Snow Patrol, live in Manila at the Araneta Coliseum

Believe it or not, I had never heard of the band! However, one of my old friend from my music industry days is now a big promoter in the region here and he often times has shows on in places like Bangkok, Singapore, Jakarta or Manila. Although we haven't met in over 20 years, we still stayed in touch through Facebook and he saw that I was making my way up from Subic after my dive adventures on the side mount course and he invited me to come and see the show last night, with the red carpet laid out all the way, back stages passes et all were waiting for me!

Snow Patrol during their show

The venue, the Araneta Coliseum is probably best known for the 'Thrilla in Manila' the last out of 3 fights between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, which took place 1st October, 1975.

A poster advertising the show

Due to the recent flood problems in and around of Manila, it wasn't clear how much the show would be affected, the Smashing Pumkins only had 2.500 people during their show on the height of the floods at the same, 9.000 capacity venue just two days ago. There were 5.000 expected due to the circumstances for this show.

The crowd and the stage, picture by Kris Rocha, the pro version

It turned out even better and around 6.000 people came to see the show. It was also a good show. The band has catchy songs and besides their hit 'Chasing Cars' they had a couple of other real good songs in their repertoire. I enjoyed the show and the band! Internet in my hotel is really slow, I made a vdo of Chasing Cars but can't upload it in my hotel, I will add this vdo somewhere over the weekend and add it to this post, so stay tuned.

My not so pro version of the crowd, taken from next to the stage, 'stage right'!

All Acces

Chasing Cars

Thanks Wim, it will be good of we meet next time a bit earlier than another 20 year wait!

Don't forget to use my Camille's Samui hotel recommendation blog and my Camille's Thailand hotel recommendation blog for all your hotel bookings on Koh Samui and around Thailand. By doing so, you will support my blog. Thanks folks!

Camille