Taylor Hicks in the Philippines!

Taylor Hicks had a great time in the Philippines and I knew that he was going to find the Filipino people highly receptive of his visits there! A long time ago, I predicted that Taylor Hicks would have fans in that country because Filipinos love old school music and old school style singing! We love Karaokes and Videokes and we never have gatherings without singing and dancing in them. The funkiest the dance moves are, the better it is. The older the song is, we will find a way to revive it, and make it new. Hence, Taylor Hicks fits right in. As much as we also embrace the newer songs, we are always nostalgic, and long for older songs to get played. We have kids as young as 5 year olds who can belt out songs like Release Me and Cuando, Cuando from Engelbert Humperdinck. Haha! In other words, music is a way of life.

The success of Taylor Hicks' mini tour in the malls in the Philippines may not be reported in the U.S. entertainment sections of our media here, because I think Jamie Lynn Spears' teenage pregnancy is much more imporatnt, I guess. (rolls eyes) But this is a remarkable achievement for Taylor Hicks and his Soul Patrol in the U.S and in the Philippines. The Philippines felt priviledged to have been Taylor's first ever tour outside of the States. So, as a Filipino myself and a long time Taylor Hicks supporter, I would like to thank Taylor Hicks and his management for letting the Filipino people experience for themselves that magic that is Taylor Hicks. And for his SP here in the US, based on a lot of the comments I received about Taylor's reception from the Filipino people, they are happy and relieved that Taylor was well loved by Asians, and the Filipinos in particular. There seemed to be a little apprehension on the fans here in the US when Taylor announced his appearances in Asia. I'm glad those worries are no more.

We look forward to his next visit and this time, with a longer promotion and more radio airplay of his songs, you can bet that the Pinoy SPs will be mobilized and they will even be making more noise and the love for Taylor Hicks will even be shown more.

Soul Patrol, Mabuhay si Taylor Hicks!

Taylor Hicks appearing at Asian Idol and Manila, Philippines!

Well, we have been dreaming about this moment, and it is coming true. It was such a brilliant plan to have Taylor Hicks attend the Asian Idol and will also have a 3 day mini tour in Manila, Philippines. He is going to be in Jakarta, Indonesia on December 16 to attend the Asian Idol Finale. And the following dates are in Manila: December 18 Glorietta December 19 Greenbelt December 20 Trinoma There are Meets and Greets, and people are flooding the venue offices with phone calls inquiring about the tickets! That's a great sign! He will be backed up by an all Filipino band and his musical director is Mr. Louie Ocampo who is one of the Prime Musical Directors in the Philippines. I already know that this is going to rock the islands of the Philippines. Go Soul Patrol Asia.... mabuhay! For those who are going, get there early. He will do a soundcheck!!!! LOL!

Never Can Say Goodbye: Atlanta's Tabernacle with Paolo Nutini and his band!

I would like to apologize in advance, this recap will probably be too long for some of you, but I am also writing on behalf of Liza (Azilros) too. So this is a recap and review from two members of the Nutini household.

The Atlanta trip was such a quick decision to make. After all, we are talking about Paolo Nutini here, and he is always worth it. Never mind that it was our third Paolo gig in a month, not including the others that we also go to.

We flew out of Chicago without any incidents which is atypical for every trip I make. I am known for mishaps and missteps, but this time, everything was smooth, including the arrival in Atlanta.

We took a taxi downtown to our hotel, it was a short trip. From the hotel, we could see the Tabernacle. Great, it was just a hop, skip and a jump away. The front desk said that they had a lot of guests who were there for PABLO NATONI...heheheh! I'm like, "Who??" It was quite fun to correct her, she was laughing about it. We decided to freshen up before hopping, skipping and jumping to the venue and of course, a line was already forming. We saw Michelle, Betsy and Cindy standing by the bus and of course, warm hugs and introductions followed. Great to see you ladies! Michelle and Betsy, who would've known that we would meet again?

I felt that I don't need to talk about all the other things that happened because you were all there. But we all signed the scrapbook that I considered a labor of love. I wanted for Paolo to receive it himself so we asked Malky if he could possibly get Paolo, and he did, what a sweetheart.

We then saw Paolo behind the bus about to come over but he retreated. Maybe he thought that we would all ask for autographs or pictures, but the plan was just for me to hand it to him maybe explain it to him a little. Bummer! I thought I was going to find a way to give it to him that night. I ended up holding the darn thing along with my two cameras and an audio recorder, (heheheh) during the whole concert. And it was an 89 page book, it was cumbersome and weighty. Suffice to say, I was able to hand the scrapbook to Malky after the show and he assured me repeatedly that he would make sure that Paolo gets it. I took a sigh of relief.

