Fresh from Linkin Park concert
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With my ears ringing after last night’s Linkin Park concert, I sit down and decide it’s a good time to finish up and send in my update! <- I wrote those very words on 18th June. My rock n roll lifestyle has delayed you from reading this till NOW!
DAVID BOWIE CAME TO HONG KONG IN MARCH!! Wooooooooooohooooooooooo! Well he was AWESOME! I didn’t get into Bowie’s music till 90s and last night was just stunning. My favourite Bowie song is “Suffragette City” I really couldn’t explain why although I love the “Wham Bam Thank you Mam” part!! He kicked off the evening with “Rebel Rebel” which got half the audience onto their feet. We rushed down to the area behind the photographers so that we had space to dance. As my brother (ex-security & seated in the front section!!) predicted, the photographers left after the second song and we had a great view and great sound all night. The musicians – I could only remember Earl Slick’s name as it was indeed Earl Slick on guitar! What a guitar God he is!! Brilliant! Tight band. The bass player was awesome – she had awesome vocals too. Listen to her and Bowie sing on Under Pressure (acven.com/movies/underpressurevid.avi) (a 21 seconds avi file). This was probably the best song of the night performance-wise. He performed a few covers too – he covered a Pixies song and also a Nirvana song (hahahaha just kidding!) He did make a joke about how at festivals that kids would come up to him and say “you’re so cool doing a nirvana song” And yes he did the perfect encore – including Lets Dance, Suffragette City (!!!) and Ziggy. I was jumping around like a fool by this point. Just brilliant memories….. One of the coolest gigs I’ve ever been to for awhile!
Well in April, I headed over to Australia to the Gold Coast to learn more about myself on a Date With Destiny seminar – I had a glorious time – Australia is STUNNING!! I’ve never seen beaches that are so long and long and long! And wide! The whole Gold Coast is a holiday resort type place, I’ll definitely go back to Australia. You ought to see the knee high boots I bought whilst down under….
Back to work and in May, this time I was working on bringing over my second overseas band (first being Fugazi many moons ago) – Aaron Calhoun – www.aaroncalhoun.com A Texan singer/songwriter/guitarist – who’s tall & fun to hang with! His music is poppy with latin influences – watch out for his new single to be released called “Almost Pornographic” – will make all females melt inside. Amazingly I booked his three-piece band; 8 gigs in 10 days! Quite an achievement in tiny Hong Kong! With radio interviews & a TV appearance, it was hard work and lots of fun! And Aaron says he’ll come back to HK too! There’s no stopping the empire of Shazza Music!!
What about my band “THINKING OUT LOUD”? Well, we had an upheaval that ended positively with Ever; a local Chinese Jazz drummer joining us adding a nice twist to our pop with attitude sounds! He had his debut with us at Wanchai Live! A great charity event that runs over 2 days in 2 venues – hence 40 hours of music! A teenage charity gets the benefit and of course it’s encouraging to see so many teenagers perform too! WANCHAI LIVE. I do so love this event! Loads of Hong Kong’s best and worst bands get together in the name of charity and play for K.E.L.Y. Support group which is about getting teenagers to get creative and busy without drink or drugs. This was the first time I’d myself had played at this event in two bands which was so sensational!! So with Thinking Out Loud, I unveiled my new hair – black with purple & pink streaks around my face. On Sunday – “Flowers of Babylon” made it’s debut – I’m the lead guitarist in this band – with Joy Division influences; Mike (ex-P.N.S.) writes the songs ranging in topics from Tony Blair to Apollo 13 parodies to transvestites…. It’s fun – we wear black and I get to play out the hidden goth side inside of me…. We’ve not got any group pics yet but here’s one of Shirley (keyboards) & myself. (photo attached – fob3.jpg) After our set, another of Hong Kong’s great bands played Called ‘nude’ – they squeezed 9 people onto the tiny stage at Carnegies unfortunately fully-dressed; mixing trumpet, congas, keys, sax, rapper & vocals bouncing around the bass & drums. Funk out!
Stopping off one night in June to check out jazz trio of Bob Moses, Mordy Ferber & Rickard Malms. Bob Moses is a drummer, band-leader & composer. Rickard Malms although Swedish is Hong Kong-based. For a Wednesday night, was surprised to see the band didn’t start their set for nearly an hour after advertised – something to do with a very important salad…. They were different and refreshing playing fusion contemporary jazz that was a delight to listen to! It does seem like the Hong Kong music scene is just getting better & better.
Also in June, WORLD BATTLE OF THE BANDS kicked off here in Hong Kong. I’ll make my next entry ALL about the event!
And the best thing to happen in the first half of this year? I got to fulfill my infatuation by seeing my current favourite band! Bought my ticket on the first day of sales – for the mosh pit right in front of stage – at US$128 – not cheap but well worth it! Who am I all passionate for? LINKIN PARK! Their Korean support band PIA were excellent and only piqued me even more. After PIA, the stage was rearranged and then some guy came out and told us ‘no moshing was allowed’ Yeah right! As the band appeared on stage I was so fired up! Chester Bennington has amazing vocal ability. It’s a little shame that the mix wasn’t so great that night, his vocals were low in the mix. They were tight and played all the songs that I love.
What a year it’s been so far. I realised as the year’s been progressing that I want to take photos of live bands. And that I need another holiday….
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