Belinda Carlisle, Howard Jones and The Human League in Manila, October 10, 2011

It was like some sort of grand high school reunion last night, as lovers of new wave music descended at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in a concert topbilled by the Human League, Howard Jones and Belinda Carlisle.  The queue alone easily identified the age range these acts were playing to - as everyone already had a certain gait!  Looking around - there were no young people last (30 years old or less), maybe just 1% of the audience!

Anyhow, Vic and I arrived around 8:30PM, which is actually early but when we entered the coliseum, we already saw Belinda Carlisle performing.  We only heard her perform three songs and I don't think she started much earlier since when we arrived, it was still quiet inside the coliseum.  Of course, we had to buy our food first before entering because I was really famished!  Methinks she only did four songs, which was a disappointment really, since among the three acts, I knew her discography really really well. She also performed without a band, just a pre-recorded sing-along thingie which really pales in comparison with a live band! We heard her do We Got the Beat, Leave A Light On and Heaven Is A Place On Earth.

At around 9:30PM, Howard Jones started his set, which was a lot!  He actually sang all his hits from No One is to Blame, Things Can Only Get Better, What is Love, Life in One Day, Everlasting Love plus some of his really early work.  His set was well-received  as the audienced danced to some of those hits.  I didn't stand up though because the guy was really huge and the spotlight pointing at the singers was above my head!  Of course, I discovered later that even if I stood up, it won't hit my head, but I couldn't raise my hands without blocking it!  So the most I could lift my hands were up to my head level!

The Human League started their set around 11PM and they didn't perform a hit till after 20 minutes later when they did Human.  They did some more new songs before performing Tell Me When, Keep Feeling Fascination and Don't You Want Me.  Interestingly, they prepared an encore - and the high school party favorite (I think Grade 7 for me) Together In Electric Dreams had everyone standing and singing along.  I was actually dancing already when they played Tell Me When although I don't think many people knew the song!

Anthony Pangilinan and Gilbert Remulla were in our section and both still look hot!  I learned later on that they were older than me but they were so thin and young looking, I hate them, hahaha!  Oh well, that should give me more incentive not to eat too much and take care of my looks more.  If these guys can look yummy at that age, there's no reason I couldn't!