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Yamaha Asianbeat Asia Grand Finals Yokohama 2009 Part 4: Rehearsal Day and The Retarded Bitch

Dec 28, 2009 Events, Gallery, News
Posted by admin

Part 1: Ohaiyo Arrival and First Taste of Japan
Part 2: Interesting Yokohama Bay
Part 3: Intercontinental Yokohama Grand

where part 3 is the shortest post, part 4 might be the longest thus far (in terms of word-count)…

please be patient as you read on the long story before the nice photos pop up from below.

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there are people who think they are smart bcos they are really smart;
there are people who think they are smart bcos they think others may not be as smart;
there are people who think they are smart but in fact they are retards.

this post is dedicated to a person who falls into the 3rd category above.

i am no where near perfect as a music educator though been involved in the scene for over 15 years now. however, i always ensure maximum knowledge-transfer is done efficiently to students whom i come upon with. Wind Rising are no exception in that privilege. hereby, let me describe the true process of, the birth of wind rising from zero to hero.

in early june 2009, mrs ng (from muzik sistem) got the news from Yamaha Malaysia that there will be a Yamaha Asian Beat band competition held, and Kedah will probably be one of the hosting regional finalists. mrs ng told me casually “duno whether there will be any new bands coming up this time”. as a veteran in the Asian Beat scene, we annually will come upon the usual suspects, at least four or five same bands from previous years are always taking part annually. off course they improved every different year as experience piled up.

there is a known secret about our little friend Kaevin, who dreams….eh…who craves for Asian Beat action long ago, but too bad, his band Uglyboyz were tragically collapsing. Ugyboyz are another whole lot that gone wasted after years of guidance, but i did learn a lot of things when bringing up the lads, including educating the band psychologically and building mental fitness.

ok, getting back to Wind Rising.. i started to think deeply the possibility of rebuilding a new band, more solid, and most importantly, with the capabilities of challenging other top acts in Yamaha Asian Beat. so i roped in chin sing (bak pao), who often talk craps and smiled alone by himself. i thought before of getting in a second guitarist but experience tells me it wasnt necessary, anyway, there was no eligible student at my disposal who is at the same level as Chin Sing and Kaevin at that time.

so to make the band complete, i enquired on a bassist with Cikgu Man (bass instructor), whether there is a bass student, who has very steady pulse, great time sense, advanced technique and keen on learning new stuff with a constructive mind. he mentioned Haris without hesitation.

fast forward to Chin Sing, Kaevin and Haris first tried playing Uglymen’s classic “Robots”, they glued quite well and Haris started to like the other two kids (i bet Haris was shocked when he first saw Kaevin and Chin Sing were the two kids he was gonna play with). They started jamming a few songs, and off course, eventually, came out with thier song called “Nevermind” for the competition.

it wasnt easy at all to arrange a 3-piece-band for a band competition, i had to sit down think deeply every night after 3am, when i came back from work, and will try out various arranging and alternating the song bit by bit till morning. i had to utilize all their strong points and minimize their weak links. however, penning the lyrics was far easy as it is based on a true story. i had to record over 20 to 30 times in every phrase of the song, reviewed it before i was satisfied with a particular section. it was really hard to come up with the end product.

so, they started playing and performing “Nevermind” whenever they had an opporunity, and to be frank, i was more strict than usual in preparing the band. fortunate enough, all 3 were as hardworking and willing to sacrifice time to practice whether in alor star or changlun 40km+- apart

they were deservedly awarded champion in the regional finals, and to prepare for malaysian final, tai suan (in penang) also came chipping in ideas. where we communicate via emails to keep each other updated on Wind Rising’s latest progress.

as the competition progressed, i made extra effort looking into their attire, make-up, stage presence, speech, choreograph, it was like all of tai suan’s and my experience of over 15 years of band knowledge came pouring down onto these lads. we analyzed video footage of great bands, listen to many great songs, and kept asking ourselves questions to fine-tune Wind Rising. i found more excitement and motivation teaching Wind Rising, as all three of them have NEVER entered a  band competition, and Kaevin and Chin Sing were being the youngest (16 and 17 yrs old) to compete in Yamaha Asian Beat malaysia history. they also NEVER perform in front of large scale crowd, and to top it off, the band was formed merely one month when Kaevin hardly knew who is Haris and Haris had no idea how crazy Chin Sing would be in the band.

pardon me for the long details above, as i would like you all to know, after all the hard work, their presentation on competition day in japan were ruined 50% and almost 80% by a single person ~ the person who was supposedly in charge of taking care of the band in Yokohama.

and now, lets fly to Yokohama…

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after a good night sleep, everyone gathered at the hotel lobby and we met Karen Sun from Taiwan, where she took good care of Uglymen while we play in Asian Beat Finals 2005 in Taipei. this time, she was in charge of bringing the taiwanese finalist Zen Kwun to Japan.

since Wind Rising has gone for official breakfast, and all the others were coming from Ishikawacho, i wandered around outside the convention hall and took some photos.

