Jive talking

News of the lifting of Covid-related restrictions was music to John Prymmer's ears.

The musician and owner of The Wanch was one of the happiest people in Hong Kong because that meant the nightly live music performances at the Wan Chai bar and restaurant would come back in full swing.

Like many businesses, The Wanch suffered because of the social-distancing measures. It had to close its doors in August 2020.

"From February to the end of August 2020. we had been able to open only 34 days in total. When the music came back in 2020 at the end of June, we ran our H2 festival and did pretty well. But then on July 15, the government stopped all the music again," Prymmer said about the new normal he had to face in the first year Covid came out had spread across the world.

"Our issue was, our former location was only 1,000 square feet and all we had to offer was music," he said. "We had a light refreshment licence but no real kitchen. So when the social distancing policy was on, it could only fit about 10 people."

But if you love what you do, it will at least give you one big reason to resist hard times and stay resilient. "You've got to have a real passion for it and not get discouraged when things don't go right," Prymmer explained.

A lead vocalist and guitarist to a local band Don't Panic since 2002, Prymmer can trace his passion for music to his childhood and teenage years in Cleveland.

By five, he had already decided to become a musician and began his first music encounter with the piano.

Influenced by popular British bands such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones who were touring around the United States, Prymmer was inspired like many other kids to start learning guitar from an early age of eight.

And he had company. His father, a musician who was mainly doing vocals back then, started teaching himself upright bass around the same time to accompany his son.

By the time the young Prymmer reached high school, he was already touring around the country with different bands.

The impact his father had on him was not just musical.

"If you tell your parents you want to be a musician, they're not exactly smiling because they want you to go into business. It is the same everywhere, not just in Hong Kong," he recalled.

"My father instilled in me that it's great to have a passion in music - but you have to have something to fall back on."

Heeding this advice, Prymmer studied business in Youngstown State University in Ohio. On graduation, he was offered a job with Texas Instruments and moved to the state,

He continued to play with different bands.

"When the right opportunity came I would go play with whatever band my agency hooked me up with. That would be anywhere from four months to a year sometimes."

But he continued to focus on his day job, which was a procurement specialist.

Eventually opportunities in that area brought him to Hong Kong. In 1986, he set up a small office for the international procurement division of a start-up electronic company. Little did he know that he was to stay in Hong Kong until today.

Whether it was coincidence or karma, The Wanch was actually established around the same time, in 1987 - but his partnership with the music bar did not start until 2000.

By chance, his ex-wife saw a newspaper ad about The Wanch highlighting its live music. He brought a Japanese client there for dinner and was sucked into the atmosphere.

So hooked was he was that he and some friends took over operations of The Wanch in March 2010, with a focus on the music.

The music club reopened in Jaffe Road in June 2022, just as Hong Kong was heading to a full reopening. A new feature is a kitchen decorated with old music and movie posters.

Currently, it has approximately 70 musicians jamming to customers old and new.

"It's nice to have a place we can come and play, and meet other musicians," he said, adding that it has become a community.

"I've had so many people come up to me and say they could come to The Wanch by themselves and within 15 minutes they would start a conversation with somebody - whether be it about music or whatever."

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