The Grand Hyatt Hotel – Seoul – 31/05/08

How was it for us?

This was our third visit to South Korea and I think we all feel like we know the place quite well now. The Queen’s Birthday Ball is always fun to play and well attended by well dressed ex-pats and Koreans alike. The theme of the ball this year was Phantom of the Opera. Chris wasted no time in jumping on the grand piano in full Phantom getup to play some of his infamous Easy-Listening-Heavy-Metal.

When The Lightyears proper took the stage, accompanied by John on bass, the dancefloor was full straight away and stayed that way for the whole night. It’s great to travel thousands of miles and know it was a job well done! Hospitality, as always, was superb. Special thanks to Elaine and Gail for looking after us so well!

George Lightyear

How was it for you?

Were you there? Got an opinion? Want to write a review? Hit the comments box at the foot of the page.

Gig Details

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“Why aren’t we doing this in the jacuzzi?”

Here we are once again – back in Seoul, capital city of South Korea, invited out for the third year running to headline The Queen’s Birthday Ball at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. By now we know the city pretty well but it still has the ability to surprise us once in a while.

This week, for example, the whole place has been crawling with riot police. I mean, I say “crawling”; in fact they’ve been pretty much static the entire time. Hundreds of them, mostly boys, by-and-large looking too young to shave, clutching shields and truncheons and standing in neatly-aligned formation waiting for something to kick off. The Koreans are currently lobbying against their government for letting too much potentially CJD-ridden American beef into the country and, since the Asians are renowned for protesting in some particularly off-the-wall ways (setting fire to themselves, that sort of thing), the local authorities aren’t taking any chances. These guys are everywhere. Funnily enough, though, this doesn’t seem to disrupt the pervasive aura of calm that is peculiar to Seoul. If there were this many riot police on the streets of London, people would be starting ruckuses left right and centre.

If I’m honest though, I think they’re all a bit bored. I saw my first anti-beef protest the other day – eight or nine elaborately dressed Koreans wandering along with a severed bull’s head on a platter, peacefully protesting, singing songs, that sort of thing – and was amazed to see the riot police surround them like locusts and start chanting and shoving. They seemed to be starting a riot all by themselves. Mind you, you’d probably do the same if you’d be standing in the same place for three weeks without anything to do but count pavement tiles.

Anyhow, back to the tour. We played our first gig on Thursday night at a kind of “Meet The Lighyears” welcome party. It was supposed to be at a venue in Itaewon called The Bungalow, although due to unforeseen circumstances we ended up having to move (incidentally, when I say “unforeseen circumstances”, I’m referring to the fact that the British Ambassador was throwing a party the same night and had poached a big chunk of our audience. Not deliberate, I’m sure. Still, the ex-pat social scene can be pretty cut-throat. It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there). Thankfully, Ruth, one of our hosts, offered up her garden as a substitute and we set up on her patio. Rock and roll.

Copious amounts of food and drink were laid on and we played a set of mellow acoustic numbers – Fine, Girl On The Radio, Home For The Weekend, even I Could Be, which some of you might remember from three or four years back when we used to play it at the Kashmir Club in Baker Street. Fortunately the Ambassador doesn’t party as hard as us and, as his soiree had finished early, a bunch of people turned up later on to join in the festivities. This was our cue to up the pace a bit and we threw in Emily, Sleepless and so on. 

What happened next took us all by surprise – we got a request from a member of the audience to play Posh We Are, the Peterborough United charity single we released back in May! There we were, 5000 miles away from home, and the spirit of the Midlands reared its ugly head in the most unexpected way. Needless to say, we played the song and received tumultuous applause (from the Posh fans, at least). 

The following day was split between gawking at eels in street-corner tanks, guffawing at hilarious English translations on restaurant menus (I was seriously tempted to sample the indeterminate meaty mush with noodles described as “Hairy Triton”) and wandering open-mouthed around the world’s most enormous music shop. We do this every year. Danny is starting to find this a little wearying and I can kind of see his point. I mean, each year it’s the same – George bombs around trying to uncover some exotic new brand of effects pedal, Tony gets excited about vintage 12-track mixers and I scour the various keyboard stores for rare makes of keytar which I will unvariably not buy on account of the fact that, antique or otherwise, £450 is a lot of money to spend on a piece of plastic tat that I’m probably never going to use and that would make me look like a tool if I did. Danny, I’m sorry mate. It’s just a tradition, that’s all. And you don’t monkey with tradition.