The concert was beyond rocking, it was QUAKING! The floors inside the venue were vibrating as the people were convulsing to each songs that Paolo and the boys were playing. It was the best audience, in my opinion. Very polite and patient (more than I was) since we waited a long time before Serena came out. She did her set really well as usual, and because of that last performance, I decided to purchase her CD. Sarah was great too, her bassist Danny, kinda' made it all fun for me. He had little ticks and jerks while performing that reminded me of this artist that I am also supporting. I found it funny how he seemed like he was asleep while standing there waiting for the bass part of the song. LOL! It was so funny. All in all Paolo's supporting acts delivered the goods. We all know that Serena joined Sarah for a jam session towards the end of Sarah's set. That was cool.

The lights dimmed after what seemed like hours of intermission. By this time, my legs were like jelly, but Paolo was about to grace the stage, makes you forget the pains. The Rocky theme song came on and I was like, "Yo! Adrianne!" LOL! One by one, they came out, and boy, I can't tell you how awesome the feeling was to see them about to play to us, for the last time on this tour...**wiping tears away...**

The audience sing along was cool to me, I know some of you don't like that. But that pretty much shows Paolo's impact on his audience and how phenomenal the whole album was. Serena came out and surprised Paolo during Last Request, it was great and Serena just blew me away. Her voice was amazing, Paolo even thought so. The covers are amazing too, gosh! Only Paolo Nutini and his band can deliver classics the way they do. It's edgy and yet true to form, soulful! Paolo opened with Alloway Grove and ended with, you guessed it, our favorite stoner's anthem, "Funky Cigarette!"

While people who watch videos and audio recordings of Paolo's performances see how cool and captivating the boys are on stage, they can never experience the pure electricity that comes over you when you are actually THERE! So, if you listen to my vids and audios, I am usually possessed by something, yeah.... I am always sounding like I just had an O------range!!

Paolo Nutini rocked Madison, Wisconsin

Wow! What a weekend we've had! The fun kept on coming. Here's my story, and I hope you all enjoy it!

Thursday -- picked up my Aunt from her place and I went to the airport to pick up Sherry. It was great seeing her again. Just opted to stay home that night so we could have the energy for Friday. :hello2: We warmed up by watching videos and pics of Paolo at his concert in Chicago 10 days before that.... :icon_thumright:

Friday --- Concert day. Excitement was in the air. I was very busy that day, it was a school day and the kids had to be picked up from school. But we all managed to get ready quickly. We left my home about 3:15 pm, made it to Madison about 5:45, plenty of time to do whatever. It's important to mention that this is one of the concerts in a long time that we were not running to avoid being late. Wooo! :toothy9:

Ready for Paolo, baby!!

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The venue looked small from the outside, we even thought that it was an intimate bar scene, but we were wrong. It was much bigger in the inside. We went around the theatre, in the back of it, were the buses. It was very exciting to see them. Of course, we had to take pics of the buses. Paolo and the boys were in there, Jim came out and we just said "Hi!" He was on the phone. We talked to Mick for a minute to ask him what he was eating, he said, "burger!" We left him alone after that. :toothy10:

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The Magnificent 6 by the buses!

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After that, we were looking for a place to grab a grub and maybe something to drink, but we did not want to go far either because the line was forming already. So, the only place that had alcohol and food in one place was this Indian-Tibetan restaurant right next door to Barrymore Theatre. When we walked in it smelled like turbine, yuck!!!! The food was okay, the drinks were excellent! That's more important! I had a promegranate martini, it was yummy! Our orders were pretty much messed up, but I was too excited to get mad...hehheh! :laughing5:

The Mag 6 having dinner at a Tibetan restaurant! Brave people! :evil6:

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We jumped right in line to get inside the theatre, the crowd was a mixture of people. Young and old, men and women, all equally psyched up to see Paolo!

