd was kept entertained between sets by the bagpipe music of Annie and Andy. The children were kept delighted by the small carnival games and magic show. In a break from the folk, blues and rock music, Khun Phairut, a regular at the British Club, performed some soothing classical guitar music.

The encore band was Flow, who also help organized the event. Roland, Peter, Rick and Mic of Flow kept the crowd on their feet, rocking and dancing. Britstock concluded in traditional Thailand fashion of celebrating the King’s birthday by holding up a candle while Flow band played tribute.

Editor’s Update: An apology is needed here to the Innuendoes. We reported incorrectly that the Soi Dogs follow the Innuendoes when it was actually the Innuendoes who followed the Soi Dogs.

Photographs below and on additional pages are most of the Britstock performers as they appeared in chronographically order.

Celtic Colours

Stranded Band

Rick and Iggy

Pages: 1 2 3 4

This entry was posted Saturday, December 11th, 2004 and was filed under Jungle News, Events. RSS 2.0 feed. Trackbacks have been temporary removed.