This year we celebrate the 250th birthday of Mozart, the 100th of Shostakovich, and less known, the 100th of Ahn Eak-tae (right, picture from the Chosun Ilbo), Korea’s best-known 20th century composer in the Western classical tradition. Probably his most famous work is the Korea Fantasy, a 25-30 minute work for chorus and orchestra, from … [Read More]
Category: Pop, rock and indie (page 42)
Vibe 3rd album: Re-feel
(Doremi media, March 2006) I think I’ve been overdosing on Korean R&B and ballads recently. Included in my recent YesAsia delivery was Vibe’s third album – another speculative purchase because I was under the mistaken impression that they were going to be playing in London so I thought I would see what I would be … [Read More]
Coming Soon
It’s going to take me a while to digest yesterday’s concert in the Fairfield Hall, but it’s going to get a thumbs up. In the meanwhile, I share with you a snapshot (apologies for the poor quality – it was taken, Korean-style, with a mobile phone) of Lee Soo-young, Kim Young-im and Joo Hyung-ki leading … [Read More]
SG Wannabe 3rd album
I know I’m not going to make myself popular with some of the visitors to this site, but I’m not going to give this CD a rave review. If I say that it’s the sort of music a teenager could put on the CD player and not have her father say “what are you listening … [Read More]
Crying Nut: Best — Wild Wild Live
I’m doing my preparatory work for the Korean festival, and put this on my CD player last night when I should have been going to bed. The resulting explosion from the speakers can’t have endeared me to my neighbours. The sound of Crying Nut reminds me a bit of the Kaiser Chiefs in I predict … [Read More]
Mayday transport wanted
As I write this, I’m listening to Lee Soo Young’s 7th Album. And while there are elements which are identifiably and obviously Korean (someone needs to do a detailed analysis of the harmonic progressions in Korean romantic popular music to substantiate the claim that there is such a thing as identifiably Korean music, but there … [Read More]
Never trust KBS. Ever.
Sorry to disappoint you (and myself), but the alleged concert by Lee Soo Young, SG Wannabe etc in London on 24 May is a figment of KBS’s fevered imagination. Trying to find anyone in London who knows anything about Lee Soo Young’s appearance at all is a huge struggle anyway (and details are STILL not … [Read More]
A little gripe about CD packaging
I’m turning into one of those grumpy old men who gets annoyed by the stupidest of things. A very trivial rant today prompted by the latest delivery from YesAsia (I’m mugging up in preparation for the K-pop concert which I hope is happening on 24 May but which no-one apart from KBS seems to know … [Read More]
Sorry, another rant
So it seems that in order to find out what’s happening in the UK we all have to be avid followers of Seoul-based K-Pop forums. Further to my post yesterday I ran another google search on “Think Korea 2006”, and I found out that three days ago there was a posting at Soompi.com that broke … [Read More]
Frustration at more examples of poor Korean organisation
Thanks to Hyun-ho Khang for letting me know about a Korean performance by the Royal Philharmonic at the Fairfield Halls on the Mayday bank holiday. And absolutely no marks to the organisers of Think Korea 2006 and the Fairfield Halls for not publishing the programme. The RPO’s website doesn’t even acknowledge the existence of the … [Read More]
Hyori withdraws “plagiarism” single
Lee Hyori has decided that discretion is the better part of valour, and has withdrawn performances of her single Get Ya!, from her album Dark Angel, which allegedly steals from Britney Spears’s Do Somethin’. [Read More]
Korean protests baffle Belgians
I can’t put it better than the Chosun Ilbo’s own headline. One of the more peculiar stories. In fact today’s Chosun is packed with entertaining stories: Britney Spears’s songwriters accuse Lee Hyo-lee of plagiarism; and a sex survey by pharmaceutical company Bayer finds Korean men the most selfish in bed. [Read More]
BoA not quite top of the world pops
Again, I’m a little slow on the uptake, but megastar BoA managed to make it to number 2 in the worldwide pop charts last week with her new Japanese release “Outgrow”. Others are better qualified than me to comment on the workings of the global pop music industry, but the charts seem to be dominated … [Read More]
Roller Coaster play the Mean Fiddler
The closing event of the 2005 London Korean Festival. Roller Coaster + support Thursday 19 May 2005, 19:30 – 23:00 London Astoria Theatre (Mean Fiddler: B1) Tickets : ticket office at London Astoria theatre (close to Tottenham Court Road tube station) GBP 12.00 (students GBP 10.00) – in advance GBP 15.00 (students GBP 12.00) – … [Read More]
2005 London Korean Festival – programme details
Here is the programme of events that formed the 2005 London Korean Festival, organised by the Korean Anglican Community Centre. Although this post’s datestamp is May 2005 so that it appears in the appropriate month of this site’s calendar archive, it is actually being uploaded in September 2019, and is being posted for archival purposes. … [Read More]
Kim Jong Seo, + Love and Peace, at the London Astoria
Details of the rock concert as part of the 2004 London Korean Festival, culled from the Web Archive: The London Korean Festival Rock Concert A man of great presence in South Korea rock: KIM Jong Seo Mythical heroes: Love and Peace Saturday 22 May 2004, 7pm – 10pm London Astoria Theatre. Charing Cross Road. After … [Read More]