First and foremost, apologies in advance for not updating my blog for more than a week. Was just too lazy to update and just typing this out in bits and pieces. I wonder if some or any of you had expected me to review “Bersama Anuar Zain” showcase at Grand Hyatt Hotel’s Grand Ballroom instead of this event which I will be focussing on in this entry??? Cos there were some people who did say, be it through comments in my blog or messages left in my Facebook, that they would be seeing me at Anuar’s showcase, even though I made no promises nor said anything about going in the first place. Maybe the impression that I would have gone was based on the review I did when Anuar last did his first solo concert here on 8 November 2008 at the Esplanade Concert Hall. Apologies if some of you had expected to see me there.

So why did I choose not to go to Anuar’s showcase since I’m after all quite the big fan of his??? Firstly I felt that the gap between that concert and last Saturday’s showcase was a bit too close to each other, even though some of you might counter back and say it was four months ago and four months is long enough to make one crave to watch another stellar performance by the great man himself. But I was sceptical. The decision to do another showcase just four months after the concert seemed kinda odd. I felt there was every possibility that it would just be a repeat of the concert with a few tweaks and elements changed. And since he has no new album between the four months gap, all the more that I felt that he might be repeating some, if not most, of the songs he sang that November night.

I’ve got to admit, being one of my greater influences in music and especially my love for the R&B genre, the temptation was there to watch Anuar perform once again, but no way was I gonna fork out close to $500 (for me and the wife) just to sit so close to the front. Not wanting to sound as though we’re rich or some high class society people, but we both love to watch concerts / showcases and sit somewhere near the front, our way of supporting and appreciating good entertainment, knowing we would be reciprocated with a quality performance in return by whoever it was / is performing. The credit crunch these days meant I had to tighten my belt in this instance and perhaps sacrifice certain things that I like. And this year itself, I had to sacrifice quite a few things and be more stringent with the performances that I want to watch / had attended / had to forgo.

KC welcoming the early birds into the event venue…

Not even the decision to slash the cheapest ticket on offer ($128) to $88 two days before the event proper could sway me into turning back on my decision. So rather than sit at the back and paying less, I chose not to go. Anyway, by then I had made up my mind to attend the Official Launch of The Fan Club. Instead of watching “Lelaki Ini” (Anuar Zain), I chose to watch “Lelaki Baru” (Zaibaktian) & “Lelaki Setia” (Zynal) instead. For $10, I think I got more value-for-money watching seven of our local acts who actually need more of our support than someone who is already established and well respected on both sides of the Causeway. But the wifey sure put me in a spot when she asked, “What if it was Siti who was performing???” Hahahaha… I’m sure most of you would know the answer to that!!!

KC giving the audience an explaination on what the website is all about…

Now that I’ve explained my non-attendance at Grand Hyatt Hotel’s Grand Ballroom in four paragraphs (hahahah), I can now talk about the launch of The Fan Club proper. So some of you might be wondering, what in the world is The Fan Club??? For those who have been living on a different planet and do not read the local Malay papers, nor listen to local Malay radio stations, The Fan Club is an initiative product by DJ KC of RIA 89.7FM and Zan Sofiyan of Warna 94.2FM to unite all fan clubs of local artistes under one roof and in turn ignite more support for our local acts. This collaborative effort aims to transcend whatever barriers, boundaries, differences and rivalries that may occur as a result of different interests and support for the various local acts in our small music industry. It has an official website which you can go to just by clicking here.

The Fan Club is officially launched!!!

Being the first of its kind in Singapore, The Fan Club will also act as a base and focal point for information on local artistes as well as an interactive medium for all the various local fan club members to meet and exchange ideas, news and views of their respective idols. The website will be a main source for news and latest happenings on our local artistes, a good way to know when they will make their next appearance outdoors, on television, on radio and even in the print media. Ok some of you might counter back and say that a similar kind of website has been around for about five years now but that website does not act as a focal point for the various fan clubs in Singapore to converge even though its aim is to support local acts as well. Anyway the latter have since expanded their range of support to regional acts as well from what I observed. Apologies in advance if my observation is incorrect.

