Taipa's Giants

You’ll find a perfectly mad band at the OTT (Old Taipa Tavern) on most Saturday nights called Blue Card. David Duffin; ‘Skip’ (Shane Schipper); Julian O’Connell and Roger Oliveira are the core members of the band which they started for fun a couple of years ago outside their real jobs. These daytime jobs gave them the blue cards to live in Macau, hence the name ‘Blue Card’ band. David says their band keeps them sane, and is a great release from the new lives they lead in Macau.

David and Skip come from Australia, Julian from Ireland and Roger is half-Portuguese and half-Filipino. David likes to sing the harder edge blues and play the guitar while Skip is the melodic singer. Julian plays bass guitar and Roger is the drummer.

More recently, another Irishman, Charlie Connolly has joined the band on keyboard. And on special occasions, 17-year-old Fabio who is the only band member who doesn’t need a blue card (he’s Macanese) plays the drums.

We catch up with each of the band members to find out how they got together and why they’re having such a great time playing into the wee hours when they have important jobs to do during the day:

First up, David Duffin.

DM: What music do you enjoy playing most?

David: We like to play a good mix of rock, pop and blues from the Beatles to Coldplay. A song out of every decade.
I’ve heard people tell me that they just heard their whole life being played. Well actually, it was the same lady who told me this a few times [he laughs].

DM: Would you say Blue Card has its own style and sound?

David: We like to sound messing and sloppy as long as we can make up for it with great music together. What was initially a hobby has now turned into a job for us.

DM: Ok, but what’s your real job?

David: I am an artist with the Sanderson Group where I oversee a team of painters and take on the role of a teacher. We’re working on an 800-meter wide mural for the dog track that’s also 10 meters high right now.”

DM: Does the band give you a bit of freedom and release after work?

David: Absolutely, but I also get a sense of release from composing music. I like to write music and share it with people.

DM: What have you composed so far?

David: I have written several songs about Macau: Madness in Macau, Cage rage, Follow your heart, Your love wasn’t all I had and Don’t Go. I am working on more.

Next we talk to Skip.

DM: What brought you to Macau?

Skip: I came here back in 2002 to work as a chef for the Westin. I later joined the Sands Macau as project manager of non-gaming areas. I’m working on the Sands hotel extension now.

DM: How did you end up playing with David, Julian, Roger and Charlie?

Skip: It started the day Paul Hester, the drummer for Crowded House died. That night at the Mandarin, I sang a Crowded House song in honor of Paul, and Dave’s wife Anita, heard me sing.
Anita told Dave about it. Then I played at the Irish Bar, thanks to Glenn McCartney’s invitation. That’s where Dave and Julian heard me. And here we are.

DM: When did you start singing?

Skip: I’ve always loved music as a kid. I didn’t really know I could sing though. I liked to play the guitar and then started to sing with it. Then my friends said, ‘Hey, you can sing!’ And they couldn’t shut me up since.

DM: Who do you enjoy playing most?

Skip: One of my favorites that we play now is “Talk” by Coldplay. We’re finding that it fits the sound of the band really well. We’ve added Charlie on the keyboard. I was a bit skeptical at first, but he’s been great and expanded what we have been able to play on a whole new level. Charlie is a genius.
I also love the Stones, even though Dave sings most of their songs. We really love doing pure pub music. Hunters and Collectors are great and I love Aussie music like INXS.
Midnight Oil are the best. But they are too sacred for us to play.

DM: Is there any other musical talent in your family?

Skip: My mom plays the piano, dad plays the mouth organ and my brother does the same thing I do, only in Brisbane. My sister likes to sing.

DM: What do you enjoy most about playing with Blue Card?

Skip: I love how the crowd gets into it, and right in front of us. It picks me up, too. I really do feed off the crowd.

Next up: Julian.

DM: What brought you to this part of the world?

Julian: I came to Hong Kong back in 1996 to work on the Hong Kong airport project. Then in 2004, I came over here to join the Venetian as senior project manager.

DM: What role did you play in bringing the Blue Card together?

Julian: I’ve always wanted to get a band together here in Macau, so I started out playing with a Filipino band. Then I met David by accident…We got together with Roger and didn’t quite know what to do with ourselves until Skip showed up. With Skip’s sex appeal, we knew we could really put a band together [he laughs]. We really have to thank Glenn [McCartney] for getting us in at the Irish Bar.
I was the only one with the money to buy the gear. It’s great to finally be able to afford the equipment so that we can sound good.

DM: Do you compose your own music?

Julian: It’s too late to be in the Top 20, so I don’t bother composing, but we have a great time playing. It’s a big change after work, a big release.

DM: Which musicians inspired you as a kid?

