Keith Hale's Page

Hello

My name is Keith Hale. I’m a musician and songwriter.

In November 1978, a group of Vietnamese children housed in Kensington Barracks were invited to sing on a track my band were recording at nearby Basing Street studios. Meeting them and hearing the story of their escape from their teacher had a profound effect on all who met them.

The resulting song “Rice Harvest” was released as a single in 1979 and although it received many good reviews, failed to reach the charts. However, the song had a life of its own and many years later was performed at the Royal Festival Hall in London by over 500 children. It was around this time that I began to write the musical, based on what I remembered of the teacher’s tale and another true event in which Vietnamese refugees from a sinking boat were rescued by crew members from an oil platform (Nedrill 2) in the South China Sea .

http://riceharvest-themusical.co.uk/

Whilst researching the musical I often wondered what happened to the children I had met in 1978, and though I tried contacting some of the journalists who had written about them, never received any replies.

Recently I came across a box of transparencies which I thought had been lost. They were taken at the studio in 1978 and we had them reprocessed. It was wonderful to see a reminder of that special day again. At around the same time Geoff, our PR guy, found your site with many related photographs taken on board the Wellpark. It was only when I recognised that some of the children on the boat were those from the recording session that the penny dropped! Here at last was a way of contacting them.

So, If anyone recognises themselves from the photos, I would love to hear from them, particularly if they remember that day. It must have been a very strange event for them, especially the younger ones. I would be happy to post all the photos (16) on your site if you would like.

As for the future of the musical, we were hoping to perform it at the Moon Festival in Deptford this autumn, but of course this had to be cancelled because of the pandemic. Instead we are working on a podcast version and are hoping to attract interest in filming it .

With best wishes

Keith