The Teenagers rocked Miri in the 60’s

IT was a warm afternoon for a meet-up but the two gentlemen were kind enough to talk about their music and their band, dating back over 40 years in Miri.

The ceiling fan and the standing side fan at the patio of Mirian Winni Saba’s home could not bring down the tropical temperature.

But the anecdotes told by the duo were really absorbing, taking us right back to the 60’s. For a while, the humidity didn’t seem to matter. Such stories should be recorded for posterity.

Gerald Carroll had come up with two volumes of well-kept albums to show his two friends Eugene Cox and Winni Saba and this writer.

Using the photos in the albums as a basis for discussions on the music scene in the early days, Gerry (he insisted on being called that) had all of us mesmerised.

Gerry and Eugene had, in fact, pieced together an amazing history of youthful music and musicians of Miri from the early 60’s to the 70’s.

Both were hardly into their teens when they started out at a time even the outside world had not yet been fully awakened to the sounds of pop groups like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, to name a couple.

But over the radio, a four-piece boy band, aptly named The Teenagers, was already entertaining Mirians.

According to Gerry, who was one of the band’s teenaged members, they had to borrow guitars to play at functions in the early days.

Before they started playing as a group in public, they used to practise with improvised instruments — home-made guitars and a drum from a basin covered with paper.

“We were four naughty boys who made music in the laundry room of the living quarters of Piasau Shell. None of us could read music — indeed, any music scores would have been useless. We had no music advisor or teacher, except Mrs Andrew Liew, our music teacher at St Joseph’s School, who taught us to play some musical pieces in class. But mostly, we played by ear,” he recalled.

Gerry proudly revealed they were the first instrumental group in Miri to play the music of the Shadows and the bands from Singapore.

To learn new songs, they wrote down the lyrics by listening to the songs played over Radio Sarawak during the ‘At Your Request’ programme.

“We would wait for the songs to be requested again the following week! No one really knew how anxious we were, waiting for the songs to be played again so that we could complete the lyrics,” he said.

Likening the effort to a tough dictation test, Gerry noted they had to keep their ears open and work fast at the same time, pointing out that there were hardly any songbooks back then — unlike now when almost anything could be downloaded with a click of the mouse.

But that’s the beauty of those times, he enthused.

“When things did not come easy, they were valued and treasured even more. I still remember how exciting it was rushing home from school just to listen to the radio.”

It was only later that they started singing popular radio songs, known then as POP songs, according to Eugene.

The Teenagers comprised three relatives — Gerry Carroll, aged 14, Danny Carroll, 13, and Andrew Carroll, 12 — and a friend, Eugene Cox, 14, — all from St Joseph’s School Miri.

Dubbed the wonder boys not only of their school but also Miri, the quartet inspired their schoolmates and won the admiration of the townsfolk with their music and stage performances.

Interesting anecdote

Behind their first public performance was an interesting anecdote.

At first, Gerry’s father refused to let the boys perform at their first public dance event at the Miri Recreation Club.

But the senior Carroll later relented and the band had their first musical baptism of fire.

Gerry remembered they had to borrow a pair of guitars for the function — a branded Rossini and a Hofner. Eugene used the Hofner he borrowed from his brother. At that time, they could not afford even the cheapest China-made guitars.

Today, both Gerry and Eugene have a collection of branded guitars — a farcry from those ‘guitarless’ days.

Eugene said their repertoire ranged from cha cha, offbeat cha cha, quickstep, waltz and rock and roll.

“The four of us happened to also sing well. We performed by request at dances, social gatherings and church functions mainly in Miri.

“Our first-ever pay was $5 each — good pocket money for students like us in those days. Years later, each performance could fetch us $160. We felt quite rich,” he chuckled.

At St Joseph’s, especially during the school assembly, Father Dekker, the principal, would ask Gerry to play a song.

Gerry who had a lot of respect for Father Dekker, recalled: “We also helped to raise funds for the school. I remember being so happy donating a tin of condensed milk (from my mother’s kitchen) to Father Dekker for the school fun fair.

“We were very close to Father Dekker. When he came back for a reunion in Miri in 1989, the group played together again for an evening of grand memories.

