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Singapore - A city in constant motion
Douglas Oliveiro - The musician
David Lim - Climbing new mountains |
Douglas Oliveiro - The Musician
By Alistair Harding
First published: Destinations Singapore 2007/08
I can only imagine what it was like. The place was a sleazy little pub in Singapore's Tanjong Pagar district. The name of this place? The Ritz. There's a fine line between class and cliche, and this place had crossed it.
The bars of Tanjong Pagar in those days were filled with drunken sailors from the nearby docks and good-time girls from God-knows-where. It was a place filled with a hundred other seedy nightspots. All catering to pent-up desires and a lust for booze.
But on this particular night in 1972, the owner of the bar, one Mr Tan, gave a kid a break. Wandering in through the cigarette smoke with his guitar, the 15-year-old-version of Singapore's future rock king made his entrance.
"Yeah, it was sleazy," remembers Douglas Oliveiro. "But for a young guy like me, getting a chance like that was very cool."
Oliveiro got his start in the entertainment business that night. Self-taught on the guitar, he had somehow convinced the owner he was worth wangling an underage permit for him to play with the band.
"How cool was that? They started me off on the guitar and I slowly moved up to singing."
Within a year he had been spotted by another band looking for a singer. Mr Tan had been good to Oliveiro - "He even paid my CPF (Singapore's compulsory retirement savings), that's unheard of today" - but this new offer was too good.
"These guys had a regular gig in a hotel on Orchard Road," remembers Oliveiro. "I couldn't say no. It was like asking me to go to Hollywood!"
That was when the Oliveiro flame really started to burn. Soon live music venues all over the city were clamouring for him to play their joints. Throughout the late '70s and into the '80s and '90s, together with his band Energy, Oliveiro became the biggest name on the Singapore live music scene.
There were also three studio albums. In the '80s recording with Energy, the Malay-language "Gadis Tokyo" was followed up with the English-language "Simply Energy". The third album, a solo effort named "Douglas O", was released in the mid-'90s. All made sales of about 20,000-30,000 copies.
"I look back on those albums as a bit of a disappointment," says Oliveiro. "Not because of the quality of music, but because of the lost chances they represent.
"All you ever want to do when you're coming up in the music business is to record. But when you do, you have to remember where your bread is buttered.
"Every time we had an album out we should have been out promoting them, spending time on the road. But when it came time to do it, we always had to be back here in Singapore playing at the bars and clubs that paid our salaries.
"And the only product from that situation is that you end up seeing your music in the $2 discount bins. That's the hardest lesson you learn from the whole experience."
The other lesson learnt from recording albums was a study of the Singapore audience. No matter how hard Oliveiro and Energy tried, the audiences in the Lion City still wanted to hear the band's cover versions of other artists.
Lessons aside however, Oliveiro and Energy kept going from strength to strength, culminating in a five-year residency at Bar None on Orchard Road. Lines stretched around corners, the joint heaved and Oliveiro was voted Singapore's sexiest man.
The Bar None days culminated in Oliveiro being installed as a judge on the first season of Singapore Idol in 2004. He won't say it directly, but you get the feeling that perhaps the added celebrity status started to make life difficult for both him and the other band members.
"I actually found it all a bit scary to be honest. As a performer as well as a judge at that time, I felt very visible and very vulnerable," he says.
"When I started to get a few nasty letters from viewers of the show I remember wondering how long it would be until someone came down to Bar None with something that could hurt me."
The direct result of his fears was his standing down from the judges' panel of Singapore Idol for the second season. The indirect result perhaps was the splitting of Oliveiro from Energy.
It was the end of an era. Energy continued at Bar None and Oliveiro made plans of his own at a new bar - Le Baroque - across town at Chijmes in the City Hall district of Singapore.
Today, live on stage at Le Baroque, it's hard to believe you're watching a 50-year-old. The sunglasses are still there. So are the t-shirts and jeans and chains. After years of rock and roll, you'd think Oliveiro would be looking like Keith Richards, but instead it's like you're watching a 20-year-old making his name in the music game.
"I think that's because you're actually talking to a 20-year-old mind," laughs Oliveiro. "When I laugh, I really laugh. It makes me feel better and when you enjoy yourself as much as I do, you can see it reflected in the audience.
"After all, that's the whole reason we are doing this. It is all about entertainment and I want people to feel like they're part of the show when they come to see us. I want them to leave feeling as good as I do."
Those comments ring very true when you see Oliveiro's performances.
I first saw him perform with Energy at Bar None sometime in late 2000. The night had started with some slower songs as the crowd drifted in. By midnight the place was filled to the brim as Oliveiro led Energy back on stage.
Suddenly, the lights went down and anticipation dripped from the rafters. Then, as pink spotlights rose over the crowd, the first chords of Pink Floyd's The Wall brought the house down. What followed was a performance which really should have been delivered in a stadium.
"We still go to those extremes at Le Baroque," says Oliveiro. "What we are trying to do is something a little different.
"It's the same with the way we put together our music. A lot of people think I am a rocker from way back. Actually, my influences are Funk and Soul and that's what makes our sound popular.
"I think that makes me a little difficult to work with sometimes. Because I'm self-taught I like to experiment. I never say there is a right way or a wrong way of doing things, but sometimes the guys that have formal training find that hard to accept.
"But I am always right. Except when I think I made a mistake," he laughs.
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