So, last Sunday, October 18th, I went to SM North Edsa's The Block atrium to catch a show by a new British band called Raygun.

Well, I don't really know them much, except that a good friend of mine is totally addicted to them [esp the bassist] and begged me to come. Well, since I had nothing to do that Sunday afternoon and I'm curious to see if this band is cute good, I am happy to oblige with her request.

I arrived at SM North around 4:15pm -- the show was at 5pm and I'm not really expecting it to start on time given that no one really follows the exact time here in the Philippines.

Calallilly [sp?] started the set by singing a few songs [not a big fan of them, sorry, don't know any of their song titles] followed by Raygun.

Raygun setlist [many thanks Dez!]

1. Can't say no
2. Rocketblast
3. Waiting in Line
4. Just Because
5. Lord forgive me
6. See you later

Just bloody 6 songs? Come on! The event was only around 30-40 minutes long!
Meanwhile, enjoy some photos I shot at the event. There's probably gonna be more uploads once I have the time to upload them.

At the end of the concert, there was a meet & greet. Oh, I actually won a contest from a local music channel here in Manila and I got a free t-shirt and poster [which I got signed] from the band. I also got my photos taken with them too [but no, I'm probably not going to upload my photos with the band here].

The next day, the band went to a radio station. I was initially slated to go but since I've also got to work, I decided to choose the latter. Hey, I don't want to get fired! I need the money to pay off my bills & necessities lol. The band would have to wait.

Hopefully the band would come back. Until then, I'm off to enjoy my life! :D

Not a book nor a travel related post. This is something more personal and maybe, music related.

I just need an outlet to post my thoughts and feelings about this issue so bear with me.

I got a text from one of my closest friends last Sunday, saying that Stephen Gately of Boyzone just died.

At first I was doubtful that this was true. Boyzone's manager was undeniably the greatest tabloid story maker of all time, going to lengths of exaggerating stories about the artists he manages.

But this time, the stories were true. He did indeed die tragically whilst on holiday in Majorca, Spain. Cause of death was still unknown.

So why am I moved by this death? Well, to be honest, Boyzone was a HUGE part of my life. I was around 12 when I found their music out, and was always listening to them whilst I was dealing with my father's illness, and eventual passing. I grew up with them, their songs always make my heart skip a bit, and since I was quite young when the boyz went to Manila and dealing with a loss of a loved one in 1998, I never got to see them live.

My mom tried her best to make up for lost time of me not being able to watch my favourite band on earth. One day, when I found out Stephen Gately was going to Manila for a promotional tour at the Hard Rock Cafe, my mom helped me secure tickets and even drove me and my best friend to the concert.

That was the first time I've ever seen Stephen Gately personally.

I want to upload the photos but I've got to find the hardcopies and the negatives first. In that day and age, there were only analog cameras. I was granted access to a press conference [God knows how I got in], and also front row seats in the performance. *sigh* Those were the days.
  

Stephen used to be my favourite member in Boyzone when I was younger until he was eventually overshadowed by Ronan Keating.

10 years on, in 2008, I was lucky enough to be sent on a business trip to London.

A few days before June 1, 2008, I was surfing the internet to look for concerts in London while I was around. Lo and behold, Boyzone were performing in Wembley Arena on June 1, 2008 as part of their comeback tour. [Another travel-related blog post will be uploaded within the next few weeks/days about my trip to Wembley]

I was a bit apprehensive at first since I've no one to go with but hey, I don't care if I'm alone. I've got the ultimate sign: I've got 6th row front centre block tickets during my last minute booking. See photo above on how close I was :D

I was shocked. I immediately booked it and well.... I got to see them live on June 1st, just a few hours after landing in London.

That's how big a fan I was.

High school friends, officemates, and other friends all left me messages about Stephen Gately's passing.

And I was deeply moved that they immediately thought of me after [well, being one of their biggest fans in the third world from grade school until now, who wouldn't forget me?]

It just goes to show how life is so short. :( There were so many people tragically dying in 2009. You don't really know when you're going to go.

So while the fate of the band is still in limbo, and whilst the rest of the boyz are still coping, we still have to move on right now.

*sigh*

RIP Steo, you will be missed.

Figured I'd take a break from publishing a backlog of book reviews & travel updates to come up with a little meme!

