Pu had been fretting over the possibility of fights breaking out in the crowd, as sometimes happens during and after his shows, and sure enough, the authorities had advised him this concert was risky.

Pu said he doesn’t particularly like doing outdoor shows in Bangkok anyway.

Boom Boom Cash and SkyPass were to have opened the proceedings at Oasis Arena.

At the earlier press conference where the concert was announced, Pu was asked about the likelihood of a brawl breaking out among his boisterous fans.

“I’ll try to make this show safe and enjoyable for everyone,” he chuckled.

“Of course I worry very much about the safety of the audience. We’ve often had brawls at my concerts, so much so that I got a reputation for sparking quarrels and fights. I was recently prohibited from performing at a pub in Muang Thong Thani. It hurts my career.”

Pu was asked what he’d do if mayhem broke out at the Show DC concert.

“I’m afraid to answer the question,” he said. “I don’t know what I’d do – I can’t join in the fighting, and at the same time I can’t dissuade it. We’re as prepared as we can be for any possibility. We’re always ready, actually, because we play every day, mostly outside Bangkok.”

The name of the concert, “Phi Rong Yen”, is the title of a song Pu wrote when he was still in elementary school in his native Nong Khai.

It was the name of a local hospital morgue that frightened the neighbourhood youngsters. The song is about childhood insecurities.

The leading US orchestra is throwing a gala Tuesday for the Lunar New Year that will feature the US premiere of Andy Akiho’s “Ricochet,” a concerto with violin, percussion — and ping pong.

Two US ping pong champions, Ariel Hsing and Michael Landers, will play the game on stage, with the ball’s percussive back-and-forth on the table and their paddles turning into an instrument in its own right.

The Philharmonic, announcing the program, described “Ricochet” as a “playful, rhythm-heavy piece” that “explores the musical potential of the ping pong balls.”

The piece premiered in 2015 at the Music in the Summer Air Festival in Shanghai.

Akiho said that the concerto was inspired by ping pong diplomacy — the famous 1971 chapter in the Pacific powers’ relationship, when a US table tennis team visited China, starting to set the stage for a normalization of ties that had been frozen since the communist victory in the civil war.

Akiho, born in South Carolina and based in New York, explores innovative rhythms and sounds by bringing non-traditional instruments into classical music, notably the steel pan.

The New York Philharmonic has been holding black-tie galas to celebrate the Chinese New Year since 2012, part of its effort to raise the orchestra’s international profile and build ties with a fast-growing audience for classical music.

The annual concerts are led by Long Yu, the music director of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra who is considered China’s leading conductor.

Lockwood, who turned 62 on February 11, died early on Sunday morning. The night before his death, he had performed at Paris jazz venue Bal Blomet.

“His wife, his three daughters, his family, his agent, his co-workers and his record label are sad to announce the sudden passing of Didier Lockwood,” his agent said in a statement.

Lockwood was playing at a jazz festival when he met Grappelli, another French jazz great who founded a string quintet called the Hot Club of France in 1934 with gypsy guitar legend Django Reinhardt.

The violinist invited the then 20-year-old Lockwood to join him on a European tour, kicking off an international career in which he gave around 4,500 concerts and released more than 35 records.

“That was the start of my career, the launchpad that got me into the world of popular jazz,” Lockwood told Radio France in 2008.

Lockwood was committed to music education, in 2001 setting up the Didier Lockwood Music Centre in a town south of Paris teaching improvisation according to a jazz violin method he developed.

French culture minister Francoise Nyssen described Lockwood as “deeply generous and outgoing” and said he would be missed by “his friends, music and all the children he wished to enlighten with his passion”.

“He wanted to make music without borders or prejudices,” she added.

Born in 1956 in Calais to a French-Scottish family, Lockwood, whose father was a music teacher, gained an early taste for improvisation thanks to his elder brother Francis, a jazz pianist.

Aged 17, Lockwood joined a popular French prog rock band called Magma. He later threw himself into a multitude of musical projects and collaborations, experimenting with varied jazz styles, both electric and acoustic, from classical fusion to gypsy swing.

During his career, he wrote two operas, violin and piano concertos, lyrical works and music for films and cartoons.

“France has lost an exceptional musician, a man with rare qualities,” wrote violinist Renaud Capucon on Twitter.

Lockwood’s widow is the coloratura soprano Patricia Petibon, acclaimed for her interpretations of French Baroque music.

The couple had just recorded an album together, said Lockwood’s agent Christophe Deghelt, who called him “Mr. 100,000 volts” and said the musician had a “huge” number of projects under way when he died.

Lockwood was previously married to the singer Caroline Casadesus, with whom he had created a musical called “Jazz and the diva”.

Hailing from Southern France, Amine Edge & Dance have taken the dance world by storm with their ground-breaking sound and high energy shows.

