Chicago Blues where you wouldn't expect it

This morning I visited my favourite local charity shop, and I found a Blues compilation CD that features Junior Wells and Buddy Guy. I bought it. Last Monday there was a programme on Radio 4 about the post war political situation in Sarawak, a country that is part of the island of Borneo. You would imagine that there could be no possible connection between the two.But there is.
In 1967 my parents went to live in Kuching, the capital of Sarawak. My sisters and I were sent to convent boarding school in Matlock, but we spent our Christmas and summer school holidays with them in the far east. It was really hard to explain to friends what it was like then. Now people go on gap years to look at the rainforest or rescue orang utans ( man of the forest in Malay). Back then it took a minimum of three days to fly there. The quickest route was via Copenhagen, Tashkent and Singapore, and then a local plane across to Kuching. There was a post colonial social scene for our parents , and a small group of teenagers, all released from their boarding school prisons would meet up in the holidays and write to one another in term time. I'm still in touch with some of them. My interest in music was encouraged there - the public school boys loved their prog rock, and Cream ( Disraeli Gears), Hendrix ( Are you experienced?) and the Stones ( Their Satanic Majesties). My dad, a civil engineer out there, was a big jazz and folk fan, with a particular passion for Bob Dylan. He had vinyl and reel to reel. I had a prototype portable record player, bought in Singapore. Imagine jungle at the bottom of the garden. On the other side of that strip of jungle lived my friend who was also a Pink Floyd fan. He would play Interstellar Overdrive very loud from his bedroom balcony so I could hear it in mine. It's never sounded so good. Also Steve Miller's Song for our Ancestors, with its strange foghorn intro. Many years later I arrived early for work one evening at the Hacienda, and was transported back to the jungle. Rob Gretton was playing it full volume on the club sound system! Not what you'd normally associate with Fac 51.
So, plenty of recorded music, but not much live going on. Until one Christmas my parents got tickets for Junior Wells Rhythm and Blues Band at the local school. Looking at the ticket, I imagine they had come out to SE Asia to entertain the troops, still in Vietnam. The United States Information Service sounds like some sort of PR/ cultural exchange exercise. I knew a bit about Chicago blues.I was into Electric Flag, and had even bought a copy of Long Time Comin', which I still have.
As you can see I also still have the ticket and their autographs - a miracle given how many times I have moved house, and how long ago it all was.