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X'HO

X'Ho (pronounced Chris Ho), "forever 27", is best-known in his native Singapore as a radio-deejay. He was named Most Outstanding Asia-Pacific Radio Personality by the Australasian Broadcasting Arts & Sciences (aka Paters) in 1987. As a deejay he goes by the name Chris Ho. He deejays for three different radio-stations at the moment - Perfect 10 98.7 FM, Radio Singapore International and Rediffuson.

Chris is also his pen-name as a pop-columnist. His Pop Life column (which began in 1983) appears every other Friday in Straits Times' Life! As deejay and pop-columnist (freelancing also for various other publications), Chris has interviewed vis-a-vis a hefty line-up of pop stars - Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Tina Turner, Beck, Duran Duran, Bananarama, Kylie Minogue, Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, Michael Stipe, Los Lobos, Chaka Khan, Seal, Marc Almond, Gilles Peterson, Fugazi, Henry Rollins, Nirvana, ...just to name a dozen and a half.

As his artiste-self, X'Ho has released three solo albums after a 1983 album with his former band Zircon Lounge (Singapore's first ever New Wave-punk group in the 80s; the album was titled Regal Vigor). First solo album (recorded under the name Chris Ho) Nite Songs In Day-glo (WEA, 1989) produced a bona-fide dance-pop hit in Thailand - Sunburn, as well as a video Fictional Stuff which was a nominee for the first ever Best Asian Music Video Award (in conjunction with the launch of MTV Asia). Light St. (also from the album) premiered at the Asian Song Festival held in the Philippines shortly before the album's release. His second solo album PunkMonkHunk (1994), recorded in Singapore/Japan/U.K./U.S. was produced, for the most parts, by Makoto Kubota. It was named one of the year's best in Music Magazine (Tokyo) by music-critic Hiroshi Shinozaki. His most recent solo album was a spoken-word project (Singapore's first) titled X' With An X : Me All Good No Bad (named Best Album of 1999 in the Straits Times' Zack's Trax). It was a companion-piece for the book he authored 'Skew Me You Rebel Meh ? (published by BigO Books). His second book Attack Of The S.M. Space Encroachers comes out in Oct. 2002. Like the first, it contains essays on Singapore, mostly from a not-so favorable socio-cultural view-point; perhaps his Bachelor of Social Science degree, from way-back-when, has something to do with it. A cult-personality of sorts in Singapore, X' is regarded as Singapore's reknown pop-culture rebel. At the inauguration of Singapore's Streetstyle Awards 2001, he was given the Individuality Award. He was recently photographed for Hong Kong's WestEast magazine (Spring 2002) and by leading Thai art-photographer Manit Sriwanichpoom for his current In-Your-Face exhibition.

X' is currently working on his first short-feature filmlet and reforming Zircon Lounge under a different name.

Sept. 2002

X'Ho's Performance Record
1983 - Formed Zircon Lounge, Singapore's first New Wave art-punk band with Yeow. Its debut album Regal Vigor, released on WEA, was co-produced by Dick Lee.
1984 - Zircon Lounge contributed two songs (Lonely When Away From My Love, Guide These Hands) to Class Acts, a best-selling compilation, containing the Tokyo Square hit Within You'll Remain.
1986 - Class Acts 2 contained another two songs from Zircon Lounge (Vaneepok, Cold In Buriram). Chris recorded two numbers for the Big O cassette Nothing On The Radio - The Happy Ghost and Mr. Ant.
1987 - Zircon Lounge had performed live with other pioneering Singapore indie-bands at Anywhere. The event was recorded and released as No Surrender on cassette by Big O Records. As a deejay on Rediffusion, Chris Ho won the Australasian Broadcasting Arts & Sciences' Paters Award for Best Asia-Pacific Radio Personality.
1988 - Zircon Lounge dissolved. Chris performed as a soloist the song Light St. at the Asian Song Festival in Manila.
1989 - Chris recorded his first solo album Nite Songs In Day-glo on WEA. The first single Sunburn became a pop hit in Bangkok.
1990
- Chris recorded a cover of Peter Tosh's Soon Come for the WEA compilation Let's Celebrate. The video for the song was shot in Los Angeles.
1991 - The music-video of Chris' Fictional Stuff was named a finalist for Best Music Video in the inaugural MTV Asia Music Awards held in Hong Kong. Chris recorded a cover of the Doors' Hello I Love You for Pony Canyon Singapore's first compilation-album International Volume One.
1991 - Chris wrote and recorded the first song commissioned by Action For Aids to raise Aids awareness - Save The Day, featuring singer Mohani Mohammed.
1993 - An unreleased track by Zircon Lounge - Where's My Dream was included as a hidden bonus track on Big O's New School Rock 3. Chris recorded Save Sex, a duet with singer Christina Ong for Action For Aids. Released as a single, Save Sex was backed with Deeper which later became Chris' best known song on the radio. For the Pony Canyon compilation Bonus (the Blue edition), Chris recorded Queen Of The Construction Scene, featuring Kumar.
1993 - Chris announced that his professional name as a singer was changed to X' (still pronounced Chris) and recorded PunkMonkHunk, his second solo album released by Pony Canyon. The album, featuring contributions from reggae singer Janet Kay and guitarist Bill Nelson, was named one of the year's best by Japanese critic Hiroshi Shinozaki who first introduced Dick Lee to Japan.
1994 - X' s Fuzzy Valentine was included on the Pony Canyon compilation Skin Deep which also contained a new X' recording Kites (a cover of the Simon Dupree hit of '67) and Michael's So Fey recorded under the pseudonym Rude Paul.
1995 - X' appeared as cameo in Eric Khoo's Mee Pok Man.
1996 - X' recorded Exceptional Babe, produced by 23 Skidoo aka Ronin, for the Springroll compilation Dazed & Confused.
1997 - X' wrote and co-produced Jacintha's Charge Me Your Fare and recorded a duet with Leslie Low of Humpback Oak - We Are Always Halfway There, both songs for the soundtrack of Eric Khoo's 12 Storeys.
1998 - X' authored his first book 'Skew Me You Rebel Meh?, published by Big O Books. And appeared in another cameo role in Jack Neo's Liang Po Po.
1999 - X' recorded his third solo album, a spoken-word CD titled X' With An X, released by Big O Records. A couple of musical numbers from it became minor radio hits - Lament (a duet with Sheik Haikel) and The Three T's Jam .
2002 - X' authored his second book Attack Of The SM Space Encroachers, published by Big O Books.


 

:Releases:


X' with an X


Attack of the SM Space Enroachers (book)