grand hyatt hotel

South Korean tour draws to a close

A few days ago we returned from a tour in Seoul, South Korea, where we were headlining at The Queen’s Birthday Ball – the highlight of the city’s ex-pat social calendar.

This was our sixth year performing at the QBB and, as always, all the stops were pulled out for an evening of fine food, outlandish decor and wild merriment.

2011’s theme was Alice In Wonderland, which very much accounts for why Tony could be found running around Insadong at four o’clock in the morning brandishing an enormous polystyrene mushroom. Actually, having said that, there’s no excuse for behaviour of that sort. But at least now the people of Seoul know why it happened.

Lightyears hit South Korea

We’re heading back East this week for our fourth consecutive year headlining at The Queen’s Birthday Ball in Seoul, South Korea. 

The QBB, which takes place at the Grand Hyatt Hotel on Mount Namsan, is one of the foremost nights on Seoul’s social calendar and regularly attracts over 500 guests. Last year the event raised in excess of 160 million KRW (over £80,000) for Korean charities.

As usual we’ll be taking Johnny Lightyear with us to fill in on bass duties, along with our trusty sound-engineer Danny Morriss who’ll be working his magic on the mixing desk.

Click here to read up on our 2008 adventures in South Korea’s capital.

See you when we get back! 

“The Lightyears – back by popular demand…”
THE SEOUL TIMES, SOUTH KOREA 

“The Lightyears are a bloody good band! They are excellent ambassadors for Britain…”
SIR WARWICK MORRIS, HIS MAJESTY’S AMBASSADOR TO SOUTH KOREA�

Lightyears invited back to South Korea

Following the news that we’ve been invited back to South Africa next year to headline at the international rugby Tens Tournament in Cape Town, we’ve also been asked out to South Korea this June to perform at The Queen’s Birthday Ball in Seoul. 

The QBB is an annual fund-raising venture that takes place at The Grand Hyatt Hotel and consistently raises huge amounts of money for Korean charities. The theme for the event changes every year, with past themes including the Chelsea Flower Show, Phantom Of The Opera and Harry Potter.   

This will be our fourth consecutive year performing at the QBB and we’re honoured to be invited back. Last year’s trip to Korea figured in my Top 50 Moments Of 2008 so we’re hoping to have an equally successful trip this time round!

Click here to read my Korea 2008 tour diary.

“The Lightyears – back once again by popular demand”
THE SEOUL TIMES, SOUTH KOREA

The Lightyears’ International 5-Star Hotel Breakfast Richter Scale

As you will probably be aware if you have been following our band for a while, food is incredibly important to us. We just got back from a storming tour of Cape Town, South Africa, and the many hours spent anticipating, enjoying and rating the various breakfasts on offer has prompted me to create something which I really should have dealt with a long time ago – The Lightyears’ International 5-Star Hotel Breakfast Richter Scale.

Man cannot live on chord sequences alone and when you’re out on the road it is imperative that you are adequately fed, lest your capacity to rock serious ass is threatened by low blood-sugar levels.

In short, eat your heart out Lonely Planet – this is the intrepid explorer’s real guide to eating abroad. Venues are listed in top five order, with number one representing the crème de la crème of hotel breakfasts:   

5. Somerset Palace, Seoul
The Somerset was our first experience of 5-star hotel breakfast-buffet eating and as a result will always hold a special place in our hearts. It has a simple elegance to it and is the only hotel on this list to offer live TV news during your meal. It opens early, at 6am, which is obviously of no use to us until the morning after the gig, during which we have become infamous for turning up at 6am on the dot, still suited, for a post all-nighter nosh-up before crashing into the jacuzzi and, eventually, bed. Pastries are reasonable, eggs are adequate and the bread-toasting machine is a pleasing little gadget, almost Wallace & Gromit-esque in its inventiveness. Slightly suspicious of the little sausages though. Always gotta wonder about the sausages.

4. The Laguna Beach Resort, Phuket
The Laguna scores points early on for effectively being outdoors. It rates highly on the Yoghurt Counter too for variety of flavours and from what I can remember also serves decent baked beans. Beans are often a problem when one is abroad – some hotels consider themselves too chic to serve baked beans (this is obviously ridiculous) and others go for a sort of posh bean medley containing butter beans, kidney beans, mung beans and the like, which I’m not averse to per se but which if I’m honest only over-complicates a classic breakfast staple. The Laguna also turned a blind eye to us appearing for our morning meal dressed only in matching hotel bath-robes and sunglasses, for which I believe the staff deserve a special commendation. Oh, and where else but in Phuket are you joined for breakfast by a dancing, juggling, harmonica-playing elephant? Mind you, I requested “Love Me Do” and received only a blank look in response. One-trick pony, if you ask me. 