Introducing Faizal Isa…

The Fan Club website is not just an entity in the cyberworld but exists physically as well. Having clinched the rights to use a karaoke centre at Perkampungan Melayu Geylang Serai, members who have signed up in The Fan Club’s website will be able to use the venue for various activities like birthday parties, reunions and other kinds of small functions for their respective fan clubs or even their own personal events from 1pm onwards daily. For more information, one just needs to pick up the phone, dial 81515191 and speak to Mr. Khamis on how to go about booking the place. The place is also most likely to be the place for exclusive showcases of local artistes to be held specially for members of the website. To date, they have gotten the agreement of a few fan clubs like Didifiers (fans of Didicazli), Sleeqaholics (fans of Sleeq) amongst others, to join in making the initiative a success.

Addy posing for the camera…

In conjunction with the official launch of The Fan Club and its website, a showcase at the said venue at Perkampungan Melayu Geylang Serai, was put together to celebrate its launch and a number of local acts came together to lend their support and perform. From the original list of Didicazli, Sleeq, B8, Zaibaktian and Addy Cradle, Zynal (M. Nasir’s younger brother) and Faizal Isa, a new face in the scene, were added to grace the occasion. The showcase was hosted by none other than KC himself. Originally, Zan Sofiyan was supposed to co-host along with KC, or at least be there to oversee the smoothness of the event, but more pressing commitments with his day job as a producer-presenter with Warna 94.2FM meant that he had to skip the showcase and launch altogether.

Didicazli chilling out in the dressing room before going on stage…

The show was meant to start at 2pm and end at 5pm, with the start of the performances slated at 2.30pm. The first twenty minutes was more or less an introductory “lecture” on what The Fan Club is all about as well as a guided tour around its online portal and what registered members would be able to do in there. It kinda reminded me of Facebook but the design layout is more like a YouTube profile. I think my only grouse on the site is that when it comes to uploading photographs, you need to upload it one by one as compared to Facebook or Multiply where one is able to upload a lot of photographs from a folder. It’s fine if you have the patience to upload tons of photograph. Me being the naturally impatient creature that I am, don’t have all day and cannot sit through doing it.

B8 all smiles before their showcase…

Surprisingly enough, the performances began about 5-10 minutes earlier than expected but not before we had a rousing start to the showcase with confetti being shot into the air to signal the official launch of The Fan Club and its online portal. I think this is the first time I’ve been to a show that started way ahead of schedule. First up was Faizal Isa. This guy is quite a familiar face having entered several singing competitions before this. It’s difficult to gauge his potential and showmanship based on the one song he sang that day – Ello’s “Pergi Untuk Kembali” – but his presence would already add on to the list of heart-throbs that girls cannot get enough of. Being relatively new, it was only natural that he came off a bit shy but with more such appearances, he will gain the experience and the know-how to whip the crowd into a frenzy. For now, I will reserve more of my comments on him till I’ve seen more of what he is capable of doing but initial signs look quite promising.

Faizal Isa showing us his potential…

Addy Cradle was next and he obviously charmed the audience not only with his awe-inspiring play of the guitar, but I’m sure some of the ladies in the audience were also smittened whenever this guy smiled. A pity due to work commitments, Addy only performed one song, “Purnama“, taken from his latest solo offering released last year entitled “Divine“. In case music lovers out there would like to get a hold of his album, it is being sold at Gramophone, Muzika Records and FGM. Zynal, the younger brother of music legend M. Nasir took centrestage afterwards singing “Lelaki Setia” and his performance was ably assisted by B8’s Fuzzley who did the rap portion of the song. This guy is very much talented like his elder brother and it’s just a pity that he has to live in the shadows of his more famous sibling.

This is Zynal for the uninitiated…

Zaibaktian and his group of sessionists came on stage right after Zynal and they wowed the audience with three songs, “Dunia Yang Fana“, “Taman Cinta” and of course not forgetting the haunting hit single “Lelaki Baru“. It’s really good to hear his songs being performed live even before he has released his full album. I for one cannot wait for it to be released because from what I’ve heard so far, or seen from the various clips of his performances on YouTube or Facebook, the songs are top notch and it’s gonna be worth the money spent. Already “Dunia Yang Fana” brings with it a spiritual message and reminder of who we are and the journey that we are leading to. I dunno why but the lyrics made me feel quite humbled somewhat. Whoever that says music and entertainment does not bring with it some form of message and advice needs to get their heads fixed. And you don’t need a nasyid song to drum some effect into you.

