Feeling Blue: The boys make a showing, finally

Feeling Blue: The boys make a showing, finally

Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

First there was the gokart accident, and then came the SARS
epidemic and the inevitable, foreboding travel warning.

So the Australian Embassy blast earlier this month could have
been another good reason for British boyband Blue to delay their
performance here for the third time.

While they were a long time coming, on Thursday night, to the
delight of about 3,500 concert-goers, mostly teenagers, they
finally made it to Bung Karno Indoor Stadium in Senayan, South
Jakarta.

But was it worth the wait?

For it's a given at a boyband concert that fans will get
hysterical at just a glimpse of their idols, regardless of the
quality of the performance.

Even if Thursday's concert turned out to be perfunctory, bland
and failed to camouflage the group's unemotional, generic and
derivative songs, everybody understood. Or they did not really
care.

However, despite a few sliding falsettos, at least the members
of Blue showed they were not completely inferior in the vocal
department.

There was no denying the harmonization was pretty neat, as
they belted out their hits If You Come Back, Guilty, U Make Me
Wanna, All Rise and One Love.

"We're very sorry for twice delaying our concert here. I hope
we're not disappointing anyone. We apologize," said Duncan
Matthew James, before singing Elton John's 1976 hit Sorry Seems
to be the Hardest Word, together with three fellow members Antony
Costa, Simon Webbe and Lee Ryan.

At the press conference earlier Thursday, promoter Adrie
Subono of Java Musikindo made a rather strange appeal to
journalists for them not to ask about the recent bombing.

"They only want questions related to music. So, please don't
ask them about the bombing. It might ruin their mood on stage,"
Adrie said.

Perhaps the group has decided to dodge political questions,
out of fear of making another insensitive comment that lands them
in trouble.

Blue had many seeing red when Ryan, claiming to be the most
outspoken member of the boyband, announced to the press that
people were overreacting to the 9/11 attacks, and that saving
animals, like the whales, was more important.

Ryan, whose injury in a gokart accident had led to the group
calling off one of the previously scheduled Jakarta concerts,
later apologized for the remark.

Adrie may have been particularly sensitive before the concert
as two artists he invited to come, American young diva Alicia
Keys and classical crossover quartet bond, called off their
performances in the wake of the Sept. 9 bombing.

With just Blue left, perhaps it was a case of doing anything
to keep the boys happy.

Initial tickets sales were slow, as many parents did not want
to let their teens watch the show due to security fears,
especially with rumors flying of a second blast about to happen.

Enter Australian pop singer Derek McDonald and Indonesian Idol
runner up Delon as the added draw as opening acts.

The tactic worked; the concert was not a full house, but 3,500
of 5,000 tickets sold was pretty good, considering the
circumstances.

McDonald received a lukewarm reaction, but Delon was greeted
with shrieks and screams, even if he only sang two classic songs
and one song of his own from his upcoming album.

Blue then took over, with minimal lighting, four dancers and a
group of musicians.

As boybands go, it has to be said that Blue can hold its own
among its peers.

They first came to public attention with their debut single,
the dance track All Rise, which shot to number four on the UK
charts in 2001. The album of the same name eventually sold 1.5
million copies in Britain alone.

Commercial success followed with One Love, an R&B-tinged pop
album, where they did a duet with Elton John. The album sold over
1.3 million copies in their homeland and 2.7 million worldwide.

On their third album, last year's Guilty, the group again
collaborated with another musical legend, this time Stevie
Wonder, in reprising his classic Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm
Yours.

They won several awards in the United Kingdom, and topped the
charts in Sweden, Italy, the Netherlands, Australia and New
Zealand.

Blue is also big in Asia, with their songs receiving high
airplay on radio and MTV.

They grabbed the best pop video award at MTV Japan, the best
international group from MTV Southeast Asia and scored big with
their albums in Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia and also Indonesia.

Several Asian artists were gathered to cover their hit One
Love with the boys. Again, who needed a big extravaganza of a
concert when a simple one would do just fine?

Meanwhile, back on stage in Senayan, Ryan teased the screaming
audience by opening his belt, unzipping his pants to flash his
white briefs while dancing seductively.

Ah, let them be and savor those 15 minutes of fame. For it
will be just a matter of time before they join the ranks of
Robbie Williams and Justin Timberlake, or become a "where are
they now?" question when the next group of cute teenage boys
comes along.