VOID's Season Finale - Full E gig@Civil Service College

30th October 2005 marks the end of the 2005 Government School Project season for Void. Everything finally came to the end which sees the salvation of 6 souls while 7 more expressed interest in knowing JC. It's all worth all the sweat, pain, time and effort on. In this blog, i will give my account of what my God has done in this gig, the band and of course my heart.

Sunday morning
I woke up early that sunday morning feeling a little lethargic due to the unable to sleep the previous night. I was obviously nervous. I have done numourous gig before in the past, but i felt especially nervous for this one becos i felt that the band has not put in enough practises together. The last full run rehearsal we had for this set, was in a total mess. Memorised wrong chords, played wrong notes, wrong tempo, off pitching, miss ques and forgetting lines. U name it, we had it all.

Sunday Service at SAC chinese service
I felt the sermon by Pastor Loo really spoke to me as he was speaking about total submission to God. He quoted the Book of Luke 18:15 to 17 saying:"15People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. 16But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 17I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it". He went on to elaborate that alot of people actually misunderstood the passage that only the naiveness and gulibility of a child can enable a person to enter the gate of heaven. This is wrong perspective. Jesus was refering to the total reliance of the child to the parents as what is pleasing to His eyes. It touched me at the moment as i realised that it is God who was indeed the one in control of all thing and as a child, i have to rely on Him for that. My heart was immediately uplifted and all my anxieties were all casted away.

Concert Preparation
I proceeded to the college immediately after lunch with my churchmates. I reached there early and waited for the rest to arrived. Immediately we set-uped and proceeded to sound check. Thank God that He blessed us with sufficient time to do some run through and Dotz took the opportunity to run through all the transitions and problematic songs. Energy began to flow through my body during the run through despite the anxiety and weariness. I think based on Newton's second law of conservation of energy, Anxious energy can be converted to onstage performing energy too. And the formula to do the necessary conversion is: "Faith in JC, knowing that He is the one in control and this is His show." Wow!!!

Backstage making up
Back at the VIP lounge which was our make-up and changing room, we were joking about the concert. " This will be Forerunner's history of the worst ever performance ever...." haha. Actually deep down in our heart, we did have this fear but we knew that God was in control already. We spent the rest of the time dressing up and praying.

Concert began
Lean on me, I'm just a kid and the middle
Finally, it's make or break. We took the stage with the Emcee introducing us. After the video intro, Soaps began the intro of lean on me. Dan, Dotz and Grace took centre stage. The song and the band intro went on smoothly and so was the skits. Before i knew it, we were finishing the 2nd song i'm just a kid.

The following song the middle is one of my most feared songs becos i just simply couldn't get the intro tempo right for the previous past rehearsal, therefore i was feeling tremendously nervous. Applying the newton's 2nd law to a greater extend, i felt energy surging through my body like "chakra flow" in Naruto anime....I hit the intro and it turned out well, wow!!! Converted anxious energy plus excitement energy made me jump around the stage like been possessed...haha... No no, i dun need exocisim...Just became extremely active in my showmanship. In fact, i was commented by Sara and Simon after the concert for doing so. heehee

Beautiful, Bring me to life, And Can it Be
Engie as expected, pull of the song beautiful very excellently. She was very into her role and i could feel her singing from her heart. She's amazing. Daniel took the stage to share his personal testimony about how he broke up with his exgf and how God helped him thru his recovery process. Then came the song "Bring me back to life"...the song which i love the most....becos hard rock mah.....my favourite genre. The song turned out very well and Mark (Forerunner's founder) commented that the song actually showcased Void's sound. Cool!!! We were super high energy beside towards the end where i dropped my pick halfway thru the ending chorus. Ooops...

"And can it be" turned out to be great too.

Grace's Msg, Forgiven video
This is the most impt part of the program, like the climax of the show. Grace worked very hard to memorise her msg and can see her effort paying off. It was clear, concise and very fluid....She sounded very pro...Cool baby!!!Great job!!! Forgiven video was up next....And like before, it touched me when i saw Christ been nailed on the cross. I was praying that God will use this time to touch the pre-believers out there, and i knew he was already working. In addition, He gave me a special present then, I began to "feel" the music more.

Jesus knows, Gone are the dark days and the calling
Grace did a prayer and invited those who wish to accept JC as their Lord and saviour to pray with her. The the song Jesus knows written by local talent Ruth Ling was on... I felt the music and played the solo part quite well i think becos i couldn't get it in the previous few time we did the song. Sara commented that the song was very well-done.

Then came Gone are the dark days. Engie was fun to be with on stage, very easy to intereact and very hyper. Nice dance move by the vocalists too. Reminded me of wilson philips. haha.

Finally the last song the calling. Wow!!! the last song is always the most happening 1 becos the last liao wot...dun hype then when can....So we went in and whack ahhh.... A mini-blooper occurred on me. I came out and hit a wrong chord....so paisei, but i recovered fast and act as if nothing happened...heehee.

Mingling time
I met fashun( the young aspired guitarist who came for our lakeside gig) at the audience seats. I chatted with him and he wished to know more about JC, so i asked Dotz to help...She explained the whole 4 SL to him but he wasn't able to make up his mind to accept Christ. But we were already very happy since he already has the open heart to know more. We exchanged contacts.

End of the Concert Celebration
It's finally over. Although we were weary, but we were so joyful knowing that 6 pple PRC. Wow!!! We went to Holland V and had katong laksa for dinner!!! Shiok!!! It summed up the day.


Ohh, by the way, i have bought my new wife (Ibanez AT200)...Words cant express how good it sounded!!!!Enjoying every moment spent with it. :>

Fulltime ministering

Using music to serve God has always been my calling since that very day i dedicated myself to God in a Christian rally led by Huang Guolun and his band Chun yu (Spring rain). Back then, i just turned 17. Going to use music to serve God in a fulltime capacity is something that God has been speaking to me and moulding my heart towards, only in recent 2 years.

Serving with the Samurai
I felt God calling me to explore fulltime ministry 2 years ago when i just founded SACCM Music ministry. However, God wasn't giving specific direction as in where should i serve. I consulted my youth pastor Wangling about my desire to explore Fulltime ministry and she advised me to put this feeling to the test of time because i am still doing my bachelor degree.

Serving in Forerunner
Serving with Forerunner is where everything took off. What i have learnt from FR is more than just music, but how to use music to minster to people. As written in my previous blog about music as the mean to the end and not the end, this idea really debunked all previous ideas i had with music ministry. In the past i could not imagine how my passion for music can be used as an instrument to connect with people and of course, for me to connect with God. I felt that this passion of music that i had must be subdued somehow, so that God can take the rightful place in my heart. Well, it is right to say the above, but what i have grown to know through serving with FR is that: the passion of music can be used to serve God and God's people too. And lest that i know, my passion for God's kingdom and ministries, actually is growing bigger to replace the passion that i have in music. (can read my previous blog).

My direction as in where God was calling me to, has become clearer after my 2nd concert tour with the Forerunner. I wanted to live a life that is able to connect with people, pointing them to God and of cos, making an impact in their lives. Like how Pat has made an impact in my life, i want to do the same to other people to....passing on the vision and mission. I hope to join Forerunner as staff upon my graduation. Yeah!!!

Issues that i have to overcome
I guess the greatest issue that i have to overcome will definately be money issues. Counting my cost, i know that as a fulltime minister, i may not be able to have the spending power to buy big car, big houses and of cos the stuffs that i like. Maybe, i may not be able to even get married, becos it's hard to find a girl that is willing to spend her life with me in poverty. However, i am sure that if this is where God wants me to do, i better follow. Who dares to go against the Almighty.... Ironically, if i look at the lives of many fulltime staffs like my mentor's, i could see that Joy that they have that money cant buy. Pat told me that even though he may not be able to drive big cars, live in big houses, marry the most beautiful girl in town, but the life he is living now is much more than what he could ask for. He is blessed with a nice family car, a great wife (Jac) and two lovely kids (Kyrie and Ryan)....Isn't it enough. I have faith that if God were to call me to do fulltime, He will never short change me.

I am still a work in progress...Allowing God to mould me further and more ready to join Forerunner as Staff. :>

Music as the mean to the end!!!

21st Oct was almost a crazy day of gigs for Void. We had a gig in the morning at Pioneer Secondary and a gig in the evening at Lakeside Family centre. It turned out just as Sharon has warned us, a tiring day of gigs.

Pioneer Secondary School Gig
The gig at Pioneer was just like the gig at Juying secondary that we did on 19th October except that we have to reach pioneer at 6.45am. Crazy!!! I stayed at GCTC with Dan, Dotz and Grace the previous nite, so that we could share cab to travel to the concert venue. We woke up at 5.30am that morning.

Everything went smoothly from setup to soundcheck. The Acoustic of the place was much better than Juying secondary. Before we knew it, the concert was over and we were travelling back to GCTC to rest for the evening gig.

Resting at GC plus meeting Bangs and Sara....
We reached back at GCTC at 12.30pm. We were tired and sweaty. I immediately ran up to take a shower and Gosh!!! it was so refreshing. I met up with Sara, Manson and Daniel to discuss about the new Forerunner band. Sara as the Forerunner artist developer was so encouraging. We had a great time discussing and brainstorming about what this new band will be and how it can be developed. I will post in a separate blog about this new band that i will be playing in.

Lakeside Family Centre Gig
When i reached the place, i was kind of shocked that there wasn't any stage around, all we had was a corner of the cafe which act as our "stage". Check out the photos above. I was telling sharon that the cafe reminded me of our gig we did in the church in Thailand with Override.

We set-uped very fast and we were served a very delicious dinner. I was very tired and was praying for Strength from God. God was speaking to me in my heart and reminded me of what i went throught back in TURT: My love for God's work/people must be greater than music. Wow!!! The next thing i knew was that i was energised again. I wanted so much to go out to connect with the boyz who came down to the cafe. That was when i met two boyz who were introduced to me by Chee Wee( the volunteer at Lakeside family centre). He told me that the boyz(Fa shun and Jun shan) were aspired to be guitarist too. So i spent time connecting with them. They were very nice....at 1st they were quite shy and not willing to tok too much, but when the common ground was established, they became more responsive.

The concert started smoothly, like any other gig but the stage was very close to the audience and i felt abit uncomfortable. The audience wasn't as much as the assembly crowd of few hundreds. The turnout was about 20plus, mostly boyz age from as young as Pri 1 to poly. Standing behind them was all of our FR staffs. Like usual, they were absolutely encouraging especially Pat and Sharon. They were the energy food that i fed on....

I could see that the boyz was quite blown away by my guitar solo which i played in the gameshow. This part require me to shred my guitar. What i did was just simply my finger exercises.

Bloppers
Alot of bloopers happened that nite...haha!!! 1stly for the Father and son skit that we did, I went up to act without my mike....Thank God that i reacted fast to quickly glab the mike just in time. 2ndly, after the last song, i knocked Dotz on her head with my epiphone by accident becos the place was too clamp liao.

After the show
The boyz came up to me after the last song and wanted to talk to me. Then came another boy Aaron who was also very interested in guitar. So i sat down with them to share with them abit of my guitar knowledge. I let them play my epiphone and i could see that they were really appreciative and they could feel my sincerity in making friends with them. We chatted for quite sometime until we have to tear down.

When i was doing tearing down and packing up, they were still hanging around and Aaron came up with the flyer and want my autograph, so the other two followed. Hmmm... I saw this as and opportunity to invite them personnally to the 30th Full Evangelical concert. I wrote a personal message on their individual flyer, plus i gave them my guitar picks and told them that these would be our promise to see them in the concert. They were happy and excited as they helped us with the load up of equipments.

My personal feelings
Playing good music has been always my dream. Joining Forerunner ministry playing for Void and override has already made my dream come true. However, i find connecting with people and making an impact in their lives through music is much much more satisfying. I am someone who dunno how to express myself...i have no gift of the gap either and further more, i am not those people that can simply go up to stranger to tok. However, using music to build the credibility has allow me to break all the ices....I dun have to tok in circle but just simply straight to the point telling them that Jesus loves them, is enough!!! Wow!!!

There is nothing as satisfying as loving God's people and doing God's work. Like what Pat told me, " music can be a very mean master, but it could be a very good slave". Music is a mean to the end but not the end.

Love of a Life time

I have finally found my love of a life time after a long and painful search. Her name is AT200 Ibanez and she is an Andy Timmon signature series. She has

• AT neck Prestige
• Mahogany body
• Jumbo frets
• Standard Synchronized tremolo
• G104 Single Spaced Humbucker neck pickup
• G104 Single Spaced Humbucker mid pickup
• G109 (H) bridge pickup

To own her, it's my dream come true. It has almost all the tone i want. Really low warm tone of that of my epiphone and the twang of a stratocaster. Everything!!!

I am thinking of selling off my first love Korean Squire with SD pickups. The lowest offer i can go is 500SGD liao and i am thinking of selling it to my student from St Andrew Cathedral. I bought the Squire from St Andrew Cathedral for 150SGD 2 years ago. I went on to modified it with the SD pickups. To sell her away is a painful decision to make.

I will be getting her next weekend. haha!!!

Attitudes Of A Music Minister

I remembered my 1st encounter with the Forerunner was in a worship workshop led by FR. The very 1st lesson i attended was "Attitudes Of A Music Minister" taught by Pat. Words cannot speak of how much this lesson has blessed me and the ministry back in my church, but i can say that it has then become my guideline and heartcheck of serving my Lord through Music

Attitudes of a Minister through Music

7 key ingredients for maintaining proper attitudes in ministry:
To GLORIFY is to give an exact representation of. When we glorify Christ we are painting a picture of what He looks like. When you are on stage what picture are you painting.

God's Agenda

• Have nothing to prove but Christ and His works
• Never aspire to a position, aspire to know Christ more intimately
• Remember it is His message we are communicating
• Romans 1:16, Colossians 3:23-24

Love From a Pure Heart

• 1 Corithians 13: 4-7
• People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care.

Obedient to the Holy Spirit

• Whether He is convicting you of sin, a wrong attitude or action, respond

Right Relationship

• You can't expect God's Spirit to move in a concert when there is disharmony in the group. God is not as concerned with our "product" as He is with the process!
• Relationships are the prime target of the enemy to get us off track spiritually

Integrity

• Am I applying this solution to my own life? God has a way of making us "live out" our message

Flexibility

• If my heart is pure before the Lord and I'm commited to His agenda, then I can accept the last minute changes as from His hand.

You

• Be Yourself. God made you unique - don't spend your energy trying to copy or be someone else. Enjoy and celebrate your uniqueness.

-Adopted from Keynote.Org

Be blessed my fellow music ministers!!!

VOID Full E Checkout

VOID did our Full E checkout 10 OCT 2005 at GCTC Timothy room. It was again as usual, a tiring monday for me as i was slowly making my way to GCTC from MSD. I left Tuas at about 4.30pm feeling extremely tired due to the fact that i was tasked to run around collecting data by my bosses at work. My throat became terribly dry and my back began to ache due to old injury sustain from National Service. I was worried that this might affect my performance in the checkout later.

When i reached GCTC at 5.15pm, the other voiders were already packing the equipments already. We moved into Timothy room to setup and had our dinner soon after we have laid the cables. Things moved very fast, so was the time. We were praying before we the show started. I wasn't feeling well at all, back began to ache quite badly and feeling super tired. I asked Sharon to pray for me.

I recalled back in the days of override, in the 1st few concerts in Thailand, many of us(the band) were sick and the energy was super low. I recalled how we drew from God's strength and carried on to put up a show....I remembered how p'sharon who has lost her voice still able to be so bubbly on stage to hype up the crowds. This recollections inspired me and i once again prayed for strength to carry on in the checkout.

It was miraculous....When the 1st chord was strummed, the energy just came....I began to be hyped up bit by bit, until "the middle". Energy just surged when i completed my guitar solo for the song....I began to be able to move out of my comfort zone and interact with the outer musicians. We were having a wild time on stage man....

The program went well smoothly except for some roughness in the transitions between events. Dotz and Grace has been working very hard already and i really wanted to encourage them for their hardwork.

After the comments, was the evaluation of the program. The invited guests gave very good comments and suggestions for us. Really appreciate their presence, especially kevin whose feedbacks were spot on. That ends the day of our check out.

Sara's Wedding 9th Oct 2005@The 3rd place

Finally it's Carl & Sara Rogstad's final wedding reception. It was held at the 3rd place to host relatives and friends of both the bridegroom and the bride. It was a warm and cozy afternoon and i though it will be great for the bangsters to the songs that we have been practising for the past 2 saturday. It would be great that the songs can touch both the couple.


7days' performance
The reception kicks off with a few chinese numbers from forerunner's very own 7 days band. Wow, i was telling myself that we (the bangster) were in the presence of greatness. The band was so good and tight and they sounded so so so pro. They made the chinese numbers like Ai Chuan dong and xi huan sounds better than the CD. And you know what, the guitar legend Tony just simply could not fail to leave my jaw hanging wit his cool and tasteful guitar licks. The bangs' discussed to drop our performance lah....7 days spoiled market liao.

7 days' induced stress - the presence of greatness!!!
The bangsters all look stressed after watching 7 days performed. It was so clearly dictated on our drummer Daniel. He is a calm and easy-going person, never stressed or felt nervous before any gig. However this time round, he took my mp3 player and disappeared to listen to the songs that we were supposed to do later thoroughly. Sia la.....the rest of the bangs also, began to take the charts out and start to run thru the songs mentally. I was also super stressed....Somemore there's alot of guests also, many of them were top musicians. Sigh!!!

Who want's to be a "millionaire"
After the encore song by 7days, Pat( 7days Acoustic Guitarist and of cos, my beloved mentor) and P'Joy took the stage to host a quiz show!!! It was extremely entertaining as Pat began to present the quiz questions with his hilarious sense of humor.... Wow, I was suprised to hear that Sara actually did dance for the legendary Theresa Teng( Yeah, Teng li jun....My mum's idol) and Hong kong' heavenly king Jacky cheung (Zhang xue yong) in their separate concert. Wow!!! Being beside Sara makes me feel so close to the legends!!!

The MTV
Next up is a video show of Carl and Sara's actual wedding at the Istana park. Their wedding was simply magical!!! Like living in walt disney!!! No...better than that!!! I was extremely touched when the couple exchanged marriage vows, when Sara spoke her heart out to Carl. Then the end of the video shows Tony playing jazz guitar....I was blown away!!! Sia la....how can i ever be able to learn how to play like him....

The Bangster's paradise
Yeah, it's finally our turn to take the stage. Hestitantly, we slowly made our way to the instruments when Pat invited us up. We did a quick sound check. I looked at myself....Hey, i am holding the guitar and stepping on the pedal that were used by Tony....Better dun sia suai!!!
William intro-ed the song Angels by Robbie william...Before i knew, we were already playing almost to the guitar solo part. I was glad to see pple singing with along with RJ and of cos, Sara and Carl's nodding with the music!!! Then i told myself: " Whack lah...Whack then say!!!" The solo was done quite nicely, i think... hee, at least everything sounded on. A bit like jamie walter's licks again...all thanks to Sindric....made me listen to so much of him, can't get his style out of my head!!!

Then we carry on to do Inside your heaven, the Bo Bice's version. RJ pulled it off very well...very engaging singing!!! When the last chord were strummed, "great" i told myself!!! Everything ended. But just as i was about to put down my guitar, the crowd shouted for 1 more....Then Big bang, Manson and RJ requested for "Regular Friend" - by David Tao. Siao!!!! They want me to play this song in front of Tony who is the master of this song. No way man!!!! Then Big bang told me, " Be a man, do the right thing!!!" Aiya, Whack lah!!! Just dun look at Tony can already!!! I began with the intro...it sounded quite ok...I was super nervous!!! and the bangs took over after the "Knock Knock!!!" Wow...It was great!!! The crowd loves it despite the song was so in prompt to. Never practise just whacked...After i put down my guitar, i told myself i will not do such crazy things again.

Sharon's powerhouse singing
Wow wow wow, P'sha sang so marvelously well. This was the 2nd time i heard her sing since our Turt days when she excellently covered Christina Aguilera's I turn to You..... Come on, do u noe how hard it is to sing an Aguilera's number.....When she ended, we cant help but to scream for encore...This was when the real show began. We were treated with a great feast when Sharon invited Kheng(Sharon's husband to take the stage with her. I didn't know that Kheng can play the guitar so well. All along, i thot he is a great bassist who is teaching my disciple bass. Never realised that he can play guitar so well. The couple reminds me of the japanese husband and wife band Le couple!!! So sweet and blissful!!!

A legend's encouragement
Time flies, we have come to the end of the reception and helped to pack up the stuffs. We went for supper together at Geylang Beancurd and You tiao. This was when something great and unbelievable happened. Tony smsed me and told me that he like the stuffs i played for the songs we did just now. I was screaming in jubliation in my heart but has to restrain my emotion becos alot of pple around. Come on, it's a Legend's Compliment leh.....You have no idea how much this means to me....It boost my low self-esteem by alot!!! I dun think i will ever delete that sms.. hee

This marks the end of such an eventful day. This is one of those days that i will find it hard to forget.

Los Lonely Bang's new Composition - Found

Last nite was an amazing nite!! Almost like a dream come true for me as we and my ah bangs have finally able to put our pens down to write our very 1st Forerunner original composition. Finally, we thot that we are going to have something original and authentic. I am not sure whether the song sounds good, but it's certainly original.

We started with a progression for the verse which i suggested. It was written in G Dorian mode, therefore it sounded rather dark. Darker than Major Ionian, but not as dark as Minor Aeolian. Then i came out with a vocal line while Daniel altered it.

The progression for the bridge was written in such that it transit from the 5th chord of Dorian to a Root with a flatted 3rd. It was intentionally done so to create alot of tension to the bridge as to make it sound distinct and unresolved.

Then we had a problem trying to think of a progression for the chorus. We tot of using the same progression from the verse but we think it would not sound good, as there would be alot of repetition. Moreover, it would make the tension of the bridge meaningless.

The idea of modulate the chorus to a C ionian came into our head and we gave it a 1, 5, 4, 1, 5, 6 progression which would ultimately end with a cadence chord E major, enabling the song to slip back to G Dorian. Cool!!!

The next thing we did, was to fill in lyrics to the song. We wanted the song to be about how we would place our Hope in JC despite the long and winding life journey which we were all battled and worn out from. Manson and Dan came out with most of the lyrics.

Ta- da.....The song "Found" was born at 6.21am this morning . We did a live unplug recording of the song with both Manson and me on the Acoustic Gui and Daniel on percussion and Vox. It sounded quite cool. I will post up the lyrics of the song. Too bad the blog doesn't allow me to post up audio files. But if you are interested in our music. Can download the song at http://bullettothehead.multiply.com/music


I’ve been wandering so long
Thru these cold winding lanes
Just trying to find my way
To a street that bears my name

My battered soul cries for release
From all this hurt and pain
Frustration running thru my veins…


Though I walk thru the valleys of death,
I fear no evil for You are by my side,
You restore my soul,
My spirit is renewed,
And I’ll dwell in Your house forever.

You are my Rock, my fortress,
My strength,
help in time of need.
And I’ll follow you wherever you go,
Just hold my hand and never leave me,
My Saviour, my God, my King.


When I was down you came and found me,
Set me up on my own feet,
My guiding with darkness around me,
In your arms I want to be..


No one will ever realised that we only took 2 takes for the recording of the demo. And the best part was that the arrangement was all arranged spontaneously as we jammed the song. Cool!!! Maybe it was the drowsiness that brought the innermost musicianship out of us....HAHA.

VOID's 1st gig

Yesterday marks the debut of VOID 1st gig. We went up to the stage of poly metamorphosis and did our 1st gig of our 2005 campaign. It is also when i made my 1st ever vocal debut.

Arrival at the campsite
We arrived at the campsite at about 8.10pm and started to unload. We were only able to use enter the hall at about 9.10pm due to the students having a conference before that. The moment i step into the hall, i was greeted with a stench of sweat that almost made me puke. I was telling Jason that the stench was affecting my brain. hee. The stench of sweat came from the student who had a physical game event before the conference. As a stage manager, i quickly moved to the stage section to access the situation.


Stage managing
I moved in to the stage section and to my suprise, the stage was kind of small and the drum set was below and infront at a corner of the stage. I was thinking that God is always trying to give me challenges even at the last minute. The worst thing was that there wasn't enuf monitors to provide the whole band with enough feedback. I thank God that despite the stench, i was still able to use my brain well. I quickly re-org the whole stage configuration and have the vocalists went without monitors. No choice. We quickly set up and proceed to our soundcheck.

Tuning my Floyd Ross
Just as the soundchecks were about to began, i encountered problem tuning my floyd ross epiphone which i have never encountered before. I began to panick and started to pray in my heart: " God, pls make it work...I know u are stretching my faith....Not now can???" Jeff our sound tech was quickwitted and began soundcheck with other voiders 1st. I tried my best and thank God that the tuning worked at the final moment, just in time with my soundcheck.

Soundchecks
The sounds were horrible due to the acoustic of the hall we played in. The hall was rectangular in shape surrounded by concrete walls. The sounds were like pinball, bouncing everywhere and it sounded super messy and fuzzy. I couldn't hear clearly my own guitar sound. It was horrible. But when we performed the soundcheck with a song, it sounded ok.

Set to go
Sharon the band director came up to us and have us gathered infront on the stage. She prayed to dedicate the gig to our Lord and gave us an assuring smile. We were set to Rock!!!

Soak up the sun!!!
Pat came out as the emcee to intro the band. As he asked the crowd to welcome us, Donovan clicked in!! I stepped on the wah pedal and on we go fr the song. The crowd were excited and some of them even began to dance with the song. Our band intro in te midst of the song was great too. The crowd gave us warm welcome and applauses as each member was intro-ed.

Nobody's fool
I started the song immediately after the last chord of soak up the sun. It was a familiar guitar intro to the crowd as many of them were nodding their heads with the intro. Dotz began to rap and the crowd was getting more ra-ra. Grace and dotz did a wonderful job in connecting with the crowd.
I couldn't really able to hear myself for the song when all the instruments went full-swinged. I have to keep signalling to jeff to up the volume of my monitor resulting me to forget 1 of my favourite riff at the middle of the song. A bit disappointed.... :< Perfect (Vocal debut)
Dotz introduced me as the next vocalist. And Sindric began to intro for the song. I was kind of nervous as this is my vocal debut but i told God that i am doing this only for Him. So i began with the song " Hey dad, look at me now...." To my pleasant suprise, the crowd knew the song well and they began to sing along with me just as I was afraid that i may forget the lyrics..haha. My nervous turned into excitment and fuel as i carry on with the song. When the last note was sang, the crowd's applause were loud! haha, i have made my debut...hee.

Bring me to Life!!!!
The keyboard intro-ed with Grace singing. She did a good job as i could almost hear the attitude of Amy lee from her singing. The song came to life as we (guitarists) went " zen zen, zen zen, zen zen, , , Zen zen don don.... (the rythem of the song)" Daniel jumped off the stage as he sang: " Wake me up....i can't wake up" The crowd were amazed and began to sing too.
The sound was horrible as i think my patch got problem again. Manson told me that my guitar sounded fuzzy which Haiks said that it may due to the acoustic of the hall.

Jesus Knows
This song was messy. We forgotten our chords and i also couldn't feel the music at all. My role for this song was to add fill-ins with double stop riffs that sounds like jamie walter's. But my riffs were all over the place. I couldn't hear myself clearly at all. Disappointed with my own playing...:< Lean on me (Last song)
We started the song alittle too fast...The crowd like the song very much and began to dance and sing to the song again. We ended the song well and then Pat took the front and introduced to the crowd TURT 2006 publicity. Alot of wonderful memories of my own TURT came to my head as i was watching the film. And then dotz came up to share her testimony of how God has changed her life thru Turt2004.

Then we step-up for an encore of the lean on me. As the crowd went wild again.

One way!!!(uncalled for song)
After the last chord of lean on me, the crowd wanted more and they began to chant" one way, one way" wanting us to do the song. However, not all of us were familiar with it. I turned back to discussed with soaps about the progression as Pat was telling the crowd that we have not practised the song so we would not do the song. But this made the crowd chanted louder. Then our crazy drummer began to do the drum intro for the song. I looked to Jason (we often jammed together and one way was 1 of the song we jammed before) and told him: " let's whack and gave them what they wanted" The Crowd cheered loudly and sang as in they were worshipping as we did the song. No one in the band knew the lyrics of the song, we just played the music and the crowd were singing. Amazing!! We were all hyped up.

Pack-up and go home.
By then we finished the song, it was like 10.45pm already. we packed up quickly and gathered for our final briefing. Sharon was very understanding as it was getting very late. She postponed to do the evaluation the day after(which is tonite). This marks the end of our 1st gig and i could say it was a good start. I left home feeling abit disappointed with my guitar playing. I think that i am capable of giving much better guitaring for the band. Felt that i have let the band down...:<

VOID

Ladies and Gentlemen, behold Forerunner newest Band VOID!!!!
The band is made up of:
Jason - Bass
Donovan - Drum
Soaps - Keyboard
Sindric - Guitar
Grace - Vocal
Dotz - Vocal
Daniel - Vocal
Jeff - Sound
Haiks - Backstage Manager
Sharon - Band Director
Simon - Visual Director
Sara - Music Consultant
And of course, ZP on E Guitar and vocal. Yeah!!!

Our genre is mainly rock/pop and we'll be covering mostly radio-hit songs by your favourite artists like :
Evanescene
Sheryl Crow
Simple plan
Jimmy eats world
Christina Aguilera
The Calling
Avril Lavigne

We are doing a series of gigs which include going into secondary schools to do pre-evangelical concerts and 2 full Evangelistic concerts.

Our Schedule as below:
6/10 - Poly Meta @ Katong student hostel (Entertainment)

19/10 - Juying Sec (Pre E)
20/10 - Jurong Sec (Pre E)
21/10 - Pioneer Sec (Pre E)
24/10 - Bukit Panjiang Govt High (Pre E)
26/10 - Shuqun Sec (Pre E)

21/10 - 7.30pm @ Lakeside family centre (Full E)
*30/10 - 3.30pm @ Civil service college (Full E)

So, come and catch us live on our Full E gigs. Also bring your friend's along too.


Pls Pray for us for these gigs. May the Lord uses our music to touch the hearts of many and lead them to Himself. Pray also for our health as many of us are falling sick. And last but not least, all the preparation work that we have to do! God bless you! :>

Also pls invite your pre-believer friends or relatives to our Full E gigs listed above. We wish to reach out to as many pre-believers as possible to tell them about the wonderful Saviour Jesus Christ. Come and be blessed! Be apart of Void!!! :>

Church Music Ministry Comm

Check out me and my fellow Samurai. They are such lovely pple!!! It's sad that i couldn't carry on to serve alongside them....Frens forever

My Mentor, A great man!!

Hey, i wanna use this blogpost to tell the world about beloved Mentor Pat Ng. Has always wanted to tell him that he is someone special to me. Thank you all all this while for guiding me both musically and spiritually. Thank you for pointing me towards God at time when i was lost and disillusioned. A Big Salute to a Great (yet alittle crazy at times) Man. You have shown me what is it to live as a Music Minister and a servant for God. Pls carry on to inspire me.

It's finally done!!!

Dear frens, i am so happy today as i have finally fulfilled my dream of starting my own blogpost.... Pls add your comments as freely as you want....But pls, no vulgar words ok!!! We're civilised pple!!! God bless