Established in 2018 by Gary Brightman - VIBE is a Book & Music shop situated in Mui Wo on Lantau Island in Hong Kong.

This weeks interview is with a mate Pete Millward of Celestial. I’ve been pestering him to interview with me since VIBE opened back in early 2018…

His latest album ‘Sub Coda’ is used as the sound-bed for this interview.

Back in 2018, high on my priority list was to add the music shop into the book shop mix. Although I’d accumulated a lot of vinyl and CDs, I wanted to feature local Hong Kong artists, such as GDJYB who I’d recently written and produced a documentary on after leaving film school. Mate Pete Millward lives on Lantau island and although I knew he worked for Drum Music producing music for such big HK brands as Cathay, HSBC and HK Sevens, I hadn’t heard his music under the guise of Celestial. He supplied me with his back catalogue and I was immediately sold on it, maybe because we’re both born in 1960 and have the same musical references throughout our lives…

“Celestial” is a Hong Kong based collective whose unique sound resonates with the diversity of life in this city. Celestial was conceived by producer and guitarist Peter Millward, a co-founder of Drum Music along with Eddie Chung. Pete moved to Hong Kong in 1990 from South London coming from a background playing in punk bands and recording reggae acts. Upon arrival he was asked to write music for a leading fashion boutique for their compilation album. His unique fusion of Asian sounds with modern production techniques pioneered the emerging genre of “Asian chill-out” music - and the idea for “Celestial” was born.

Pete, who produces, arranges, mixes, plays guitar, bass, melodica, and keyboards, plus programming and various other bits of audio manipulation, is a long time Hong Kong resident, with his musical roots in the Punk and Dub Reggae of the ’70s.

I liked Celestial’s music so much that I asked Pete if I could use it in my newly written and directed sci-fi series called ‘Transformed’ back in 2014. Very generously he said I could use any of his music in my work for free, just credit ‘Celestial’ and I’ve been using his music for my sound beds ever since. Indeed, this very podcast uses a sample from a track ‘Green Island Dub’ for its intro/outro. He has performed at VIBE with mate Mike Hill under the guise Elektro Mull. Indeed he’s performed many other times at VIBE under the guise of Celestial. He recently performed at Clockenflap and also Lantau Live music festival.

https://hongkongdubstation.com/

10 Questions….

1. Favourite book or authors? George Orwell, Graham Greene, Raymond Chandler, Ernest Hemmingway, Hanif Murakami, Cormack McCarthy

2. Favourite musical artists? The Clash, The Specials, Joy Division, Philip Glass, Miles Davis, Nick Cave, The Who, David Bowie & Rolling Stones

3. Favourite films? Bladerunner, Bladerunner 2049, The Big Lebowski, Wings of Desire, Coen Brothers films

4. Preferred drink? Depends on the time of day - tea/coffee, beer later, wine with food

5. Life motto? Go into everything with an open mind

6. Favourite HK walk? Over Lantau Peak, Happy Valley to Shek O

7. Favourite HK restaurant? My kitchen. The Globe, Fiata Pizza. China Beach Club. The Gallery. Ciao Bella. The Kitchen. Southside

8. Best advice you were given? More an action of learning to hug family…

9. Finish this sentence… I live in Hong Kong because… Came to HK with girlfriend for work and working with a mate

10. Favourite area of Hong Kong? Lantau

https://www.vibehk.com/