We’d been advised against staying outside for too long in the Spring months in light of the ominous yellow mist squatting over the city, which Gail had informed us was a foul and toxic pollutant smog floating over from China. Which was nice. And so we took refuge in a little bar in Insadong and bought a round of Tsingtao beers and a weird little bowl of snacks that looked a bit like Hula Hoops but could have been dried squid rings. Who knows? Tasted good though. We ended up in a discussion about what set we should play at the ball which, as our set is due to be two hours long, turned out to be a pretty time-consuming process. We’d been discussing this for about 45 minutes when George interjected with “why aren’t we doing this in the jacuzzi?” (if only that was a phrase we used more often). And so we did.

Incidentally, it is now Saturday morning and I’m writing this whilst listening to Tony and Danny testing the reverb settings on the Korean PA system we’re using for the gig tonight. Suffice it to say I have been on more thrilling library tours. “Wild Canyon”, “Dank Cave” and “Iron Man” have been tested and rejected, just 478 settings still to go.

Kill me. Kill me now.

LYs return to South Korea

Tomorrow the LYs travel to Seoul in South Korea to play at The Queen’s Birthday Ball and hang out with the British Ambassador. This marks the band’s third consecutive year headlining at the event and the 2008 QBB promises to be bigger than ever…

The Lightyears were first booked for The Queen’s Birthday Ball back in 2006. The event, organised by the BASS Committee, is a regular highlight of the social calendar in Seoul and raises funds for a number of Korean charities.

Whilst in Korea the band will also be headlining at The Bungalow in Itaewon on Thursday 29 May.

Listen out for tales of daring and adventure on our return…

Win FREE TICKETS to The Lightyears @ “No One Died”

The band’s next London show is at the famed No One Died club night at The Enterprise opposite Chalk Farm tube station. The LYs will be headlining and the night also features a live performance from Marcel and DJ sets from The Camden Slags, iRod and Might Marvin Martin.

No One Died has a history of selling out so buying in advance is recommended (tickets are available here). Alternatively, social networking website M3 are giving away 12 pairs of free tickets for the gig. To enter the draw you need to be an M3 user; visit www.m3mob.com for details. Offer ends Wednesday 4 June.   

This will also be The Lightyears’ last club gig in London until the autumn. So don’t miss out…!

First Glastonbury slot confirmed

The Lightyears’ first Glastonbury slot has been confirmed as Friday 27 June at 10.30pm on the Small World Stage. The band will also be appearing on the Green Fuse Stage – date and time T.B.C.

The LYs first played Glastonbury Festival back in 2005, turning up at the gates with instruments on their backs and the intention of blagging a gig wherever they could find one. This cavalier approach turned into a 3-gig residency at The Strange Fruit Cafe, where the band played to packed houses and filled up enthusiastically on chickpea curry.

The following year saw The Lightyears’ first appearance in the official Glastonbury Festival programme ahead of a gig on the Small World Stage in the Greenfields. This year, the Small World Stage have asked them back and Green Fuse, a stage that is in fact run by the original team behind the Strange Fruit Cafe, are hosting the band’s opening show at Glasto 2008.

Mixing with the cognoscenti

My music career has taken me to many places I never quite expected to go – South Korea, Thailand, Chalgrove Village Hall. I have to say, though, I never expected it to take me to a Civic Reception hosted by the Mayor Of Peterborough in honour of a newly-promoted football team. I mean, I bet Jagger’s never done that. Nor Richards. Richards is probably too busy falling out of trees or snorting people’s cremated remains to attend Civic Receptions.

That said, the Stones could probably learn a thing or two from playing a gig of this sort. It was pretty unique. We were performing Posh We Are on the balcony as the triumphant Peterborough United squad (fresh from their open-top bus tour of the city) appeared through the doors of the town hall to frenzied journalistic activity and a cavalcade of local dignitaries. Of course, the infamous Barry Fry (Posh’s Director Of Football) was there, and he was absolutely LOVING it. He danced. I mean, he actually boogied. Everyone else maintained an aura of august calm, but Fry didn’t care! He was singing along and waving his scarf like there was no tomorrow. What a legend. We met him afterwards too and he was most complimentary, which was a thrill for Tony who somewhat idolises the man.

We were in the middle of doing our usual thing of maintaining the steely coolness that befits rock stars (not so straightforward when you’re eating finger food at a local council meeting) when we were approached by the Mayor herself. Let me tell you now, this lady is a diamond. She complimented us heartily on our performance and asked us if we were going to carry on with music when we left school. This is not the first time this has happened. Must remember to grow some stubble.

