Willie Lawson
The venue was the Singapore Yacht Club and after an excellent meal and some speeches from the Corps senior officers and dignitaries we were entertained by a local band, playing 60s music.
However, their routine was interrupted by a new face making his major debut on the Singapore stage (he had previous links with the local Folk Club in the RAMC Enofel Inn and had done some stand-up sessions at Ayer Rajah Road Mess). His name was Dave Peaks and after a few introductory slightly slurred words he gave his own version of the John Lennon hit "Give Peaks (sorry Peace) a Chance". [See Photo Album]
He had the benefit of a pretty professional backing quartet, singing in Beach Boy style harmony, namely Rod Harris, Mike French, Paul Thain and yours truly. We had the maracas as Dave took charge of the only tambourine.
We are not sure if the local band joined in as photos taken at the time show them looking a bit bemused by this new style of protest music. Despite raucous applause and numerous encore requests from one table, this was to prove Dave's only song of the evening and although it truly deserved to be put onto vinyl one day, it never was and so Lennon had the market to himself. Later in the early hours in Bugis St, further renditions of the song were attempted but the initial tight-knit professionalism had been lost by then and no encore requests were received from the audience of Kai-Tais, Bootnecks and visiting Norwegian sailors, who were more interested in a couple of Aussies performing a traditional dance, stark naked, on the roof of the Toilet block, which involved a couple of flaming newspapers and unintelligible (Aboriginal?) words such as "Aye Ziggy Zumba". [See Photo Album]
