The Cosmic Cowboys

2009 - Malay Mail

2008-09-20T06:15:00.009-07:00

Band-ing together on a high note
By Shiv Das

They are not likely…no, strike that and substitute with will not make it to any pop chart but they do win hearts whenever they play.

As four guitarists and a drummer, they have come together to revel in “oldies” music and song of the fifties, sixties and seventies.

Meet Frankie Yeap, 63, Lim Kim Moon, 61, Ching Neng Bin, 55, Tan Keng Hui, 52 and the drummer Tan Lean Khiong who at 45 is the “baby”.

They are members of the Rotary Club of Sitiawan, seemingly the only such club in the country that does not have to outsource its band for social gatherings.

Says Tan Keng Hui who once owned a travel agency but now spends time mostly teaching English in-between shuttling back and forth to England where his wife and three children reside:

“It’s not about money but the joy we get out of playing. We have our jobs during the day but at night we have our pastime. We play by ear...very simple.” It is a feather in their cap that they played at the state air travel fair in Ipoh recently.

Keng Hui doubles up as the main vocalist with Yeap, a retired teacher, joining in from time to time.

If it’s not Rotary, demand for their joyful services also comes from the town’s senior citizens club which has its own building for members to indulge enthusiastically in ballroom and line dancing as part of their activities.

The band, largely self-taught, began with just Ching, a bank manager and Tan Lean Khiong, a teacher to begin with and who now runs a tuition centre, getting together in 1995 for jam sessions. Lim, who was with the Ministry of Defence serving at the naval base in Lumut, joined two years later, followed by the remaining two.

What began as a fad has turned into a “bonding service” these musical-minded Rotarians are providing with great effect.

Live at Rotary Club

2008-09-20T06:14:00.003-07:00

Pride of Workmanship Award

Crystal Hotel, Sitiawan

Video No.1

1. Apache by Ken Tan
2. Red River Valley
3. Besame Mucho
4. The hands that rock the cradle
5. Chinese song - Che Tau
6. Candida
7. California Blue

Video No.2

1. Okie Muskogee
2. Cotton Field
3. Achy Breaky
4. Bye Bye Love
5. Si Jantung Hati

Video No.3

1. I just want to dance with you
2. I am from the country
3. Vision
4. Cha cha D'mor
5. Your cheating heart
6. Sway

Video No.4

1. Am I that easy to forget
2. Help me make it through the night
3. He'll have to go
4. Tennessee waltz
5. Ten guitars

Video No.5
1. Take me home country road
2. The room at the top of the stairs
3. Beautiful sunday
4. Sha lalala

Video No.6
1. Surfing USA
2. Blue suede shoes

3. You are my sunshine

Live at Senior Citizens Club

2008-09-20T06:14:00.001-07:00

Dinner and Dance
1st November 2008

Video No.1
1. Blue Suede Shoes & Surfing USA

Video No.2
1. Cotton Fields

Video No.3
1. Cha Cha D'amour

Video No.4
1. Achy Breaky

Video No.5
1. Country Road

Video No.6
1. Hello Mary Lou

Video No.7
1. Jamaica Farewell

2008 - Senior Citizens Club

2008-09-20T06:13:00.001-07:00

Official Opening Dinner n Dance

1st November 2008

Club premises

Dr. TT Hoo

Chinese Orchestra

Mr Su Jee Hor with the Karaoke winners

Ken & Kee Moon

Yap singing the cha-cha

Poh Yoke & Mrs. Louis

2008 - Rotary Club Of Sitiawan

2008-09-18T03:11:00.001-07:00

Vocational Service Joint Project

Re-engaging with the Four-Way Test
18 October 2008

Louis on keyboard

Louis

2008 - Berjaya Sompo Berhad

2008-09-18T03:06:00.003-07:00

Northern Region Seminal - Dinner n Dance
Pangkor Island Beach Resort
13 September 2008

Lumut jetty waterfront

Lumut jetty

Ship sailing to Lumut Port

Lumut Naval Base

Naval Base

Ching

Musical instruments on board

Pangkor Island Resort Jetty

Resort beach front

Beach front

Hornbill on the coconut tree

Yes - we are for sale

Plenty of food to eat

Food sponsored by resort management

Peacock running around

I will follow you..

Wherever you go....

Sunset by the waterfront

Lovely sunset

Ken Tan & Ching

Cosmic Cowboys

Saturday night fewer

I say, I want more beer please!!

Young n old doing the rock n roll

that's the way ha ha! shouted Tan Lee Chen

its a non-stop dancing

come on baby

Relaxing during breakfast

Hi! I am Ken Tan and my partner below is Ching

We just want to say we had wonderful time with all of you
from : Cosmic Cowboys

Calm and tranquillity greets you the moment you set foot on the expansive spread of 73 acres of lush tropical jungle surrounding the resort.

One of the jewels in the crown of west coast Peninsular Malaysia’s island resorts, Pangkor Island Beach Resort offers a truly unforgettable experience to guests desiring fun in the sun and for the finer things in life.

A mere 3.5 hours drive by car, or 35 minutes by air from Kuala Lumpur, Pangkor Island Beach Resort is one of the most accessible island resorts for busy city dwellers. A tropical forest setting complimented with white sandy beaches and pristine waters in a private bay are some of the charming characteristics that make Pangkor Island Beach Resort the ideal tropical getaway destination.

Be awed by the natural beauty of unspoilt nature, exotic flora and fauna, secluded pristine beach and breathtaking sunset that makes the resort one of the preferred holiday destinations in Malaysia.

The Company began operation in 1974 as an overseas branch office of an insurance company. It was incorporated in Malaysia as a private limited company on 22 September 1980. The Company changed its name to United Prime Insurance (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd on 1 July 1985 and subsequently changed its name to Berjaya General Insurance Sdn Bhd on 26 October 1991. On 6 May 1997, it was converted to a public limited company and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Berjaya Capital Berhad, a public listed company in Malaysia on 15 May 2000.

On 11 December 2006, Sompo Japan Insurance Inc, the second largest insurance company in Japan purchased a 30% equity stake in the company from Berjaya Capital Berhad.

On 9 February 2007, the company changed its name to Berjaya Sompo Insurance Berhad to reflect the partnership between Berjaya Capital Berhad and Sompo Japan Insurance Inc.

This strategic alliance will enable the Company to widen its customer base and range of products as well as services through Sompo Japan global network and branding to better compete with the bigger reginal and international players.

2007 - Workmanship Award

2008-09-18T03:06:00.001-07:00

Rotary Club of Sitiawan
Pride of Workmanship Award
Crystal Hotel 22.12.07

Ms Tan, Ching, Yap, Ken Tan, Kee Moon & Tan
Cosmic Cowboys

Rotary President Dr. Gary Yeak

2006 - Forest Cruiser 4 x 4 Club

2008-09-18T03:05:00.006-07:00

Line Dancing Party

18 March 2006

Ching, Kee Moon & Ken Tan

Learning to smoke and play bass

Betty & Catherine

Part time drummer

Ken & Steven Khor

Ching & Catherine

Navy guys

Rotary Club of Sitiawan

Yap singing Adios Amigo

Yong Choon from Australia and Pauline

look at the camera!

Suzann and gang - line dancing

My very sweetheart

how about rock n roll?

we are rocking in our dreams!

take five

taking a break

Look at us, we are all drunk!

2007 - Inter City Meet

2008-09-18T03:05:00.005-07:00

Rotary Club of Sitiawan
Hokkaido, Japan visits Sitiawan
Teluk Batik Resort Lumut - 03.11.2007

Rotary Club of Sitiawan & Group Study Exchange

Motohiro, Junichiro, Haruka, Michi & Keiko

Michi Ishizaki playing the organ

steady Val Allan

Joyce & Irene - line dancing

2005 - ACS Ipoh Anniversary

2008-09-18T03:05:00.003-07:00

Anglo - Chinese School Ipoh
110th Anniversary Dinner
Syuen Hotel - 06.08.05

Cosmic Cowboys

Terence & Mat

guest singer

Mano & Terence

ACS Ipoh In The Beginning...

Ten years after the founding of the Methodist Mission in Singapore, there in Ipoh on 31st July 1895, a young Englishman, the Rev. E. Horley, who was destined to play a vital rope in the enhancement of the education and spiritual life of youth in this country.

A few days after his arrival, on 5th August, Mr. Horley opened the Anglo-Chinese School in a small attap-roofed Malay house adjoining the Police barracks behind the old Land Office which was later demolished to make way for a new million-dollar mosque. Ipoh at that time was no more than a small mining village.

The school was a resuscitation of the first English school in Kinta opened by the Rev. T. W. Stagg in January that year and closed soon after because of his departure from Ipoh in June 1895 on account of his wife`s health.

The house in which Mr. Horley established the school was rented from the then Dato Panglima Kinta, Yusuf bin Nasam, and Sir George Maxwell, who in one of his letters described it as being "painted a rich blue with yellow shuttlers". This is probably the reason why blue and gold were chosen as the School`s colours in the mid-nineteen twenties. Mr. Stagg, became Mr. Horley`s first assistant teacher and local preacher.

The history of the A.C S. is very closely linked with the history and development of Ipoh which has been described as "the town that tin built". It is perhaps fitting to note that the school was founded just three years after "the great fire of Ipoh in June, 1892 which burned down over half the village, destroying 123 houses". By the time Mr. Horley arrived, Ipoh had become a town, the Ipoh Sanitary Board having been established in 1893. "From the very beginning I found the Perak Government sympathetic and willing to help. I applied for four acres of land for a Church and school and this was given to me on the Lahat Road," according to Mr. Horley as recorded in his Diary.

"I immediately had the jungle and blukar cut down. The swamps were filled in and the ground leveled, and in November, 1895, I commenced building a school-church."

It is interesting to note that just before these two buildings were completed Bishop James M. Thoburn, who was responsible for ousting Mr. Horley from Singapore to Ipoh, himself arrived on a visit to Ipoh on 11th February, 1896. He was accompanied by Messrs. West, Pykett and Curtis and had traveled from Penang to Telok Anson(now Teluk Intan) by a small coasting streamer, the Lady Weld. The train journey from Telok Anson to Ipoh took three-and-a-half hours.

Bishop Thorburn said of his arrival in Ipoh:"As the train began to slow down, Mr. West called me to his window and pointed out a new brick building just nearing completion and said, `There is the the new Methodist Church'. I was quite surprised to see tasteful building 72 feet by 30 feet and asked the cost was expected to be. `About $3,000' was the reply. Noticing another building going up nearby, I asked what it was, and was still more surprised when told it was the mission house. It is to be a comfortable building, and is expected to be ready for occupancy in three months. Truly our young missionary Brother Horley is putting energy into his new work. I was very sorry that this vigorous worker was not at home during our visit."

In his speech at the 65th Anniversary Celebrations in 1960, the then Principal Mr. Teerath Ram said the years 1895 and 1896 were not only most important ones in the history of the A.C.S. Ipoh, but they were important ones for other reasons as well.

"It was in 1895 that the Treaty of Federation was signed uniting Perak, Selangor, Pahang and Negeri Sembilan into the Federated Malay States, duly inaugurated on 1st July, 1896. It was also in 1896 that the first passenger train from Perak to Kuala Lumpur conveyed His Highness the Sultan of Perak to attend the Conference of Chiefs of the Federated Malay States."

The Church, incidentally, is the oldest Methodist building on the Federation of Malaya mainland; and it is of the same age as Bishop Amstutz, who in his younger days served in Ipoh as Pastor and teacher in 1933.

It is also an inescapable fact of history that the Girls' School, which was also founded by Mr. Horley, a few weeks after he had started the Boys' School, remained an integral part of the A.C.S. until the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, after much persuasion and hesitation finally took it over from Mr. Horley.

Even in those slow-moving and leisurely days when it took eight hours to get to Taiping in a "shandrydan" (a light cart on springs), buildings could not keep pace with the growing enrollments of the A.C.S. Ipoh.

Yesteryears of the Cowboys

2008-09-18T03:00:00.003-07:00

1997 Senior Citizen Club Sitiawan

1997

1996

1996 Rotary Club
1995 Public Bank social gathering

1995 Ching was inducted into Rotary Club of Sitiawan

The Cosmic Cowboy

A successful rancher died and left everything to his devoted
wife. She was a very good-looking woman and determined to keep the
ranch, but knew very little about ranching, so she decided to place an ad in
he newspaper for a ranch hand.

Two cowboys applied for the job. One was gay and the other
a drunk. She thought long and hard about it, and when no one else applied
she decided to hire the gay guy, figuring it would be safer to have him around
the house than the drunk.

He proved to be a hard worker who put in long hours every day and knew a
lot about ranching. For weeks, the two of them worked, and the ranch was doing very well.

Then one day, the rancher's widow said to the hired hand, 'You have done a really
good job, and the ranch looks great. You should go into town and kick up your heels.'

The hired hand readily agreed and went into town one Saturday night.
One o'clock came, however, and he didn't return. Two o'clock and no hired hand.

Finally he returned around two-thirty, and upon entering the
room, he found the rancher's widow sitting by the fireplace with a glass
of wine, waiting for him. She quietly called him over to her.

'Unbutton my blouse and take it off,' she said.

Trembling, he did as she directed.

'Now take off my boots.'

He did as she asked, ever so slowly.

'Now take off my socks.'

He removed each gently and placed them neatly by her boots. 'Now take off my
skirt.' He slowly unbuttoned it, constantly watching her eyes in the fire light.

'Now take off my bra.'

Again, with trembling hands, he did as he was told and dropped it to the floor.

Then she looked at him and said, 'If you ever wear my clothes
into town again, you're fired.'

Ken Tan d' Rough Rider

2008-09-18T03:00:00.001-07:00