Friends (朋友)

The occasion was the Ban Hin Lee Bank reunion dinner at the Eastern & Oriental Hotel on 19 August 2023, which had brought together about 250 former staff. As the vast majority of us hadn't seen one another for at least five years, this particular Alan Tam song, Friends (朋友), brought back unforgettable memories of the best times we had in the bank.

As usual, we had to have Lee Soo Hock sing this signature song. He was an aspiring singer in the 1990s and jokingly - we had worked in the same ATM Centre - I told him then that if he ever turned professional, I would apply to be his manager.

Well, it turned out that he did earn himself a recording contract and had appeared semi-professionally on television but by then, I was planning to leave the banking industry and looking elsewhere for my career change. However, managing a singer was no longer within my list of things-to-do. Soo Hock went on to conclude his career in CIMB Bank, retiring very recently. By the way, he sang two songs on our reunion night. There's also Shanghai Beach featured here in this video.

By the way, I also made a third video recording of Teik Kean singing his ever popular version of The Room at the Top of the Stairs but I was struggling with a problem with my mobile phone and can't find it any more. So, Teik Kean, if you are reading this, my apologies for being unable to upload it to YouTube for everyone's enjoyment.