Young peeper these days, hiazz. Was having kopi with 2 of my early 20-something officers this morning and the conversation turned to music. Lucky I am quite 'in-tuned' with the latest so I could hold my own when the discussion turned to the Pussy Cat Dolls (droolz), Usher, James Blunt, Kelly Clarkson, Green Day, Akon, Five for Fighting, Gwen Stefani (more droolz), Rooster, Missy Higgins
et cetera..
And when the talk lingered for a good 10 mins on how cute one SYT thought Jay Chou and Edison Chen were, I had enough! Ok so I was jealous :))
I asked them about unker bands like UB40, Level 42, Dire Straits, Alphaville and OMD and all I got were blank stares. Nabeh! Ok they still knew a little about U2, INXS, Pet Shop Boys, Erasure, Depeche Mode and New Order since these bands are still doing stuff today. But not having heard of the Eurythmics and A-Ha? Tsk Tsk! They dunno what they are missing.
Some of the unker bands mentioned above have some interesting band-name origins. I knew the 2 of them girls were not really interested but I told them anyway :)) Since they bored me with Jay and Edison...
UB-40 : Named after a UK unemployment form for social benefit applications, the name of this ang-mo reggae band is derived from 'Unemployment Benefit Form 40'. During the Margaret Thatcher 'Iron Lady' era, Brit Unemploy-eds were called UB40s. Weird!
Dire Straits : When the Sultans of Swing Mark Knopfler and his brother David started the band, they were in financial dire straits! Serious :))Probably lazy ang mos.
Depeche Mode : The name was taken from a French fashion magazine,'Dépêche-mode', which translates to 'Fashion Dispatch' or 'Fast Fashion.' Why fashion? Beats me. But Martin Gore and David Gahan are still very fashionable till this day and their new single Precious from their latest album Playing The Angel brings us back to the good ole electro-synth sounds of the '80s.
New Order : The late Rob Gretton, the band's manager for over 20 years, is credited for having found the name 'New Order' in an article in The Guardian entitled "The People's New Order of Kampuchea". Kopykat! :))
Pet Shop Boys : Tennant and Lowe (so gay!) met by chance at an electronics shop in Chelsea. Realizing they had a common interest in dance music, they began to write together. To begin with, they called themselves West End, because of their love of London's West End, but later they came up with the name Pet Shop Boys, a name derived from some friends who worked in a pet shop in Ealing (i dunno where that is). They said that Pet Shop Boys "sounded like an English rap group".