I did my A-Levels at Felsted School, a private school in England back in the 80s. And no, I didn’t have a privileged upbringing, I was just an ordinary kampung boy who somehow ended up there (will talk about that in another post).

In the same school, a year my senior was a certain Sheila Nicholls.

In May 1989 Nicholls, then 19, was suddenly a hot topic at the school due to her exploit: performed cartwheels while streaking at an England versus Australia cricket match at arguably the world’s top cricket pitch, Lord’s Ground in London. Yes, she was totally naked then live on TV.Pashmina shawls were not on her, definitely.

I can still remember the front page of The Sun: HOWZAT, with Nicholls and a smiling Sir Ian Botham, one of cricket’s greatest ever players, in the same frame. The video footage was apparently then included in the video Streaker, narrated by George Best.

The Sun is the UK’s top tabloid newspaper, the largest English-language daily newspaper by circulation, in fact it has the highest circulation of any daily English-language newspaper in the world, with millions of copies being sold daily, so you can imagine her fame in our male-dominated school then.

Back then, I could see how skilled and how determined the tabloid pros dig for dirt. Somehow they romantically linked her to one of our science teachers. It was quite unreal to see his name being mentioned in the paper. If I remember correctly, he disappeared for a while, presumably to let things cool down before returning to the school to teach. Needless to say, usually rowdy classes went very quiet when he first made his reappearance.

Later in the year, against her family’s wishes, Nicholls went to the US and began performing with her band, Sheila Nicholls and the Splendid Frock, and achieved moderate success.

Her song “Fallen For You” was included in the 2000 Hollywood flick High Fidelity which starred amongst others, Catherine Zeta-Jones, John Cusack, Jack Black and Tim Robbins. In promoting her album Brief Strop which contained that song, she toured extensively, and even had several gigs alongside k.d. lang.

Now based in LA, in 2002, she released her second album, Wake. The following video is of that album’s first single, “Faith.” It made the charts.

Click here to see the video

There was a songwriting competition by MAESTRO which ended recently. Those selected will get the exposure afforded by Akademi Fantasia (AF) 6 finalists.

Here are two of our submissions.

All vocals, melody, arrangement, lyrics done by the respective composers.

By Ezbon a.k.a. Golib: “Kembalikan Senyum”

By Mackley a.k.a Bodidi: “Kepalsuan Hidup”

Everything recorded and done in a home studio by Ezbon, an entirely self-taught musician and home recording expert:

He’s also proficient in jingle-making and songwriting.

More details, or if you want engage his expertise, please do leave a note.

Source

On 13th April 2008 in Kuala Lumpur, some of Malaysia’s top vocalists were gathered at one place.

And they were not there to perform, but rather part of the audience.

Amy Search, Malaysia’s top rock vocalist and one of Asia’s best rock vocalist was there:

Datuk Siti Nurhaliza, who in many people’s opinion, is Malaysia’s undisputed number one vocalist was there:

Jacqueline Victor, in my opinion, Malaysia’s best vocalist was there:

Why? There could be only one reason: they’re there to see someone better than them perform.

Celine Dion did a one-night-only show in KL that night, as part of her Taking Chances World Tour 2008:

In my humble opinion, Celine Dion is the number one active pop singer alive in the world today, better than Mariah Carey, better than Whitney Houston. With over 200 million records sold worldwide, many people would attest to that.

I couldn’t make it due to the distance and cost (the local artistes’ pics above must’ve been the RM1,000 seats!), but some videos were taken and uploaded to youtube by those who attended, like this one of her signature song, “My Heart Will Go On”, which drove the crowd wild, and probably will be the first and only time ever sung live by Celine Dion on Malaysian soil:

Click here to see the video

This has been around for quite some time, but I stumbled upon it on youtube while looking for a video of that fabled Yehudi Menuhin - Ravi Shankar collaboration: when the greatest violinist of the 20th century played with the leading Indian musician of the modern era.

