The Stadium Concert

I'd received the news about a week before that Ten Legs (the band formerly known as The Nomadz) were going to be playing a show at Daejon stadium. Never one to miss out on a photo op, I headed down to act out my role as official band photographer. We met up at The Bad Apple, appropriately enough, as that's where the whole Ten Legs saga started.

After a hearty breakfast, tea, last minute rehearsals and moving of equipment, we managed to get to the stadium. The band eventually got the stage for a sound check. Here's Vadim, Se, Laura, Nat and Marc getting warmed up in a slowly filling stadium.

After playing a couple of songs, it was back to waiting. And waiting. Followed by some more very exciting waiting. The Koreans did their best to keep us comfortable though, despite there not being a drop of water in the stadium (allegedly).

Having arrived at 3:30, the band finally got on the show on the road at about 7pm. They played a pretty mean set and got a great response from the audience. Hear Vadim introduce the band ( audio[1.7Mb]).

The guys were completely buzzed when they got off stage, and were bugging me to tell them how they sounded. I certainly enjoyed the show, and so did the crowd, who received them as well as the professional bands who played. Or so I have been told by friends who were in the crowd at the time.

We lost little time heading up to the seats to join the small gaggle of foreigners who'd made the short trip to see the free music. Beverages were not unreasonably priced, and we had a couple of beers while enjoying the rest of the show.

Two of the band members eventually headed off to a local bar, which is a shame, because they missed the surreal point of the night, which was when the band was mobbed by screaming teenage girls, all after autography.

Laura was determined to see the end of the concert due to the star guest, a really big star in this country, for whom she has a bit of a teenage girl thing going on. So we chilled back and enjoyed that atmosphere as the sun set and the night closed in.

The star guest did his turn, and thanks to the 'Staff' pass I had been provided with, I was able to get right up to one side of the stage and take a couple of shots, especially for Laura. He finished his turn by running around the soccer field with his dancers. Apparently he slipped and fell on his backside at one point, but I didn't even notice that, let alone capture it for posterity.

The evening ended with fireworks. Many evenings do out in Korea. There seem to be few regulations controlling their sale and use. It isn't unusual for kids to run around by the river shooting off rockets.

We ended the evening down at Santa Claus, named thusly because the owner is named Mr Ho. Here he is looking after the band, who look justifiably pleased with themselves. Job well done guys!

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