**some of my makeup stash**

First off, I love, love, love, love to travel. Yes, I love to travel even more than I love books! My dream destinations are the UK [again] and Italy. One of my dreams is to go on a Eurotrip for at least 2 months, trying to explore every city I go along =) That will make me so happy! I LOVE Europe!

Another love -- stuffed animals and makeup. They make me so happy!

I also love concerts, music, theatre & events. Nothing like being invited in an event. Text or ring me up a day or two before an event and I'd definitely confirm!

**red panda from Ocean Park, Hong Kong**

Next. I love tv shows & movies. Equally as much as I love books! My favourites at the moment are True Blood, The Vampire Diaries and the Tudors. Maybe a bit of Gossip Girl as well.

And finally, books! My preferences are:

1. Books set in England, most specially in London!! There's nothing like imagining what's happening in the book & mixing it up with my own memories.
2.Historical fiction about royalty - Kings, queens, prince and princesses. oh my! The scandal and society!
3. Other historical fiction - what's it like living back then? But I mostly prefer European historical fiction [again, the bias for European stuff]
4. Paranormal - vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters. :D Immortals intrigue me.
5. Fantasy - a whole new world, anyone?
6. Autobiography/biographies - partial to british royalty, personalities, singers & artists. Mostly of the European kind too [except for Nick Carter]
7. Mystery - who killed whom? what's the backstory? I loved Nancy Drew when I was a kid and it passed on until now!

SM North, The Block. 5pm.



The Saturdays performed 7 songs as part of their Asian tour. This was a free concert and since I looove going to concerts & I also love UK bands, I decided to go for it.



The setlist is:

1. If This Is Love

2. Keep Her

3. I Just Cant Get Enough

4. Chasing Lights

5. Issues

6. Work

7. Up





Photos: [Pls dont mind the line that is separating the photo in two, its just that the batch watermark creator I'm using is not registered yet]

Una & her guitar while preparing for Chasing Lights

And off to a friend's house tonight. Yay DSL! Hello long-delayed posts of videos on YouTube, reviews about events and photos.

Have a happy weekend everyone! :)

Latest hauls:
-- Taking 5 DVD [OMG been waiting SOOOOO long for this! Hello the Click Five!]
-- The Duchess and Carnivale [season 1 and 2 DVDs] --> is it just me or am I being biased to buying only period films?
-- Ronan Keating Live DVD [hurrah hurrah]
-- another copy of Boyzone: Back Again No Matter What Live 2008[because I'm scared the other one would be scratched the way I keep on playing it]

**Just wanted to post this --- OMG I shaked the hand of Joey Westwood. He's such a babe:**

Movies:
Ang Tanging Ina Nyong Lahat [Local Movie Review]
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Seven Pounds
(500) Days of Summer


DVDs:
Boyzone: Back Again...No Matter What Live 2008 [Concert Review]
Criminal Minds -- Season 3
Medical Investigation -- Episode 1
Lipstick Jungle

Wheee!!!

I finally got my hands on the live DVD of one of my favourite bands in the world, Boyzone! :)

I watched it for two straight days and it made me reminisce so much about the Boyzone 2008 tour which I was soo blessed and happy to have watched live in London on June 1, 2008.

The DVD was awesome -- the package contains two DVDs -- the first being the concert, the second being a documentary and interview with the lads themselves.

Although not available locally in Manila [I asked a friend to buy me a copy of the DVD when she was in Hong Kong], I highly suggest that fans of this band do get a copy of the DVD. After all, it is Boyzone! And they're finally back after an eight year break. You can order it from amazon.co.uk via the link above.

I am off to watch it one more time over the weekend. I just can't get enough of it! :)

Other DVD lemmings I have:
Live In Chicago

Westlife Live at Croke Park [2008]

'Take That - For The Record - Official Documentary [Amaray] [2006]

Since my friends have all been posting their 2008 round-ups, might as well post one too.

Let's see... I shall do it by month.

January 2008 -- I really had this strong feeling that 08 is going to be lucky. I can feel it in my bones. And yes, it was lucky indeed :)

February 2008 -- Seeing Ne-Yo in Shangri-La. Super funny. I was craving for a Wendy's frosty and there he was, in line, in front of us! Syempre we asked for autographs, but what are the chances? Lol.

March 2008 -- Maroon 5 in Manila -- And oh yes. I got a chance to meet them too. I'm sooooo infatuated with Jesse Carmichael, oh yes, oh yes. I had my photo taken with him but its a bit blurry. But who the hell cares? I still had my photo taken with him!

