Bill Forbes (Alias Kal Kahan) - Ladies of Calcutta

Bill Forbes (Alias Kal Kahan) - Ladies of Calcutta - Breaking the silence

What happened to the singer who has given us hits like Ladies of Calcutta and Oh to be in England? Mathures Paul tracks down the ever-elusive Sri Lanka-born Bill Forbes aka Kal Kahn

Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren made Goodness Gracious Me a roaring success in the 1960s, opening a door to comic recordings. Inspired, Kal Kahn, who most people are not aware of, recorded two songs ~ Ladies of Calcutta and Oh to be in England. A few months back The Statesman carried an article on the identity of Kal Kahn and raised a few questions ~ why did Bill Forbes took on this identity, why Ladies of Calcutta, is Kal Kahn alive... Once the article got circulated on the Internet, Andy replied.
Andy is Bill Forbes nephew and he helped me to get in touch with the ever-elusive Kal Kahn, who is alive and well, and living in Huddersfield.
Making the two songs ~ Ladies of Calcutta and Oh to be in England ~ special is the diction with which Kahn rambled through those famous lines
English people sleeping in the sun to get a tan,
Pouring oil upon their faces like a frying pan
Bill Forbes says at the time of release (the 45 rpm) Peter Sellers had recorded Goodness Gracious Me, inspiring him to belt out a couple of gimmick tracks of his own. He chose the name Kal Khan because at the time he was contracted to Columbia records and this didnt allow him to record the two tracks under his own name.
Forbes, born in Sri Lanka in 1938 and left for Britain in 1955, made a series of appearances at Bread Basket coffee bar. Meanwhile, Cliff Richard was going strong with the Oh Boy! show. On this show singers like Shirley Bassey, Marty Wilde and Billy Fury made appearances. Forbes became a regular also. He was to make his debut on 1 November 1958 after a string of rehearsals at Empire Theatre and Four Provinces of Ireland Club. But Tommy Steeles appearance postponed his entry to 13 December.
Between 1959 and 1962 he released tracks regularly on Columbia Records. Some of the tracks he recorded were quite... lets say 1960s, reminding one of Paul Anka, for example, his version of Too Young. Besides Oh Boy! he was seen in Cool For Cats and Thank Your Lucky Stars.
After doing a round of nightclubs and singing here and there, Forbes had a throat operation which he didnt recover from, making him opt for a quiet life. He is happily retired, spending time with his family. And if you want to see and hear Forbes, log on to YouTube and type in Bill Forbes. Bherry bherry pretty songs!
Andy Howland

Category:

Music

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• Forbes
• (Alias
• Kal
• Kahan)
• Ladies
• of
• Calcutta
• Pop
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• Westren
• R&B
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• India
• Oldies
• 60's

[avix007]

So was his name Kal Khan, Kal Kahn or Kal Kahan? I can see all the three spellings up there.

Wonderful song, by the way (and being a dyed-in-the-wool Calcuttan, I cannot help but agree).

[abadangal]

Reminds me of the laughs we had when we first heard this song. A real classic!

[xiaolaotze]

he did another one during the 62 war

went something like ....

chinese buggers I will slaughter,

oh my god I'm passing water

[adlibber5]

An absolute classic - takes me back to the days of my youth!

[deboleena2007]

Thanks for uploading, again!

[pritiquinn]

This was as fun as ever! Thanks.

[dlfcity4]

revived my memories of 60s. thanks. can i find an MP3 version of this somwhere? I have an instrumental version by the ventures.

[vintagegoon7]

Love this! Thanks.