Thai fans to bid teary goodbye to rock band after 43 years: ‘what am I going to do?’

The iconic Carabao rock band, which has captivated Thai fans for more than four decades, will perform before a sold-out crowd in Thailand in November as music buffs scrambled for last-minute tickets after the group announced it would disband next year.

Yuenyong Opakul, lead singer of the eight-member band, said the team decided to call it quits because everyone was now old and some had chronic illnesses.

“It is about time for us to let go and accept the truth that all of us are old, although we are still cool,” Yuenyong said on Tuesday.

Yuenyong said Carabao would stage its last concert on April 1, adding he would continue composing songs with next-generation artists that would “help me sleep well and in happiness, not for the sake of money”.

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Shocked supporters of Carabao, which had built an ardent fan base with its songs chronicling the coup-prone country’s political and social turmoil, lamented the band’s move.

They also requested Carabao to release more tickets for its 40th anniversary show on November 11 at a Bangkok suburb after fans on Wednesday snapped up all the available entry passes, with the group advising them to stay away from scalpers.

“It’s a pity that I couldn’t make a reservation. I have never missed a big concert like this. What am I going to do this time?” asked a fan on Facebook.

Wrote another: “There are many people who want to go to the last concert, but the tickets are gone.”

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Carabao (“buffalo” in Tagalog), was founded in 1980 by Yuenyong and two Thai students studying at a college in Manila, The Nation news website reported on Wednesday.

Four years after the band’s founding, it broke onto the kingdom’s music scene with its fifth album, Made in Thailand, selling some five million cassettes.

Carabao, which has released 28 albums, held its first concert at an indoor stadium in Bangkok in 1985, and dominated Thai music charts despite having no contract with any agency.

Thai fans to bid teary goodbye to rock band after 43 years: ‘what am I going to do?’