Colbie Caillat in Manila I got a chance to meet her too, thanks to Tet's Ayala Card. teehee! :) She's awesome.

Mandy Moore in Manila I got a chance to meet her and see her in concert IN THE FRONT ROW! Oh my gosh. She's been my fave female singer ever since I was younger and I was soooo gutted when I didn't get to see her concert at Araneta in 2004. But oh well. That all changed now :)

Special mention: Incubus in Manila. I never really liked the band that much but I went to the concert to see how they were good live. I liked some of their songs anyway.

It was also on this month that I found out I'm flying to London in a couple of weeks for training. Waaaah Yay! :)

April 2008 Was supposed to go to Pagudpod, but had to cancel my trip because the London trip was scheduled for April 12th. But the London trip got delayed till May. Oh well.

May 2008 The Click Five in Manila!
Just when I thought that I wouldn't be able to watch this concert, I got to! My flight for London was scheduled for May 31st, the concert was on May 30th. Teehee. Lucky no? Well..... part of it was because I had rescheduled my flight hahaha. Instead of leaving on the 30th I had it moved to the 31st instead.
I didn't get to meet Click this time around, but hey, the payoff was good anyway... I got to book tickets to MY ULTIMATE FAVE BAND two days before the Click concert... You'll find more of that in the next month ;)


CDs I loved for 2008:



Books Read for 2008:

Oh my gosh. I'm freaking out.

Fall out Boy will be having a gig on Friday, Feb 13th, 2009 at the Araneta Coliseum.

Tickets are now being sold through ticketnet:



They're quite expensive but I'll find a way to watch this concert!

**Cross-posted with another blog post from another blog site.**

I literally freaked out when I saw on the ticketnet website that one of my favourite bands is going to perform in MNL.

Problem was, I didn't have any tickets nor any cash saved up for good tickets.

So a friend of mine recommended that I joined a Getzmo promo for tickets, and lady luck was smiling upon me as I was one of two winners of the promo.

I dragged my friend since grade school to come along with me, in fact, she also joined the promo, and we got ace seats to the concert.

We had a blast!

The opening act was a band called Crowned King -- they sang a few songs, but the first song was my favourite, "Don't Let Go", which was quite catchy.

Then came Panic At The Disco.

Brendon was so gorge up close. Now I was totally regretting not going to their autograph signing the day before [even though friends told me it was absolute chaos]. The guys sang a lot of songs and the concert ended at around 11.

But wait, there's more.

After the concert, the guys from Crowned King came out for an autograph signing, but I was too dazed with PATD that I was late for the signing and all the CDs had been sold out. DOH.

However, I managed to get a photo with the piano player. Surreal. He just walked up to me, and asked me if I wanted a photo.

Of course I said yes. :)

There were a lot of guards surrounding us at that time, which felt a wee bit awkward, but then again, the photo turned out so nicely I was over the moon.

Anyhow, I didn't get to take any good photos from the event, only videos.

Below is "That Green Gentleman (Things Have Changed for Me)" by PATD.

Apologies if it's shaky or if you hear my constant screaming.




So it's four months late, but its better late than never.

Just saw ticketworld's site and they have a preview of upcoming concerts. and tadah. I see this:


They're coming!

No details on ticket prices/venue yet. My guess is that ticket prices would be around 3k+ for the front block seats and venue might be an open field [the fort, maybe?]

I've no plans of shelling out a lot of cash this December but if any generous ones out there could give me some tickets [i only need 1 :P ] then I'd be one happy camper!

On other stuff, how was your weekend? Mine was very boring. I stayed at home, catched up with Heroes Season 1 [LOSER] and read a pages in some books I've been meaning to read for quite some time.

Get ready for another concert here in MNL coming in July!

If your planner is still not full, you can add Lifehouse at the Araneta Coliseum on July 26th, Saturday.

Although it's still not up at Ticketnet's site, it is already posted in Lifehouse's official website

Here's a screenshot for your reference:

Will update more if I get tickets already or if there is new information out.

Another event to watch out for this July is Daughtry!

Ooooh.. The bank account will certainly complain now!

So they are having a concert here! And after being pestered [kidding! :P] by a friend of mine to watch the concert, I gave in and bought the tickets.

Yay.

