The Orient Express Invades MSPSBS

STUDENTS of Paduka Seri Begawan Sultan Science College (MSPSBS) were given the rare opportunity last wednesday to learn music from members of the Orient Express, the US Navy's band of USS Tortuga, who are in the country as part of the CARAT Exercise.

The eight-piece group of professional navy musicians' visit to the college was to expose and educate students involve in the college band to various music genres, styles and rythm, which they have not heard before, and apply them in their music education.

"As music will be a huge part of the co-curriculum of SPN21, the workshop enables the students to have first hand exposure in a subject which they will soon have the option of taking up, especially for Year Seven and Year Eight students," said the College Band Coordinator Mohd Raymie Hj Othman, who is also a chemistry teacher at MSPSBS.

He said that the workshop and the special appearance by the US Navy band members also hoped to encourage more students to join the college band and promote the college's non-academic endeavours.

During the workshop, the Orient Express band members also took the opportunity to work one-on-one with each of the student with their different instruments to allow them to appreciate music more. "This workshop is an opportunity for us to demonstrate our music and culture to the Bruneian people, and to share our knowledge with the Bruneian students on our profession as Navy Musicians, in a way teaching them various integral points in order to transform from basic high school musicians into professional musicians like us," said Musician First Class Bradley Blanchard, the band's frontman.

The students were also treated to a live joint concert by the Orient Express and the Royal Brunei Armed Forces (RBAF) band. The Orient Express brings with them a diverse range of American music from pop to R&B, much to the delight of the audience.

Also present to witness the live mini-concert were Acting Principal Dk Sarimah Pg Hj Ahmad, Lt Col (Navy) Hj Osman Hj Suhaili and US Navy Rear Admiral Nora W Tyson.

As the highlight of their visit in the country, the band together with the RBAF band will collaborate to perform at the Jerudong Park Playground's Mini Amphitheatre on the evening May 8 as part of the park's Family Entertainment Night.

Brunei joins the world with 'All You Need is Love'

LOCAL artists last night joined other performers from around the world as part of a global choir performing The Beatles' classic All You Need is Love live online at the same time as part of a massive charitable effort to aid The Global Fund in its fight against HIV/Aids in Africa.

Joining spirited voices at precisely 1.30pm GMT (9.30pm Brunei time) were local artists Hans Anwar, Fakhrul Razi and Putri Norizah of Phuturephase Production, Feez Madea and Juju of Projectunes Records, Fau P2F and A Band Once in an event that united individuals, communities and cultures through the universal language of music.

The artists, along with local production crew Megabond Productions, volunteered for the (RED) Love Project, set up three years ago by U2 singer Bono and Bobby Shriver.

Under the project, companies dedicated large portions of profits from particular (RED)-branded products to go towards The Global Fund.

The simultaneous global live-stream performance last night was organised by Starbucks, which in just one year has generated enough money through the project to buy more than seven million days of medicine to help those living with HIV in Africa.

The performance in Brunei was held at the Yayasan Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Shopping Complex with Brunei's famous Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque as the backdrop.

The performance lasted five minutes, as the song was sung once, coinciding with performers around the world.

Billed as a historic technological breakthrough, the event received enormous worldwide media coverage and is expected to be written into the Guinness World Records.


Live feeds from the event were streamed to a central location where people in 200 countries were able to view the performance simultaneously.

"This first-ever global event will leverage state-of-the-art technology to stream the live feed of this performance on www.StarbucksLoveProject.com," said Sharifudin Hj Zainuddin, Megabond Productions' assistant producer.

"Anyone with access to a computer and video camera will have the opportunity to submit their own version of All You Need Is Love for the world to see and hear," he said.

"We need to educate the youngsters to connect globally, and not just locally, when doing something for a good cause such as this," said local artist Fakhrul Razi Ibrahim.

"Although we are a small country, we do make a huge impact. I believe that small things can actually make a great impact, especially when we do it in a community rather than just personally."

For every video submitted to the website, Starbucks will make a donation to the Global Fund.

Goodbye Korea

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Epic Frequency Debut

Breathing New Air

The band is three years old this year, and we have evolved in our style and performances so much. Now that each of us have our own commitments, we've to really juggle up time between work and practices for gigs (which have also been pretty scarce as of late).

The Memorial

Watched this late last night via live-feed. It was a really sad moment in entertainment history.

Commemorative

Have you got your copy today?

Jackson Dies at 50

I grew up listening to this guy. MJ may not know all of us, but each and one of us who have grown to listen his songs and watch his dance over the decades seem to know MJ very personally, through his music. He was by far the most talented and hardworking man in the industry, and no one I've seen so far could ever match him. People imitate his dance moves but only Michael could pull it off perfectly.

