UGLYM3N

Ka Keung, on right, at Jiang Jun Au Cemetary with family members on 30th June 2006, 3.50pm, the time when Ka Kui left us.

On that fateful day, one of Asia’s most gifted musician went away silently. He was Wong Ka Kui. 7 days before this date, He fell from a shooting set on a stage in Japan filming a game show, 3 metres to the groud, head first.

Time fliew and today is the 13th year he had left us. There are so many tributes to Ka Kui written in Chinese on the internet, newspaper, books, magazine, and i think, this time round i should write about him in English for everyone to read.

Ka Kui, or known as “hak zhai” 黑仔(dark skin) among his friends, was born to an average family. He was very active in school but did not do very well in acedemic. After schooling, he did not pursue any further education and started working. He worked few jobs a day and changed many jobs, still he could not satisfy with what he was doing.

P/S: Ka Kui was once heavily criticised by a lead man in a band, telling him he was a very bad guitar player and he would never succeed in playing in a band. This fired up Ka Kui!

Until he fell in love with music, his favourite artiste was David Bowie. Back then, Ka Kui wasnt playing in band. But by chance, he was introduced to a guy Yip Sai Wing in a music store in 1983, and soon, he found out both of them enjoyed same genre of music and played same style. Later in that year, both of them wanted to join a band competition and roped in two more members to form a band (no, not Ka Keung and Paul). Not many people know that the band name BEYOND was actually named by a non-member (present). The then guitarist Ah Tang é‚“, named the band as BEYOND in order to join the competition. And, they won the competition!

Debut album: 再见理想 (Farewell To Our Dreams)

Later in 1985, Ka Kui’s younger brother, Ka Keong, joined the band as the bassist in order to hold their very first personal concert. Unfortunately, the then guitarist Chan Sai On 陈世安had to leave Beyond for further studies, so a desginer called Paul Wong joined the band. That’s the final line-up that we familiar with. In between those few years, another guitarist / keyboardist Lau Zhi Yin 刘致远 joined, and later left the band, also for educational reason.

秘密警察 (Secret Police)

After 3 previous albums (永远等待 Waiting Forever / 亚拉伯跳舞女朗读 Arabian Dancing Girl / 现代舞台 Modern Stage), Beyond made its break-through in 1988,  with Ka Kui’s superb song compositions and his unique voice, winning a platinum award for the album “Secret Police” with hit songs such as 大地 Da Di, 喜欢你 Xi Huan Ni in the album. BEYOND also held their first concert in mainland China in Beijing.

BEYOND IV

With Ka Kui’s guidance and extremely unique musical ideas, Beyond went on to become the most famous band in Asia for the next few years, with their trademark song 真的爱你 Zhen De Ai Ni hitting top in music charts of almost every chinese radio stations. The album BEYOND IV, which consists Zhen De Ai Ni, 逝去日子 Shi Qu Ri Zi, won double platinum award!

FIlm Scoring by Beyond: 午夜迷墙 (Midnight Rumble)

Original Soundtrack: 天若有情 (the famous Fooi Sek Kuai Zhek)

BEYOND started to soar higher and higher, the following year, 4 of them took part in filming including movies such as 吉星鸿照 Ji Xing Hong Zhao, 开心鬼 Happy Ghost, and TV series 淘气双子星 Tao Qu Shuang Zi Xing. BEYOND also did film-scoring for the Andy Lau classisc Tian Ruo You Qing, Wu Yue Mi Qiang and at the same time, held their first concert in Hong Kong Collesium. BEYOND also contributed their voice in the dubbing of Ninja Turtle 1 and 2.

Another milestone, BEST LYRICIST and BEST SONG : 光辉岁月 GUANG HUI SUI YUE

More hits from Ka Kui emerging non-stop… 岁月无声 Sui Yue Wu Sheng, 交织千个心 Jiao Zhi Qian Ge Xin (tribute to Sam Hui), 光辉岁月 Guang Hui Shui Yue (Ka Kui won BEST LYRICIST in Hong Kong most prestigous music award for this song, dedicated to Nelson Mendela), 战胜心魔 Zhan Sheng Xin Mo, 灰色轨迹 Hui Se Gui Ji.

Peace for All ~ AMANI

Photo taken in Africa

The BEYOND fever then got even hotter when one of their most successful album DELIBERATE went to the street. A truely unique song using African language to promote peace, anti-war message to the world, called AMANI. BEYOND went to Africa and wrote this song. In this album, other BEYOND classics were also born, 不再犹疑 Bu Zhai You Yi, 我早应该习惯 Wo Zhao Yin Gai Xi Guan, 系要听 Rock & Roll (Xi Yao Ting Rock & Roll), 高温派对 Gao Wen Pai Dui.

The Great Wall ~ with Kitaro

After spreading their music to most part of South East Asia, the time had come to flex their muscles in Japan. Beyond flew to Japan and made the next album collaborating with world famous composer Kitaro on 长城 Chang Cheng and Kunihiko Ryo. Chang Cheng again landed another award for the band.

BEYOND gained more popularity and toured Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia in those years

The BEST of all BEYOND’s album: BEYOND 乐与怒 Le Yu Nu

If you think Beyond had reached its peak, then you are just truely very very wrong, because, the next album Le Yu Nu (cheer and anger) came out in 1993 and the hit song 海阔天空 Hai Kuo Tian Kong conquered almost all Karaoke outlets. Every amature bands started to mimic Beyond, play and perform their songs. Almost all the songs in this album are my all-time favourites: 我是愤怒 Wo Shi Fen Nu, 爸爸妈妈 Ba Ba Ma Ma, 命运是你家 Ming Yun Shi Ni Jia, 走不开的快乐 Zou Bu Kai De Kuai Le, 海阔天空 Hai Kuo Tian Kong, 情人 Qing Ren. And yes, they were all wrote by Ka Kui. Just tell me, which chinese lad playing in a band today never play these superb BEYOND classics before? Beyond also held a FREE UNPLUGGED concert in Malaysia to promote the latest album in May 1993. Before ending the show, Ka Kui said to the crowd: “Happy times flew past really fast, and we will meet again in the coming years” “快活不知时日过… 明年再见”

Then, just about one month after the concert ….

Moments before the tragedy. Ka Kui, in centre of photo raising right hand.
Tragedy struck.. 
The filming accident.

For all Uglymen.net Chinese readers, you can log on to www.beyondmusic.net, click the left menu of 纪念黄家驹 (remembering Wong Ka Kui), every detial about the tragedy is noted there.

And for English readers, i also found out this very detail website about the tragedy, including photos http://home4u.hongkong.com/entertainment/stars/davidip/accident.htm
All die-hard true BEYOND fans must read, very touching!

Under Ka Kui’s leadership, BEYOND released moer than 20 albums and EPs which include countless chart toppers up til 1993.

Rest In Peace in Jiang Jun Ao, HK

We will remember you forever, Ka Kui, thank you for the music, thank you for making me know what music really is, and may the spirit of BEYOND lives forever!

Ka Kui: Hong Kong only has entertainment scene, not music circle!

香港只有娱乐圈,没有乐坛!