It's going to be on July 29th, Tuesday, at the Eastwood Central Plaza.

For those of you who are coming [from GT or wherever], let me know so we could meet up =)

We're going to be seated at the VIP Centre area, row F.

OMG so many foreign acts are coming to MNL!

Vanessa Carlton at the Ayala Malls on May 9-11. Er... dunno if I'll watch since I might have weekend plans to go out of Manila. If that weekend plan won't push through then I'm definitely going to Vanessa Carlton. It's FREE of charge [if you have the Ayala card, of course]. How cool is that?
James Blunt on May 19 -- dunno if I'll watch. It depends on my budget.
The Click Five on May 30th -- SOOOOO STOKED for this. I postponed my London trip for a week just to watch this concert :P Secured my tickets last March [excited??]
Daughtry -- sometime in July. Gosh. I hope I get tickets.
Paramore -- rumoured rumoured.
Alicia Keys on Aug 5 -- dunno if I'll watch :)
Panic at the Disco on Aug 14 -- i will deffo watch, just need to secure tickets by Tuesday, May 6th, perhaps.

Oh My. I can't wait for them. They'll be new concert adventures [if i find the money to pay for them].

On another note, I am going off to another adventure. I am going to England on June and won't be returning till July. How cool is that? I hope to post some experiences/photos when I've got them around :P

My life has been quite boring lately. I haven't found myself some new adventures.

Oh wait. Last weekend [April 26th], I went to Fort Santiago, Intramuros, and just walked around the ancient wall. Downside? I left my camera! Shit.
I also went to SM Mall of Asia [MOA for those of you who don't know it] and watched U2 3D. Awesome, awesome show. For those of you who still hasn't watched this, go and do so to experience [an almost] U2 concert experience. Quite a hefty price to pay P500 for MOA, but well worth it.
Did you know that there were also fireworks at 7pm around the Bay area behind MOA at the time? I watched it too, 'twas awesome.
And did I mention that I forgot my camera when all this was happening? Another shit moment.

April 27th -- Gossip Girl marathon. Did I mention that this tv show is also awesome??? Definitely something worth watching.

Recent addictions for the month: cosmetics. Just bought myself some goodies from MAC's Fafi collection since I love all things cute. Can you blame me if I bought them for the packaging? Oh, may I add that I love the quality of their products as well. If i'm not too lazy to post then I might as well post FOTDs and product reviews and make this blog alive. =)

I am also trying to sell some mineral makeup. So buy if you can! haha.

Gotta run, will post more updates soon =)

Am listening to Vertical Horizon right now and it totally slipped my mind that I wasn't able to blog about my adventure!

Here goes...

Was surfing the ticketnet website (my day isn't complete without checking if there are new tickets available for upcoming concerts here in MNL) and I came upon the Vertical Horizon concert.

Immediately IMed my concert buddy, and he was game to watch =)
Called the ticket hotline and reserved 2 tickets for upper A (this isn't the front block), but we were front row -- albeit not in the center area.

A colleague of mine happened to drop by my computer and saw that I was arranging for the tickets. She called up another colleague and convinced 2 of their friends to go with them in the concert. Funnily enough, my teammate also learned that I was going to the concert and also wanted to watch.

So, the next day, we got tickets -- row A seats 1-6 of upper Box A area 302.

Only prob was my teammate had a different seat reservation -- i believe area 301, seat 7-8 row D.

The day after that, he was able to exchange his tickets for the ones beside us. So now we occupied Upper Box A area 302 row A seats 1-8. Fun, huh?

So, day of the concert. December 7th, 2007.

Plans of leaving work at exactly 6pm was thwarted since there was this user from London who needed attended to.

Ended up leaving the building at 6.15pm and traffic was hellish! It took us an hour and a half to get to the venue.. Yes... that long. We arrived at the Araneta Coliseum at around 7.45pm.

Sheryl was feeling like we were in the amazing race.. Wanting to beat the time because she wanted to watch the front act, a local band called Rivermaya.

We were able to see a few of Rivermaya's set while eating overpriced Wendy's takeout that we had for dinner.

Jamie Kennedy was also there. He was funny.

Then a LOT of waiting before Vertical Horizon came in.

They started playing at around 9.30pm and the show started around 10.45

Nice yeah?

I don't really remember the setlist but i'll probably edit this post once I do remember -- IF i do remember :P

Off to bed now...