You may wonder why there was designated seat in a rock concert? How the hell should I know? The only reason I could think of is that the arena where Suede's previous concert was held had been reserved by the Disney on Ice. In fact, that venue, namely the Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention Centre, is not good for concert as the sound there is always crap. And there are not many options left. Hence, Queen Elizabeth Stadium, where Brett, Richard, Mat and Simon first visited this town, seems to be the only choice. The arrangement for the designated seats made the price of the ticket so bloody expensive. The most expensive one, like what I had bought, cost HK$680 (Around US$ 87, which you can spend on watching them in London for almost 3 times!). I was so struggled to buy that and it made me feel aching all the time before the concert. Since then, I tried my best to "prepare" for the Suede concert, i.e. by listening to the most likely songs that would be played again and again. This ensured I could be familiar with their songs and enjoy every single second of the concert.

The show:
Let's get it straight and cut the bulls**t. The concert was supposed to start at 8 p.m. and I arrived in the venue 45 minutes prior . However, I still missed out one scene as Simon had been going down from the backstage and stayed on a staircase for a short while. Luckily my brother did catch the shot and took some precious pictures of him. Then, we had to wait for another hour before seeing what we wanna see!

After we got into the hall, we found the so called "seat" only provided leg space for those shorter than 5 feet 10 only. But who cares? No one prepared to sit with Suede unless you are a moron or unable to stand! Anyway, the audience kept coming in and the technicians were having the final check of the stuffs. The atmosphere became hotter and hotter. Suddenly, all the fans rushed to the front or jumped up on their seats. It seemed to be an instinct and here you know the concert was about to start!!! Yes, here they came!!! Brett, Richard, Alex, Simon and Mat came up to the stage together and moved to their own position. The long-awaited show finally commenced !

They kicked the show off with the "Beautiful Loser". One of the best choices to start a gig as it could raise the mood of all audiences almost instantly. We just clapped along with Brett and pointed fingers to him when he sang "you" in the verve "well you... beautiful loser. Well you... beautiful lay". There was even a projection of "You" on the screen behind the stage. Some of us even managed to do the finger sign "1-6-1" to him. This song already set us on fire!

After some greetings from Brett, there came a familiar drumbeat. That's the one from "She"! I don't really like it when I first heard that in "Coming Up" until my first live encounter with Suede. (They started the gig with "She" in the '97 gig in HK under the extended drumbeat. The members walked to the stage separately in a gorgeous way and that's the point when I really started my obsession of Suede!). Then it changed my impression on it and I really couldn't believe myself that they played it again! I just couldn't control myself and shouted "S-H-E" right before Brett started to sing. As usual, he shook and moved in a feminine way during this song and made everyone screamed louder. And up till that moment, my vocal chord surrendered and I lost my voice.

However, they just didn't let us rest but brought us to a higher ground by "Trash"! I think everyone in the crowd had lost control and moved with Brett. We automatically became a choir under the conduction of Mr Brett Lewis Anderson and sang along "We're traaassssh, you and me... We're the litter on the breeze... We're the lovers on the streets..." Even those who are not familiar with this song (endangered species in the hall?) chanted along!

"Want some more?" Brett shouted and the crowd replied "Yeaaaahhhh!" He asked once again and the reply was obviously the same. Then I know it's the time. It's the time for "Metal Mickey"! Oh man, what kind a roller-coaster was it? How come it only rise and never moved down? If you have ever heard this live in Suede's concert, you would know the power of this song. Except some really rare new fans of them who might not heard of it before, everyone became insane!

Brett also jumped and moved energetically in every corner of the stage. Richard and Alex played their guitar powerfully as if they were having a competition, yet still making the sounds out harmonically. (I lacked wordings to describe already but it's only the very beginning of the concert!). Mat seemed to be particularly concerned about the audiences on the right hand side of the stage and swung with his bass to their direction to catch their attention. And Simon, although he's at the back, still playing hardly and every drumbeat hit firmly on our heart. At some moments, I even afraid I would suffer from heart attack!