It was a wonderful time during Jackson's reign in the charts back in the 80's and 90's. So much good music back then. But now there is no more Michael Jackson. Same goes to Elvis, and P. Ramlee. The world is now bombarded with crappy music.

Goodbye Michael. You were truly the King of Pop. RIP 1958-2009.

Currently Listening To...

The soundtrack is already out, and their video is also on its way. An excellent tune to get you pumped up on your way to the theatres next month. Talk about psyched. In the meantime, where on earth is Terminator Salvation???

A Night With A Band Once

It was pretty brief, but the mini-concert exclusively featuring our local entertainers A Band Once which lasted for only less than an hour was worth it. The mini-concert was held last night at the Jerudong Park colonnade (formerly the old simulator ride). The band performed their hits as well as a few popular numbers that entertain the crowd who came to watch their favorite band perform live.

The Next Shirley Temple

Born on October 6, 2002 in Moldova, Cleopatra Stratan is the youngest person ever to score commercial success as a singer, with her 2006 album La vârsta de trei ani (At the age of 3). She holds the record for being the youngest artist that performed live for two hours in front of a large audience, the highest paid young artist, the youngest artist to receive an MTV award and the youngest artist to score a #1 hit in a country. She is the daughter of Moldovan-Romanian singer, Pavel Stratan.

The New iPod Shuffle

Apple on Wednesday introduced the next generation iPod Shuffle. Now it is nearly half the size of the previous model at 1.8 inches tall by 0.3 inches thin. This new model is the smallest portable music player, but being so small doesn't mean compromising memory capacity. Apple has bumped up this little gizmo up to 4GB!

The new iPod shuffle comes in silver or black and features a sleek and design with a built-in stainless steel clip. By removing the buttons Apple was able to make the shuffle smaller, without compromising on other features. All of the controls are located on the earphone cord, allow you to play, pause, adjust volume, switch playlists and, get this, 'hear' the name of the song and artist. That's right. This Shuffle actually talks! Not convinced? Check out this demo:


The new Shuffle is now the smallest music player in the world, but despite being smaller, it actually holds more songs. Its revolutionary features and control totally obsoletes the old models. This is your perfect companion for your weekly jogging and gym needs. Get this if you can't afford a Nano.

Sunday In Business School

Apologies for the lack of pictures. I'm currently occupied with packing up my stuff tonight for my trip to KL, and my flight is tomorrow. Anyway, these were taken earlier today as I was invited as the guest vocalist for the band Epic Frequency to perform at the funfair at The Business School in conjunction with its 4th anniversary. More pictures and details will be updated as soon as I get back from my trip. Thanks to Es for taking over my camera while I was on the mic.




The Ex-Business School Students












With the committee

BCG's Rockband Tournament

The Brunei Cybergames Tournament is back, and kick-starts the new year of 2009 with a dose of next generation gaming hits e.g. Pro Evolution Soccer, Call of Duty and Rockband. My brother formed an allegiance with his friends and signed up to compete in the Rockband tournament today. Check out his blog for more details.













Rano seems occupied

Fahmi On The Drums

1st Concept Album Artwork

No, we're not releasing an album. This is just a concept design. Needs a lot of work though. And oh yes, that's Iskandar gnawing the metal bar. Here's the original picture:


Hilang ganas mu es...hahaha

A New Place For Gigs and Live Shows

So where were you all last night? You missed a really great live band show at Jerudong Park featuring exclusively A Band Once and drum solo performances by 5 awesome local drummers. And I really like what they did with the old simulator chamber. The JP guys have done a very good job transforming it into a stage for live bands and gigs. With the sound and lighting systems all set up, I can't wait to see more live performances held there after Unplugged Undercover was successfully held.




The new stage and setup of the old simulator chamber in JP


A Band Once belting out an acoustic cover of their songs




Ciko and Kamaloko entertaining the audience


Cooperative Drum Solos between Fahmi and Paul




Group photo with the band


The 5 Drummers; Paul of Not Famous, Ciko of Aces, Zam of Flotzilla, Kamaloko of Loko and Fahmi of Odium Treason.


With the fans

Epic Frequency

I'm currently learning on shooting band images for portfolios and promotional materials, so I thought I'd use these guys from Epic Frequency as part of my experiment. That green chair kinda ruin the shots though. I should be more mindful of distractions in a shot in the future.

Unplugged Undercover at Jerudong Park

As I've said all these months, it has been a dry year without gigs, until now. Check these guys out tomorrow, with special appearance of A Band Once. Click here for more details.