Author: Andy

I was so sad to hear about Charlie. He was my favorite drummer and my favorite Stone. A quiet unassuming old school gentleman who went to bed with a good book on tour rather than groupies. In this way, he was an example to others of faithfulness to his wife and good manners ….except when he punched Jagger nearly out of a window in Amsterdam, but he deserved that of course.

It seems extraordinary that he ended up in the most famous Rock and Roll band in the world. He didn’t like playing rock as much as jazz where he started out drumming. But the Stones pursued him mercilessly when looking for a drummer. Charlie was their first choice.

It might seem strange to us now, but their early ambition was just to be the best blues band in London and play three or four nights a week in clubs. Charlie would be ideal for that, with his love of the jazzy swing beat. However, things didn’t quite turn out as they expected!

The popular music scene is full of the vain and pompous, the thrusting and the self-obsessed. We needed Charlie tapping reliably and emotionlessly away at the back of the stage on his battered, ancient, tiny kit. It was if he was destined by the gods to be there to remind us that the Jaggers of this world are an aberration fit only for the stage.

It’s not, in reality, how we would want people to be….

It was nice to get a long message from my friend, trombone virtuoso and website designer Adam Smith on this rainy day. (Er…that’s not Adam in the photo.) Adam has helped me set up Phuket Music Scene and I couldn’t have done it without him. Thanks pal!

We both exchanged moans about the Phuket Music Scene being locked in the distant past of the 1960s and 70s (maybe 80s if lucky.) OK, older tourists born in the 50s might love to hear the Eagles, Johnny Denver and Bob Dylan, but there seems little interest in catering for those born in, say, 1990.

The problem is, as always, inertia, and I’m sure this post will provoke the usual negative comments we have come to detest so well (“…nothing is gonna change, … you’re wasting your time, …that’s what young people want to hear…” etc etc.). However, as I’ve always said, fortune favors the brave and never waste a crisis.

The music scene here may have been devastated by Covid, but this is a golden opportunity to make something of a new start. Maybe professional musicians in Phuket can be encouraged to play sometime….well… 40 years more up to date.

I admit I am stuck in the past too. I really don’t want to play Ed Sheridan or Justin Timberlake. I love Punk and hate Rap. In fact, some Blues songs I like playing are ninety years old! However, I’m retired and I don’t need to play for a living. But let’s help those who do because, God, don’t they need some at this time.

So here’s the plan…. Draw up a list of 20 well-known, up-beat songs in English from the year 2000 onwards and easy to play on guitar. Chord and lyric sheets can be put online somewhere to download with links to Youtube to really make things easy. I’m sure Jason Winder would play them on his radio show, maybe even in Good Vibes!

Surely it’s now the time to start moving on from the tired old Patong Songbook in favor of a Phuket New Millenium one.

But I just hope someone will keep playing Johnny Cash! (Photo)

© Andy Tong Dee

I was heartened to read Adam’s post today on the Phuket Musicians’ Facebook page (see here). He’s trying to put a band together.

His post attracted the usual moaning Minnies giving their oh-so “wise” advice, saying “you’re wasting your time,” “you’ll need a work permit,” “you’ll end up in jail, fined” etc etc. They can carry on being the finest guitarists hiding in their bedrooms. We don’t need them. No one does.

I’m glad to say Adam seems to be giving them a stiff ignoring, just like I do. We need more musos like him. A lot more.

Sadly, Phuket’s Falang music scene has too many sad, frightened rabbits who do nothing except foul things up by constantly warning us about things we know about already. Adam is not one of them.

SO HATS OFF FOR ADAM GREEN!