9 am in the morning, relaxing and a real calm across the deck. not many people around and the occasional chirping of birds around made me wanna just sit there and enjoy every fresh breath of the morning air.

this is where people board the boats, it was later on competition day that quite a number of audience came here via boats arriving at this jetty.

the hall itself is a beauty inside, outside, and beside…. every side.

as time went by, team by team from every participating country arrived at the hall for a briefing by stage manager Mr Steve before kick starting the rehearsal. it was about this time that strange things happened.

as the yamaha staff directed every team into the meeting room, tai suan and me followed suit as sort of manager/technical assistant to the band, we were immediately stopped by Managing OfficeR Of coNtestants, hereby referred as MORON, the person who represented Yamaha Malaysia in this grand event.

MORON went into the meeting room, and told tai suan and me to stay outside. however, from our previous limited encounters, we know that MORON aint know nothing about bands and in serious doubt will she air any constructive questions or enquiries to the stage manager. we wandered aroud outside the hall, and decided to ask permission from the japanese staff out side the room, we gained entry EASILY and were ushered into the room!

the meeting was already in progress.

all ears on the briefing

each national team has his own translator / japanese guide
Wind Rising’s pretty translator is Ms Oda

Mr Steve, the big boss of the event. he speaks fluent english, mandarin, cantonese, and off course japanese.

it was fortunate that tai suan and me went in but we did not get a clear picture and program flow. after the 30 minute briefing, we were again told by MORON not to get involve in the stage rehearsal, which we reluctantly agreed.

question marks started to pop up on our mind as why assistance to malaysian team was being prohibited by a person who supposed to be the face of Yamaha Malaysia in Japan (hereby referred as MORON)

since we still have a few hours before wind rising’s rehearsal takes place, we went for a walk in the surroundings and shop for souvenirs for friends and family

this is the ceiling of the convention hall, brilliantly artistic, isnt it? you’ll get to see the grand interior of the huge competition hall in my next post: Part 5: Competition Day

japan largest musical instrument fair, but i wasnt going there.

these posters were every where, the only regret i din attend the fair was i din get to take photos of various luxurious instruments. Haris did. so i’ll share some of his photos at michael-one.com later if he allows.

anyway, the instrument price were very high and zero discount, so no point of exploring the fair, it was justified after we went to tokyo on the 4th day later.

we went to a shopping mall called Queen Square

the first thing attracted me was there were this trio music group performing some children songs on miniature musical instruments.

so, u must wonder how famous they are, their music is simple and pleasing to the ears. lets see how’s the crowd like…

wa… so the many crowd loh, if only uglymen do gig like this hoh….
and japanese are so discipline and no sia soi their country, they lined up quietly, orderly, patiently, waiting in line to get a seat in front of the stage, though it’s an open event, where you can literally stand beside without a seat but still getting a good view.

wa.. see this koko buy their CD and get their signature and photo with them. japanese really know how to appreciate music, in this case, simple but quality music.

going to Pacifico Yokohama, its a shopping complex like our own Pacific Star Parade in alor setar, the only difference is larger, cleaner, nicer, comfortable…. i started buying some souvenirs there and mr ng bought the costliest candies in his life (you must ask kaevin about that… thanks to tai suan recommendation, he ask us go buy, but he himself no buy loh…)

there is a huge open air multi purpose stage in between those two malls and some music shows were always going on there. in malaysia, people use wok to cook, in japan, they use it to play music, lol…. this is Steel Drum ensemble anyway.. wonderful music from the group, i din stay there too long as Wind Rising rehearsal time was approaching.

nothing much really special in the mall for snap shot but this giany snoopy outside the Snoopy Store, i notice snoopy no tail one when i walk behind it, and looking from below, snoopy’s sex is really still a mystery as you couldnt figure it out view from below too LOL!!!

time to get back to the hall, gona walk through Yokohama Grand as the hall is at the other side of the building.

here comes the shocking (no more photos taken from this time till the relearsal was over, not becos i was busy helping out rehearsal, but i was afraid i will throw my camera at that retarded bitch)

taisuan and me arrived at the hall and went into the venue (competition hall) via side doors, it has too many doors and never-ending stairs to confuse you.