The Mag 6 on our way to get in the theatre, ready to get whomped by Paolo Nutini, sorry Taylor! :evil6: :p

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Inside, excitement was building up, we knew that there were two opening acts like in Chicago. Liza and I grabbed the best 2nd and third row standing spot in the theatre. I think we must have left everyone else behind, just because we wanted to secure the best spots! We were able to inch our way into the very front of the stage but I had to leave to go potty!!!! Darn it~!!!!!!!!!!! :disbelief: :BangHead: :BangHead: :BangHead: I asked Jen and Sherry to save my spot so I could go to the bathroom, but I looked back and they were not there! Liza tried to save the spot for me, even had an argument with some chick because she was pushing to get into my spot, but hey, whatever! :rolleyes:

I did not go back to that spot, the rest of us found seats in the front row and we had a great spot, only that it was not close to the stage, but good enough! Liza stood on that same spot all night, and I felt tired for her! She said, she was too excited to feel tired, especially that Paolo was in front of her! I can't blame her! :love10:

Anyway, the whole night was just rockin! Paolo sang a mixture of his slower songs, new songs, old covers songs. The highlight of the night for me was Bang, Bang! OMG! He rocked it. The other song that I loved was the newer, You Can't Judge A Book..... the lyrics are amazing.

Gotcha Paolo, with your eyes wide open! :icon_thumright:

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Hot pics, yes!

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[IMG]http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k194/webchic00/Paolo%20Nutini/Madison/Avisioninwhite.jpg[/img] Thanks to Sherry for this!

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The whole night was magical, everyone was jumping. My vids were great, the pics were okay, but meeting Paolo by the buses afterwards was just amazing. He was such a wee little boy that we did not even know that he was already standing there. He was so small, and yet big! He commanded attention, that's how gorgeous this wee boy is!

Thanks to Sherry, we got a profile of his beautiful face! :thud:

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He was so friendly with us, happy to be taking pictures with us, and signing autographs. As a matter of fact, he took his sweet time while he was with me and Liza. We took a bunch of pics, there were several cameras taking pics and an incident of a camera malfunction and he patiently stood there with us. He had his arms around our waist, while we had our arms around his waist. He smelled fresh and for the first time, you can actually see his face in all these pics, his hair was out of his face.

He smells good and we held him so tight and so long...ohhh baby :love10: :love10: :love10: :p :kiss: !!!!! :thud: :thud: :thud:

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He found it funny that there were too many cameras on us, we were not sure which camera to look at, plus the flashes were very bright!! :laughing7:

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Paolo Sandwhich, anyone???? Ummm, yummy!!! :laughing7: :love10: :evil:

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"One more!" Paolo said....so here's one more!

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I got an autographed face towel that Paolo used to wipe his[s] snot [/s] sweat on stage... :evil6: :sick: :sad11: :icon_tongue:

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We kinda' felt bad that we were Paolo hoggers, we had to let him go for others to have time with him. But he said, "One more!" Meaning he wanted one more pic taken of us to make sure, how very SWEET! :love10: I said that I thought that he was so magnificent in Chicago that I came back to Madison to see him again. But before we let him go, he signed Sherry's shirt, signed Liza's shirt, and then Liza said, "Paolo, that was our LAST REQUEST!" And I started singing it for him!!!! He smiled and he signed a couple more autographs and he went running back into the theatre.

Here he is running back in:

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That was it, our trip back home was so quick, everyone was so sleepy, thank God for my co-pilot, Jorie, she kept me company and I delivered them home safe and sound.... that's my story and I'm stickin to it!!!!! :D

Taylor Hicks the man of soul...

I have done so many posts regarding Taylor Hicks. I have said everything I could possibly say about how he's changed the world of music, with his endearing love for old school soul, pop, rhythm and blues. His boyish southern gentlemanliness and shyness and yet intellectual rhetorics have captivated me as well. Not to mention how extremely talented he is and how he has made a fan out of everybody young and old, man and woman.

This year he is embarking on a solo tour after winning American Idol. I am beyond excited! I haven't seen him perform solo live and I was only subjected to watching them on fan made videos. Which I am eternally grateful to. Without these die hard fans, I would be lost! I know that he will rock every venue that he will set foot in. He has promised a 10 piece orchestra and mind blowing performances, well, he didn't say that..I said that. But you got the point.

He is coming to Chicago on March 29th at the House of Blues. I am there. He is going to the home of the Blues, Chicago. I cannot wait to see how his concert pans out. I know that being a Chicagoan, we are harder to please sometimes. There are artists who find having a Chicago concert exteremely intimidating sometimes. If your music is not bluesy or jazzy enough, chances are you will get bad press.

But for Taylor, I trust that he will be outstanding! He might even make converts out of people.
So, as I am waiting patiently for the time to come, I will be listening to every single song that Taylor has ever sung, old and new. Just so I can sing along with him and show him how his music rocks my world!