Bay Beats 2003

By Mok Wen Kai • UrbanWire
• email reporter • email story • printer friendly version •

The Merlion would have gyrated its fins if it was alive at Bay Beats, a music festival held at the Esplanade from July 18 -20. Jointly organised by Wakemeup Music, Awakening Productions, Rockstar Collective and Zion Entertainment, the free event saw this year’s largest collection of 30 local and foreign bands congregating to perform for their love of alternative music.

“Bay Beats is a showcase for local bands and at the same time we have the opportunity to bring in foreign acts,” said JohnC, the producer of this 16-hour musical extravaganza.

“We are trying to develop the indie rock and punk rock scene in Singapore,” he added.

Running for its 2nd year,this year saw big names from the indie rock scene such as USA’s The Gloria Record , Portugal’s Fonzie and Japan’s Bandwagon. Several bands from Malaysia such as Color My Iris and Elisbelle Tears also performed.
Not to play second fiddle to the foreign bands,the local bands also showed that they could play good music. “It is our passion and goal to really give a different perspective of local musicians to local people,” said Gordon Khoo, a volunteer and emcee from Awakening Productions.

However as local music is not well known by most Singaporeans, Gordon said, “we find it quite saddening and discouraging that local bands that have a lot of talent and passion for their music do not get recognition from the local media.”

“For instance, we know of local bands which [have] released their own albums, done tours overseas and have sold many of their CDs there, but yet the local people here do not know about them,” he added.

As part of one of the local performing bands, Dean Luah of NvRLrN, however said, “I think it is a great opportunity to perform at Bay Beats for exposure and the crowd response was very good. It feels great to play in front of such a large crowd and have them enjoying it.”

A difference between this year’s and last year’s event was the number of stages set up. This year’s had 3 – the ChillOut Stage, the Arena and the Acoustic Stage, the last being the new stage.

“For the Arena, it is mainly for the much noisier bands which play hardcore and punk rock. People who play at the ChillOut stage have easier-going indie rock and a more poppish feel to their music. As for the Acoustic Stage, the first for this year, we have something even more chillout than chillout for easy listening. We have placed it between the bistros which add more atmosphere to the dining area,” explained JohnC.

He also let UrbanWire in on the possible line-up for next year’s Bay Beats. “I have been talking to some major acts such as the Last Days of April from Sweden and Hey! Mercedes from America but we do not know where it is going yet. For Asian bands we can look out for Whence He Came and probably more Malaysian acts. I’m even stretching out to look out for some Thai and Indonesian bands,” he said.

What did the audience think about the massive gig? Andrew Chia, an NS man among the approximately 1,500 people who turned up said, “In this world of Britney Spears, Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit, what the world needs is some good music."