Zaibaktian certainly enjoyed himself performing for the audience…

The boys from B8 were next to perform, singing their hit song “Bidadari Hatiku“, which I found out rather belatedly that it was a song composed by KC himself, and a new single called “Kau Selingkuh“. I’m not sure why the energy level of the audience suddenly dipped during B8’s performance. Was it because they were expecting the bigger names on the slated list to perform or B8’s songs need to have that wee bit of oomph to get the crowd going, rather than sing sappy tunes all the way??? Maybe the latest single , which is of a mid-tempo range, needs to grow a bit more on them cos I observed and found that the audience was kinda bored (based on facial expressions) during B8’s performance. The only thing I could second guess was they cannot wait for Sleeq and Didicazli to appear on stage. That was to be expected somewhat since the majority of the audience were teenage girls.

B8 performing “Kau Selingkuh“…

Well they didn’t have to wait long actually cos Sleeq came on shortly after with “Pilihan Aku” and “Cun Saja“, which of course brought the house down with screams of frenzy coming from the young ladies on the floor. Sleeq have grown in stature from the first time I watched them at Imran Ajmain’s single launch of “Sudah Tu Sudah” back in 2006. There is a lot of confidence in them, a kind of swagger that knows they are in control of the crowd and having them under their thumbs. However, a kind advice I would like to pass to the boys is to improve on their Malay vocabulary seeing that their medium is our mother tongue. It would serve them well to communicate to the audience especially when addressing the older generation. I dunno whether to be horrified or amused when Syarif was unsure of the meaning of the word ”Sepupu” when referring to Alyph, who is most definitely his cousin by virtue of their mums being sisters. For his sake, I hope he was joking.

Sleeq being slick as always…

Just before crowd favourite Didicazli came on, his mother was called upon to come on stage so that everyone could sing her a birthday song. Her birthday happened to be on 8th March, the following day. The sweet lady was all surprised and blushing as everyone honoured her with the customary birthday song ala Ismet Ulam Raja style. Then it was her son’s turn to take centrestage. Here’s a guy who doesn’t need to make a lot of effort or showmanship when he’s on stage. His mere presence and voice alone had the audience eating out of his hand. As a guy, it is difficult for me to see how the ladies could go ga-ga over him but I do appreciate that he backs it up with his laid back style and infectious vocals. Well if you ask me, the same could be said of Anuar Zain and a few other male singers out there. But till now I am still intrigued at why the male singers tend to get a lot of attention on this side of the Causeway as compared to the female singers???

Didi with “Rela Setia“…

The audience waited the whole day for this particular performance…

The day did not end with just Didi performing “Rela Setia“, a personal favourite of mine, and his new single “Menyayangimu“. If history was created that day to celebrate the launch of the Fan Club, another history was also made when Sleeq came back on stage to sing the massive hit single “Impianku” with Didicazli, live for the very first time. It has been difficult to get them together to perform the song at outdoor performances before this, especially when those who had attended Didi’s album launch a few months ago had expected them to do so. I guess it was a moment to savour for the watching audience seeing them sing the song in the flesh. I reckoned the anticipation reached its maximum point when the list of performers slated to perform that day had both on the list. Oh how the audience sang from start till end.

The finale…

The show wrapped up when all the performers, sans Addy Cradle who had left by then, came back on stage to perform Lovehunters‘ “Ku Ukir Namamu“. Even KC joined in the singing when at first he was just standing by the side of the stage, preferring to let the others have their limelight. Event wasn’t exactly over after that, as there was still the matter of having the autograph signing session which of course whetted the appetites of the young ladies in attendance. More of such events are scheduled in the near future and with it adds another outlet for you to lend your support for local acts. More information will be made available at the official website of The Fan Club…

Autograph signing session about to get underway…

Would you like to see him live in action???

Or him???

How about them???

Or even them???

How about being enthralled by his excellent strummings???

Well, wait no more as all of them will converge under one roof!!!

Do your part in supporting local artistes!!!

SEE YOU THERE!!!

