Let's now move on to the most recent item that was checked off, ie. item 12. This happened just last year.
Just like how my favourite soccer team, Aston Villa, is not exactly one of the more popular ones out there, my favourite music singer is similarly unfancied and relatively unknown.
When British singer Kim Wilde first came onto the music scene in 1981 with her debut single Kids In America, I was immediately captivated by her sultry voice and smoking hot looks, and even dreamt of marrying her one day.
After all, I was a pimply 14 year-old with raging hormones, while she was 21 and in the very prime of her life. I bought her eponymous vinyl album, and keep it in pristine condition until this very day.
[I actually have 2 copies of them because my uncle Billy, who resides in London, bought me one too].
Besides making a pilgrimage to Villa Park, watching Kim perform on stage was what I dreamt of doing for the longest of times.
She actually retired from the music scene in 1995 to get married and start a family and went into gardening, so I thought that was that.
Thankfully, she decided to made a comeback in 2005, which coincidentally was when my then-CG leader Eugene Kwek asked us what we wanted to do before we went to heaven.
Anyway, Kim started embarking on a Greatest Hits tour post-Covid and announced her intention to extend it all the way to Australia!
Like I mentioned, she is not as popular as say Madonna or Rihanna so the likelihood of her performing in Singapore is zero. So the next best and closest place would be Perth, Australia.
I examined the dates and venues and noticed she would be performing in Perth for just one night -- on 22 October 2024. So, I quickly secured a ticket, and then planned my itinerary around it.
The venue of her concert, the Astor Theatre, is a cosy 1,000-seater. I chose to sit in a properly-numbered seat located in the balcony. Those who were younger at heart could choose to stand in the mosh pit below, but I figured I would rather sit for an event that would last nearly 2 hours.
On the night of her concert, I looked around me and noted that 99% of the attendees were people around my age. But what I found surprising was that I seemed to be the only one of Asian origin, and there were also hardly any of African origin.
Anyway, in that two hours or so, Kim sang a total of 19 songs, and I immediately recognised 15 of them. I had to use the Soundhound app to identify 4 of them: #5, #10, #11 and #13 because they were not really "great hits" haha.
1 Rage to Love
2 Never Trust a Stranger
3 Water on Glass
4 Can't Get Enough (of Your Love)
*5 Words Fell Down
6 The Second Time / Pop Muzik
7 If I Can't Have You
8 Four Letter Word
9 Love in the Natural Way
*10 Yours till the End
*11 Trail of Destruction
12 Love is Holy
*13 Stone
14 Cambodia
15 View From a Bridge
16 Chequered Love
17 You Keep Me Hanging On
18 You Came
19 Kids in America
There was not much merchandise on sale though; only a couple of T-shirts. I ended up buying the Tour Down Under T-shirt for A$50.
Check out the concert-goers that were seated behind me. Like I mentioned, they were predominantly Caucasians in their 50s and 60s.
P.S. Just realised she did not sing Child Come Away, Love Blonde, Dancing in the Dark, House of Salome, The Touch, Schoolgirl, Say You Really Want Me, Another Step, Hey Mister Heartache, Love in the Natural Way, It's Here, I Can't Say Goodbye, Heart over Mind, Who Do You Think You Are, In My Life, among others.
P.P.S. I took out my Kim Wilde vinyl to play, and she still sounds great 44 years later.
I examined the dates and venues and noticed she would be performing in Perth for just one night -- on 22 October 2024. So, I quickly secured a ticket, and then planned my itinerary around it.
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