Anders Nelsson
ELVIS AND ME I used to sneak downstairs in our two-storey house in the New Territories - my parents were missionaries in Sha Tin - to listen to American forces radio. The first time I heard Elvis, I knew what I wanted to be and I never deviated from that. Rock'n'roll ruled as far as I was concerned. I took my trousers to a tailor to have them turned into drainpipes and, with that and the Brylcreemed hair, I often spent time outside the headmaster's office at King George V school. In my last year at KGV, there were 40 of us in the class [and] 36 nationalities. Teenagers were very conservative and well behaved in those days. There were no drugs. It was alleged you could get a high from aspirin and Coca-Cola - but I just got diarrhoea.
GOING KONTINENTAL Our band [most of whom were from KGV] developed into The Kontinentals in the early 1960s. We started as Cagey V, which we thought terribly clever, but no one got it because they just heard K-G-V. We quickly changed to The Vampires and then, because [the band members] were from different continents, The Kontinentals, spelled with a 'K'. That was very cool. And 'kool' was spelled with a 'K' in those days, too.
The minute The Beatles came in, we washed the Brylcreem out of our hair and all started to speak on the playground with Liverpool accents. We began recording when I was 16 or 17. The lyrics were normal teenage angst. My first song, and our second single, was I Still Love You - 'You don't want me, you don't need me' etc. You can't get more teenage angst than that. Our first song was written by our guitarist, Roy Davenport, who was in the British forces. He was nearly double our age and introduced us to the blues and Muddy Waters.
SPIES AND PROSTITUTES Tea dances were very big in the 60s, mostly on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. At a talent contest, we were approached by a Filipino gentleman, who invited us to play at The Bayside in the spanking new Chungking Mansions. We also played at The Golden Phoenix, where we charged the outrageous price of HK$10 a head. We played from 4pm to 6.30pm. It was very tame.
There was rock'n'roll but no sex and drugs. The sex was not screaming girls, but the professionals, the bar girls. They had a thing for band boys. We had no idea what was going on. The Bayside was a cesspit. There was a coffee shop upstairs, where the media used to hang out with the China watchers and spies. Russian hookers would sit there in the winter in mink coats. We would go there before playing and listen to all these spy conversations. It was a strange time for someone in their late teens.
WE WANT YOU ... NO WE DON'T Elvis Presley joined the American army to do his national service, which I thought was very cool. And I spent three months in the Swedish military. I spoke Swedish but not well enough to understand all the weapons instructions. [They decided Nelsson was a liability and released him from national service.]
I continued to play in bands after returning to Hong Kong but I made a conscious decision in my 20s not to perform beyond the age of 30. I didn't want to be one of those older cabaret singers. So I went into production and the business side of music, including making television jingles. I didn't go back to performing until I was 60.