P.S. Photographs courtesy of B8 (Multiply), Zaibaktian (MySpace), Addy Cradle (Facebook), Gua.com (Didicazli) and Hanie Nadiah (Sleeq)

I’m not in the mood to type a lengthy review nor entry this time as I’m feeling under the weather. As such, I’ll just let the few photographs I took do the talking. This album launch was held earlier today at the Darul Ma’wa Children’s Home and was the secondary event to the annual Ma’wa Idol competition being held at the venue. Finally, the long-awaited album is launched. Congratulations to Didicazli on the birth of his full album. Just in time to be included for consideration at AnugeraHitz.sg, since the closing date of submission is this Wednesday, 31st December 2008…

A shot of the people in attendance. The front row included Member of Parliament for Aljunied GRC, Mr Zainul Abideen Rashid, Fiza O of RIA 89.7FM, and Didicazli’s parents amongst others…

There was also a games segment whilst awaiting for the results of the Ma’wa Idol to be announced. Contestants were supposed to enact a scene from a Bollywood movie and dance to the Hindi song being played in the background. The female contestants have to don on a sari while the male contestants had to wear a George Bush mask and sunglasses. Here, my good friend Latiff a.k.a. The Rock (cos he looks a bit like the famous wrestler) a.k.a. Penyu (cos he resembles one as well ) shows you how he looked like when he donned on the mask and sunglasses.

That’s him unmasked…

And for laughs, here’s what he and all the others had to do during their segment. Enjoy!!!

The promotional posters for Singapore (left) and Malaysia (right). Courtesy of Playpause.

My goodness… It’s been four months since I last typed a review, the Anugerah Band competition being the last one, and this time lag of not doing one has made me all rusty in the mind. For starters, I was cracking my head on what to type about in this review. The mind started working on what things to say even before I left home for the concert. Thankfully I drew some inspiration from listening to Anuar’s collection of songs which I had transferred to my IPOD and put it on whilst driving to the prestigious arena which is the Esplanade, where the concert was held. Don’t worry, I’m not one of those who download his songs from the Net and transfer them over to my IPOD, cos I have all three of his CDs in my collection. Listening to him along the way also helped to warm me up and refreshed my mind on some of the lyrics to his songs. When you expect yourself to be entertained at a concert, you know you’ll have to join in with the singing as well. And that’s just what I did. Kinda like trained my vocal chords as well. I dunno if the lady sitting beside me in the car appreciated her hubby’s singing-at-the-top-of-his-voice or not. But do I care??? Not one bit!!!

Since its inception in 2002, this was the first time that I’ve stepped foot in the Esplanade Concert Hall, the biggest arena in the whole of the Esplanade with a capacity of 1,600. Looking at the price of the tickets, I was initially sceptical that we would get full attendance. With the end of the festive period which more than burned a hole in our pockets and taking into account that Ungu also held their own concert the previous week, an arena half full was something that played in my mind for quite some time. But how gladly wrong I was when I saw the hordes of people making their way to the concert hall. Meeting an old polytechnic-mate along the way gave an indication to how many people were in attendance as word got round that the show was a sell-out. This was certainly music to the ears and I couldn’t wait to enter the arena.

Looking around, I saw so many familiar faces, celebrities (Taufik Batisah, Juz-B, Didicazli, Najip Ali, Rilla Melati, Hyrul Anuar amongst others), famous personalities from the print and electronic media, old friends, neighbours staying around the same area as us, people who had helped us during our wedding (sis Fatimah Mohsin), the list just goes on and on. I felt at home and I certainly got good vibes that the concert was gonna be an excellent one. It had to be. Anyone accorded the responsibility to grace the hallowed grounds of the Esplanade, at the Concert Hall no less, is sure to leave the audience wanting more and nothing less. So the choice to have this talented man gracing the arena was definitely the perfect one. It has been a long time coming, too long perhaps, when the likes of Datin Sri Hajjah Siti Nurhaliza has held 3 concerts before this and since then, he has gained so many admirers, not only amongst the female fans who can’t stop drooling at this perfectly immaculated package, but also amongst the males. I’m sure after last night, for those who had said that they were there to accompany their wives or girlfriends and that they were not fans of Anuar, the experience would have changed their minds.

