Rock Opera

Sunday, i went to this rehearsal for a show called "Rock Opera". The show is about a Malay rock band that just started and want to be famous. The show will be at Esplanade on 16th, 17th June. The so-called orchestra is made up of 20 strings ensemble, percussion section, electric guitar, bass, keyboards etc. The conductor is a Malay guy called Amin. Apparently he is quite well known in Malay community. And most of the cast members, crew, percussionist and guitarist and bassist are Malay. Only the orchestra ppl are chinese.

I got the "lobang" from Hwee Bing, they need one more violist, so i go and help out. Then Hwee Bing ask me to be Principal, i was like long time never really touch viola already...anyway, the scores are quite easy, much easier than Mr. Iskandar's.

Talk about the whole production, in my opinion, they are really not not efficient. They said start time is 1pm, we wait till 2:30pm then only start to play something, we just a while, conductor said rest for 15 min, because he want to go drink coffee. When he came back, he told us "4pm we full run". Walao, wait again, and looking at the cast's progress, we will not end by the specified end time which is 6pm.

The rehearsal venue is at a secondary school that is not in use anymore, the whole place is so deserted and the look is old and dirty. We practice at their assemble hall, and is not air-conned!!! so hot by the time we start the full run. Well, the full run started at 4:10pm, and till 5:40pm we finally finished the 1st half of the show, "break for 15 min!". hmmrrphhfftth!!!! that means we will continue 2nd half at 6pm!! I had an appoinment with friends at town, so l left at 6:30pm. Giving them another extra 30 min is quite good already, i consider myself semi- freelance for the amount of time i gigged and i am already sick of all these production ppl that never stick to the time schedule. I told the person in charge that i have another performance and i went off.

Luckily this is the 1st time i go for the rehearsal, according to other ppl, there were 2 rehearsals before that day and what they practice was a waste because the conductor changed the whole score yesterday. hmm...one word - inefficient

BUsy with music Part 2

Back from Lang Tengah last week.....now recovered from "black skin syndrome".

Over the last week, i was pretty busy with music again. This time i was involved in an Irish Band called "The Red Dot Ceili Band". SOunds like Red HOT Chilli Pepper huh..haha. Okay, the band is named by our member/leader XH, he explained that "Ceili" means a band that plays traditional irish dance music for ppl to dance around, so therefore called ceili band. [It is pronounced as Kay-Ly] As for why is it called Red Dot, he said that most of the Ceili Band is called by region of the place they come from, and this is a Singapore Ceili band, so he thought of The red dot....hehe..well....quite a cute name. Our band members are XH, Boon and me.

Last Saturday, we went to East Point Mall at Simei to perform, a part of Singapore Arts Festival program. The performance was quite good except that the sound system not very well done and the place is echo-e. The audience responce not very good though, only a few passer-by stop and watch us, and some autie uncle staring at us and some small kid dancing/jumping around.

After the perfoamance, Boon and XH suggested we go to city hall and approach some of the Irish pub for gigs. They said sunday lunch time should be a good time to perform because many Irish ppl will come to have lunch there. We had our dinner at Seah Street Deli, a western restaurant that serves BIG sandwiches! I recommend to go there if you thinking to have some nice BIG Sandwiches.

After dinner, we went to Chijmes, they know some of the manager there and wanted to try to perform straight. However, that day there was soccer game so everyone busy watching soccer, won't one us to perform, later they think we disturbing. Well, next time la. Hope to get some regular gig and therefore regular pocket money!! hee

This coming saturday will be at Plaza Singapore, hopefully the crowd is better there. Pls come and support us if you happen to be there. This saturday 10th June at Atrium@ Orchard (outside Plaza Singapore) 2:30pm.