Staying Alive: Older music acts Sweet Charity, Shawn De Mello and Be Happy still rocking

SINGAPORE – For seasoned home-grown music acts such as rock group Sweet Charity, former Talentime heart-throb Shawn De Mello and busking duo Be Happy, age is just a number. Now in their 50s to 70s, these performers are not giving up on music, but entertaining fans with comebacks and trying new platforms. 

Sweet Charity reunite for concert and tour after 10-year hiatus

At 54 years old, Sweet Charity are undoubtedly one of Singapore’s longest-lasting bands and still going strong.

The rock pioneers fronted by singer-songwriter and legendary co-founder Ramli Sarip, 70, are celebrating their fifth decade together with a concert at The Star Theatre on Oct 14.

It is part of a tour that kicked off with a show at Stadium Arena Larkin in Johor Bahru (JB) on July 29. They are also planning gigs at several other Malaysian stops, such as Sarawak and Kuala Lumpur.

The reunion concerts come after a decade-long hiatus, during which the quartet focused on their respective careers.

While Ramli – who is a successful solo artiste and carries the title of Datuk in Malaysia – and guitarist Rosli Mohalim, 69, are full-time musicians, keyboardist-singer Ahmad Jaffar (AJ), 69, juggles music with his valet driver job and drummer Rahman Sarbani, 70, works as a hospital assistant.

The current gigs also mark the triumphant return to stage for Rosli, who had a stroke in late 2021.

“Back then, I couldn’t move the right side of my body, but I got better and can now play the guitar again,” he told the media on Monday at a press event to launch the Singapore concert.

The 3,000-strong audience that turned up at the recent JB concert, which lasted more than two hours, spanned several generations, Ramli recalls.

“There were families made up of grandparents, parents and their children. There were young people who dressed like we did back in the 1970s. A lot of them who were not born when we recorded our songs were singing along to every word.”

Formed in 1969, the band went from playing at weddings and in small bars in Sembawang to being the main event at shows at the now-defunct National Theatre in the 1970s. Ramli and Rahman are the only members left from the founding line-up that had its roots in a kampung in Bukit Timah.

Sweet Charity were hailed for their spirited and lively showmanship. Ramli recalls how he would mimic singers like Robert Plant from British rock legends Led Zeppelin, whom he had read about in music magazines such as Melody Maker. “Back then, I could do jumps on stage. These days, I just move side to side,” he jokes.

In the 1980s, they recorded and released hit songs that made them a household name among Malay music fans in Singapore and Malaysia. Signature tunes such as Teratai (1979) and Kamelia (1980) are still played regularly on Malay radio, and the band were credited for inspiring the succeeding generation of rock acts that sprouted across both countries in the 1980s and 1990s, such as Lefthanded and Search.

Says Ramli: “I wouldn’t say that we were great musicians, but we had a special chemistry. We would include different genres such as heavy metal and hard rock, and incorporate elements of folk and traditional Malay music and even dangdut (a genre of Indonesian folk music).”

Sweet Charity released their eponymous debut album in 1979. Their second album, Pelarian (Refugee), and the subsequent five studio albums became very popular in Singapore and Malaysia. They sold up to 50,000 copies each, not including countless pirated copies which reportedly far outsold the legitimate ones.

Some of the previous band members have died, including keyboardist Masrom Abdul Hamid, who was killed in a road accident at the age of 59 in 2009.

“But life goes on,” says Ramli. “The band are still together because we don’t fight among ourselves. We always respect the differences we have. We’re a peaceful band.”

The line-up for their current tour is bolstered by seasoned and acclaimed musicians such as guitarist Addy Cradle, percussionist and National Arts Council’s Young Artist Award recipient Riduan Zalani and bassist Din Safari.

For Riduan, 38, performing with Sweet Charity is a dream come true. “My siblings and I grew up memorising their songs at our family home. These are songs that are close to my heart.”

Ramli says surprises are in store for fans who come to their gig at The Star Theatre, as they will be playing songs that they have never performed live before.

As long as the members can still sing and play their instruments, Sweet Charity will live on.

Says Ramli: “I’m not looking forward to retirement. As long as you are healthy and able to work, you do what you have to do. It’s a philosophy I got from my late dad.”

Ribut The Concert – Five Decades Of Sweet Charity

Where: The Star Theatre, 04-01 The Star Performing Arts Centre, 1 Vista Exchange Green
When: Oct 14, 7.30pm
Admission: From $48 to $188 via Sistic (go to

www.sistic.com.sg

or call 6348-5555)

Shawn De Mello, voted one of Singapore’s sexiest men in 1990, returns to music full time

If you were into English-language Singapore pop in the late 1980s and early 1990s, you would probably remember the name Shawn De Mello.

The singer and musician was quite the heart-throb in his heyday, and was so popular that readers of local tabloid The New Paper voted him as one of Singapore’s sexiest men in 1990 after he appeared on Talentime, a Channel 5 singing contest that was one of the biggest televised music events then.

De Mello went on to release his debut album, First Time, at the age of 19, scored a hit song on local radio, Unspoken Words (1989), and joined two of Singapore’s most popular live rock bands of the era, Energy and Kruger.

In the mid-1990s, he left the music industry and joined Singapore Airlines (SIA) as a flight steward. But after 26 years of flying, he chose “an early retirement”.

With time on his hands, he is slowly getting his feet wet in the nightlife scene.

Now 52, he performs every Monday at Youngs Bar & Restaurant in Seletar Aerospace Park, with singer-guitarist Regi Leo, 60, formerly from Kruger.

Leo, his former mentor, called De Mello for a show immediately after his last day with SIA in early July, and he could not say no. “Now it’s time to give back to those musicians who used to help me when I was very young,” he says.

