Those familiar with my musical tastes know that I lean heavily towards older rock/pop music (i.e. 1950s - 1980s), but generally towards classic rock bands as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, etc.

While that remains and will likely always remain my primary musical interest, my most recent musical obsession has been the Hong Kong pop/rock of the 1960s and 1970s...i.e. the music my parents were listening to when they were in their twenties.

There were a number of classic bands and solo performers in Hong Kong at the time...some of whom would eventually become superstars during the 1970s, 1980s, and beyond. Famous bands included Sam Hui and the Lotus, Teddy Robbins and the Playboys, Roman Tam and the Lovers, etc. These bands generally played Hong Kong garage rock...basically, covers of popular songs by the big British and American rock bands of the time.

But there was also a small girl group movement in Hong Kong during the late 1960s/early 1970s, most of whom performed safe Mandarin pop, but one group, the CHOPSTICK SISTERS, who were a wild rock/jazz/soul/pop duo more in the vein of the Supremes than Chinese girl pop. The two members were Sandra Lang (Sindokla) and Amina. With their huge beehive hairdos (think Marge Simpson) and their changsam gowns, they had a distinctive look during the late 1960s/early 1970s. Hong Kong pop audiences had never seen or heard anything like them...at least from their own turf.

They were quite popular in Hong Kong between 1969 and 1973, releasing four hit albums consisting of English-language covers of pop, rock, jazz, and soul hits and a few original English-language pop compositions by Hong Kong songwriters. Sandra and Amina split up the group (it's been written that the two were also lesbian lovers, which is entirely believable if you've seen them...what a radical concept for early 1970s Hong Kong!) and pursued solo careers. Sandra went on to achieve greater fame in Hong Kong pop recording the first-ever TVB series theme song, "The Fatal Irony" in 1974. Amina had a few solo hits of her own, but left the music industry at the end of the 1970s.

Here they are in action on TVB in 1971, singing a medley of popular English pop/rock hits of the era. Because they were on television, they gave a relatively tame performance. From what I hear, their actual live shows at clubs and theaters were way more wild.

I know for sure Sandra could rock out and sing soul and jazz with the best of them, and from what little I've heard of Amina, so could she.

I've raided my parents' garage and found a few of their old records (all scratched up, of course...these date back to the 1960s). Wish I could find a more extensive catalogue of their discography somewhere...perhaps on CD or MP3. Their 1960s/1970s recordings are probably pretty rare items these days.