911 Arena Special

The last goodbye for 911?
By Jason Cheah

Pictures by Abdul Rahman Senin

PERHAPS the crowd size was a telling factor but success in this region seems to be a hard thing to hang on to lately for British boy band 911.

The release of the trio of North Englishmen Jimmy Constable, Lee Brennan and Spike Dawbarn's cover album There It Is did garner its first-ever British No.1 single in the form of a cover of the late 70s Dr Hook hit A Little Bit More.

The album itself did enough to convince the group's British fans of its versatility in the music stakes.

Trying to convince boy band fans here in Malaysia is a totally different story, though, and sales of the album at 18,000 copies was a far cry from the two previous albums (Moving On _ more than 60,000; and The Journey _ a whopping 225,000 copies).

The recently released Greatest Hits & A Little Bit More fared even worse since its release last November, with sales yet to reach 10,000 copies.

Constable (left), Brennan and Dawbarn (below) try to keep their spirits up performing to an audience of 1,000 in a hall that can accommodate 4,000.

But back to the crowd at Putra World Trade Centre's Dewan Merdeka last Sunday night where 911 performed as part of its current Asian tour.

Just 1,000 die-hard fans in a hall that had a potential of accommodating 4,000 must have been a blow to the trio. Ticket prices at RM90 and RM75 and the fact that it was a Sunday night during a non-school holiday period may have been other factors for the low turnout as well.

The boys did try to keep their spirits up with jokes and some banter though ... "all 10 of you out there" was Brennan's quip somewhere in the middle of the 80-minute-plus showcase covering 18 songs from 911's three studio album releases and one greatest hits package.

A showcase it turned out to be in the end, with no live band, and using backing tracks and what sounded suspiciously like playbacks for many of the tracks instead.

The enthusiasm was there, from the boys and from the fans who bothered to pay and turn up for the evening, but the energy which the boys showed during their last showcase here in October 1998 was definitely missing.

The night's proceedings did start out with a bang, as the driving intro of the boys favourite pop floor stomper Bodyshakin' introduced the boys one by one starting with Constable, followed by Dawbarn and then Brennan, all dressed in bulletproof-style black vest over white tops and black pants.

The mid-tempo beats of How Do You Want Me to Love You, All I Want Is You, the disco cover of Boogie Nights (perhaps unfortunately lost on the crowd of mainly teeny boppers in the hall) and party stormer Party People ... Friday Night made for enough of a partying mood for the crowd.

For once, there was no problem of getting crushed so there was an opportunity for the (mostly) girls to dance and prance and wave their hands about in abandon.

Unfortunately the middle portion of the set tended to be so ballad-heavy that you'd be forgiven if you thought you were in a showcase featuring Westlife instead, with nine songs including The Day We Find Love, Baby Come Back (another cover), One More Try, Our Last Goodbye, Moving On, If You'd Only Love Me, Reunited, A Little Bit More and The Journey.

The set did pick up near the end, with yet another disco cover More Than A Woman and Don't Make Me Wait before the boys seemingly rushed their last two songs, so much that none of us knew whether Wonderland and Love Sensation were actually encores or not.

And the goodbyes were sweet but swift, leaving you wondering a little at the abrupt ending of the night's proceedings.

In fact, the revelation of the night was Danish girl R&B trio Juice.

The slick performance supporting 911 by Maria Jensen, Anne Rani and new member Eve Home (who's actually English) almost stole the show.

Renditions of cool R&B-flavoured numbers such as I've a Dream, Best Days and I Do it For You were about as smooth as you can get. And although the cover of 10cc's classic Not in Love wasn't exactly this writer's favourite, it didn't detract from a very professional approach, belying the fact that it's actually the first outing for the girls' new material from their second album, Can We Get Personal, outside of Denmark.

The energetic rendition of dance R&B-garage-influenced floor groover My Love proved that these girls are still well on their way up the Euro-R&B stakes.

But in 911's case, it wasn't so pretty a picture. It was almost as if it was just a run-of-the-mill performance for the boys and judging by the bored looks of some of the fans sitting down near the middle of the open standing room area--especially during the ballad portion--they thought so too.

As for the first support group, the local Soulstreet, peddling an out-of-date mode of hip hop--"the lamest hip hop I've ever heard" was overheard somewhere in the hall--the less said about them the better.

And the less said about that annoying hostess from MTV who emceed the concert the better, too.

Oh yes, rumours of the pending 911 break-up still abound, and somewhere in the middle of the set there was that song Our Last Goodbye. One wonders if this may be the last we'll see of the North Englishmen in this format.

If so, it'll be sad to see them go. If not, then perhaps the next time they do visit our shores, more of you will go out and see them, whether you have to pay for a ticket or not.

Back to Previous Page