3. The Table Bay Hotel, Cape Town
Like Thailand’s Laguna Resort, the Table Bay boasts the accolade of being one of the “500 Leading Hotels In The World”. However, it inches ahead of it’s Phuketian classmate by the skin of its teeth, thanks to a few high-class cherries on the cake that might surprise even the most discerning traveller. How imaginative, I thought, how recherché, to serve freshly roast duck in hoisin sauce for the opening dish of the day! The sushi was a pleasing touch too, although I couldn’t quite stretch to oysters. It’s one of my many travelling mantras that one should avoid eating anything that closely resembles phlegm for breakfast. Oh, and Michael Jackson, Snoop Doggy Dog, Kanye West and Jack Bauer have all dined here (although I doubt Bauer got much eating done – he was probably too busy uploading government schematics to his PDA and de-wiring suitcase nukes using only his eyelids).

2. British Airways Business Class Cabin, International Airspace
Yes, alright, this is technically not a hotel; however, I feel it warrants its place in the Top Five because we had to sleep in it and nice ladies bought us whatever we asked of them without once ticking us off for being immature and in that sense it mimicked my experience of hotels precisely. Plus I have stayed in hotels with less comfortable beds, believe me, and none of them faced the challenge of being 40,000 feet above the ground and hurtling around at 600mph. The thing about this particular breakfast experience was that, well, the attendants had furnished us with fine champagne before we’d even sniffed a soupçon of the food on offer. And a day that starts with champagne can never, ever be a bad day. What followed was a preposterously sumptuous smorgasbord of delights that included quails’ eggs, salmon roe, truffles and fillet steak. And I got to watch The Big Lebowski whilst I was eating. Everybody left happy. 

1. The Grand Hyatt Hotel, Seoul
And so we have a winner. As a hotel, The Hyatt may not have the flare of the Table Bay or the easy charm of the Laguna, but by George it steals the breakfast crown with flying colours. It has a carvery. It has pastries that will melt your face with desire. It covers every corner of the juice gamet. It boasts a view of the entire city. When we ate there we rubbed shoulders with the Dutch national football team. It has everything – and, most importantly, the Hyatt has Eggman. Eggman stands solemnly by a majestic breakfast hob, awaiting instructions, weaving his yolky magic on request as if it were the easiest thing in the world. He is a mythical figure, very much like Zeus or Agamemnon, except that Zeus couldn’t simultaneously flash-fry five immacuate omelettes whilst also scrambling a cheese, chive, pepper, bacon and egg combo to perfection. He has nothing to do with John Lennon’s eggman, who as far as I know was never employed by the Hyatt hotel chain and in any case can’t speak fifteen languages like Eggman can. He is our saviour. He is Eggman.

And so there you have it. Next time you visit one of these locations on tour you can dispense with your over-priced Rough Guide and instead simply heed my words. For it is impossible to feel sorrow when God bestows upon you a plentiful and resplendent breakfast buffet. 

Munch it down. 

Chris Lightyear

Chris’ Tour Blog: Korea 2008 – online now!

This year, for the third year running, The Lightyears were invited to headline at The Queen’s Birthday Ball in Seoul, South Korea. Chris Lightyear has documented the trip in his LYs tour blog – read up on the band’s Korean adventures here.

The LYs played two gigs whilst in Seoul this year, the first at a “Meet The Lightyears” evening in Itaewon and the second at the ball itself. The theme for 2008 was Phantom Of The Opera and the event, held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel on Mount Namsan, raised an incredible 160 Million KRW. 

The QBB is organised annually by the hard-working BASS committee in honour of the Queen’s birthday, which I think we can all agree is a wonderfully British thing to do. In excess of 500 people attend every year.

Danny Lightyear was diligently snapping away all week and you can check out his photos by clicking here.

Lightyears hit the Far East



In just a few days The Lightyears go on tour to East Asia to headline The Queen’s Birthday Ball at The Grand Hyatt Hotel on Mount Namsan in Seoul, South Korea.



Expect tales of adventure and intrigue on the band’s return…