It was followed by "Filmstar", which we shouted and waved our hands under the rhythm in the chorus "Filmstar... filmstar... yeah yeah yeah...". And before "Streetlife", Brett wanted the chant and told us "the next song is from our new album!" The crowd seemed to be stunned and not much reply (What happened? Deaf already?) He asked again and told us to cheer. Here we got wake up again and the cheer was huge! We were rewarded with the powerful rhythm guitar from Alex and Brett sang the charismatic intro "...Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh, check it out!" That's also a wonderful song to jump along with!

Then Alex put down his guitar and moved to the keyboard and I know it's time to have the romantic ones. Somehow it's a recess for all of the audience to recover. What we could hear was "Everything Will Flow". It's one of the smash hits of Suede in town and everybody waved their hands along with Brett. It was then followed by "Lost in TV", which personally, I think should be the next single, if there is any. Brett played this song with his maraca and there was also a projection of "Everybody wants it now" at the back, which was a good sign to instruct the fans to sing along!

The star man then wanna teach us to sing "She's in fashion". He counted "1, 2, 3, 4..." and pointed his microphone to us.
May be we were not pros and also feel exhausted for our voice, the sounds was a bit... well, you know what I mean. After a few trials, Brett commented "that's acceptable" and here we started. The effect was not bad at all.

After that, we got another classic. I screamed again after I heard the first few note of the intro and shouted along with the crowd, "She can... start... to walk out... when she want!" Yes, it's "So Young". The die hards went crazy and shook their heads along with the guys. The band's performance was brilliant!!! And Brett ended the song with his trademark, by swinging the mic over his head and roping around his body. Richard even walked aside to provide space for the action! The next song was "New Generation". This time, everyone went mad again. It's really a good dedication to the young guns in the concert. (In fact, the average age of the audience was much younger than I expected!). Brett smiled a lot. In fact, he smiled all the night.
According to all the lives I watched, I had never seen him smiled that much. That's really a smile of satisfaction from his heart. Although there were lots of technical problems during the gig, (e.g. problems with Brett's ear phone and mute of Alex's guitar) the show was just superb. Even his unsafe zip on his pants cannot hinder Brett's performance!

After that Brett took a sip of water, as if prepared for something seriously. Then, all of us heard a heart-catching note. Really just the first note was good enough for us to identify this mellow, romantic song of Suede. Bingo, it's "The Wild Ones". It's my all time favourite of their composition. The best song I've ever heard! The melodic introduction got everybody attention and put us into the position. "There's a song playing on the radio..." Everybody was singing along, waving their hands and moving their body. You could see the flames from lighters and light from luminescence tubings. Brett even sang this with his body lying on the stage. Mat and Simon were singing along too! The situation was so touching that you could find tear drops in some of the eyes there!

The following song was the first single of ANM, "Positivity". To be honest, this song is a bit ordinary in the album. But in live, it's another level. That's the magic of Suede. Live version could always be better than the album version. Shortly after, we had another climax (well... for me, all songs were climax!!!). I would be totally mad for every time I hear it! Another one from their debut album: "Animal Nitrate". The guitar line was so outstanding that it's like a hook to my heart. Again, their performance was so superb that I lost words to describe again. During the clappy at the end of the song, Brett even threw away the mic and just to clap and shake! He even needed to find the mic before they started to play "Can't Get Enough"! That should be the best description of our feeling at that moment. You will never get enough for watching their live!

After almost an hour of excitement, Brett sadly told us it's the time for the last song. I think you can guess everyone shouted "no". However, this next one was really a surprise to everyone in the arena. They played a groovy, sentimental jam at the beginning. Everyone was wondering what the band would play. Even when Alex picked up the harmonica, we still had no clue until Brett sang the first line. Oh my god, it's "Obsessions". He sang it in a jazzy bluesy manner. You really would get surprises for attending Suede's concert! Everyone was so obsessed to this version and can't help singing along! After the first verve, Brett's shouted "Let's do it" and everything resumed to the normal version. The live version is even better than the album one! (Actually, that's always true for Suede!!) After that, the first part of the gig ended in real excited atmosphere and the band left the stage.