The weekly gigs at Youngs are not his only public appearance. On July 21, he sang live on radio station ONE FM 91.3. More regular shows are in the pipeline.

But do not call it a comeback, he says, as he clarifies he did not stop singing even at his former day job.

As a member of the SIA Cabin Crew Performing Arts Circle and SIA Cabin Crew Music Society, he performed about five times a year at corporate events in Singapore, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Paris, Japan and Stockholm. “I’ve gone up on stage alone, singing for 2,000 people.”

He acted and sang in musicals such as Heart Over Heels – which was performed at the 2001 SIA Cabin Crew Charity Gala – and even appeared in one of the airline’s safety videos that gets played before every flight.

He is tight-lipped about his personal life and marital status, and will only say he has three children aged seven to 23.

But he credits his family for instilling in him the love of music. Growing up in a kampung in Siglap, his late father was a musician who played bass for acts such as veteran local rocker Douglas Oliveiro.

“I grew up going to see my dad at gigs. Everything I knew about music came from him. He had a wonderful way of teaching. He taught me three or four chords and then from there, I just naturally wanted to learn more. He could turn anything into music instruments, whether it is utensils or glasses filled with water.”

In 1988, encouraged by his family, he joined Talentime. He finished as a finalist but, more importantly, he scored a record deal and released his debut album the following year.

He represented Singapore in the 1990 Asia-Pacific Song Competition in Hong Kong and performed at major events, such as the launch of the Singapore Indoor Stadium in 1989.

From 1988 to 1990, he was one of the local stars who sang at Swing Singapore, the mega party in Orchard Road that attracted up to 250,000 revellers.

He was so popular that fans would search for his family’s home number in the phone directory and called to speak to him at all hours of the day. They would also send fan mail, which he says he still keeps in storage. People would stop him in the streets, but he says that his off-stage persona is very different.

“It was very flattering, but I was also very shy. When I get noticed in public, I feel very embarrassed,” he says.

His second album, a self-titled release, came out in 1991, but in the same year, his music career took a back seat after he enlisted in national service (NS), during which he was part of the Singapore Police Force Band.

After NS, he joined Kruger as a bass player. A few years later, he became a member of Oliveiro-fronted Energy, who were Singapore’s most prominent live band then. With the group, De Mello did residencies in not just Singapore, but also China and Indonesia.

After a few years in the nightlife scene, he felt he needed a break. “I told myself, Shawn, you’re 26, you still want to be a musician, running around, no CPF? So I resigned from Energy.”

In 1997, he joined SIA as he had always admired friends, and even a former girlfriend, who were part of the cabin crew. “I just wanted to fly and see the world while working,” he says.

He eventually rose up the ranks to become chief steward. But in recent years, the itch to focus on his music again became too strong to ignore. “I wanted to find myself, I wanted to focus 100 per cent on my passion, which is music.”

His repertoire with Leo ranges from classics by Frank Sinatra to modern pop from singers such as The Weeknd and Post Malone. He is also working on original songs.

He has plans to eventually start his own entertainment company because the pay for the average working musician seems to have gone down these days, he observes. “I want to bring up the value of all musicians, not just myself.”

Senior buskers Be Happy battle younger counterparts in reality competition show

They are up against contestants decades younger – one of whom is 10-year-old Lyla Ng, who has been winning hearts with her musical performances at The Cathay.

But that does not faze buskers Steve Han, 64, and Robin Neo, 59.

The pair, who perform under the moniker Be Happy, are the oldest among 16 finalists on Battle Of The Buskers, a Mediacorp reality singing competition that is streaming live on mewatch and the Mediacorp Entertainment YouTube Channel on Sundays till Aug 13, and subsequently on Saturdays from Sept 23 to Oct 14, before the finale on Nov 5.

“The others are very motivated and they have the potential to go far. We don’t think about winning. We’re just happy to be part of this competition. It’s a good platform for us to showcase ourselves,” says Neo, who plays keyboards.

The duo, who describe themselves as semi-retired, started busking in March 2023, inspired by YouTube videos of buskers performing in places such as Japan and Hong Kong.

These days, you can find them playing three-hour sets twice a week at heartland locations across the island, such as New Upper Changi Road and Bukit Panjang, with a set list of Mandarin and English songs that are mostly from the 1970s to the 1990s.

And while some people have dropped as much as $50 into their tip jar, they declined to reveal how much their takings are for each session.

“It’s not about the money,” says Neo, who is married with three adult sons. “If we can cover two meals and our parking fees from a set, we’re very happy.”

What is more important, they say, is seeing the smiles on the faces of their audience.

They recall a time when a coffee shop assistant requested songs that neither of them knew how to play. Neo, who says he has a collection of 10,000 song scores, could not find sheet music for the songs either, so he painstakingly wrote out the score himself.

“Two weeks later, we went back to the same spot and played those songs for him. He was so happy.”

Neither Neo nor Han, who sings, are professional musicians. Neo is a self-taught keyboard player who picked up the instrument in his early 20s and learnt by reading music books.

Han – a married father of two adult children and grandfather of two, aged two and six months – worked for more than three decades in the petrochemical industry, while Neo was from the semiconductor sector. Music was a serious hobby even when they held full-time jobs.

And while Neo still takes on occasional work from his former full-time profession and Han dabbles in real estate, they have more free time these days to focus on music. On weekends, they play at weddings and charity shows.

The friends crossed paths about 10 years ago when they were both performing at community events and hit it off.

About 1½ years ago, Han suggested that they team up and perform together. They chose the name Be Happy because it is a universal aspiration.

“It’s a common thing that everyone wants,” Neo says. “Our main motivation is to bring happiness to people because music can bring back many happy memories.”