20081002 Ash live in Singapore

Last Thursday's journey to Fort Canning Park began at Clementi MRT station (is it just a coincidence that Liz and I both like Ash and we're both putting up with our respective relative in Clementi?) We alighted at Dhoby Ghaut MRT station and went inside Park Mall to ask for directions. We were given the following note:

Once we got out from behind Park Mall, right across the road was the entrance to Fort Canning Park.

We found our way to the gig site through the Legends. There we made our base to work on the Ash banner for about almost an hour before spotting that Ash had arrived and were rehearsing on the stage!!

Girls from KL Love Ash

view of the Fort Canning Park concert site from the Legends

We went down to the field, waited for a bit before the guys got offstage and managed to catch them right before they went inside the tent at the side of the stage for an interview. They went back onstage after the interview. It took Rick McMurray and Mark Hamilton about a good hour or so to tune their drumset and bass - meanwhile Tim Wheeler was pacing up and down the stage, and he had his water bottle with him everywhere he went. I bet he must be so dehydrated in the scorching hot and humid afternoon.

At the side of the field were 3 tents (which eventually became the booze and O'Briens Irish sandwich bar later that night) We took refuge there from the blazing afternoon sun and watched the guys from where we were seated in the tent, while working to complete the banner. Ah bliss.. I can't think of a better way to spend my afternoon :)

When Tim finally strapped on his guitar - we moved closer to stage to watch them soundcheck. After tuning his guitar, they played "You Can't Have It All" and they sounded so good even when they're rehearsing!! I was overjoyed when the sound engineer dude at the sound mixing tent told the guys to "PLAY ANOTHER SONG" hehe!! They then sang "Twilight Of The Innocents", "Blacklisted" and "Wildsurf" before wrapping up their 2 hour soundcheck at approx 4PM. OMG they are just TOO COOL and they sound so damn good live, even during rehearsal!! There we were watching Ash rehearsing - it was unbelievable! It's almost like watching my own exclusive private Ash gig haha

The video I recorded during their rehearsal ended up being posted on the Ash official site - whoa!!

Parked right outside the main entrance was an O'Briens van - one of the official sponsor of the gig. I guess they had to find an Irish sponsor for the gig eh?

The opening local band that night was Fishtank and they didn't didn't leave much of an impression on me. They were noisy alright and the fat frontman kept plugging their new album. Tim thanked them at the end of their set, and commented that Fishtank were "great". Did he really think so or was he just being diplomatic LOL

Ash finally came on about 9ish PM and by then the place was so packed I could not see the end of the field when I looked back into the crowd. Ash are so amazing live!! [they were #2 on Q's list of 50 Bands to See Before You Die] They played all my favourite songs - Kungfu (yeah!!), Girl from Mars, A Life Less Ordinary, Angel Interceptor, Oh Yeah, Wildsurf, Jack Names The Planet, Renegade Calvacade, Walking Barefoot, Shining Light, Orpheus, Meltdown, Burn Baby Burn, Goldfinger, Twilight of The Innocents, Blacklisted.. and they played Ichiban, a new song from their upcoming release (due out next year so keep an eye out for that).

Tim: "We're Irish. We don't drink"

It was pure energetic rock and despite not having their second guitarist Charlotte Hatherley around anymore, Tim does a great job on the guitar - my biggest disappointment that night was that Tim hadn't brought his signature V guitar to Singapore :( I absolutely love the way he strums his guitar so furiously as he sings and Rick's power drumming totally blew my socks off. Mark looks dead cool with his bass slung so low. And now that Charlotte's gone, Rick does the backing vocals as well. Very nice! Maybe one of these days he could sing "Stormy Waters" :)

The crowd of Ash fans that night knew the words to all the songs - you can hear everyone singing in unison when Tim sings! He must be so chuffed cos I saw him smiling throughout the gig. He has a such great smile and that Irish accent is really sexy LOL

Till today I can still hear Twilight Of The Innocents playing in my head each morning when I get up =D

Burn Baby Burn!

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