Hong Kong’s Dirty Boogie Rockabilly Festival - get ready to rock

Rockabilly bands from across Asia and international DJs will get toes tapping at the Fringe Club this month. Look out for the Gretsch guitar exhibition, and hair styling, clothing and tattooist stalls

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The Pringles at last year’s Dirty Boogie festival.

Published: 1:03pm, 6 Sep 2017Updated: 1:03pm, 6 Sep 2017

Sometimes it’s good to go back to where it all began – so if you’re a fan of any form of rock music, you’re advised to check out the sixth edition of the Dirty Boogie Rockabilly Festival at the Fringe Club on September 16.

It promises to be a celebration of the twangy, party-ready form of early rock ’n’ roll and all the music it’s influenced, along with the sharp suits, heavily coiffed hair and pin-up girls that invariably go with it.

This year’s line-up of bands features headliners Souta and the Blitz Attack Boys from Japan; Raw Deal from Indonesia; and Hong Kong’s The Boogie Playboys; alongside DJs Dave “Wobbly” Ross from the UK and Holly Doll from Australia. Except for The Boogie Playboys and Ross, all are making their first appearances at the event.

Chai Sze-chai, the organiser of the festival and also a member of The Boogie Playboys, says he found the two overseas bands through Go Shimizu, aka Go Diddley, vocalist and songwriter of Tokyo band Los Rizlaz, who headlined Dirty Boogie in 2015 and 2016, and who is friends with both – unsurprisingly in the case of Tokyo-based Souta and the Blitz Attack Boys, a little less predictably in the case of Jakarta-based Raw Deal.

Dirty Boogie Rockabilly Festival brings timeless sounds and styles of the 1950s to Hong Kong

Raw Deal’s leader, Yong, is already a friend of the festival. He played upright bass with Japanese band The Pringles at last year’s Dirty Boogie, and pretty much as soon as Raw Deal formed the band, he recorded a track for the compilation the festival released last year, Dirty Boogie Rockabilly Vol 1.