Zen Kwun of Taiwan were rehearsing just before Wind Rising’s slot, we paced the front stage (not on the stage) and see what kind of potential the venue had, to enhance Wind Rising’s performance. So, we sat down, looked around and finally Wind Rising took position. The stage was really wide (for a 3-piece band, esp only 2 front men), so we started to draft their positions and see what type of equipment were on offer on the stage. as we approach the front stage, MORON (she was there before us) DIRECTED US NOT TO HELP WIND RISING ON STAGE… this was the EXACT CONVERSATION:

“haiyo, you guys again, why want go help them? let them learn themselves, you want to teach them til when huh? this is INTERNATIONAL competition, in KL always only see you two helping, let them learn and set up themselves la.”

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS? CHAO CHxx Bxx (pardon me on my choice of colourful expressive words)

we tried to tell her Wind Rising may not know how to express their needs or even were strangers to the amps settings on the stage. i recalled even i got to help Ocean of Fire set up Jonathan’s bass amp in the ASIAFINALS in SUNWAY few years back en route to landing the Asia Best Bassist award, what’s wrong with that?

-Photo by Paul Ooi
electrifying bass solo by Jonathan in Yamaha Asian Beat Asia Finals 2007

we were not like going to stand beside them as they perform, this is called TECH RIDER ASSISTANCE, TECHNICAL ADVICE, and for the 3 kids (Wind Rising, who never perform or took part in competition like this before), CONFIDENT BOOSTER.

all these were WIPED OUT COMPLETELY by MORON, instructed us to sit down and DONT HELP THEM!

was she from Yamaha Malaysia or from other rival teams Yamaha Thai, Yamaha Indonesia? no, she’s not, why? because ALL OTHER TEAMS’ MANAGER, ASSISTANT, ADVISOR, even PHOTOGRAPHER get to go on stage and helped! was she blind or what? The Korean team PRB teacher (with sun glasses) was so busy up there directing choreograph and positioning where to jump down the stage to create gimmicks when PRB took the stage for rehearsal.

she is far far far worse then the worst.

Chin Sing and Haris stood miles apart, with Haris over-covering Kaevin’s, the sight was awful, the amp setting were world apart wrong, Haris’ bass tone was in a MUD like playing gong, Chin Sing’s tone was just average. So, the rehearsal went completely wasted as Wind Rising did not air any request to the stage crew at all.

after the rehearsal, Wind Rising went off to the musical fair, while i was watching all my hard work going down the river infront of Yokohama Grand. tai suan started cursing the wasted chance and we tried to think of some remedy to the total abso-fucking-lutely fucked up situation.

after some lenghtly discussion, we decided to approach the stage manager Mr Steve directly after MORON left the venue. we spoke to him in the most friendly way, to our surprise, Mr Steve was very very kind and helpful to us, and he referred us to the stage coordinator (which i din get to know his name).

We: we are very sorry to trouble you guys again, but can we do some changes to the band setup? cos we did not know that we were allowed to do that on stage.

Stage Coordinator: (in fluent english) you dont have to apologize, its not your fault, it’s your country yamaha representative who din manage the rehearsal appropriately.

the Stage Coordinator told us he would like to help us as much, but he had to inform the sound engineer, the stage controller, the position manager, the tech crew…. on the changes. (see how pro they are!!) after a short discussion with Mr Steve, he allowed us to do another position check in limited time, but it was impossible for another sound check, as there were still many bands waiting to rehearse. well, at least we were able to salvage something out of completely everything gone!

so, every one of us walked back to the hotel and looked for Wind Rising (they went off to the Musical Fair). since all three of them were not in sight, i had to called them or msg them, which was so hard to get through, and when connected, some mis-communication happened which i have to run here there every where to locate them. my total phone bill (roaming from digi malaysia on my phone to japan and again roaming to maxis malaysia on chin sing’s phone in japan) ran up to over RM150 just inside that 1 hour! i dont blame them, but i want Yamaha Malaysia to pay my RM150!

fast forward to Wind Rising came back to the venue.

tai suan informing Mr Steve how Chin Sing’s effect and microphone should be positioned

we did a 15-minute position check, and were very very thankful to all the stage crew on board to land a hand in this extra privilege. it is a BIG BIG SHAME Haris bass tone still sound like shit mud without getting another chance to fine tune the bass equalizers

now you see why were we (still are) very mad at this retarded bitch!

i really need a nice cold ice cream to drowse the rage and fury…

this cute girl is making ice cream, never-eaten-before-in-malaysia type, ah suan also later ordered one, the price is about RM20 one person’s sharing.

all right, after all the fire has been drowsed now, i leave you with a more light-hearted joke, see below:

this billboard is situated in front of the main entrance, if you dont know Billy Sheehan by now, eric martin will drill your head. Billy Sheehan is a world reknown musician, he is most-recognized in 90’s rock outfit MR BIG, and one of the best bassist in the world, with his exclusive tehcniques and out of this world bass playing speed.

in the picture, far right above, it says 入场无料, in Japanese, it means free entry to the event with Billy as a special guest, but in mandarin, it means…..