Leo Ku - Amazing World Concert

Leo Ku - Amazing World Concert

7 – 9 October 2011

Hong Kong Coliseum

8.15pm

7 October 2011

I can’t believe it that I’m actually writing this. I’ve been writing about concerts that I’ve been to in Malaysia but attending a concert in Hong Kong Coliseum is something that I’ve always wanted to do :)

And what makes this special is, it is my first time in Hong Kong, first time attending a concert in Hung Hom and to make it most special, it’s a Leo Ku concert! This is something that my friends and I have always wanted to do and we’re finally here after years of talking about it. It’s just that not all of us could make it though. So, our group was not complete.

We reached Hung Hom at about 6pm. We have to be there early as we have to collect our tickets from Leona (of Leo Ku’s Kingdom), and also to distribute tickets to members who’ve bought tickets through us. We also checked out all the merchandises on sale.

At the side of the venue, a table was already set up for prayers. It’s a norm before the start of the concert, for a smooth and successful event. We caught a glimpse of Leo there, with fellow members of the management and crew.

While checking out the merchandises, someone who looked familiar called out my name. It was Wuss… from Toronto! Can’t believe it that the whole group came to HK for this! We’ve communicated through chats and forums but that was the first time we met :)

After distributing all the tickets, we went into the coliseum at 8pm. I’ve seen events held in the coliseum (from TV shows, concert DVDs etc) and I always got the impression that any events held there will look very grand and impressive.

But as I walked in, everything just looked simple. I saw some props hanging from above but the stage itself basically looked empty. We were seated at the 6th row from the stage. It’s quite a good view from there :)

We waited anxiously for the concert to start. Saw some other celebrities who attended the concert, including Gigi Fu, Sammy, Nick Cheung… and few others (I couldn’t see who else). The coliseum was full and finally, lights off at 8.45pm. A dancer came out, dressed in white.

Suddenly, what looked like strings of ornaments in white/silver appeared on my left (it was earlier covered with black cloth). It started to spin… and slowly Leo appeared from it!

He started to sing ‘Fa Sa’ (in a more upbeat version) followed by ‘Nin Nin Yau Gum Yat’.

The costume was all covered with blings! Which he later explained later that it took the staff a hard time to assemble this piece of costume as they need to put on about 90,000 pieces of crystals onto it! They literally have to put on sunshades while doing that as it’ll be too stressful for the eyes. He then sang ‘Ngan Jing But Nang Mut Ngan Lui’.

He went for a costume change while a girl dressed in white appeared… just like a beautiful princess.

She danced until Leo appeared, also in a white costume and sang ‘Dai Hoong’, followed by ‘Once Upon A Time’. There were foams in heart-shape being blown up from the stage. It looked so lovely. Also made the crowd went crazy when they kissed ;)

Leo then introduced the girl to everybody. Her name is Jessica C and she’s his princess of the night. He said we always hear stories about prince and princess in fairy tales but probably didn’t realize that there’re a lot of prince and princess around us in real life.

Leo gave quite a hard time to Jessica for trying to make her read out ‘Ngo lin mou lin dou jek geok ging zhung” (我练舞练到只脚劲肿). Since she’s not fluent in Cantonese, the whole sentence sounded funny. He sang ‘Oi Wui Ga’ after Jessica left the stage.

With another costume change, the props from above were slowly lowered down which resembles the shape of a ship. A ‘flag’ was lowered as well, with the projection of the skull on it and some ‘pirates’ appeared.

Leo appeared wearing a red costume, resembling costumes for a pirate/captain this time while singing ‘Dai Si Jok Bun’. He also sang ‘Duk Nam’, ‘Seong Jui Yan’ and ‘Bit Sat Kei’.

While Leo went for another costume change (sometimes I really wonder how the artists can do this within seconds or minutes?? And we’re talking about complicated costumes for the concert. I guess the time spent to change the costume is the time I spend to just put on my jeans :p), the grand piano appeared on the stage. Seated was a boy and a girl was next to the piano, holding a violin. Both of them played a medley of ‘Oi Tak Thai Chi’, ‘Oi Yu Seng’ and ‘Foon Lok Gum Siew’. And as they were doing that, Leo joined in to sing ‘Fook Lok Gum Siew’, wearing black costume with cape. And like previous time, the song made my eyes gone teary again :p The song sound very nice with just the piano and violin.

After the song, Leo introduced the 2 child prodigies. The girl is Sophia, who started to play violin at 4 years old and the boy is Thomas, who has already obtained Grade 8 in piano when he was 9 years old @_@ (what was I doing when I was 4 or 9??).

Leo also teased the both of them asking if they’re boyfriend/girlfriend. Thomas said no.. .then Leo said for sure Sophia will also say no as well. He asked Thomas to get Sophia’s number.. and that they should go out, eat something, watch a movie… get married and have a family and when the kid grows up, she’ll turn into the very pretty… Wong Dan Yee - the person who wrote the beautiful Fook Lok Gum Siew and she’s as beautiful as the song :)

She played the piano while Leo sang ‘Oi Yu Seng’. It is yet, a different arrangement in terms of music as it has the Foon Lok Gum Siew feel to it.

