Stray Cats Tattoos and Singapore Rockabilly Cats

The year was 1982. A disparate collection of motley individuals gathered in Singapore to form the Singapore branch of the Stray Cats Appreciation Society. Unofficially of course. For there was no such thing as a Singapore Stray Cats Appreciation Society. This fact did not deter this group of individuals. For they were driven by a love of rockabilly as personified by Stray Cats and their charismatic leader, Brian Setzer.The band had broken through in 1979 in the aftermath of punk but they were coming from a different angle. Their roots were Cat music of the Fifties as performed and inspired by the likes of Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Carl Perkins and others of his ilk. The 1982 release of Stray Cats Built For Speed was the first Singapore release on the Arista label and is thought to be highly collectible because it had a different sleeve with different artwork and is believed to the record that opened the floodgates where rockabilly in Singapore was concerned.

The cognoscenti who comprised the Stray Cats Appreciation Society would gather at various venues such as Riot the alternative clothing shop which was located at Singapore Shopping center and at Attic, Supreme, Swamp Records, Dada, Roxy. They were record shops located at Lucky Plaza, Far East Plaza( along the belt of Orchard Road) and also at Funan Centre because these are the shops that import rockabilly scriptures.Sometimes, they will meet at Billy Bomber for a quick bite and then proceed to Party Doll in Clarke Quay to show off their fancy footstep and dance the night away to the voice of Ziki, the female vocalist of The Wanderers, A Singapore and Japanese rock n roll/Rockabilly band.
Otherwise, some hepcats also patronize temples of high culture located in streets like Petain Road, Keong Saik Road and the whole district of Geylang. Needless to say that our dedicated members of the society are also unbelievably horny.Feline Casonova, so they say. Some of then also gather at Hill Street Food Court next to the present Nation Archives Building during the weekends to pontificate on the virtues of their chosen form of music. Their main activity was listening to the gospel of Catdom. They received added inspiration from the large number of stray cats which frequented the food court and which they considered a good omen. They named the place Cat City Listening was a communal experience whereby the merits of demerits of each track was debated endlessly. Sometimes it ended up in shouting matches and even in blows but next week lo and behold they were back.

 The charter members included such luminaries as Johnny Ng,who was regarded as the Godfather of Cats in Singapore, Mathew Sim. Kelvin Chan, Raymond Soh, and Jason O' Connor, a New Zealander who migrated to Singapore and was soon spouting Hokkien vulgarities with the best of them and Anuar, who was known to be the first Malay to have turned on to Rockabilly in Singapore. That is going against the grain when the rest were headbanging to heavy metal, imagine B.B King belting out rock ballads. They listened to the music and adapted to the ways of their rockabilly idols. Some fans took their appreciation of rockabilly further by adopting the ethos of Cat lifestyle. Working in a blue collar profession was a must. Kelvin said that he thanked the Head Cat above when he was selected to be a mechanic during his Army days. They adopted the dressing such as bowling shirts, creepers and used the obligatory Hair Wax. These were de rigeur while the cigarette of choice for those who smoked were Lucky Strikes without filter. Donkey Jacket , Drapes were certainly out because it is summer 365 in Singapore.All these items had to be imported as Singapore was not exactly Rockabilly Heaven.

Those who were inclined to stylize their allegiance to the lifestyle further by tattooing their bodies got it done at the tattoo parlour of Johnny Two Thumb who had been in various locations over the years such as Yishun, Bras Basah Road and Far East Plaza. The Cat logo was considered the coolest one and a must have for any worthy Cat and quite a few of those mentioned had it grafted on to their person. As a matter of fact, the Cat Head logo can be found on ALL the charter members(see picture below, all the member's tattoos). Craziness abounded in the Rockabilly devotees lifestyle. One Mr X(he might read this and hack this page!) went berserk on a Christmas Eve and ran almost naked for almost two kilometers, bare footed along North Bridge Road. As he was stripping down he took off his creepers, looked at Kelvin solemnly in the eye and said gravely while he handed them over, "Look after them". It was a most profound moment for them. The Creepers were the most important accessory then. After some years of this activity the need to propagate the gospel further propelled them into two activities. One was the starting of a newsletter titled Vintage by Kelvin and Mathew. It was introduced in 1990 on an ad hoc basis but had circulation in countries like USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Well known readers included Brian Hyland and Bobby Vee, 1960s pop star and a well known Buddy Holly fanatic respectively. Not the first division of Cat matters but certainly note worthy.Of course it was not all craziness for they had their serious side too.

In 1998 Kelvin, Johnny and Raymond opened a record shop in downtown Singapore called Go Cat Go where they sold records and rockabilly accessories such as creepers, rockabilly magazines etc. The shop went for four years and business was good but according to Kelvin their spirits were down for some reason and they finally closed it in 2002. Still they had no regrets. Through out the years, some members would travel round the world (Japan 2006 -see below pix for Setzer Sold Out Concert Tokyo 2006 )to catch Stray Cats and The Brian Setzer Orchestra in action(see below pix for latest handbill in 2009, ) and they will return to preach and share their experiences with other members. Other members still visit Roxy and Johnny Two Thumb(Note: King Richard has moved to The Heeren, google for more info) on a regular basis. Most of the charter members are already settled down and have grown fat but that did not stop them from teaching the young and innocent the true values of a Hepcat and hopefully, their offsprings(Johnny named one of his son Brian and Kelvin named his daughter Rebelene, after one of his favourite Setzer's song) will continue to live and breathe in this part of the Rockabilly World widely known as South East Asia. - Joseph C Pereira, Author, Legends of the Golden Venus: Bands That Rocked Singapore from the '60s to the '90s.--------
Below: Singapore Hepcats' tattoos