Bumboat! is the first record featuring original songs from the Singapore Festival of the Arts. The 12-inch vinyl single contains two songs, “Bumboat” and “Unsaid”, from the English production Bumboat! which was performed during the Festival in 1984. They were written and arranged by multi-talented Singaporean musician, Dick Lee, who worked on the production as its musical director. The eponymous title song features the vocals of the 16-strong cast of the play while “Unsaid” is a love ballad sung by Jacintha Abisheganaden and Dick Lee. Tzi Ma, the American Chinese co-director of Bumboat! in 1984, described the production about contemporary Singapore as “a play made up of a series of plays linked together by the duality of its players”. It comprised six “episodes”, namely, “Ah Pek’s Story”, “Going West”, “Beauty Box”, “Taximan’s Story”, “The View from Here” and “Welcome Singapore”. The record, which had belonged to the late Singaporean theatre director William Teo (1957–2001), is unique for the personal message it bears on the cover. The message reads, “Dear Willy, Happy Haircutting! Love Dick” and shows that the record was likely presented as a gift to William Teo by Dick Lee. William Teo worked as a hairdresser and opened his own hair salon (Botticelli at Lucky Plaza) before he became involved in the local theatre scene from the mid-1980s.
