INFORMATION
Fabulous Farangs play sanuk (fun) songs about farang (Westerner) life in Pattaya city in Thailand.
http://www.fabulousfarangs.com
peter.ojerskog@outlook.com
Fabulous Farangs are Swedish hobby musician Peter Öjerskog, who is retired in Pattaya in Thailand, together with friends when playing live.
When recording Peter plays T Taylor 2014 (not Taylor!) acoustic rhythm and lead guitar, Squire Fender Precision Bass Classic Vibe 1956 and uses the digital drum box of ZOOM R24 porta studio. Vocals are double tracked.
When Peter performs live he plays his T Taylor acoustic guitar/mini shaker/foot tambourine, together with a music friend on a cajon, CMC rhythm box.
The Fabulous Farangs story is; Swedish Peter Öjerskog and English Andrew “Tucker” Bradford started to play together in the autumn of 2014.
They got friendly in killer pool tournaments at Wanda’s Bar on their home soi Arunotai in central Pattaya in Thailand.
They played in Peter’s room at Arunotai soi 5. Both had bass as main instrument but also played guitar and sang – and made their own songs.
November 28 2014 Tucker brought three of his own songs. They were all humorous about Pattaya/Thailand; Pattaya Pattaya, Cheap Charlie and Check the Bin (Bill, please).
Peter then pulled out his own three similar songs; No Money No Honey, Thailand and East & West. They thought that this could be their profile and Peter came up with the name Fabulous Farangs (Westerner in Thai).
The word farang in Thai means both singular and plural, Thai language do not have plural forms. But Peter put an English plural s to the name.
Tucker suggested the song title Up To You and the next day Peter wrote the song. One in a string of no more than 26 sanuk (fun) songs about farang (Westerner) life in Pattaya/Thailand.
Peter and Tucker rehearsed every week but one day Tucker did not show up. Peter found him in Wanda’s Bar instead. So the co-operation ended. As a tribute to Tucker Peter wrote the song You Find Me In The Bar.
Peter started playing with Swedish friend Göran Schantz on acoustic bass and sometimes his Russian wife Regina on cajon. They did a lot of gigs at different bars in Pattaya and even Jomtien. Göran made some recordings which are on Internet.
One popular speciality was that Fabulous Farangs played Thai rock star Sek Loso’s almost national anthem Arai Gow Yaum and let the bar girls sing. A fantastic success! Peter wrote the song Sek Loso (Thailand’s Idol) as a tribute to him.
Göran found out the perfect Fabulous Farangs logotype by using Latin letters in Thai style from Internet.
But the co-operation ended and Peter only played sometimes with friends Håkan Nelson, JD Eisenberg and Scott Griffith on cajon. Plus Swedish friends who visit him during holiday in Thailand.
They were Per Hallberg and Leif Olsen, both former members of the same dance band Biscaya as Peter in the glorious ‘70s in Stockholm.
Peter let American friend Scott Griffith do some video recordings of Fabulous Farangs which are on YouTube.com
Sometimes Peter performed alone playing acoustic guitar, mini shaker in his right hand and foot tambourine on his right foot. Quite a noisy one-man-band!
In the spring of 2018 Peter concentrated on recording his 26 Fabulous Farangs songs on his ZOOM R24 porta.
The songs were mixed and mastered by English musician/studio technician Barry Upton. Then mailed to Peter’s webmaster in Sweden for www.fabulousfarangs.com
www.fabulousfarangs.com was inofficially opened 2018-03-26 and officially 2018-04-04.
The photo is taken by Peter’s Swedish friend Inge B Svensson, who also is retired in Pattaya. The location is the small pier at Pattaya beach southern end, overlooking the sea, boats, beach and skyscrapers. Note Peter’s foot tambourine and mini shaker.
Peter Öjerskog is prepared to play Fabulous Farangs songs live anytime when someone wants to play cajon with him!
In 2015 Peter Öjerskog got to know that American farang entertainer Kevin Sysyn already 2011 made a CD with exactly the same concept as Fabulous Farangs. He has now moved to Cambodia.
The record Mr. Kevin’s Happy Hour in Pattaya contains songs as; Baht Bus Boogie, Ring The Bell, Cheap Charlie, Walking Street Blues, Johnnie , Jack And Jim… As we say in Sweden; Nothing new under the sun!
Peter Öjerskogs previous and current bands:
Biscaya, 1973-1978, electric bass
Peter Öjerskog with band, 1983-1984, 2003, 2006, 2013-, electric guitar & vocals
Bilpop (Car Pop), 1985-1986, electric guitar
FBI (FeedBack Incorporated), early 1990’s, electric bass
Acoustic Dreams, 2011-2012, acoustic guitar & vocals
Fabulous Farangs, 2014-, acoustic guitar & vocals
Xcelerators, 2015-2017, electric bass
The Buddy Lush Explosion, 2017-, electric bass & vocals
More of Peter Öjerskogs music history can be found in Swedish on http://www.peterojerskog.com . Click on Musik.