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A trip to Ye Olde Curiosity Shop: Bangkok’s Tonchabab Record Store

Thailand’s jazz queen illuminates the stage in “Highlights”

One thousand new species found in Greater Mekong region

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A trip to Ye Olde Curiosity Shop: Bangkok’s Tonchabab Record Store

Stuart Ling
Although not yet at the dinosaur stage, they certainly fall into the endangered species category, a dying breed that are proving more elusive to find even in their original breeding grounds in America and Britain and so to stumble across a fit, healthy, well fed specimen in the heart of ancient Siam came as quite a surprise.

Prakarn still possesses his first ever vinyl album, a Johnny Mathis Greatest Hits collection.
A few hundred yards from the Royal Hotel in Bangkok, on the corner of Atsadang and Boonsiri Roads, is the Tonchabab second hand record shop, and I’m not talking of a shoe box with a handful of warped 45s and a dozen copies of ‘The Sound of Music’ here. This is the genuine article; the building is, quite literally, bursting at the seams with thousands upon thousands of pieces of vinyl.
As I enter, the owner, forty year old Prakarn, is filing yet another pile of albums and 45s to add to his ever growing stock. He’s a likeable, easygoing character whom I felt at ease with immediately. A person who you sense has found true contentment in life through his family and work - although I’m sure ‘work’ is not a word Prakarn would choose himself to describe the daily routine he’s been enjoying for the past twenty years. A labour of love would be nearer the truth, for Tiger (his nickname) is a vinyl junkie who’s been collecting the stuff since his early teens and now has over 100,000 pieces to care for. It’s a varied collection, covering every conceivable style of music from many different eras.

The record store is stacked floor to ceiling with over 100,000 different singles and albums.
Prakarn was born in the mid sixties during the ‘Mersey beat’ boom and although too young to appreciate it at the time, he considers the period 1965 – 1975 to be the golden era. The first piece of vinyl he owned was a Johnny Mathis album but his tastes soon broadened to include, amongst other, Aretha Franklin, Pink Floyd, and Jimmy Hendrix, as well as jazz giants like Miles Davis and John Coltraine. Nora Jones is an artist he appreciates from the present day.
Some of Prakarn’s stock is purchased locally, but the bulk comes from Hong Kong. He also collaborates with dealers around the globe, some of whom have visited him personally.
And his most valuable piece?… That would be a Beatles record that was made in Thailand.
The shop itself is a gem; classic album covers decorate the walls, countless shelves overflow with L.P.’s, whilst boxes piled high with E.P.’s and 45s (English and Thai) litter the floor space.
It’s not all about vinyl though. Prakarn is a dab hand when it comes to fixing turntables – there are one or two beautifully restored megaphone style ‘museum’ pieces on display within the shop. He also stocks stylus anti-dust mats and cleaning fluids.
As an ex collector myself I had to agree with Prakarn’s sentiments that the demise of vinyl was (and is) a great loss to our digital planet. There’s nothing to match caring for a favourite album; cleaning those oh so fragile grooves before and after each play, protecting the outer sleeve with clear plastic covers (bought at ‘Woolies’ in packs of six in my day), and, always a sure way to impress the girls, learning the lyrics that were conveniently printed on the inner sleeve.
The ‘Tiger’ admitted that business could be better, but as I departed he returned to tending his Pink Floydus Petunias, his Lavandula Lennons and Papaver Presleys with the look of a very, very contented human being.
Even though I no longer own a turntable, I have to admit it took quite an effort to leave empty handed, however, if there are any collectors of the ‘old black’ out there, well now you know where to look. I would say you’d need a good half a day to do the shop justice. Happy browsing.

Thailand’s jazz queen illuminates the stage in “Highlights”

Khunying Priyangsri Watanakun (standing back row 6th left), Assistant Secretary-General and Director of Fund Raising Bureau for the Thai Red Cross Society, congratulates Kamala Sukosol (standing front row centre) on the success of the “Highlights” charity concert.

Kamala Sukosol, Thailand’s ‘Queen of Jazz’ put on yet another star performance recently at her own annual charity concert held at the The Siam City Hotel, Bangkok.
This year’s concert “Highlights” featured the Prachin Songpow Big Band Jazz Orchestra and included a compilation of Kamala’s classic hits, from fast-paced New Orleans Jazz to old favourites such as “Hava Nagila” and “New York, New York.”
Orchestrated interpretations of “McArthur Park” and Hairspray’s “You Can’t Stop the Beat” were followed by rousing renditions of “YMCA” and “Dancing Queen” from the movie “Mamma Mia!” and guaranteed first-rate entertainment, fun, and excitement for all.
The proceeds from the concert will go to the Queen Sirikit Centre for Breast Cancer to enable them to obtain much-needed diagnostic equipment and advanced technology to improve the patients’ quality of life and overall wellbeing.

One thousand new species found in Greater Mekong region

Cyanide millipede, huge spider among new discoveries

Report and photos WWF
Over a thousand new species have been discovered in the Greater Mekong Region of Southeast Asia in just the last decade, according to a new report launched by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF).

The Laotian rock rat is thought to have been extinct for more than 11 million years.
The study, titled “First Contact in the Greater Mekong”, reports that among the 1068 species newly identified by science between 1997 and 2007 were the world’s largest huntsman spider, with a leg span of 30 centimetres, and the startlingly hot pink coloured cyanide-producing “dragon millipede”.
While most species were discovered in the largely unexplored jungles and wetlands, some were first found in the most surprising places. The Laotian rock rat, for example, thought to be extinct 11 million years ago, was first encountered by scientists in a local food market, while the Siamese Peninsula pitviper was found slithering through the rafters of a restaurant in Khao Yai National Park in Thailand.

Probably the world’s largest spider, Heteropoda maxima has a colossal legspan of up to 12 inches (30 centimeters) and was discovered in a cave in northern Laos in 2001.
“This region is like what I read about as a child in the stories of Charles Darwin,” said Dr Thomas Ziegler, Curator at the Cologne Zoo. “It is a great feeling being in an unexplored area and to document its biodiversity for the first time… both enigmatic and beautiful,” he said.
The findings, highlighted in this report, include 519 plants, 279 fish, 88 frogs, 88 spiders, 46 lizards, 22 snakes, 15 mammals, 4 birds, 4 turtles, 2 salamanders and a toad. The region comprises the six countries through which the Mekong River flows including Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the southern Chinese province of Yunnan. It is estimated thousands of new invertebrate species were also discovered during this period, further highlighting the region’s immense biodiversity.
“It doesn’t get any better than this,” said Stuart Chapman, Director of WWF’s Greater Mekong Programme. “We thought discoveries of this scale were confined to the history books. This reaffirms the Greater Mekong’s place on the world map of conservation priorities.”

Desmoxytes purpurosea, or the dragon millipede is capable of shooting cyanide to ward off predators.
The report stresses economic development and environmental protection must go hand-in-hand to provide for livelihoods and alleviate poverty, and ensure the survival of the Greater Mekong’s astonishing array of species and natural habitats.
“This poorly understood biodiversity is facing unprecedented pressure… for scientists, this means that almost every field survey yields new diversity, but documenting it is a race against time,” said Raoul Bain, Biodiversity Specialist from the American Museum of Natural History.
The report recommends what is urgently needed to protect the biodiversity of the region is a formal, cross-border agreement by the governments of the Greater Mekong.
“Who knows what else is out there waiting to be discovered, but what is clear is that there is plenty more where this came from,” said Chapman. “The scientific world is only just realizing what people here have known for centuries.”

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