Earlier this evening, we just attended the Lobo concert in the Max Pavilion at the Singapore EXPO. A majority of the audience were in their forties and fifties, but there were also a number of younger people, including small children - obviously brought along by their parents. It was very entertaining, and the music transported us back to the 70s.
It started around 8:20pm (only twenty minutes late :-) The opening act was a local duo of brothers, Mel and Joe, who sang a combination of country and rock-and-roll. They also did a good rendition of "Imagine". Apparently these two were quite well known as child singers, having made waves when they won the (Radio Television Singapore) Talentime singing contest in the Singapore of the 70s. Later they were also part of the band Gypsy.
Then Lobo came on. He looked older and somewhat more frail this time round, but his voice was still pitch perfect, and sounded exactly like in all his recordings. His delivery seemed effortless.
He sang almost all the popular songs we knew - "A Simple Man", "Don't Expect Me To Be Your Friend", "It Sure Took A Long, Long Time":, "Universal Soldier", "Love Me for What I Am", "Rock and Roll Days", "Rings", "Who Will Stop The Rain ","Yellow River" and of course "Me and You and a Dog named Boo" (and he assured the audience there really was a dog named Boo, someone's Alsation which was fortunately passing by when Lobo was mulling over what rhymed with "you" as he was penning the song).
In one part of the show, his partner went down among the audience and cajoled members of the audience to sing the chorus of "Stoney". Here's one of them ...
"Stoney, happy all the time, Stoney, life's a summertime ..."
Here' a view of the audience ...
Something new about Lobo that we learnt tonight was that he has been married for 34 years, and that his son (shown below) is the drummer for the band.
The show ended around 11pm, with one of his signature songs "How Can I Tell Her".
A most nostalgic night indeed ...
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Cool, WJ. Where's the photo of u standing with Lobo?
ReplyDeleteNice posting WJ. Put in some more of Lobo's music to go with this posti.
ReplyDeleteAnybody attended Lobo @ Genting on 15/10/90 ?
ReplyDeletehow old is Lobo now?
ReplyDeleteHe is 69 this year 2013, and still can sing better than anyone
DeleteLobo was born on 31 July 1943. He's 67.
ReplyDeleteSingapore get to see Lobo, Katty Peri, etc etc.... Always the good stuff, good singers.
ReplyDeleteWhat Malaysia get to see? Not many, can name only a few.
NL - no leh ... Genting gets quite a number of old bands and singers too.
ReplyDeleteLobo looks like a grandpa now. So old.
ReplyDeleteYeah. But a large chunk of the audience is also in the same age group.
ReplyDeleteLobo looks like grandpa, old, but we look like 21yrs old boys huh?
ReplyDeleteCommon, we are getting old too and our time will come when we will look like him now, by then other younger boys will say, 'Oh, look at St. Joe 76's, they look like great grandpa.'
My favourite has always been Universal Soldier.
ReplyDeleteYup, one of my favourites too. Here are the lyrics for "Universal Soldier". Quite an appropriate song for this age:
ReplyDeleteHe's five foot two and he's six feet four
He fights with missiles and with spears.
He's all of thirty one, and he's only seventeen,
He's been a soldier for a thousand years.
He's a Catholic, a Hindu, an Atheist, a Jain,
A Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew
And he knows he shouldn't kill
And he knows he always will,
Kill you for me, my friend, and me for you.
And he's fighting for democracy, he's fighting for the Reds,
He says it's for the peace of all.
He's the one who must decide
Who's to live and who's to die,
And he never sees the writing on the wall.
But without him how would Hitler have condemned him at Dachau?
Without him Caesar would have stood alone.
He's the one who gives his body as a weapon of the war,
And without him all this killing can't go on.
He's the universal soldier, and he really is to blame
His orders come from far away no more
They come from him, and you and me,
And brothers, can't you see,
This is not the way we'll put the end to war.
I used to wonder why he wanted to be a "Jane". I also sang happily about "the cow"! aaah those innocent years without Google.
ReplyDeleteHa ha ha, Jane the moo ...
ReplyDeleteJains belong to the religion called Jainism, which is of Indian origin and prescribes a path of non-violence towards all living beings. Its philosophy and practice emphasize the necessity of self-effort to move the soul towards divine consciousness and liberation. Any soul that has conquered its own inner enemies and achieved the state of supreme being is called Jina (Conqueror or Victor). Jainism is also referred to as Shraman (self-reliant) Dharma or the religion of Nirgantha (who does not have attachments and aversions) by ancient texts. Jainism is commonly referred to as Jain Dharma in Hindi and Samanam in Tamil.
Jainism, which its followers consider to have always existed,has prehistoric origins dating before 3000 BC, and before the beginning of Indo-Aryan culture.
Thanks Wikipedia !
Lobo's real name is Roland Kent Lavoie.
ReplyDeleteHi to all ex-Josephians, especially to the 70-ers, from us who have recently been eavesdropping into all your wonderful blogs. They are fantastic reminiscence of those memorable and nostalgic heady years when we grew up in the best school ever.
ReplyDeleteWe ourselves got connected quite recently but have been only eamiling to catch up with one another, with the occasional mini gatherings. A re-union is in the works and a blog was created very recently for the purpose, plus whatever else that anyone wants to post. It's essentially a look back in time for us.
Being your seniors, so to speak, we do cordially invite you all to sneak a peek at our blog at http://stjoe-classes59-63.blogspot.com.
ps We hope to learn from you all the mechanics of improving the blog.
Hello Francis, welcome to our blog & glad you found it interesting. I just had a look at your Class of 59-63 blog too, and it is clear that irrespective of the generation, the same St Joe spirit is alive and well, not to mention the general wit, friendly irreverence and good looks :-) Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteDo continue to stay in touch. I'll be adding a link from this blog to yours and I suspect you may be getting comments from your "juniors" soon.
Thank you James, for establishing the link. It's reciprocated in ours as well. Indeed we'll stay in touch. And yes ...St Joe spirit is indistinguishable, absolutely!
ReplyDeleteEric Clapton and the Eagles coming to Singapore !!!
ReplyDeleteWoooooooooh LOBO !
ReplyDelete