Last weekend, I had a terrific couple of hours listening in on an interview that Jason Gibbs had with Lê Toàn (who has also gone by the name Antoine). A long-time resident of Orange County who worked in computer software engineering before retirement, Lê Toàn had lived in Saigon (before 1975), Honolulu, and San Jose–and had previously made his living in the music industry. It was a high delight to learn many new things from the history that he shared with us.

In addition, Mr. Toàn has created and managed an informative website at http://www.letoan.com, rich with photographs and live-music audios.

Lê Toàn wrote many original songs. Some have been recorded, especially during the late 1970s and early 1980s, that most pivotal era in the history of Vietnamese refugees. For the purpose of this post, though, I focus on his involvement with his own family’s band, which was apparently the first professional cover band by Vietnamese refugees.

Briefly, Lê Toàn was a teenager when he was first involved in the professional music scene of Republican Saigon. He in fact played in several bands and even formed at least one. The most important band, however, was Family Love, which was formed in 1968 and led by his older brother Lê Trí. At the age of seventeen, Lê Toàn joined this live band in 1972 and played with other members at US military bases and music clubs in Saigon, especially the Mini Club on the tenth floor of the Catinat Hotel.

Fast forward to 1975, Lê Toàn and several family members left before the communist advance to the city. They were reunited with a sister who had already been in Honolulu for studies. It didn’t take long before the reconstituted Family Love played its first American concert at the Alamoana Shopping Center. I couldn’t find the exact date, but the year was 1975.

Click here for photos of Family Love from 1974 to 1976. It includes the following information:

From the 70’s to the 90’s, Family Love has changed quite a few drummers and bass players, but the original members remain the same. The original brothers and sisters consist of:
1.Lê Trí (vocalist, keyboardist, guitarist, sound engineer)
2.Christiane Lê (vocalist)
3.Tami Lê (vocalist)
4.Lê Toàn (Antoine) (vocalist, guitarist, keyboardist)
5.Lê Thanh (Michael) (vocalist, keyboardist)

In 1977, Family Love was booked by its manager for a tour in continental America, mostly the Midwest. To prepare for the tour, they rehearsed for a month while playing night gigs at the Oasis, a popular night club in Waikiki. Band members flew to California in June and embarked on a two-vehicle driving tour for the next nine months.

It took them to North Dakota, where they played at the Pla-Mor Club in Bismarck and even stood on the club’s float during a July Fourth parade. It took them to various other clubs, lounges, restaurants, and hotels. Akron and Toledo in Ohio, Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, St. Louis in Missouri, and so on.

One of its gigs took place in Rochester, Minnesota, which at the time had few Asians but in three short years became the biggest host of Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Hmong refugees in southern Minnesota. I myself came to Rochester in 1982 and lived for nine years. But I never heard about Family Love because there were few Vietnamese there in 1977.

After this tour, Family Love went back to performing locally, this time in San Jose, marking another chapter in its history. It later played regularly at the Lido’s, the nightclub popularly frequented by Vietnamese. Click here to see photos from this period of time.

For me, the most fascinating episodes were the reconstitution of Family Love in Honolulu and its tour of the Midwest. The best-known tour of Vietnamese refugees was that by Phạm Duy and his family in 1975-1976. They were hired by the US government to travel to different communities throughout the US. (They were in Michigan during Tet 1976.) That tour was unique. But the tour of Family Love was also very distinct, bridging an underrated aspect between the history of South Vietnam and the history of the postwar diaspora.

Here’s a fun one to end this post: Lê Toàn playing with the band Tranz and backing up Margaret Yang at the Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. It’s a rendition of Venus, the dance hit that originated in 1969 with the Dutch band Shocking Blue and most famously covered by the British girl band Bananarama in 1986. Nine years and in this cover of a cover, Lê Toàn sang back-up while furiously playing the guitar to Margarite Yang, whose voice was as dynamic as her bodily gestures and movements.