Bangkok rocks!

Manics' James Dean Bradfield (chunky as ever LOL)

tsuriken talked me into going to the Bangkok 100 Rock Festival :) It seems Ash and the Manic Street Preachers are headlining the 2nd night of the festival i.e on 30 November so if we catch the flight to Bangkok from Singapore after the Lee Guitars All-Stars concert, we'd get there in time for Ash and Manics' performance. Harliza, fellow Ash fan from Jakarta, will be joining us as well. It's gonna be a blast! :)

One day ticket for the Bangkok Festival costs only 800 baht (RM80+ equivalent) Omigosh that's dirt cheap!! RM80 for a ticket to see both Ash and Manics is a joke :P

I'm dying to see Ash live again and it would be really nice to see the Manics live once again as the last time I saw them live was a long time ago. I hope they don't sing too many songs from their new albums cos I'm unfamiliar with songs post-"Know Your Enemy" era. Really hope to hear them sing "Yes" at Bangkok! Quite apt for them to sing "Yes" since they are playing in the Asian Capital of Prostitution. "Yes" is a song about life through the life of a prostitute though some fans have argued that it's actually really about 'prostitution of the self', i.e. selling yourself to consumerism. The Manics are well-known socialists and they are by far the most comprehensive and intelligent/intellectual band in the world! They are anti-conservative and they sing political songs that other bands shy away from. Now that's genius.

Am hoping to see Tim's flying V guitar and Nicky wearing skirt at the Bangkok festival hehe.

See you guys there!!

nice socks Nicky

Poetry Of The Day After

Pre-order for Mayday's upcoming 7th studio album, titled "Poetry Of The Day After" began in Taiwan 2 days ago and release is scheduled for 23 October 2008.

Not surprisingly, there are 4 different version of pre-order and each comes with different pre-order gifts. Have CD sales dwindled so badly in Asia that artists have to resort to such gimmicks in order to boost album sales?

In conjunction with the release of the new album, the guys are putting together a free concert in Taipei on 13 December for 50,000 fans and tickets for the concert will be given away with the pre-order. They did the exact same thing with their previous album and I've got the pre-order version for that with the ticket, which was sadly not utilised.

Bangkok Rock Festival 2008

Looks like the Ash boys will be back in this region again next month alongside their Welsh counterparts the Manics, playing at a 2 day Bangkok Rock Festival on 29-30 November 2008. From the poster it looks like Ash and Manics will be headlining the festival - woohoo!

Dang I'll be missing out cos I'll be in Singapore for the Lee Guitars All-stars concert on 29 November! Ah well, then again do I really wanna risk my life going there with all the chaos that's going on in Bangkok right now?

Have fun guys and stay safe!!

Post Ash concert syndrome

Exactly a week after the kickass Ash concert in Singapore, my desk is still littered with Ash CDs and Ash songs are still playing non-stop on my CD player!

Cheers to dmh Dark Lord [Mark] from Ash for linking up my blog on the official Ash website on the Singapore concert reviews page - you have no idea how chuffed I am!!

Mark has collated various reviews on last week's Singapore concert. Good job Mark! LOL. All the reviews were really favourable (notice how they all concluded with the exact same thing? Let's hope we don't have to wait another 10 years for the next Ash concert)

The review in Timeout Singapore is worth noting. Jonathan, the author of that review is clearly really upset that Charlotte is no longer in the band "The band now sorely lacks a focal point onstage (particularly if you’re a heterosexual male), but more importantly their stage set-up looks empty" [WTF?!! My bro is no better than Jonathan, he refused to attend the concert cos Charlotte's gone]

I particularly like the line he wrote about Tim hehe - "Frontman Tim Wheeler, meanwhile, at 31 still betrays the wide-eyed charm of a college freshman who’s unexpectedly won a ‘Battle of the Bands’ contest" And here's another one from the MTV Asia review - "Oh, did we mention that Tim rocked guitars like a dream as well?"

There's also an interview by MTV Asia here - absolutely hilarious!

"MTV: Do you think Charlotte's leaving has affected your music in any way? Like, are there new sounds that reflect Ash as a threesome now etc? Rick: Yeah. It's made it better. [Laughs]"

Let's not forget that Ash were in the first place formed as a trio. Charlotte joined the band in 1997 after the release of 1977. So they now have only a single guitarist and Rick fills in the gap as backing vocalist at live shows (though it seems they have problem playing double guitar songs live at shows now..) Charlotte had only contributed a pretty face, second guitar and a few lyrics *cough* Don't get me wrong, I like Charlotte and I think she rocks but I feel it's really unfair to write off Ash just cos their pretty girl guitarist has left the band.

The Manics are coming!

The last Manic Street Preachers studio album I bought was "Know Your Enemy" [released in 2001!] The year after that I bought "Forever Delayed - The Greatest Hits" and in 2003 I picked up "Lipstick Traces" (b-sides and live songs compilation). They've since released another 2 studio albums and became a 4 piece band again? The Manics were originally a 4 piece band but when Richey Edwards mysteriously disappeared from his home in 1995, band members swapped song and lyrics writing roles and soldiered on as a 3 piece.

Till today Richey is still missing, and I believe he has been declared legally dead in the UK. Now if my memory from law school serves me right, when a person goes missing for 7 years, he will be declared legally dead. I remember reading an interview with Richey's sister and she mentioned that some fans from around the world claimed to have spotted Richey. It's easy to tell if he's the real deal cos Richey has a scar on his arm when he carved the words "4 REAL" into his forearm with a razor blade during an interview with Steve Lamacq.