As you could guess, everyone of the audience didn't let the band go that early and were shouting "We want more", "Suede, Suede, Suede..." and etc. After a real short while, Brett alone came back to the stage and sat on a stool with an acoustic guitar. Although it's obvious that he was going to play a quiet one, everyone was still screaming wildly and thus Brett asked the crowd to calm down a bit. The audiences were rewarded with "The Living Dead". It's really a good song with nice melody and I was so happy to hear that. Even it's a b-side, many still able to sing along!

The acoustic set ended and the other band members came back again. The crowd went crazy again and the band played "Astrogirl". After that, Brett asked the audiences for what they would like to hear next. I heard many people shouted "The 2 of us" or "We are the pigs". My brother and I shouted "The Power". However, Brett seemed to hear someone else suggestion and think that's a nice choice. The "selected one" was "Saturday Night". He even went down from the stage and walked along the aisle between the stage and the audience. Although I lost my sight with him, I can guess everyone in the first row was so crazy at that time. Luckily, Brett could still go back and the stage!

After a couple of slow songs, the crowd was charged up again with "Electricity"! No one was lacked of energy at that time. Although we could hear that Brett's voice was not as good as in the beginning of the show, he and the other band members were still playing with 200% effort!

Happy times flied fast and this should be the feeling of all the audience when Brett announced the next one would be the last song for the show. Although everyone felt sad for it, they were happy with the song because it was dedicated to everyone in the arena. And it's one of the most beloved songs of the band, "The beautiful Ones"! All the audiences were chanting along, jumping, swinging, jumping or did whatever they could. Every beautiful ones was able to echo back "la la la ..." at the end of the song. At last, the band waved goodbye to the audiences and left the stage!

Although the band already said goodbye, but most of the fans still didn't wanna leave! Cheers and chants still echoing in the arena. The atmosphere wasn't cooler than any moment before. Even when the technicians started to switch off the amplifiers, the dedicated fans decided to stay. About 10 minutes later, miracle happened: the guys turned on the amp again. No need to explain further and after a very brief moment, Suede was back!! They would have second encore again in Hong Kong! I could even see Alex was still eating some snacks! "We don't normally do this....," Brett explained the reason why they came back was all because of the lovely fans in Hong Kong. That's true! The atmosphere of Suede's concert in Hong Kong is always incredible. That's why Suede told many media that Hong Kong was one of the best places to hold their concert! After some words from Brett (I couldn't really remember what he said as I was already out of my mine!), the members back to the position and then we can hear a thundering drumbeat. A real classic this time: "The Drowners"!!! That's really for the long time die hard fans! We were really drowned once again with Suede!

Epilogue:
Well well...what a night and what a show!!!! What a superb concert of Suede (again!) in Hong Kong!! Personally, I really think these guys enjoyed so much to play in Hong Kong. And what they showed the audiences are always their best. There are also lots of surprises in the concert, just like the warm charming smile of Brett and the bluesy version of "Obsessions". Although the sound system in the stadium was not that good and there were lots of technical problems during the concert, I still think it's the best Suede concert I had ever watched in Hong Kong. And the "souvenirs" that I got were some pictures, temporary impaired hearing and extremely tired body. Of course, included a nice memory deep in my mind!

However, my encounter with Suede in the ANM tour didn't just stopped here. There was another one 5 days after the Hong Kong gig. That's the one in Fort Canning, Singapore...[To be continued]

Beautiful Loser
She
Trash
Metal Mickey
Filmstar
Streetlife
Everything Will Flow
Lost in TV
She's in Fashion
So Young
New Generation
The Wild Ones
Positivity
Animal Nitrate
Can't Get Enough
Obsessions

encore:
The Living Dead
Astro Girl
Saturday Night
Electricity
Beautiful Ones

second encore:
The Drowners