Julian: Lynyrd Skynyrd was my favorite growing up.

DM: Have you played in other bands?

Julian: Yes, I played with a group in Hong Kong at Delaney’s.

DM: What music do you enjoy playing the most?

Julian: I love jazz, rock and the blues.

Enter, Roger.

DM: You are the only one who has actually made a career of music. Has it always been that way?

Roger: Actually, no. I used to work in Norway for four years at the SAS Radisson in the
kitchen. Then I switched to music. I am now a drummer for the band at Westin.

DM: You lived in Norway? Why there?

Roger: I lived in Hong Kong for most of my life, but when the economy went south, I decided to try something new and headed for Norway. After Norway, I worked for the Ritz-Carlton in Shanghai and then moved to Macau in 2004 to work with the Westin.

DM: When did you start playing music?

Roger: I started playing the drums when I was 17.

DM: Have you played with any other bands?

Roger: I played the drums and sang in bands when I was in LA and New York.

DM: Have you played with anyone famous?

Roger: I was a backup for Barry Manilow at a Thanksgiving celebration in 1985 aboard the SS Rotterdam.

And at last we meet Charlie.

DM: How did you wind up joining the Blue Card band?

Charlie: During my job interview in Macau I told my then prospective boss I played music long time ago in Ireland. He mentioned another Irish guy working for Venetian – Julian – who had a band ‘Blue Card’. Julian called asking if I would be interested doing stand-in for a night as the keyboard player.
After warning him that it was more than eight years from when I had last played, and very rusty (you know when the mind knows where the fingers should go but the fingers just wont go that fast). Well Julian came over to my office in parcel two of Venetian on a Tuesday and gave me three CD of songs I needed to learn for the Saturday night, so to cut a long story short I had three nights of practicing at home showed up on the Saturday night at the OTT and played with them.
Two weeks later, Julian called and asked if I was free that night to play again and when I got to the OTT Skip, Dave and Julian asked if I would be interested in joining the band, so I said ‘yes’ and that’s where I am now.

DM: Are you having a good time with the band?

Charlie: I really enjoy playing with the other guys firstly as the choice of music interests me and secondly the guys are all mature ‘career wise’ and this is only meant as a past time / hobby, something to get away from work but at the same time to play to the best standard as possible.

DM: How long have you been playing on the keyboards?

Charlie: My earliest memory of playing was the age of six or seven, my parents had a small electronic organ at home in Belfast and I can remember playing at that time, then we moved to England to get away form the troubles and at primary school my teacher seen I had an interest in music and started teaching me the piano in her free time until we moved back to Ireland.
At the age of 15 I was asked if I would be interested playing in my local church. I accepted and played there for about 13 years, during this time I played at normal services, live radio broadcast services, weddings, funerals and even played on a BBC TV programme called ‘Songs Of Praise’ but that’s enough about that.

DM: Have you played in other bands? Anyone famous?

Charlie: At 17 I joined a 60s show band in Ireland called ‘The Diamond Show Band’ which was good fun and I got a lot of experience from these guys. We even recorded an album of mostly 60s cover songs and from memory two original songs.
The next band I played with ‘Mint’ had a different challenge for me as they did not have a bass player, so my part was playing keyboard/piano bits and also covering the bass on keyboards.
I learned a lot from these guys but later I left to join the best Irish band I have played with ‘Bananas’. I know it is a strange name for a band, but I had a great time playing all types of music from the 50’s Glenn Miller, through to chart music. This band gave me the chance to play along with once-famous bands like ‘The Swinging Blue Jeans’ ‘The Searchers’ and finally ‘Van Morrison’ which is really my only claim to fame and was only for a few songs as he was a little drunk and I guess under the influence of drugs.

DM: What music do you personally enjoy playing?

Charlie: Sorry to say, but I like playing slow melodic songs or secular music and sometimes the old standards are good, just depends on my mood but I do enjoy most
music.

DM: Which musician/band inspired you growing up?

Charlie: Elton John & Billy Joel for being great singer / song writer / musicians and some obscure bands like ‘Orleans’ ‘F.R David’ ‘The Corgis’ and some one hit wonders.

DM: When did you come to Macau and did you come straight to work with Hsin Chong or another firm?

Charlie: I started working in Macau in October 2006 with a company named ‘Inprojects’ who provide independent project managers.

DM: What work are you doing now with the Venetian Macao?

Charlie: I am a project manager for the fit-out work of casino, ballrooms & congress, F&B units and main reception areas n the hotel podium of parcel two.

DM: Where is home for you?

Charlie: Home for me is Ireland, I guess home for everyone will always be where they were born or where their parents live, but I have no intentions of going home in the foreseeable future.