Manic Street Preachers @ Star Hall, Hong Kong International Trade & Exhibition Centre 26.11.08

How happiness runs fast! Yesterday my heart kept beating hard because of the excitement that I would see the manics again, seemed like i myself was manic again. It has been a long while i haven't seen their live and i really miss them badly. Dug out my long-hidden feather boa and wondered if I should also put a tiara on (but sadly still with that monotonous and hateful "office lady" outfit, monster!), i became an oddball again. of course things would be much normal if i was in the uk. Hey it was the manics gig and boa, tiara, eyeliner or army coat should be the official dress code for the entry, but no, this was the other side of the globe so i could hardly find another boa lover except the one on stage.

There was not really a big crowd, as the manics was never a darling in this place when they were in their prime, not to say when they all become the chubby middle-aged rockers now. Maybe I was loyal, subjective or blind, or maybe I was so clairvoyant to ignore one's outlook (oh really?) and see the essence of the soul, I still found them utterly cool and powerful (...oh passages of praise, i'm unstoppable and delirious again, my ususal symptoms after meeting those favourite persons of mine). The gig was opened by Motorcycle Emptiness, which got every "real" manics fans high from the start. New and old songs were quite well-balanced, 3 from the latest album (Send The Tiger Away, The Autumn Song, and Your Love Alone Is Not Enough [which i dislike most]), 1 from Lifeblood (1985, oh but i love this album very much), 1 from Know Your Enemy (Ocean Spray), several from their two most popular albums, 1 from Holy Bible (only Faster, not enough!) 1 from Gold Against Soul and 3 from Generation Terrorists. They even performed Motown Junk but since Richey went away, James no longer sang the line of "I laughed when Lennon got shot". I could still see the painful eyes from James whenever there was some reference to Richey between the lyrics (or was it my imagination?), maybe that's because a court order was just granted a few days ago to declare the death of the man (oh no!).

Here I can only jot down what I saw and what i heard, but not quite what I felt/feel. When i finish this entry, i feel my words are so plain and dry, they don't really reflect my feeling at all! and i feel so illiterate now. The more i write, the more uselessness i feel for words and language. Maybe i should simply write: THEY WERE PERFECT. That sums up my feeling and their performance (but Mr Wire no longer dressed himself as a doll, what a pity!)


"This wonderful world for purchase power"

All removables, all transitory

It's a delayed train, delayed shock, delayed reaction, to live, to die, to escape. It still pains me a lot read the news, the formal declaration. 4Real.

The autumn sky is so calm, wide and high, even the dazzling sunshine becomes more gentle, i am speechless in this autumnal tenderness.

i know only music matters, but

It has been a while that I've deserted this garden, time to take out my spade and mower again. I always wanted to make some record of the stuff below but thought it may be too trivial to mention, anyway.

A stylish kid recently told me that he liked polka dots very much, the reason was as expected, because of the polka dots in the eyes (or the sky). I also like polka dots, with the same reason. Those little circles become sort of cool pattern recently but I remember years ago if you wore this pattern (especially the dots with bigger size), you would become a laughing stock as an imitator of the cantonese diva tsui siu fung (why do i know? ... oh please don't ask, it proves that i like this pattern long before the katie song). of course i am not going to write an analysis of polka dots, I just want to list out the stuff I bought totally/mainly for a london band (not include cd magazine or official merchandise). Dig into your closet, are you as idiotic as (or more idiotic than) me?

The essentials:


trilby (i had a nice one but was robbed in glastonbury, really it's a robbery, not stealing)


i don't want to start any blasphemous rumours


polka dots, of course

The relevance:


Converse, actually I bought them because they were cheap and convenient, but then they became libertines-related, good! but now the fashion police said they're no longer "in" or relevant, and those very persons are also no longer wearing them, ha, the relevance becomes irrelevant! tu tu, they're lovely, don't throw them away.


chav's brand scarf, actually that's the first item which i bought solely by virtue of the libertines. After seeing their gig for the first time in my life, i felt like having a metamorphosis(??), my first step was to rush to this chav brand factory outlet in hackney next day to copy their fashion (that's a real low, others' first step probably was to pick up a guitar but mine was to plagiarise & shop). Its colour is not the traditional beige, for i could only afford to get it from the outlet and the beige one can only be available in the shops on high street or oxford street (i.e. the counterfeit).


crimson polo tee, yeah every fans must have it, for the reunion (yo, see, my tee is still with the old logo, the new logo is just too "fatty").
gio gio drug free, this tee is actually quite ugly and too big for me, so that's just a collector item.


Anchor, we (those who sail on the good old ship called ...) recognise each other by the sight of it.


black tie, to wear it with or without a shirt. even a fake tie will do


they are all from my favourite accessories shop in london, i spent too much there, almost uncontrollable. Heart, gin and pirate knife, how can i resist? (peter once had wore a pirate knife necklace from the same brand, yeah! someone follows suit, idiot!)

The irrelevance:


This is the figure from Jimmy Liao and its name is called Peter. I actually think it looks quite like peter and that's why i bought it.


this is somebody's favourite brand for sweets, 'a rebours and haribo


this is a cheap tee from those factory outlets in tsim sha tsui. it bears a name of "vespertine" with somebody's ex-bird, ha! should make it as one of the collection.

the ultimate:


you will probably get abused and teased if you wear it on the street, only idiot will do it but it's the ultimate test for the loyal!!!! should sing myself loyalty song.