The concert was backed up by a seven-piece outfit and the back-up singers made up of members of the group known as Sierra. If I’m not mistaken, Sierra are the proteges of Ferhad and they have performed before at the Mosaic Music Festival at the Esplanade Outdoor Theatre in February 2007 along with Dina of Malaysian Idol fame, Urban Method, Sleeq and Imran Ajmain. It is not often that you get to see an all-male back-up singers outfit accompanying the concert as most back-ups tend to be all-female cast or having the fairer gender in their midst. Having an all-male back-up singers is quite rare but have been done before. I still remember attending KRU’s 10-years’ anniversary concert at Dataran Merdeka in 2002 and seeing Phyne Ballerz backing them up. As for the sessionists, none of them seemed familiar to me like how used I am to seeing the likes of Steve Thornton on percussions, Ujang on drums, Aubrey Suwito or Jenny Chin on keyboards at Datin Sri’s concerts. But their quality shone through throughout the night. They were tight and their hard work was amply rewarded with an excellent sound system. The acoustics and the reputation of the Esplanade demand quality to shine through and invigorate its arena.

Hafeez Glamour and Aura Shai, the current anchors of the weekday morning show on RIA 89.7FM were tasked to make the announcements in English and Malay respectively prior to the concert. One could detect how Aura Shai was trying to contain her excitement, even when she was making the announcement in measured and controlled tones. She is afterall a big fan of his and has been unashamedly telling the whole world that on radio, along with Fiza O. My only gripe with the announcements was the script in English. At times I detected a few wrongs in the sentence structure. There could have been wrongs in the grammar as well. But I’m sure the audience did not mind at all cos all they wanted to see was Anuar Zain himself. Even before he opened his mouth to sing, Anuar had the audience under his thumb. You just knew that he had them cast under his spell when shrieks and whoops were heard when they saw his silhouette waiting by the side while the sessionists began their introductory tunes to signal the start of the long-awaited concert.

From the first song, “Keabadian Cinta“, to the last, “Teman Terulung“, ok I was wrong, he came back for an encore singing his two massive hits in “Ketulusan Hati” and “Lelaki Ini” to close the concert proper, he enchanted the crowd especially the ladies with that rich voice of his, which to me has no peers, with all due respect to people like Hazami and all the other R&B princes in Malaysia. If Glenn Fredly is the undisputed ”King of Indonesian R&B“, then Anuar Zain is his Malaysian counterpart bar none. Anuar belongs to that exclusive club of singers who do not need to have dance steps in his repertoire to win over the crowd. His voice alone, is enough to captivate the audience and lull us into dreamland. When he starts those lung-busting lines, the hair at the back of your neck is bound to stand at how impeccable and perfect his vocals can be and appreciate what a polished diamond this guy is. Ask around all the R&B princes in Singapore and Malaysia, I dare say ALL of them look up to Anuar Zain as their source of inspiration. My love for this genre also includes him as one of my inspirations.

If you are a fan of the man and have his albums, you’ll know that he does not have that many fast tempo songs. But he did sing them as much as he could. Songs like “Suria & Siarra“, “Bila Resah“, “Permata” and “Kau Bunga Cintaku” at least livened up the atmosphere and added on to that feel-good vibes that all of us were feeling. I just wished that he had closed the concert on an even bigger high had he sung the latter towards the end rather than in the middle of the show. Normally concerts end with a punchy number rather than a sedated one like “Lelaki Ini” but I know the audience couldn’t care less about that fact. A pity though that “Cinta Itu Terindah“, ”Bidadari” and “Musim Berlalu“, three of my favourites in his collection were not sung at the concert. The audience was also more responsive and more outgoing as compared to watching someone like Datin Sri. Well you can definitely see the difference when a male is on stage as compared to a female. Pandemonium is an understatement really, which is why male artistes get a lot of attention in our region. Intimacy too was the order of the day as his voice alone reached out to the masses and those with wild imaginations would have closed their eyes and imagine Anuar singing to them privately.

