Category: Music

Sembawang Music Centre to close

CD shop chain filing for bankruptcy after succumbing to rising rents and poor business
By Shuli Sudderuddin

It has been a mainstay in the music retail industry here for more than 20 years, but Sembawang Music Centre will soon sing its swansong.

The plug is being pulled after the CD shop chain succumbed to rising rents and poor business.

Said owner and founder Dave Boo, 56: ‘We’ve liquidated the company and are filing for bankruptcy. Right now, all our energy is on clearing our stock and making as many sales as we can.’

He declined to say how much he owes creditors, adding only that it is very little.

Sembawang’s three outlets at Raffles City, Thomson Plaza and Plaza Singapura are holding sales touting 75 per cent savings.

The outlet at Plaza Singapura will be the last to close, in a few weeks’ time.

Mr Boo started the company in 1986 at age 33 as he was an avid music lover.

It was a small record store in Sembawang, patronised largely by soldiers from New Zealand who were stationed nearby.

Over time, the business grew. In 2004, Sembawang Music Centre was Singapore’s largest music retail chain, generating about $20 million in turnover.

That year, it became a listed company.

At its peak, it had 24 outlets.

Looking back, Mr Boo said: ‘We expanded too fast. In about 2005 or 2006, I bought the business back from the oil and gas company which owned it.’

The oil and gas firm had offered money for expansion and became a shareholder.

‘I started shutting down the outlets that were not doing so well,’ said Mr Boo after he regained control.

The strategy was not enough to save the chain.

‘Rents were too high. In Sembawang, I used to pay $4,000 to $6,000 for a 1,000 sq ft shop. For a 600 sq ft place in Raffles City, I now pay about $10,000 to $12,000 a month,’ he said.

And the industry is declining.

In April, The Sunday Times reported that sales at Sembawang Music Centre had shrunk by about 20 per cent every year since 2003.

Another music retailer, HMV, is moving to a smaller 12,000 sq ft store at 313@Somerset from its current 17,000 sq ft space at The Heeren.

Music giant Tower Records closed in 2006, leaving other brands like Gramophone and That CD Shop to fight for market share.

‘There are so many formats of media available now. People can just download music and movies and they don’t have to buy them any more. We couldn’t survive like that,’ Mr Boo said.

However, he credits his staff for maintaining their fighting spirit to the very end.

He said wistfully: ‘Right now, we are trying to sell all we can. I can’t think of anything beyond this, but once the last shop closes, hopefully someone will hire me as an employee.’

Certainly, buyers like Mr Daniel Ong, 29, a research scientist, will miss Sembawang.

‘I find that it’s cheaper than the bigger chains and it also carries more Chinese and Japanese music than other stores,’ he said.

‘There are so many formats of media available now. People can just download music and movies and they don’t have to buy them any more. We couldn’t survive like that.’

MR DAVE BOO, owner and founder of Sembawang Music Centre

Lost Tribe – Gamemaster (Signum Remix)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-UZoRpW-d0One of the best trance songs ever, from the 1999 album, Deeper Shades of Hooj.

Embracing the Goddess energy within yourselves
Will bring all of you to a new understanding and value of life
A vision that inspires you to live and love on Planet Earth
Like a priceless jewel, buried in dark layers of soil and stone
Earth radiates her brilliant beauty, into the caverns of space and time
Perhaps you are aware of those who watch over your home
And experience it as a place to visit and play with reality
You are becoming aware of yourself
As a Gamemaster

Imagine earth restored to her real beauty
Steady trees seems to brush the deep blue sky
The clouds billow to form the majestic peaks
The songs of birds fill the air
Create a symphony on symphony
The Goddess is calling for an honouring of what she allows to be created through the form of strength and blood
Those who own our planet, are learning about love

Kirsty Hawkshaw – Sanctuary


Sanctuary by Kirsty Hawkshaw.

Lyrics:

If you need a little sanctuary
Unbroken, undistracted by the day
Baby I could hold you
Oh we are always in danger
Make you feel safe
So you can breathe like a baby

Sorrow rise behind these walls
Too make you see
Truth beyond the crowds of thieves
What I don’t know is
Is that you’ve seen every part of me
That I have no regrets
Is walking, talking, have no secret

Sometimes my mind
Is like a bad neighbour
That I don’t want to go
Into alone

And it’s so wrong, and sorry oneness
Cause the further you go, the more hate begins to swell
It is another
Can’t give us what we crave

But you don’t always have to be brave
And I can only
Give you
A little time to be
Where only broken windows remain
Baby I can treat you
When the heat is too much to bear
From the sar born with every man

Zouk's poster girl moves on

Zouk’s poster girl moves on
by Cara Van Miriah
Tue, May 12, 2009
The Straits Times

Zouk’s marketing manager and poster girl Tracy Phillips is leaving her job this Thursday after 10 1/2 years to pursue her interests.

The 31-year-old, who is a familiar face in the local clubbing scene, will be taking time off to take up a course in apparel merchandising at the Textile and Fashion Industry Training Centre in Leng Kee Road next month.

She will also be working as a freelance creative consultant in the areas of music, fashion and design.

The former business student from Nanyang Polytechnic tells Life!: ‘It has been a fruitful decade at Zouk but I feel that it’s time for a change in my lifestyle.’ She had tendered her resignation in January.

Her job involves advertising and promotions as well as coming up with ideas to make sure the club, which celebrated its 18th anniversary this month, remains vibrant.

She says: ‘People assume that when you work at a club, you party most of the time.

‘In reality, I start work at 10.30am from Mondays to Fridays, clocking between 12 and 15 hours a day.’

