The only rockabilly trio in Cambodia return to their favourite stomping ground Oscar Bar for an evening of high-energy 1950's dancefloor rockers by the likes of Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly and Johnny Burnette.
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Miss Sarawan is a Truly Delightful Treat
Every time I meet Mealea Lay AKA Miss Sarawan she warms my crusty old heart, in fact, she melts it. She has one of the sweetest, kindest and most humble personalities on this and many other planets.
Last night at the Jazz Club Phnom Penh she was accompanied by her partner, Joe Wrigley on guitar and together they gave a beautiful performance which kept the audience mesmerized.
Not so long ago Mealea gave a lovely interview to the Phnom Penh Post. In the interview, she revealed very humble beginnings where she lived in Srah Chork temple and sang for the monks. They loved her and raised money for her schooling.
The name Miss Sarawan is taken from the name of a temple and the traditional Khmer dance of the same name.
Scott Bywater a well-known performer on the Phnom Penh music scene used to, sometimes, invite Mealea on stage when he was performing at the same restaurant where she was working. Joe and Scott are long time best mates and so it wasn’t long before Mealea became part of the gang.
These days she has found her voice in Miss Sarawan, a delightful combination of Cambodian and Western songs from the 60’s and 70’s
For a taste of a bygone time, elegance and innocent fun, look out for Miss Sarawan
All photos are courtesy of the world reknown photographer Steve Porte
Scoddy & Joe Save The Night
Friday evening and the clouds over Phnom Penh decided to burst. The heavy downfall threatened to ruin the gig I was planning to go to at Farm to Table.
My mate Steve Porte (world renowned photographer), messaged and said the show was going on rain or shine. So off we went.
As we walked out of the sheltering car park under our apartment building we realized the rain was just too heavy to take the short 10-minute walk to the venue. We would need to take a Tuk Tuk.
One thing which always surprises new visitors to Phnom Penh is the crazy traffic. It’s not so much that it’s very often heavy traffic, it’s more that, there are no discernible road rules. Well, I should clarify that; there are no rules as far as foreigners can tell but for locals there seems to be a collective understanding of this giant puzzling mess of trucks, cars, motos and tuk tuks all intermingled with pedestrians.
When it’s raining, it makes it all even more scary dangerous.
After a few harrowing “lucky misses”, we arrived at Farm to Table and piled out.
We were here to see Scoddy & Joe 1958! The guys (Scott Bywater and Joe Wrigley), being consummate professionals had already finished setting up and doing sound checks and were enjoying a pre-show drink while chatting to some friends.
As always, as soon as Joe spotted me he came over to say “hi” and thank us for coming out in the rain. He’s a truly nice guy and always good to spend some time with.
Steve arrived and pointed us to a fabulous table he had reserved and we all took our drinks and settled in to watch the show, thankfully under cover.
The crowd was much bigger than we had expected, maybe because the rain was now starting to lighten up.
I’ve known both Scoddy and Joe for a few years now and always enjoy their performances. They both have a number of bands they individually head up. This would be the first time I would see them in this configuration.
The guys did two sets of mostly songs from 1958 which was pretty cool to hear all those old numbers handled by these guys. Songs from The Everly Brothers, Little Richard, Buddy Holly and many more made it a night to remember
The crowd was pleased and applauded heartily at the end of each song. There was a ton of ladies dancing to the tunes and really getting into it. Scotts mum was the leader of the dancing ladies 😊
Steve took a bunch of photos, here’s a few which captured the guys extremely well
The food was, as always excellent and very good service kept the gin tonics flowing.
All in all it was a very pleasant way to spend the evening; good venue, great entertainment, lots of fun friends, food and drinks.
Scoddy and Joe definitely saved the night!
‘Clay Sings Cash, Joe Sings Hank’: Clay George and Joe Wrigley @ Farm to Table: April 28 @ 6.30pm to 8.30pm
Clay George’s rich voice evokes the famous Johnny Cash baritone while Joe Wrigley goes for some country twang, Hank Williams style! If Hank was the undisputed King of Country music - penning more than one-hundred standards that are performed around the world every day - Johnny Cash was the ‘Man in Black’ - the iconic rebel whose dark outlaw songs and unusual vocal style pitted him against the Nashville country music establishment. Clay and Joe delve into the rich Cash and Hank repertoire for an evening of all-time country greats.
St George’s Trio @ Alchemy Phnom Penh: April 22 @ 8:30pm – 11:30pm
Perhaps the best thing to have ever come out of England is... it's pop music! Musical Brits Joe Wrigley and Steve Sutcliffe play a special acoustic program of classic English songs - backed up by percussionist Antti Siitonen - on the eve of St. George's Day: the national day of England.
From War-time singalongs all the way through Beatles, Stones and Klinks 60's classiscs... to the 80's 'new-wave' of The Jam and Elvis Costello, the 90's Britpop of Oasis, Radiohead and the Verve and up to the present day with Ed Sheeran. The St George's Trio have put together a special all English repertoire for this unique performance at Alchemy.
Blueberries ripping it up! picture by Steve Porte
Miss Sarawan Acoustic Duo : Mealea Lay and Joe Wrigley perform Cambodian ‘Golden Era’ classics and original songs
Exciting things are happening for Miss Sarawan at the moment. She was recently featured in this segment for TV5:
…showing off her singing skills at an acoustic duo in Phnom Penh, while explaining her background living in a Phnom Penh temple and revealing that her nickname in her home province used to be ‘buffalo girl’! The interviewer seemed more interested in discussing the meaning of her original song ‘Alcoholic Husband’ – and the TV5 segment was edited in such a way as to infer that Joe Wrigley is the subject of this song ! !
Miss Sarawan is very proud to have been invited to perform, with her full band, at next week’s ‘Queens Birthday Party’ event at the Intercontinental in Phnom Penh. Every year, the Embassy of the United Kingdom holds a gala reception to welcome Cambodian ministers, dignitaries and business leaders. The prestigious by-invitation-only cocktail reception will take place in the grand ballroom of the Intercon, where honoured guests will be entertained by The Miss Sarawan twins, with Joe Wrigley and a full backing band.
Here is an amateur video clip of The Sarawan Twins performing with Phil Javelle at a recent Cambodian Film Festival gig:
And here are some pictures from previous gala ‘Queen’s Birthday Party’ celebrations at the Intercon:
