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Is that going to touch some raw nerves or what? And there is more.
"There is still racial prejudice in the international music market. It's still
very much the law of colour and the West continues to practise a closed door policy.
The only Asians that are considered as half European are the Japanese and they have
hardly made any significant headway."
If that irks some quarters, at least give the man some credit for speaking out. I
never said he wasn't forthright, did I? Throw in a dash of nonchalant arrogance tampered
with a sprinkling of sweet sentiments and that's Fredo for you.
Fredo and his merry men put on more
than glittering costumes for a performance.
"The stage is where we earn a living and it's sacred soil to us," he says.
"Our motto is to always wear a smile even if we have problems of our own."
They also pride themselves on being very versatile. They play any kind of music that
appeals to the masses and they don't cater to an individual.
"I try to gauge the kind of music my audience wants. When a number is not going
down well we cut into a song midway and switch to something else. Not many bands
can do that as the members have to be very alert and follow my cue. Sometimes the
audience don't even notice when we switch after playing the intro or when we're already
into several bars of a song. Very seldom does our act start and end in the way that
we rehearsed it."
That brings to mind a show I watched in Picadilly where they started with a rock
number. A sudden hush fell over the not too attentive crowd when Fredo cut in abruptly
with a Kenny G solo on the sax. Yep, that's impact for you. Through experience he
has acquired the knack to get things right at the right time, at the right place
and with the right crowd.
"I cannot explain the magic that I put out but I always manage to end up with
tremendous response from the audience," he brazenly declares.
At 45, when most rockers are hanging up their sequinned pants and guitars, Fredo
is still having a whale of a time on stage.
"That's because I've got the, excuse me, b____ to work new ideas into my repertoire
and I do it well. With Fredo and the Flinstones you'll get more than what you expect."
Back in the eighties when they went
into their commercial break routine with jingles like 'Susu Cap Junjung', the crowd
almost fell off their chairs. When others began to imitate it was time to set a new
trend and they started including ethnic songs in their repertoire accompanied by
saucy jokes in that dialect. The audience lapped it up and every other entertainer
in town jumped onto that bandwagon too. To Fredo, the bottom line is he is paid to
bring joy to people and he gives one hundred per cent to his audience. He won't settle
for less.
Everybody in the band sings but Fredo is of course the lead singer. He can sing in
several languages and most local dialects but he is only conversant in Hokkien, Cantonese,
English and Malay.
Classification of music is not important to Fredo and the only kind of music that
he refuses to play is that which doesn't touch the heart.
He calls himself a classically trained musician and yes, he can read notes. He has
worked as backing bassist for big names like Frances Yip, the late Teresa Teng, Anita
Sarawak, Sudirman and D.J.Dave.
Fredo had a hand in composing many of the Flybaits' hits and he still sings these
songs on his shows. Apparently many among his audience do not know he is an ex-Flybait
and they only make the connection when he sings the old songs. He seldom composes
now and even if he does, you won't hear his compositions on stage.
It's a big risk as the audience is usually not receptive to something they have not
heard before. It's great to be creative but at the end of day I've still got to pay
my bills and you can't do that if you become so musically creative that the audience
won't listen to you."
He has his fair share of fans coming up to him in public but he does not clamour
for the publicity nor does he like to socialise.
"I don't go out much and I prefer a simple life. The only thing I fear is God
and faith is super important to me. I believe in living life to the fullest. There
is so much to learn."
And at this juncture the Catholic entertainer quotes from the Bible: Come to me in
the eyes of a child.
He tries to live by the very same book when it comes to the vices that so many entertainers
fall prey to.
"Why ask for trouble when life can be so uncomplicated?" he poses. I have
no handy repartee. All I know is he never ceases to amaze, does he?
When it comes to his fellow musicians,
Fredo has the greatest admiration for Tower of Power and Sheila Majid. He gives himself
another five years in the business and then he might turn to moulding budding talents.
Meanwhile, he is quite content with the excitement around him and whenever he can
he catches up with his second passion, fishing.
"I'm the outdoor type and even as a kid I was hooked on fishing. I would fish
in the 'longkang', by the river, and just about everywhere where there was water.
Now I can afford to go to my favourite spot, Tioman, for some great open sea fishing."
His other pastime is fiddling with anything electronic just for the heck of finding
out how it works.
Fredo owns an impressive collection of expensive costumes yet he claims not to be
fussy about clothes. He prefers to lounge around in short pants and T-shirts. He
has a weakness for good food, his favourite being 'nyonya' cooking and when he finds
time to cook up a storm, his specialty is vegetarian noodles.
For a kid who started off by squeezing the pennies off his aunts and uncles, Fredo
has come a long way.
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