It makes us feel very cool that we’re now mates with some of Posh’s star players, including Golden Boot winner Aaron Maclean and new England reserve keeper Joe Lewis. I know very little about football but there’s no need to let on. Plus I have my own shirt now. I’ve been accepted.

Chris Lightyear

Peterborough is, quite literally, United

At 2pm yesterday we played a gig in a day care centre to a 6ft by 6ft room of very confused-looking toddlers. This was due to a slight mix-up during our Peterborough promotional schools tour and, I have to admit, it was a bit odd. I tried explaining to them after our performance that the new Peterborough United charity single Posh We Are was now available to download from iTunes for only 79p but the blank looks we received in response suggested to me that they hadn’t yet developed into discerning music consumers. Actually, I think most of them were just concentrating on not pooping their pants. 

By contrast, at 2pm this afternoon we played a gig in a football stadium in front of over 6,000 people. None of whom had soiled themselves (presumably). How things can change in 24 hours. 

It’s been quite a week. On Monday we released a charity football single in collaboration with Peterborough United (A.K.A “The Posh”) entitled Posh We Are. Posh We Are is Peterborough’s club anthem and has been around since the early 70s, when it was written and recorded by a couple of local chaps named Brian and Tony. We’ve collaborated with a bunch of fans, some of the star players and the Voyager School choir to re-record the song in celebration of the club’s promotion to League One. All profits are going to sports charity Free Kicks and, since the website we’ve set up to help people download the single has had nearly 4,000 hits since release day, it ought to raise a decent amount (plus it’s reached Number 45 in the iTunes Plus Top 100 Chart).

Since Monday we’ve been touring Peterborough’s schools playing the song. Kids are singing it in playgrounds across the city. Local radio stations are absolutely caning the record – playing it every hour, on the hour. The Peterborough Evening Telegraph has been running articles nearly every day, encouraging people to support their local club in aid of a good cause. Peterborough is, quite literally, united. Oh, and I’ve been given my own Posh football shirt with “Chris Lightyear” written on the back. This is now the coolest thing I own. And I own a keytar.

So, the whole project climaxed today with a performance at London Road Stadium, home of the Posh. The team faced Darlington for the last match of the season and by 3pm a sell-out crowd of 15,000 had passed through the gates. We lavished a high-energy set on our first ever stadium crowd, opening with She’s The One and steamrolling through This House Will Burn, Beat Alive, Banana Republic, Great Balls Of Fire, Sleepless and Emily. We even chucked in a cover of Chelsea Dagger for good measure. I had to improvise the bass-line which, in front of 6,000 people (whilst singing lead vocals), proved to be one of the bolder moves of my career. You know, I’ll be totally honest with you – a big part of me expected to be pelted with rotten pies at some point during the set or, at the very least, inspire some derogatory terrace chants, but we actually went down really well. As Tony says, football fans not coming at you with sawn-off lead piping is in reality a really good sign. If they applaud your performance with their hands above their head, as they were by the time we hit our last few songs, it virtually means they’re ready to commit to a lifetime of loving companionship with you and put down a deposit on a romantic holiday bungalow in Newton Abbott. 

Anyhow, the pièce de résistance came after we finished Emily. At this point, as we kicked into the opening bars of Posh We Are, over 100 students from the Voyager piled onto the pitch. Cue a feisty performance of the club anthem supported by a legion of excitable teenagers and the old faithful down at the London Road end (watch the video here). The opposition’s fan were quaking in their boots (shame Peterborough eventually lost 2-0).

Back in the bowels of the stadium, as we were putting our instruments away, we were approached by the Chief Executive of the club.

“Great job boys – how do you fancy coming back to play for the Manchester United pre-season friendly in August?”

I think we fancy that very much, thank you.

Chris Lightyear 

Lightyears to play to stadium crowd

This week The Lightyears have released a charity single with Peterborough United – and the band will be promoting the release with a gig in front of a sell-out crowd of 15,000 people at London Road Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Charity record “Posh We Are” is a re-working of the club’s 1973 anthem and is available now on download from iTunes and Napster. All proceeds from the song will go to sports charity Free Kicks.

To purchase the song visit www.PoshWeAre.co.uk or download it directly from iTunes here.

The song is currently charting in The iTunes Plus Top 100 at Number 45.