The former St Joseph’s Convent student joined the club in September 1998 as a marketing assistant after a year’s stint as a production assistant in a local film production company.

‘I was a regular partygoer at Zouk before I joined the club,’ she says. ‘What drew me to the job was the club’s music, people and culture.’

In 2000, the Zoukette was promoted to assistant marketing manager and marketing manager a year later.

Then 23 years old, she also took care of the nightspot’s public relations.

Although partygoers say she has been instrumental in many of the club’s events, especially the seven-year-old Flea & Easy flea market held there once every three months, she insists ‘Zouk’s success has all along been a team effort’.

Her boss and Zouk’s founder Lincoln Cheng, 61, tells Life! the management has already planned for her departure.

‘Tracy has certainly contributed immensely to the success of the club and she will be sorely missed,’ he says.

Zouk’s assistant marketing manager, Ms Mari Muramoto, 28, will lead the marketing team from Friday.

Before joining Zouk a year ago, she had worked for fashion label Diesel in Tokyo for three years.

After spending a third of her life at Zouk, will Ms Phillips miss it?

She says: ‘I will definitely miss the people whom I have worked with over the years. I practically grew up in Zouk and they are like my family.

‘But I am moving on for new challenges.’

This article was first published in The Straits Times.

Sudha Feat Zoe Johnston – Leche (Thomas Schwartz and Fausto Fanizza Radio Edit)

Featuring the vocals of Zoe Johnston, Sudha (the percussionist from Faithless and no stranger to dance floors the world over) has a hit on her hands! A very nice progressive house track, complemented by Thomas Schwartz and Fausto Fanizza on remix duties.

For all of eternity
I will be loving you.
Can you hear me?
If longing was power then I could set you free.

I wanna sing louder than I’ve ever done before
Oh, my joy and anger.
How can this be? You’ve taken from me.
Take freedom from somebody kind.

For all of eternity
I will be your girl.
Can you hear me?
Oh, if I could set you free.

I wanna sing louder than I’ve ever done before
Oh, my joy and anger.
How can this be? You’ve taken from me.
Take freedom from somebody kind.

From somebody I love.

The Thrillseekers – The Last Time

No one on earth
Could ever make me, make me feel
So loved, so complete
You and you only

The only answer to every reason that I can dream of
The one solution to every problem
That makes me crazy. That turns me inside out.

The last time we touched, the last time you held me
I was a soul in your hand
The last time we touched, the last time you held me
My life had only begun

The last time we met, and I could see you clearly
My eyes were not opened up

The last time we met, the last time I held you
I could see you clearly

Your sky is mine
I walk beneath it, not alone
When I call your name
You always answer

And every time I
Begin to doubt you
You give me more love

No hesitation
You come to me when
My heart is beating
So hard I can not breathe

You give me all I need
You give me all I need
And this is all I need

Tracy Phillips: Mixing Work with Passion

by Chris Emmanuel
As far as the entertainment industry goes, Tracy Phillips is one whose shoes are certainly hard to fill. The humble and trendy pace setter very kindly took time out her busy schedule to sit down and have a chat with CHOICES.

She is young, beautiful and successful. She is undoubtedly a household name among the partygoers at Zouk. Though not always seen, Tracy is often heard through her ideas and concepts that have indeed been a part of the success Zouk experiences.

Born in Singapore, the Marketing Manager of Zouk grew up in Australia. She returned to Singapore when she was 12 and got her secondary school education at St. Joseph’s Convent. After her O’ Levels, Tracy enrolled in a Diploma programme at Nanyang Polytechnic. Upon graduation, she landed her first job at the Waterfilms Production House.

A fan of Zouk ever since her first clubbing days, she used to frequent the nightspot very often. During these visits, she loved sharing her creative ideas on the clubbing scene and it was through such encounters that she found herself being offered a job by Zouk’s management. Sounds like a dream come true for the rest of us.

She kicked off her career with Zouk in September 1998. “I had no prior intentions of actually working in a club, but had always had a great passion for music & club culture and in particular for Zouk. It’s been an amazing journey and I am extremely grateful to Lincoln and all the wonderful people I work with daily for providing me with the opportunity,” says Tracy.

The gorgeous 29-year-old relates that when she first started out in the industry, it was hard to be taken seriously. “I was very young back then, with crazy hairstyles & quirky outfits and working with industry peers….

Oceanlab – Miracle (Above & Beyond Club Mix)

Don’t they know that there’s something going on
What they’re harming with their indecision
But who will be left standing when I’m gone?
There’ll be nothing left but a vision

It’s too easy to turn a blind eye to the light
It’s too easy to bow your head and pray
There are some times when you should try to find your voice
This is one voice that you must find today

Are you hoping for a miracle
As the ice caps melt away
No use hoping for a miracle
There’s a price we’ll have to pay

OceanLab – Sirens Of The Sea

Take my hand, take my hand yeah take my hand
Follow me, follow me yeah let’s go
To the sand, to the sand, the purest sand
Into the sea, into the sea yeah let’s go

Out beyond the water’s edge
Far out past the coral bench
Underneath the diamond dancing lights
Chase the world from far below
Silence sleeping in the glow
Drifting down into the endless night

Take my hand, take my hand yeah take my hand
Follow me, follow me yeah let’s go
To the sand, to the sand, the purest sand
Into the sea, into the sea yeah let’s go

Leaving reason far behind
Nothing here is cruel or kind
Only your desire to set me free
Let us lie here all alone
Worn away like river stone
Let us be the sirens of the sea

I … can not … resist … your call (x4)