Ngoc Chanh: first leader of the band "Shotguns", whose ability to evaluate music is at the highest level

Musician Ngoc Chanh is known as one of the talented and popular musicians once in the Vietnamese music industry. He used to work with talented musician Pham Duy to compose the song - Hate on a wild horse, Never know the same and the age of sadness.

Besides his title as a musician, Ngoc Chanh is also remembered by the music world as the leader of the famous band - Shotguns; at the same time he founded a record label under the same name Shotguns. During his career, he made many important contributions to the music industry when he successfully promoted many famous Saigon songs, singers and songwriters before 1975.

Musician Ngoc Chanh real name Nguyen Ngoc Chanh was born on March 13, 1937 in Saigon in a family of 10 siblings. He loved music and was musically gifted from childhood. At the age of 6, he took guitar lessons with an older friend named Gu Jingzhou, then studied with a Filipino musician, Monito.

In 1945, when he was 8 years old, he entered Lasan Duc Minh Seminary in Tan Dinh, and at the age of 11, he transferred to Le Van Hai School for 2 years. In 1950, he entered the first high school at Cao Thang Technical School.

During his time here, musician Ngoc Chanh wrote 2 books "Self-study about guitar" and sold the book copyright to My Tin publishing house in 1953 for 24,500. This is probably one of the earliest guitar books of the music industry of the time.

It is known that My Tin then owned a famous shop - specializing in manufacturing and selling guitars on Vo Thanh Street, and also displayed some old pianos. Piano was Ngoc Chanh dream, so he applied to buy a second-hand piano for 22,000 VND by exchanging the copyright of his book and was paid an additional 2,500 VND by the owner. At that time, Ngoc Chanh lied to his family to study piano with Nguyen Van Dung on Hien Vuong Street.

Thanks to playing both guitar and piano, at the age of 20, musician Ngoc Chanh was accepted to serve in the Arts Department of the Ministry of Public Affairs and was postponed from military service. He then took his instrument around the towns, large and small, performing for two years.

From 1960 to 1966, musician Ngoc Chanh was in turn invited to be the leader of the band in many places from small to large, starting with the music stage at Cong Hoa Bathing Lake, then the Melody discotheque, Lai Yun, Van Canh, Eden Rock, My Phung restaurant...

In 1966, under the order of general mobilization, he joined the Central Cultural Troupe, then the Hoa Love Thuong band with many talented artists, including musicians Khanh Bang, Nguyen Anh 9, singers Elvis Phuong, Pat Lam, musician Duy Khiem, drummer Phung Trong ...

In 1968, due to Tet Offensive, all entertainment programs at tea rooms and discotheques in Saigon were closed - causing artists to suffer mass unemployment.

Receiving the invitation, Ngoc Chanh immediately formed the band Shotguns - which has the following members - Ngoc Chanh (piano), Duy Khiem (bass), Duc Hieu (drums, later replaced by Luu Binh), Hoang Liem (guitar) and 2 vocals Pat Lam, Elvis Phuong. After a while, adding vocals Ngoc My and Quoc Hung on bass, Duy Khiem plays accord guitar...

In 1969, when the situation was more stable, the Shotguns, together with musician Ngoc Chanh decided to return to Saigon to perform music. During this period, Ngoc Chanh also changed direction for Shotguns, from a band specializing in singing Pop Rock, foreign music, to singing lyrical, gentle and romantic Vietnamese music for Vietnamese people.

This decision was initially disagreed with by many on the board. However, the results showed that Ngoc Chanh was really right when the band received a lot of public support.

At Queen Bee and International Teahouse, musician Ngoc Chanh has created a vibrant place with the most famous singers in Saigon such as Thai Thanh, Thanh Thuy, Elvis Phuong, Khanh Ly, Le Thu, My The, Truc Mai ... and is a launching pad for the next generation of vocalists: Thanh Lan, Da Huong, Thai Chau, Nguyen Chanh Tin ...

Along with that, musician Ngoc Chanh also organized the production of Shotguns tapes from 1969 until 1975, releasing more than 30 very valuable Shotguns tapes that still many people still listen to today.

Ngoc Chanh is also a pioneer in producing music on magnetic tape (mortar tape) at a time when the market is still favoring vinyl records. Less than 2 years later, the vinyl in the Southern music market began to decline, ceding the market to magnetic tapes.

What differentiates and is the strength of the Shotguns tape compared to other labels, is that the song is very carefully selected. Many artists have commented that musician Ngoc Chanh has a very special ability that not everyone can do!

He can also predict whether a strange voice can become famous or not, or predict whether a new song will hit or not. Thanks to this, the Shotguns tapes he made are perfect pieces of music.

One thing that cannot be ignored is that most of the most famous singers of different generations have sung many times in shotguns, from Thai Thanh, Khanh Ly, Le Thu, Duy Trac, Si Phu to Thanh Thuy, Hoang Oanh, Truc Mai, Ha Thanh, Thanh Lan, Che Linh, Nhat Truong, Giao Linh, Huong Lan to "gut" singers such as Elvis Phuong, Anh Khoa, Thai Chau, Da Huong ...

Regarding Ngoc Chanh's songwriting career, he is known for 3 most famous songs, all of which are songs written by him, then written by musician Pham Duy which are Scars on a Wild Horse, The Age of Sadness and Never Know the Same.

The first song is Never Know Tuong Tu, originally the soundtrack of Ngoc Chanh written for the film Lullaby of Tears directed by Le Hoang Hoa made in 1970, adapted from the novel of the same name by writer Duyen Anh. The film is about the poetic love story of the famous delinquent boss Dai Cathay.

After the film's successful screening, musician Ngoc Chanh asked musician Pham Duy to compose lyrics for the soundtrack he had written, and the song "Never Know Tuong Tuong" was born.

The 2nd song is "Scars on a Wild Horse", which is also the main soundtrack for a film of the same name directed by Le Hoang Hoa. The content of the song is the confession of a gruff gypsy who was once "crushed" and now turns his head "from the dark to the bright".

After 1975, there was a time when musician Ngoc Chanh collaborated with the Diamond troupe to perform performances for the new government. In 1975, he and the Diamond troupe performed a red tape entitled The Way We Go.

In 1978, Ngoc Chanh and his family crossed the sea to Malaysia, then to the United States in 1979. Later that year, he re-established the Shotguns in the United States and performed at Maxim's Disco in San Jose.

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Since the early 1980s, despite being very busy rebuilding the Shotguns band and running the dance hall, musician Ngoc Chanh still spends time studying photography.

By 2007, he really entered the path of professional photography, specializing in nature photography.

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