“It was good to give something back to the school and the community, especially when Father Dekker travelled all the way here to be with us.”

Yellow River

According to Gerry, Yellow River was the most popular song the group sang at the time. Other titles popular among the Miri crowd were Obladi Oblada, Ballad of John and Yoko and No Matter What.

The Teenagers also won the Inter-school band competition in 1969 with the following songs — Don’t Play That Song, Top Of The World and the instrumental number Indian Maid, all composed by the popular Singapore group — The Quest.

In those days, Singaporean recording groups were very popular with Mirians. The records of Naomi and the Boys sold very well in Miri where the group staged a concert.

Both Gerry and Eugene also remember going church without fail.

Gerry and his family attended Holy Mass at St Christopher’s Church, Lutong, their hometown.

St Christopher’s was later demolished. So every Saturday at 4.30pm, the family would go to the old wooden St Joseph’s church for Novena.

School was a wonderful time in Gerry’s life. He especially admired Father Keogan, St Joseph’s principal who taught English and Scripture.

In fact, all the Mill Hill fathers were good teachers but Father Keogan stood out as a very good priest and educator.

No groupies

Asked about female fans, Gerry and Eugene laughed. There were no groupies but they did have quite a big fans club, formed by their classmates.

In 2014, Gerry, Eugene and Andrew got together to play at their class reunion.

Gerry recalled: “After The Teenagers disbanded, I went on to lead one of the top bands in Miri called The Glass Bubbles. We played all around Miri and Brunei. The band decided to call it a day in April this year after four decades. The Glass Bubbles was very popular and is today still much respected by other bands.”

The Teenagers split up in 1971 when Danny’s father went to work in Seria and Danny had followed the family. At that time, Gerry also started working with Tractors Malaysia.

Three years later, Gerry joined Shell while Eugene joined the police and moved to another part of Miri, marking a new chapter in their lives.

J Gau, (not his real name), a sixty-something retiree, told thesundaypost: “In those days, we were a very close-knit community. We enjoyed radio music. If we had a small portable radio, friends would gather around it to listen to the music.

“We had fun on Saturday afternoons in the hostel or the servants’ quarters in Piasau. We admired the Cox brothers because their father, Mr Cox, a Scotsman, would bring them around to play music. You could say they were our idols.”

The retiree said he and his friends could not go to places like the Gymkhana Club for the social dances and musical evenings because they were not colonial officers. Moreover, they also could not afford the tickets.

The Miri Recreational Club (MRC) was also beyond them. They could not bring any girls to the dances because as school boys, they had no pocket money for such functions.

“For social gatherings, we had to wait for the school to organise. The teachers would teach waltz, and cha cha — unheard of nowadays.

“The strummings of cheap wooden guitars could be heard from the boys’ hostels and our school band would play occasionally. The boys and girls had no proper music lessons. Almost all of us could not read the towgay signs (musical notes). We used to envy the better-off students from St Joseph’s Secondary School.”

A former student, who wished to be known as Helen, said the Catholic Church actually had a good choir.

In the old days, some students would even go from one church to another just to listen a certain pianist play. And it was really a joy to see a priest playing the piano well or a catechist singing well.

A school band comprising talented young musicians such as the Carrolls and the Coxes provided great memories of their schooling days for most of the students.

This was the kind of social milieu when The Teenagers started playing in Miri.

Gerry and Eugene will be very much part the anniversary celebration of their class in October 2017. St Joseph’s School will also will celebrate its 85th anniversary on the same day.

The Teenagers will regroup to play not only at their class anniversary but also that of the School, founded in 1932.

Today, Gerry still plays the guitar in his free time.  Eugene continues to play with several bands and can be seen at The Wheels.

Music is still very much a part of their lives — after 40 years!

Winni Saba, the organising chairperson, urged all Josephians to participate in the anniversay celebration.

She is positive this special event will be supported by not only the Roman Catholic community but also by students from all religious and racial backgrounds.

Let us walk back in time with the school band. Gerry, Eugene and the boys will there to entertain with their music come October 2017.