Me and My Guitar series @ The Esplanade Concourse

Was planning to cut short my trip to make it back to home by 7th Jan but as luck would have it, SQ stopped the early morning flight from Beijing to Singapore coincidentally enough on 7th itself! Tough luck.
It would have been perfect to catch Ben Harrison (a.k.a. Etc.) play the first of his 2 acoustic gigs at the Esplanade concourse on 7th Jan evening.
I kicked myself even further when I noticed from the programme that Oddfellow Patrick Chng played on the 5th & 6th!! Wondered if he played that Substation version of "Over Again", if he did I probably would pull all my hairs out (not that I still have a lot of it as it is).
I did make it back in time for the 2nd night though and it was a fantastic show, Ben even obliged with 3 of my requested songs! 2 of which he had already played the night before but still he obliged, you're the MAN, Ben!
The three songs I requested were (1) Will Until (2) Just A Dream & (3) Dancing to the Smiths.
I lost the last minute or so of the closing song, otherwise I would have the entire show on flash memory, DAMN! The battery went completely flat.
Anyhow, I will be editing those three songs and post it here ASAP and I also promised Ben I will pass him a DVD of those and the other videos of Etc. I got - that will be my immediate project I suppose.
The turnout was not good but what the heck, I got the prime seat in any case and a little chat with Ben plus an autograph to boot!
Wait until Etc. get to work on those three songs in a proper studio with a proper producer......those who missed this gig may as well kick themselves eventually.
Here are some photos of Ben in his first ever gig playing with glasses on:

.........a peep into Ben's songbook

.......Ben's effects setup

.........the autograph! (some encouraging words too!)

I had the good fortune to meet the Bee Gees back in 2001 in their last ever gig in New York (Live By Request show) , courtesy of Universal Music Singapore before the unfortunate passing on of Maurice Gibb. It was a meet and greet session before the show and I was overawed meeting my idols from way back when I was a schoolboy in shorts! I still had a photo taken with the brothers Gibb but I somehow forgot where I kept them, I still have the pass though.

Meeting Ben on 7th Jan comes a close second to that Bee Gees' meeting!

(Correction: it should be 8th Jan 2009 and not 7th, sorry for the error. Thanks Ben! for your kind words in your post http://etcmusic.blogspot.com/2009/01/etc-after-stars-second-to-bee-gees.html.)