4 REAL

I last saw the Manics live when they played at T In The Park in Scotland - gosh it was a decade ago! LOL. Finally the Manics have decided to come to Asia (it's about time!!), playing Fort Canning Park in Singapore on 24 November 2008. I am so tempted to attend - it's gonna be the Manics' first show ever in SG!

I still have my old Manics tee! hehe And yes it still fits

Coincidentally, Kylie Minogue is staging a concert in Singapore the day after the Manics' show.. hmm.. anyone remember "Little Baby Nothing"? (one of my fav Manics song ever) Kylie was originally suppose to sing that. Now if only LAMC could arrange to get Kylie to guest star at the Manics' show and duet with James on Little Baby Nothing - won't that be so cool??!!

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!

Click here for more live Ash vids

20081005 Superband Mayday

After a long crazy week in Singapore, I'm finally home!

Celebrated my birthday yesterday at Mediacorp studio watching Mayday =] which was televised live on national TV in Singapore.

Tickets for Superband 2008 Grand Finals were hard to come by and I went through a lot of trouble to secure them - I got them courtesy of the Tuzi family. Much thanks to them and congratulations for winning the Superband Finals!

The studio was smaller than I had expected and cos we were there early, we managed to secure a nice spot at the side of the stage - front row baby on national TV! I spent the entire night trying to avoid the camera but I guess I let my guard down when Mayday came on.. since last night my friends have been texting me saying they saw me on TV!

Mediacorp studio were Superband was recorded (i see a few familiar faces in that pic)

Superband stage

The Grand Finals had the final 4 bands taking turns to perform and elimination was through SMS voting. Guest performers for the night were Mi Lu Bing (former Superband winner), 2 other Singaporean bands whose names escapes me now, Jonathan Lee, Beyond and Mayday. And because Mayday are the Superband ambassador, naturally we had to wait till the end of the show to see them.

It was the closest I've ever seen Mayday performing live - I was on the left side of the stage and Monster was less than 3 feet from where I stood! They started setting up their gear during the commercial break (Ooo it was all too exciting) They played 孫悟空 and 離開地球表面 then hung around onstage for quite a bit (I got to take many piccies hehe!!)

Ashin's not-so-sexy back.. the guy has flatfeet.. looks like he also has a flat butt

look at that cute dimple!

and the winner of the Superband Funniest Face contest is...

err who is Ryan staring at??!

Beyond vs Mayday in the cutest frontman contest LOL

That dude from Beyond is wearing a super campy shirt that shows off his tits!!

I got a few videos recorded as well here. Sadly Ashin's vocals is barely audible in some of the vids cos there was an overzealous singing fan beside me

Ash rehearsal video

Got one of my Ash rehearsal video uploaded :)

It took me more than an hour to get the video compressed & converted, transferred and uploaded!　My uncle's desktop is so painfully slow grrr

Ash rehearsing at Fort Canning Park, Singapore

They sound so good live.. even when they are rehearsing!

Don't u just love Tim's Irish accent? =]

Meeting Ash :)

I did not expect to meet Ash but yesterday afternoon at Fort Canning Park, not only did Liz and Ｉ managed to meet Tim, Rick and Mark, we got to sit through the entire soundcheck/rehearsal!! It was surreal!! Tim was really nice - I got to speak to him for a bit :D The soundcheck cum rehearsal session went on for over 2 hours. We got to see them setting up their gear, soundchecking and Tim sang a couple of songs ^^

It was a blazing hot sunny afternoon and I think I got a little sunburned sitting in the sun watching the guys play but it was such an amazing experience to be able to see the guys rehearse :)

Didn't get any good pics during the concert despite being in the front row cos lighting was dim but I　ｔｏｏｋ　ａ　ｌｏｔ　ｏｆ　ｖｉｄｓ　ｓｏ　ｓｔａｙ　ｔｕｎｅｄ　－ｗｉｌｌ　ｐｏｓｔ　ｔｈｅｍ　ｗｈｅｎ　Ｉget home on Monday

Mark, Rick, myself and Tim　（Tim’s my fav Ash member!）

ｔhe stage (you can see Tim and Mark staring at Rick playing the drums)

Tim and Rick

Tim wondering why it’s so friggin hot in SG

Oh yeah Tim’s sexy back

Mark burning in the sun

The concert was WICKED! They played many songs (19 altogether) mostly songs off 1977．Sadly they didn't play Cantina Band [Ｉ heard them played a few lines of it during their soundcheck] but I'm not complaining cos they played Walking Barefoot, Renegade Calvacade, Jack Names The Planets and they totally brought the house down when they played Burn Baby Burn.

Will do a proper review when I am back in KL - meanwhile enjoy the rehearsal pics :)

Manics live in Singapore!

When did the Manics become a 4 piece again [after Richey’s disappearance]? who’s that bird???

Just found out this morning that everyone’s favourite socialist Welsh band, the Manic Street Preachers are playing Fort Canning Park in Singapore on November 24th!!! That’s the same week I’ll be in Singapore for the Lee Guiatrs All-Stars concert.. *shrugs* Looks like I’ll have to pass on the Manics

I saw them live once when they headlined T　Ｉｎ　Ｔｈｅ　Ｐａｒｋ　ｆｅｓｔｉｖａｌ　ｉｎ　Ｓｃｏｔｌａｎｄ　ａｎｄ　Ｉ　still have my old Manics tee that I　ｗｏｒｅ　ｔｏ　ｓｅｅ　ｔｈｅｍ　ｈｅｈｅ

Wonder if Nicky still wears skirt during their live performance and if he’d be allowed to wear skirt at the SG concert LOL