This is undisputably one of hard rock’s greatest ever songs, which means it’s severely overplayed, and even classic songs get on one’s nerves after non-stop listening. There have been many covers but none could hold a candle to the original.

Until several nights ago when I saw this, apparently just an ad on Channel V, but still I’m wondering: is there a full length version of this?

Click here to see the video

Back in February I mentioned about a real Ferrari F430 roaming Kota Kinabalu streets.

Then one fine day a month later, filling up petrol I saw that Shell was doing what it did the year before: selling models of Ferraris. And true enough, a model of a F430 Challenge was there, as well as the other Ferrari I saw years back, 360 Challenge Stradale.

Last year, Shell Malaysia Trading Sdn Bhd MD Mohzani Wahab was reported to have said, “This is a chance for every one to own a Ferrari at an affordable price.”

Quite true sir.

So, instead of having to pay upwards of RM1 million, I only need to pay RM8 RM8.90[thanks snow for the correction] for my F430.

My verdict: it’s still overpriced! Not worth the price: another money spinning idea by Shell-Ferrari.

Last week I was going through some files in preparation for our upcoming MS ISO9001:2000 audit when, going through the training file, I encountered what must be the most unique name of a Sabahan.

It was so unique that even googling that name does not give any indication that any other person in history has ever had such a name.

Therefore, I submit the most unique person’s name in Sabah, and perhaps the entire world: Lexizefpenvo H. Plank.

Google it if you don’t believe me.

To Mr Lexizenpenvo, if you’re reading this, this is not in any way meant to offend: it’s just to share the world what a special name you have.

Ever since the end of AF3, the franchise has basically been under my radar, not helped by some forgettable performances by the so-called champions of the top reality show of the nation, one mosquito-slapping throughout the entire performance and the other’s vocal control getting worse and worse as the song went on.

But since last night’s theme was rock, my favourite genre, I thought I’d break a record of sorts and sit through the entire 90 minutes.

It was surprisingly worth it, as I was treated to two extremes: one whose performance could be the worst ever dished out by an AF student, a tone deaf monstrosity. Perhaps one could even say it’s a drug rehab type of performance. Is it any coincidence that his name is very similar to the name of AF4’s champion? This is not to say that anybody bearing that name can’t sing, as very well proven by the champion of OIAM in 2006.

And the other one is of course Mama Rina’s cover of Metallica’s magnum opus, Enter Sandman. It was not a perfect performance, but still it was so good that it brought the house down, and definitely made me dig up Metallica’s black album right after, and brought back memories of 17th August, 1991 when, a mere 5 days after the release of the black album, I saw Metallica in front of my eyes performing that song.

As for Mama Rina, how I wish she performed the real version and not the truncated 2:30 version, but I’m sure that ditty is going to be her signature song once AF6 ends.

In conclusion, at last a performance that restored, if only a little bit, my faith in AF.

Being a music fan, perhaps more seriously than most, one of the reasons I like going back to my house in a “kampung” in the district of Tuaran is that high quality, live, loud rock music is occasionally played in the living room.

A circle of friends is made up of serious rock musicians. And not the bad types at all. Their group Papier Mache’s main chilling out station is this place. My brother is the bass player, backing vocalist (can do a mean lead vocalist too), homestudio audio engineer and songwriter.

No need to go to a nightclub, here at “Firehouse Music and Recreation Club” one of the mottos is “Always Table Number One”.

Like this one time back in February, when, amongst others, they performed Maroon 5’s This Love.

Click here to see the video

Warning: Proceed at your own risk. Some words / phrases used are not suitable in polite company. If you find toilet humour funny, then this is for you.

I have no idea who dubbed this, but obviously (a) Sabahan(s). Originally received via bluetooth forwards.

P Ramlee would’ve been aghast!

Click here to see the video

Imagine if someone SMSed you at a dead serious corporate meeting, and your SMS ringtone is this one: