The UrbanWire

The heatwave we’ve been experiencing didn’t stop die-hard Stereophonics fans from squeezing and pushing in the 5,000-strong crowd at Fort Canning Park to cheer their idols on and rock the night away as the 3-piece Welsh band made their debut appearance in Singapore on Apr 28.

Concert hosts radio DJs Shan and Ros from 987FM played games with the audience, giving away movie tickets and Samsung mobile phones making the wait a worthwhile one. (Read more)

Nothing short of full blast glamour – that was exactly what anyone present at Francis Cheong’s spring collection would bring home from his show. With an extensive showcase of Cheong’s signature gown designs by models and even his friends, it was definitely a night not to be missed.

Cheong’s showcase at this year’s Singapore Fashion Festival on Apr 4 at the Tent@Orchard was a collaboration with coffee brand CappaRoma.

You might wonder why these 2 seemingly unrelated companies were working together to put up a fashion show. Well actually, both parties have the same view, according to the official press release, when it comes to maintaining weight, staying in good shape and keeping up with fashion. And the goodie bags had packets of instant CappaRoma coffee that come in different sugar levels, very apt indeed!

(Read more)

Spring and summer are often about florals and pastels. However, London-based Singaporean fashion designer, Ashley Isham, has re-defined 2008’s spring and summer for the ladies with a lot of draping and usage of unique materials, like how he has always been known for.

Ashley Isham’s latest Spring/Summer 2008 collection wowed the crowd at this year’s Singapore Fashion Festival (SFF), held at Tent@Orchard at Ngee Ann City. What kick-started the showcase was a series of dresses with prints that resemble pixels. These monochromatic dresses were tailored so brilliantly that they looked as if the models were born in them. The clever usage of belts and seamless tucking of fabrics put great and flattering emphasis on the models’ waistlines.

Long and flowing dresses are definitely a must for when the sun shines and flowers blossom, which fortunately is true of Singapore almost all-year. Likewise, Ashley has spiced up these dresses with a tinge of his personal touch. His signature stunning draping of fabrics to create a simple yet dramatic look is distinctive. The touch of skinny patent belts on the dress completed the ensemble.

(Read more)

When the clock struck 12, the lights dimmed and the thousand-strong crowd couldn’t get any more excited. After all, the eager audience had been standing and getting psyched up for 2 hours to catch The Rakes.

This 4-year-old British band, who play music from indie rock to post-punk/art-rock, made its debut appearance in Singapore on Mar 27 at Zouk. They were part of the Heineken Green Room Sessions.

At a first glance, it’s not hard to guess why they call themselves The Rakes. They frequently joked that they are as skinny as the gardening tools. Any of their fans know, however, that The Rakes got their name from an opera, The Rake’s Progress, where Rake means a promiscuous man. Whether this is related to the band members themselves, UrbanWire don’t know.

Singer Alan Donohoe was a college mate of bassist Jamie Hornsmith albeit in a different faculty. Jamie then met Matthew Swinnerton (the guitarist and vocalist) and drummer Lasse Petersen while they were working in the same clothes shop in Covent Garden London. This unremarkable start has led them to the route of fame when the band’s single “All Too Human” from their album, Capture/Release, clinched the highest position of 22 in UK music chart 2 years ago.

David Bowie, Gorillaz, Sex Pistol, The Cure and U2 are just some of The Rakes’ musical influences. The catchy beats and tunes sure has gotten into The Rake’s productions.

The set at Zouk began with The Rakes’ latest song, “1989”. They went on to jam popular feet tapping hits like “We Dance Together”, “When Tom Cruise Cries”, “22 Grand Job” and “Strasbourg”. Heineken Green Room attendees even got to listen their newest creations, including “You’re In It”, “The Outdoor Smoker”, “The Light From Your Mac” and “Bitchin’ in the Kitchen”, which are believed to be part of their third album that’s going to be out early next year.

It was all but impossible to stand still throughout the hour-long set. The groovy rhythms and Alan’s famous quirky dance moves, which are rumoured to be a copy of the late Ian Curtis of Joy Division, compel you to dance yourself silly.

Usually togged in either stripey or checkered shirts, black skinny jeans and black trainers, these blokes also impress designers from fashion brands like Fred Perry, Dior Homme and even Louis Vuitton with their music and dress sense. The Rakes even contributed their 18-minute long song, “The World Was A Mess, But His Hair Was Perfect”, to a Dior Homme fashion show. The shortened version of this song was then released in their second album, Ten New Messages.

“Encore! Encore!” The screams from the audience tell you only one thing – they simply couldn’t get enough of The Rakes. Not wanting to disappoint their die-hard fans, they returned on stage with 3 last songs, including the one for the Dior fashion show.

And just when you thought the Zouk crowd couldn’t get any more hyped up, one of the guitarists, Chris Ketley grabbed an extra pair of drumsticks and joined the drummer. That was a perfect end to the performance but fans were grateful the night didn’t end there. The Rakes stayed on and continued to spin some great music for those who couldn’t get enough of them. At last count, that was everyone.

What comes to your mind when Stereophonics is mentioned? Is it “Have A Nice Day”, the song Kelly Jones, the vocalist and guitarist of the band, wrote after a cab driver said, “That’s $7.50, have a nice day.” ?

Or the three-piece that didn’t just make it big, but is one of the most successful Welsh rock bands to date?

If either thought jumped into your head, you won’t want to miss their debut performance in Singapore on Apr 28 at Fort Canning Park! Be sure to get plenty of rest the night before, though, because this highly acclaimed UK alternative rock band will be playing live throughout the evening. This is actually part of their “Pull The Pin” tour where they will also perform in Bangkok and several places in Australia such as Perth and Melbourne.

Their Hiatus

If you wonder why you haven’t heard news about them for a couple of years, Kelly is quoted in the press release saying, “I took time out in 2006 to deal with an illness in the family.”

“I was at the point in my life where I needed to break the cycle of album-tour-album-tour, ‘cause it wasn’t creative, it wasn’t refreshing, it wasn’t anything.”

The Success

Having 5 consecutive albums debut at the top of the UK charts, including their latest release “Pull the Pin!” , Stereophonics is poised to claim its position at the top with the new single, “It Means Nothing” . Primarily inspired by terrorist attacks in London, it clearly taps into Kelly’s own feelings for reconnecting with core values, such as treasuring loved ones and not taking things for granted.

“There was no pressure, so we were basically going in and having fun,” shared Richard Jones , the band’s bassist in the press release.

“It helped that we are at the most confident and comfortable we’ve been in a long time. When you’ve been in a band so long you tend to know what the next step is going to be before it happens. We trust each other.”

After their good two-year break, Stereophonics is rested, rejuvenated and finally ready to hit Singapore to rock the socks off their fans!

Early bird tickets at $85 went on sale March 17. Standard priced tickets will be $95 from April 1 to 27 and $105 on the day of show. All tickets are available for standing room only and this is a Rain or Shine event. Tickets available at all Sistic outlets, online at www.sistic.com.sg or call 6348-5555.  All prices cited exclude
the Sistic booking fee. Cameras and video recording equipment are strictly prohibited.

Like how its website URL is named, Slam! invites movie critics to “slam the movie”.

It’s a mystery how Slam! is “definitely the best basketball movie you’ll see”, according to Qi Jing, Senior Editor of SLAM MAGAZINE who gave this movie 5 out of 5 stars, because for me, it can’t be further from the truth. I mean, it says a lot when the people beside me left the cinema halfway through the screening.

Story Overview
Directed and produced by Singaporean first-timer Jonathan Lim, Slam! revolves around a very familiar theme that other inspirational movies in Hollywood like Drumline have used. The audience always bring home the same message – pursue your dream and never give up. Unfortunately for Slam!, you’ll also bring home doubts, frowns and headaches (we’ll tell you why later).

Slam! is a movie that revolves around three teenagers – Mouth (Li Xiao Fan), Monkey (Zhang Yi Shan) and Jason (Andrew Chou) – who spent their vacation hanging out together, playing basketball when the trio first crossed Li Wei (Wang Wei) and his basketball team’s path. Loss and unhappiness leads to a series of revenge acts between both parties. Be it a coincidental meeting at a skating ring during Monkey’s birthday party or at a local Internet café, both have their ways to get onto each other’s nerves. The film reaches its climax when both teams compete with each other at the annual 3-on-3 basketball tournament. Block, snatch, rebound, attack! Both teams push their efforts to utmost to win that prestigious champion title.

Viewers will find themselves left behind at different points of the movie because the movie is confusing. One of classic confusion still vividly recalled was Monkey’s birthday celebration scene. Before that, Monkey suggested that they would go ice-skating for his celebration. However, the so-called ice-skating ring has parquet flooring and people are rollerblading. Blame it on poor translation or weak scripting, but if they can’t even get the basics right, we hold out little hope for the $1 million production.

Maybe, all these confusion inside me was partly due to the fact that everything was too fast-paced and exaggerated. Xiao Xiao and Mouth’s mediocre love scene, Mouth’s father (Wang Zhi Gang)’s unknown fear of Li Wei’s father (Wang Wei Guang), the on-off friendship between Mouth, Monkey and Jason– all could potentially make stronger positive impacts on the audience if they were just given more screen time to develop. If time was a problem, then Slam! could have just worked on just one or two main issues instead of trying to do too much.

Cinematography
Remember the viewers’ headaches? The Blair Witch effect came as a result of unexpected and amateurish zooming and the ever-shaky shots. People were murmuring “I’m getting a headache” within the first 15 minutes of the movie. At first, it seemed the shots were deliberately jerky just for those few scenes but it was that the same throughout. You probably won’t expect a fast zoom during a quarrelling scene between a father and son. Now that was really bizarre.

Like what happened in movie Vantage Point, the transition between scenes is overused and it gets a tad annoying to the audience. What Slam! did was to use a still clip of a basket in a basketball court as its transition clip. It was actually quite a nice touch in the beginning, but when we saw it replayed more than three times, I couldn’t help but mutter, “Save me!” under my breath.

Soundtrack
The moment I hear the first track playing in the film, Jack Neo appeared in my head. The songs, which are rapped and sang by Machi, sounded so gung-ho I can’t help but relate it to one of those Jack Neo movies such as Money No Enough where the Ah Bengs (local Chinese men with negative stereotypes) sang about their dignity and how they weren’t who they seemed to be.

Watch It?
If you still want to catch Slam!, watch it only for the nicely choreographed basketball moves, especially during the final battle. As a former avid but amateur basketball player, I thought the stunts were pretty awesome, especially when one of them passed the ball through the blocker’s legs and he managed to get hold of the ball and dribble on after that. That was by far the highlight of the film.

Singaporeans love their Rojak (a local salad with prawn paste) but for Slam!, too many raw and uncomplementary ingredients are mixed together and it just doesn’t taste right.

UrbanWire gives Slam! 1.5 out of 5 stars

Movie Details

Opens: Mar 20
Movie Rating: PG
Running Time: 93 mins
Language: Chinese with English and Chinese subtitles
Cast: Lin Xiao Fan, Zhang Yi Shan, Andrew Chou, Zhao Wei Qi
Director: Jonathan Lim

The whole Vantage Point experience is like the process of solving a jigsaw puzzle – you get individually meaningless pieces of the big picture, but once you place them together, you get the answer to the question.

From My Vantage Point
Vantage Point is about an assassination attempt on the president of United States during an anti-terrorism summit conference in Spain. When it was US President Ashton’s (William Hurt) turn to speak, he was shot right in his chest, sparking off hysterics and massive chaos among the spectators. If that wasn’t enough to give bystanders a cardiac arrest, 2 go off minutes later.

The story regarding the whole attack continues, as related from the point of view, or vantage point as the filmed is named, of the 8 crucial witnesses– from a director of an American TV station to Secret Service agents to even a tourist. This action-packed thriller will definitely keep your adrenaline pumping and hold your attention every second of this film.

Awesome!
What’s so great about this film is the well-choreographed plot. Each flashback establishes the link with each other, and as the story develops, it reveals a clearer picture of the conspiracy. As with any good suspense film, people you thought didn’t matter become surprisingly crucial to the film.

This film never fails to grab my attention and keeps me highly anticipated for the next action. The deafening gun shots, the distressed crowd, the risky car chase – all these made my heart thumped really fast, so much so that I have to place a hand on my chest to calm myself down.

How the film is shot has taken my breath away, especially when Agent Barnes (Dennis Quaid ) is chasing Veronica (Ayelet Zurer) and Suarez (Said Taghmaqui) when he found out that they are part of the assassination ploy. You can feel the thrill of high speed driving and sudden bends, and that is really shiok (local term for awesome)!

Kudos to the wonderful editing skills, especially the signature flashback that never fails to start with a rewind of previous scenes and arrive at a white screen with the time appearing at the bottom left hand corner, ticking a few seconds away to noon. However, that unfortunately became too much after a few repetitions. The murmering audience seemed to concur.

Something to work on
However, on the downside, the film left some questions unanswered. One example would be the mystery of Agent Barnes. In the movie, he had actually saved President Ashton in an earlier assassination attempt. So where did Barnes disappear to just before the conference, and how did President Ashton not know of his return?
And how did President Ashton’s double come about in such a short time? How did his men know about the assassination ploy? Are they behind this too? Enlightenment please! I’m dying to know.

Personally, I think the film is too fast-paced and a tad unbelievable. Perhaps, they should just zoom in on the Agent Barnes mystery and revolve the film around uncovering his past. It would have been much better than the current one. What Vantage Point has given to the audience was surface details – Agent Barnes’ unknown return, the double’s immediate presence, and the assassin’s initial killing motive. Of course it would be nice to have all these intriguing details in the film but Vantage Point has definitely failed to satisfy the inquisitive audience. To add on, the assassin plan was too smooth to be true. It makes assassination seem so easy.

Before you start to throw rotten tomatoes and scream, “You are such a spoiler!”, I’m pleased to inform you that all these are in the trailer.

But nonetheless, this film is definitely worth the precious 90 minutes of your life. You don’t need people to tell you how good a film is when your eyes are rooted to the screen,

UrbanWire gives Vantage Point 3 out of 5 stars

Movie Details

Opens: Mar 20
Movie Rating: PG
Running Time: 90 mins
Language: English
Cast: Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker, Edgar Ramirez, Ayelet Zurer, Sigourney Weaver, William Hurt, Eduardo Noriega, Said Taghmaqui [only 3 names]
Director: Pete Travis