The husband (Wan) and wife (Nazeera) team of PlayPause. It was from their creative minds that the promotional posters and artwork for the souvenirs were conceived. They make excellent designs for concert posters, wedding invitation cards etc as well and you’d definitely like to engage them after seeing their works.Like their motto, they definitely “Do Nice Things”…

Aida with the good people of WorkHeart and Playpause… Glad to have met them again after so long…

The man himself took some time to relate his own love experience just before he sang “Kembalilah Kasih“, about how he found out he was second best after five years in a failed relationship. Some girls behind me (I’m saying girls cos I doubt their maturity level) quipped how blind and stupid the girl who dumped Anuar was. Sometimes in life, money, fame, a handsome package and a personality in someone unknown to most people can be a turn off to people close to the person. And what is written up there should not be challenged and chastised. Fate decreeds that the girl is better off with someone else and Anuar himself is better off alone for now. You’ll never know he might be getting someone much better than the previous one. God knows best what’s good and not for all of us. I know who this girl is Anuar was talking about, if it’s who I think it was he was referring, but I’m not gonna say it out, even if you try to squeeze and poke me into revealing her identity. All I can say is, she’s very much happy now in her own life. The story and the emotion-filled song which ensued were too much for some people as I heard sniffs all around me and even the lady in front of me as well as the one on my left (Aida was seated to my right) were seen dabbing their eyes with tissue.

Mr “Rela Setia” (Didicazli) was in attendance…

So too did Rilla Melati, looking fiery red last night…

Hyrul: “I thought you were sitting next to me again bro…” Yes it’s been half a year since we last met and sat next to each other at Datin Sri’s concert… Man how time flies… Glad to have met you again bro…

It has been a long journey for Anuar Zain in the music industry. His music career which has spanned a decade, actually more than two decades if you were to count his duet albums with Ellina when they were kids and later on in their late teens, was amply rewarded when he was given this great opportunity to perform at the Esplanade. Yes, he might have performed at corporate events, hi-tea functions, be a guest artiste in outdoor shows and Anugerah Planet Muzik here in Singapore before this, but the fact remained, he still had not held his own concert on our shores. Which is why I share Anuar’s apparent peeve and disappointment that none of the Malaysian media were around to witness this landmark event in his music career. I won’t say that I’m his greatest fan but I’ve always been in awe of his talents and that rich voice of his ever since it matured and his old hit “Kesan Kelukaan” was a hit in the early 90s. I even styled my own way of singing resembling a bit of his, if you ever get the opportunity to hear me sing.

This is “Sulaiman Akhlaken“, one of RIA’s most ardent listeners.

This is the guy who is crazy over Dayang Nurfaizah, none other than “Mat Gila“…

Another one of the listeners, Mr “Hensem Gila“… The beam on his face tells a story of a proud father-to-be… Congrats for hitting the bulls-eye bro…

Speaking of “Kesan Kelukaan“, for those of you who were at the concert, I was the one who instigated him into singing that song. A pity that in my excitement and awe that he heard me and asked how does the song goes, I was momentarily stunned and forgot the lyrics till a friend who was coincidentally seated next to Aida reminded me. By then Anuar had shifted his attention to another part of the audience for a quick reminder as he too had forgotten the lyrics to the song. To his credit, as he tried to sing the song and with a little help from the audience, the lyrics came back to him slowly but surely. You can’t fault him for forgetting his own song cos it’s been ages since he last sang it. Finally I am proud to say that I have been a part of this historical landmark in Anuar Zain’s career and this experience will long be etched in my mind for years to come. I’m sure for those of you who were part of the 1,600 audience, you’d agree and share my sentiments as well. I don’t think the numerous standing ovations that we accorded the man towards the end were enough, he definitely deserved more. A pity though that we were not allowed to have a photograph or autograph taking session at the end of the concert.

And this is Aida and “Nana CCK“, the proud mother-to-be…

This is what happens whenever we listeners meet up. We’ll always have some crazy poses in store…

P.S. For the record, the concert was brought to you by the good people of “Heads Up!“, Singtel MIO TV, Warna 94.2FM & RIA 89.7FM being the official radio stations, The Body Shop being the Official Make Up, Manja being the Official Magazine, Amara Hotel being the Official Hotel of the event and PlayPause for the creative artwork on the posters and the souvenirs. A job well done to one and all and a big thank you for making this happen and for making it a resounding success. Now let’s have it on DVD shall we???

Fiza O goofing around with Anuar’s caricature…

After goofing, the ladies finally take a photograph…

Last photo of the night with Aura Shai…

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Earlier in the day, we received some distinguished guests to our home. Sort of like a belated Raya-cum-housewarming visit. Really pleased to have them over. 2 hours plus and we still had so much to talk about, especially on the topic of ghosts. Hope the hospitality had been good bro Esman & sis Nura and thank you for coming over. We definitely love your company!!!