LOST 80's LIVE IN MANILA

I got the news of these 3 great New Wave Bands coming over here in Manila to perform LIVE last February of this year and I was really excited about it. I saw this large billboard along EDSA and It got more realistic that these guys are really coming over here because last year there were a lot of rumours of New Wave acts coming over in Manila but it all didn't worked out. Hmmp!! Well, this year THE LOST 80s LIVE in MANILA finally had it's blast which exploded last APRIL 19,2008 at the Legendary ARANETA COLISEUM better known as "THE BIG DOME".



Actually I took a photo of that Billboard AD while driving 20 mph along Edsa. Wheeew! Just to include it here in my blog. Ha Ha Ha!!

'THE DOCTORS WERE IN" the concert!!!
We arrived at the Araneta Center around 5:30 p.m. just to anticipate any problems parking our cars. Actually, I considered this an excellent concert in a way that it has been quite a while since my last New Wave Concert and having these three bands in one night would at least make me want to think that we've watched it here in the PHILIPPINES and not abroad. Of course, there were some ups and downs on the concert. All three bands has only 1 original members each. Wheeew!! That's a tough start to handle.

The concert started a little late and what surprised us was the two FRONT ACTS namely HILERA(2007 NU107 Rock Awards Best New Artist), and the weird URBAN NATION. We were disappointed with these two acts in a way that it did not fit the Theme Title of the concert. WOW!! HILERA was just noisy for us although they did play their rendition of "STRAY CATS STRUTT". Hmmmp!! URBAN NATION just made us fall down to the ground because of what they sang. They even inserted the lyrics of THE CURE's "Boys Don't Cry" on an AKON song. That's Unbelievable!!!....That's Incredible!! Well, I wish these two slots were given back to DRAMARAMA and GENE LOVES JEZEBEL like in THE LOST 80s CONCERT abroad. Digicam and any form of Video taking was prohibited but I get to shot some. He He He!! Videos for this blog from our cellphones? Naaah!! I'll keep it to myself because our voices were heard on the background of every video taken wherein we sang our hearts out. Ha Ha Ha!!


First on the line was WHEN IN ROME with only MICHAEL FLOREALE on the original line-up. Together with him were new members JOHN CERAVALO(vocals) and ROB JUAREZ(percussion) starting with the set with "HEAVEN KNOWS". Some really thought that JOHN CERAVALO was the BALD member on their 80s Line-up on their Self-titled Album who was CLIVE FARRINGTON. He He He!Nope they aren't the same person. The band followed it up with "WIDE WIDE SEA" which is a favorite of LITEWAVE DJ Ron South. He then promoted their new single "LOST TRAIN" which according to JOHN is available on their My Space Website for listening. Then a TALK TALK rendition of the song "TALK TALK" which I like. Though, I wanted to hear my favorite ballad "EVERYTHING", or even "SIGHT OF TEARS", both songs were not just on the list that night. WHEN IN ROME capped their performance with the Classic "THE PROMISE" that made everybody up on their feet and shout and sang the whole lyrics. For me, that would be the highlight of their performance. At least they made it this time here in MANILA because they were suppose to perform here wayback 1990 with the three original line-up but didn't make it.


Then the unexpected break came in!! This time members of Urban Nation asked 15 audiences to come up on stage for a little game. Huh? A little game on a concert like this one. A Question and Answer thing about the 80s. Naaah! This took another much of the time considering everyone in the crowd wants more of the real artist doing their thing. Hmmp!! That little game consumed more than 30minutes of the time. Another downfall of the concert.
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REAL LIFE came next and to my surprise it was only DAVID STERRY on stage and with the help of the two members of WHEN IN ROME they started the set with "OPEN HEARTED". For me, this set was the best for the night with great selection of songs.Their second and fourth song would be DZBM POWER105 classics "BABIES" and "ALWAYS". We were really surprised with the third song "BURNING BLUE" because this song were my brothers and my ultimate favorite and never did we expected it to be on their playlist because it never made it big here in Manila on those days and good thing it was included. It was also great to hear the XB classic "SEND ME AN ANGEL".I also love their B-MOVIE rendition of "NOWHERE GIRL". Actually, REAL LIFE was first introduced here in MANILA wayback 1984 by 99.5 RT by playing their classic hit "CATCH ME I'M FALLING" which was their final song of their set. DAVID STERRY's voice was still the same as it was during the 80s. THE BEST SET INDEED!!!


A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS was considered as the main act in the concert. Only MIKE SCORE was the original member who showed up wearing a Summer Hawaiian outfit and it was really very scary to see him with some Long Haired Dudes in the band. MIKE's heavy metal compadres were PANDO, JOE RODRIGUEZ, and MICHAEL BRAHM.They started the set with "MODERN LOVE IS AUTOMATIC". What really bored the audience were their new stuffs that they sang. WheeeW!! We were really shouting "WISHING........MORE OLD SONGS!!" He He He! Although they sang their classic songs like"THE MORE YOU LIVE,THE MORE YOU LOVE", "TELECOMMUNICATION", "SPACE AGE LOVE SONG","I RAN"(we almost ran outside the Coliseum when their set got very boring), and our wish "WISHING(If I Had A Photograph Of You)", I have to say their set was really the worst among the three bands who performed that night at THE BIG DOME. Good thing it was over. But we definitely enjoyed the night!!
Generally, it was great to see these three bands performed LIVE in one night. It's nice to hear their classic songs being played because that was really the main reason why we went to see them play LIVE here in MANILA.Well, I hope the next batch of the LOST 80s Concert which have been promoted that night would be much better than this one.


Well, I took a photo of the beautiful lady,Miss Yvette, who was in charge of selling the four CDs.

Some T-shirts sold at the venue. Hmmmp!! Great four designs to choose from but we have to choose only one for a souvenir. It wouldn't be practical to buy all of it. He He He!!

Some Cool Stuffs we bought!!



The T-shirt


The Four CDs

Well, as we exited The Big Dome, we got to take photos together with the two new members of WHEN IN ROME, JOHN and ROB, who were both very accomodating to the fans. YUP!! The fans were just excited to take their own photos together with these two gentlemen.

GREAT MEMORABLE CONCERT!!
Thanks Guys for coming over in MANILA!!
-DR. STIRRING RHOD-