After singing the song, Dan Yee looked like she has dropped something and Leo was trying to pick it up for her but the platform started move down. Leo almost fell but luckily managed to balance himself. Phew! He said I was amazing wasn’t I? :p

After that, Leo sang a few songs that have never been sung before in his concerts, as requested by fans. They’re nice songs that didn’t get to be featured in the concert (as they’re not hit songs from the albums) The songs include ‘Sum Thiu Wui Yik’, ‘Luin Hau Gum’ and ‘Yat Sang Hor Kau’.

And it won’t be complete without a ‘shake-hand’ session :p He sang ‘Nam Tin Yue Bak Wan’ while walking around to shake hand with fans. I have decided to just sit there as I’m a few rows behind and I have way too many things with me to move around easily :p He also sang ‘Heh’, a feel good song with funny lyrics which suit the environment at that time before going for another costume change.

After that a familiar tune was played.. similar to the tune of encounter of the 3rd kind. At the other end of the stage, lights were on and what looks like a space ship. It was slowly ‘flying’ up… with a few dancers standing around it.

Then Leo appeared in a futuristic costume and started to do the ‘laser dance’.

He performed ‘Bao Liu’ and ‘Ging Gor Gum Kuk 3’. Leo really stepped out of his comfort zone with this performance as he was dancing throughout the 2 songs.

And I think it’s the first time we see him wearing sleeveless costumes :p I heard that he’s been training hard in preparation of this concert and guess what? He really did got buffed up a bit as we can see muscles on his both arms lol.

The space ship that appeared earlier ‘crashed’ down. Leo appeared in a different costume and started to sing ‘Dei Kau Hun Ngai Him’ and ‘Har Chi Joi Gin’.

Leo was asking the audience if we believe in 2012 and he explained why he’s willing to step out of his comfort zone and try different approach to his performance. He said he wanted to do this, while he still can as we don’t know what will happen in the future (he got teased as well that he should get married before it’s too late lol).

According to him, there’re fans who has commented that he should just do what he does best – singing nice slow/love songs and don’t try too hard with fast numbers, especially with his back injury. He started to get emotional, saying that he might not be the most talented singer/dancer but he is definitely a hardworking one, who has tried his best and he’s grateful for all the support.

With all that, even myself got emotional and eyes gone teary again. I can totally understand his point as it is difficult to please everyone and get everyone’s approval for what you do. But with the full house crowd in the coliseum, I guess Leo can rest assured that there are a lot of people who still love and support him.

With such emotion, he tried his best to sing ‘Yi Nei Wai Wing’. At one point, he was blaming the smoke for causing him to cry :p He finally couldn’t bear it and asked for some tissue papers lol. Mani waved a tissue at him and gave him a big hug of support.

He then sang ‘Si Doi’.. and said it’ll be his last song (which will never be.. without any encore … hehe). I somehow got a soft spot for this song and with all the emotions going on…. I actually cried :p (aiyo.. teary eyes again as I type this).

With the so called last song… he disappeared down the platform waving goodbye.

It was almost 11pm and everybody started to chant ‘encore’ repeatedly. He appeared in animal prints costume this time, singing ‘Yi Hoi Hou Ching’. It seems to be most voted song for him to sing during the concert. Next, he sang ‘Chung Fuk Fan Chor’, also another request from a fan.

And why this concert is called Amazing World? With all the props and performances, I can tell that it’s all very fairy tale related. He said when we were kids, we were so pure and innocent and everything we see seems amazing. But as we get older, the fairy-tale in us seems to be disappearing from us. He hopes that all of us can find this amazing world again, and appreciate things around us more.

He sang ‘Ngoi Tak Thai Chi’ after that and ended with ‘Yau Gong Ching’ (for us perasan case.. we take that as a song dedicated to us :p), with all the dancers joining him on the stage. It also ended with a bang of confetti.

The concert ended at 11.15pm.

As usual, it felt like it’s not enough :p but we can’t expect Leo to sing there the whole day lol While I’m only attending 1 night of the concert, my other friends are going for their 2nd round on the 3rd night.

It was an awesome experience for me attending the concert of my favourite singer in Hung Hom :) with a group of good friends (I have to thank Leo for this group of good friends). It has always been our dreams to attend the concert together and looks like our dreams have just came true.

We don’t get to see such props/effects in Malaysia and the sound system was good, nothing to complain about.

Vocally, Leo was amazing! Lol Guess the only hiccup is when Leo lost his words a bit when he was singing one of the songs (it’s hard to control especially when he was being emotional at that time) but it’s such a norm that other singers will also have that problem sometimes when performing. … and he didn’t sing my most loved ‘Dai Yi Jui Ngoi’ (but heard he sang that on the last concert – aiya!).

And most of all, after seeing this amazing concert … it also reminded me why I like this amazing person so much ;)

(the following photos were taken on 9 October 2011.  I didn't attend the concert but met up with the rest to see Leo after the concert)

** someone asked me if I really get to enjoy the show cuz’ I looked so busy taking photos and taking down notes on my notepad :p I did asked myself when will be the time when I’ll just sit down and enjoy the show without having to take notes or photos but I just can’t help it when it comes to Leo’s concerts. Though we’ll normally get to watch the show on DVDs later, but having my own experience recorded is a different story… so that I can always read back whenever I want to revive those amazingly amazing moments ;)