Saturday, September 4, 2010

Nostalgic Weekend - The [Little] Falcons

In 1964, four 12-year olds burst into the local scene with their debut release of "Mayflower". These four boys were from St John's Institution, calling themselves "The Little Falcons" [which later was changed to "The Falcons"]. The group comprised of Brian Felix [lead], Francis Samuel [rhythm], Jerry Ventura [bass] and Jerry Felix [drums]. The group had its beginnings in the Jalan Peel area [near the SM Jalan Cochrane] and the writer used to drop by at one of the boy's home to watch them doing their weekend practices. The first recording was on a private label but later, they moved on to an international label, "Columbia", under EMI. What I remembered most about this group is that they were extremely talented and even though I had my own group then, I still feel we were not at par with them despite our age differences. As a matter of fact, the boys were coached by none other than one of country's greatest Hawaiian slide guitarists, Victor Felix, Brian's father.

The group broke new ground when they were contracted to play in Germany in the early seventies. By then Brian has left the group, emigrated to Australia with his family.

The one thing that have left a lasting impression in me about the group is that they were the first to use the Burns guitar which was then very much in use by The Shadows in UK.

For more on Jerry Felix and The Falcons, please click here.

3 comments:

  1. They were a bunch of wankers. I remember Brian Felix in form two 5 in 1965 with a head bigger than his body and his three quarters long pants with an equally ugly personality. They were simply well to do kids with guitars and nothing original about them. They did not know whether to be the shadows or Jimi Hendrix. There was nothing spectacular or talented about them. get real.

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  2. Hi Geronimo! You got all the facts right except the one about the "Fabulous Falcons" and "Mayflower".
    I think this was an Indonesian band.
    The 1st single by the KL-Falcons was "Baby Barefoot Walk" b/w "Nightmare, and was released on the Life Records label.
    The video you posted is from the 'other' Falcons.
    Cheers!

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  3. Hi
    Great blog here and interesting views. The posting is of the Little Falcons from KL and the You Tube recording is by The
    Fabulous Falcons from Ipoh who accompanied Rocky Teoh (Malaysian 60s Elvis) on his vinyls.

    The Falcons you wrote about have a wonderfully informative
    Facebook which is worth checking out.

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