Peacock Blue’s material consists of many shades, but blues run deep and wide. The inspiration for the name came from a photograph taken by lead singer Alice Leung. Shot in a Malaysian bird park, the image is of a peacock in full train flair, its eye-like markings shimmering.
Twenty-seven-year-old local Leung formed the band with guitarist Eric Wong a year and a half ago. However, the current four-person line-up has been performing as one for only two months. Leung explains that the band’s feel is “laidback, freestyle almost, alternative, very bluesy.”
Sexy and sultry, Leung’s vocals are straight out of a 1960s pre-Woodstock warm up session. Jazz, rock, RnB, Christina Aguilera and Amy Winehouse all influence her.
Electric lead guitarist Wong can be heard picking high clarion wails that are both melancholy and majestic. Unfazed, steady, tight, like Peter Green before his breakdown, Wong gives Minnie Riperton’s 'Lovin’ You' a Stevie Ray Vaughan overhaul.
Bass player Linda Lin, who studied music at Xinghai Conservatory of Music, waves his red and black axe around while grooving to the beats of his band mates. On the drums, Hong Kong-born Taiwan native Ken Wu provides the backdrop to Peacock Blue’s high-tempo, funky drive, like if the Bee Gees had a child with Ram Jam. Wu will soon be putting down his drumsticks for a stethoscope: he’s training to be a doctor.
Together the band delivers stripped-down, earthy presentations of modern hits: Adele’s ‘Rolling in the Deep,’ Maroon 5’s ‘Moves Like Jagger’ and Pharrell Williams’ ‘Happy’ – a funkier version than the original that rolls forward like an unrelenting jazz juggernaut. SES
// Peacock Blue performs five nights a week at Hooley's (Tue, 10pm), 191Space (Tue, 11pm), The Brew Panyu (Wed, 9.30pm), The Brew JSL (Sun, 9.30pm) and Summer House in Foshan (Mon and Thu, 9.30pm).
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