Caravan (Thai band)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Caravan is a Thai folk-rock band that formed out of the 1973 democracy movement. It launched the Pleng phua cheewit (songs for life) genre that has since been popularized by Carabao.

[edit] Personnel

Surachai "Nga Caravan" Jantimatorn - vocals, acoustic guitar
Wirasak Suntornsri - guitar, vocals
Mongkon Utok - vocals, phin (a kind of Thai lute), wut (a panpipe-like Thai instrument), harmonica
Tongkran Tana - lead guitar, slide guitar, violin, vocals

[edit] Band history

The founders of Caravan, Surachai Jantimatorn ("Nga Caravan") and Virasak Suntornsii, were student activists at Ramkamhaeng University at a time when the student movement was instrumental in toppling the dictatorial regime of Thanom Kittikachorn. They sympathasized with the working class farmers in Northeast Thailand.

One of the band's most popular songs is "Kon Gap Kwai" ("Man and Buffalo"), which rhapsodizes the relationship of rice farmers and their water buffalo, but with the lyrics that include "Come, let's go now! Come, let's go! Carry our plows and guns to the fields!", it was also a political statement by songwriters, Somkit Singson and Visa Kantap, who were both critical of the Thanom regime.^[1] Other songs condemned the presence of the US military.

Early albums included Caravan Volume 1 (1975) and Caravan Volume 2 (1976) and Ruam Botpleng Sipsee Tulaa Siphok Vol. 2 (A Collection Of Songs For 14th October 1973, Vol. 2, 1976).

After the 6 October 1976 Massacre, student activists, including members of Caravan, fled to the countryside and neighboring Laos, taking shelter with the Communist Party of Thailand. After amnesty was declared in 1979, the band's members gradually returned from exile and by 1982 it had released the album Deuanpen (Full Moon). Other albums followed, including Kon Dtii Lsk (Blacksmith, 1983) and Live at the 50th Anniversary of Thammasat University (1984). A concert album, Live in Japan at Taku Taku (1988) showed that the band's influence was growing outside Thailand.^[2]^[3]