~Edit~ Please note the change in our performance time on Friday, we'll start at 8.10pm!~
Warning: Long post with pictures. This is what happens when you blog only once in two weeks *lol*
Had quite a few things going on over the two last weeks.
But before anything else, I'm happy to inform everyone that my band, LGF, will be having a few upcoming performances...starting from this Friday :)
Details are as follow:
NYF LAUNCH PROGRAMME
Date: 23 JUN 2006 (FRI)
Time: 8.10pm 7.30 pm
Venue: Skate Park (near Somerset MRT, next to Orchard Cineleisure)
This is the National Youth Forum launch event. Something to look out for is Paul Twohill's band, Through The Discord (yeah, he's the 'emo-messy-haired' guy in S'pore Idol *lol*) as they'll be performing too.
The local bands (in order of performance) are:
- Page
- LGF
- August Star
- Caracal
- Fishtank
- The Great Spy Experiment
- Through the Discord
Orchard Jam '06
Date: 2 July (Sunday)
Venue: Outside Wisma Atria
Time: 5 to 6pm
This gig is a busking event organised by Arts For Us All (AFUA). We had fun performing along the streets of Orchard in the same event last year. Looking forward to this one again!
Straits Times Pocket Fund charity album launch
Date: 22 July (Saturday)
Venue: DXO
Time: To be confirmed.
This will be a launch gig for the Straits Times Pocket Fund charity album. We've contributed our song, Smashed, to the CD. Purchase the CD and get free tickets to this album launch gig! All proceeds will go directly to the fund. Stay tuned for the details!
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Alright...now I've gotten that down, let's get on with the recent happenings:
A new member of the family!
I don't think it can get any more self-indulging than to buy another guitar of the same model but of a different colour! *LOL* But frankly, I've got more plans for it than mere craziness. Heh. I'll explain later but just savour the pictures for now...though these pictures don't even do justice to its beauty:
You can imagine my excitement at the sight of the familiar bulky package from Japan.
Lo and behold! My new Fender Jaguar...with block inlays and binded neck!! Goodies not only include the standard accessories like cable, allen key, manual, etc but also some high-tech cleaning cloth, picks, Fender pouch, and some funky sets of strings :)
I couldn't help swap the necks to see how it looks on my current sunburst Jaguar:
Heavenly!!
The Fender Jaguar duo:
I had to go through lots of trouble getting this baby. This ultra rare model can only be acquired thanks to a forum member who gave me the link to a Japanse store's website in which the guitar is exclusively made available through them only. Bad news is that they don't deal with people outside Japan (they don't even reply english emails!). Luckily with the help of someone (you know who you are! :D), I managed to get a middleman to help me purchase it and shipped to me. You wouldn't wanna know how much this baby costs me in total *lol*
And what was I thinking getting the same model I already owned?! Well, I love the Jaguar sound so much but yet I wanted a totally different sound altogether; I wanted the best of both worlds, so I decided to buy another one so that I can modify one to give me versatile sounds which I can use as my stage/main guitar...and at the same time, keep the other one original and stock as a form of 'collection' and for studio recordings.
And not long after, something arrived in a small package:
It's one of the components I got from Ebay for the modification...a Seymour Duncan Hot rails single coil-sized humbucker :D
It'll be a long road to finish the modifications considering the fact that I'm gonna give it a major overhaul...cutting up the body, changing lots of parts and wiring. But for those concerned, I'll be doing the major 'surgery' on my older sunburst Jaguar, for the white one is just too gorgeous for me to mess her up *lol*
Alright...enough of that for now (reluctantly tho...), let's move on to the other events that happened during the past two weeks:
Polymate's wedding dinner
Attended an ex-polymate's wedding dinner at the M Hotel. Was pretty excited cos we haven't seen one another like for years! It felt like my poly graduation Dinner & Dance back in 98! *lol*
It felt really nostalgic to be in such a setting...with familiar faces, all dressed-up for the occasion. All our friends in the clique looked as if they never aged a bit even though it's been so many years! One of them even has a baby kid already! I felt as if I never moved on with time when all of them either got married or are planning to. Yeah, I'm the only bachelor on the table (save for another lady who just broke up with her boyfriend) :/ It was really great to catch up with all their latest happenings and somehow, being the only bachelor and leading a more 'different' lifestyle (read: playing guitar in my band) seem to garner more conversations in such settings *lol*
Pop Agenda Performances
The whole Saturday of the first week was spent on watching a series of performances by locals and overseas artistes/bands under the event called Pop Agenda. Went to the recording studio in the morning to mixdown one song that will be used in an upcoming charity cd compilation put together by Straits Times. We got down to Fort Canning Park around 4+pm and 'hogged' the area right in front of the barriers to get a good view of the performers. The funny thing about Singaporean audiences is that either most of them are too 'paiseh' (embaressed) to step up front...or they're not enthusiastic about live performances. So, amongst the pathetic less-than-50 crowd, my band members and I were the ONLY 4 person to stand right up against the barrier to watch the performances...which in a way, was quite awesome cos we got to gawk at the bands' equipment and make eye contact with them...which were returned with appreciative smiles from the performers themselves :) It's a two-way thing cos that's what fuels both the audiences and performers. That's why I always try to make it a point to make eye contact with my audiences whenever I perform. It's a way to reach out to people I guess.
The performers were:
Concave Scream (Singapore)
China Magpie (China)
Chou Pi Jiang (Singapore)
Addy Rasidi (Singapore)
Ji Xiao Jun (Taiwan)
Ryu (Korea)/ Guest: Chua Lee Lian (Singapore)
Aikawa Nanase (Japan)
Here are the few pictures I managed to take that night with my mobile phone:
China Magpie, a group of musicians that comprised of a violinist, guitarist, pipa-player and the above wind instrument player/singer (who is actually the first to modify his traditional instrument to work with modern guitar multi effects!). The Taiwanese native tribe singer, Ji Xiao Jun and her musician family members did some wonderful tunes with amazing vocal harmonies.
Of course, those who listened to Japanese music would probably know that Aikawa Nanase is the biggest highlight of that night's gig. So, only prior to her performances, more people went up front...some to catch the good-looking Korean singer, Ryu. By the time Nanase took the stage, the mood finally felt like a real concert. With fantastic lights and stage presence, the pink-haired Nanase rocked the stage with audiences asking for more. And 30 mins zipped by so effortlessly.
More gigs-watching on Sunday!
As if the previous night's 6 hours straight of music blasting wasn't enough, I dropped by the Street Festival event, DJ Party at Youth Park to catch up with friends and watch some of the bands performed. Most of the bands were relatively new to me but I was quite glad to catch up times with some of the 'old birds' there...be it acquaintances, other band members, friends, long-lost ones, etc. Was pleasantly surprised when I was asked by a particular lady to take a pic with her cos she recognised me from one of the older gigs she attended :P A few other surprised turned up as well, like knocking into an acquaintance whom I've not seen for years and completely changed his looks and lifestyle! The day ended with dinner with a few closer friends we knocked into during the event.
Whew! That's a mouthful! Not sure when I'll update this space again but till then, I'm out...