Mining the musical spectrum and taking inspiration from early House, Philli Funk, 80’s Hip-House and everything in between, Amine Edge & Dance bring their own cross-genre blend of Tech and House to clubs and festivals across the globe. Having enjoyed a meteoric rise, the CUFF label bosses have now cemented themselves as the leaders of their genre and the go-to guys for the best dressed parties in town!

With a slew of new releases being lined up and their label, CUFF – a collective of artists much more talented than most – going from strength to strength and making its mark as a musical movement all of its own, 2016 promises to be the biggest year yet for the best mates from Marseille and the year when their own brand of Hip-Hop influenced bass heavy House will dominate the sound of the best parties in the biggest cities across the globe.

Entry fee is Bt400 including one drink. Book a table by calling (063) 225 1331.

Born in the northern parts of South Africa’s east coast, Culolethu Zulu, to give him his real name, hasn’t looked back since putting passion at the forefront.

Culoe’s serious music career began in early 2007 where he produced a piece that made him a feature in Black Coffee’s second offering, “Have Another One”. The track was named “100 Zulu Warriors” and carries a fundamental importance for Culoe De Song as he regards it as ‘his beginning’ in the circle of music in South Africa.

In 2008, he produced a number of projects that gained him international recognition and performed alongside such international acts such as Rocco, Manoo, Black Coffee, and Vinny Da Vinci. This was after his performance as a DJ was noted by the likes of Dj Christos, one of South Africa’s pioneers in the dance music scene.

He then joined Soulistic Music, a label founded by Black Coffee, where he remains today. Tracks such as “Dwellers of the Jungle”, “Inspiration”, “100 Zulu Warriors (Remix)” made compilation releases in South Africa.

Culoe De Song will be supported by FunkyGangster. For more information and table reservations, call (02) 392 7750.

The New York Philharmonic will celebrate immigrants and highlight “music of conscience” in a strikingly modern season that features five world premieres.

The leading US orchestra late Tuesday announced its first season under incoming music director Jaap van Zweden, a Dutch violinist turned maestro who some observers had presumed to be most interested in leading refined performances of the classical canon.

But the 2018-19 season will take on themes of activism and immigrants’ contributions to New York City – an unspoken statement in the age of President Donald Trump and his nativist “America First” platform.

Among the world premieres will be “prisoner of the state” by leading US composer David Lang, a contemporary reinterpretation of Beethoven’s sole opera, “Fidelio,” about a disguised guard who rescues her husband from a political prison.

Van Zweden, speaking at an event to launch the season, said he considered the opera a “wonderful statement from us” that will close the season.

Lang’s opera will be part of a series that the Philharmonic calls “Music of Conscience.” Other works will include Beethoven’s “Eroica,” which he famously undedicated to Napoleon; Shostakovich’s “Chamber Symphony,” written as he weathered intense pressure from Soviet authorities, and US composer John Corigliano’s 1988 “Symphony No 1” that touched on the AIDS epidemic.

The Philharmonic will also put its principles into practice – and take a new stab at classical music’s eternal quest to rejuvenate audiences – with a series of $5 concerts conducted by Van Zweden.

The one-hour concerts – dubbed “Phil the Hall” – will be open to teachers, first responders and others involved in public service.

Deborah Borda, the orchestra’s new president and chief executive who has moved quickly to shore up its financial health, said the $5 (Bt160) concerts aimed to bring in “people who might not normally come to the Philharmonic – partly because they’ve never been invited, partly because there could be an economic barrier.”

Another world premiere, “Fire in My Mouth” by composer Julia Wolfe, will be accompanied by multimedia projections as it looks back at the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.

The blaze, made worse by unsafe working conditions, was the deadliest in New York City’s history with 146 workers killed, most of them immigrant women.

Borda said that the piece was part of the Philharmonic’s look at how immigrants “built our city”.

“We all know New York is a city of immigrants, and that is our pride and our strength,” she said.

Van Zweden said he was intimately aware of New York’s immigrant history. As a cash-strapped student at The Julliard School, he said he lived in Spanish Harlem and would play soccer in Central Park with Mexican and Puerto Rican youngsters.

“I learned the city from the street where I’m from, I would say. And it was wonderful.”

The season will open with a yet-untitled world premiere by Ashley Fure, a scholar in her mid-30s who researches the forces behind sound.

Fure said that the Philharmonic’s decision to throw its weight “behind the voice of a young, female composer at the start of a new era is a very rare and profound choice.”

Women’s lack of representation has been a topic of growing concern in the cultural world.

The other world premieres in the 2018-19 season will include a commissioned piece from 23-year-old piano prodigy Conrad Tao and “Agamemnon,” a work inspired by Greek mythology by Dutch composer Louis Andriessen.

The Gypsy Carnival, the outdoor festival that mingles music, motorcycles and muggy nights spent inside camping tents, had a successful third edition on the Ton Phueng Farm in Ratchaburi last weekend, with more people than ever attending.

It’s always a surprising affair, concerts taking place in a circus atmosphere and everyone dressed in their Bohemian best. And it wasn’t muggy at all night – under 20 degrees – though there seemed to be more dust in the air this time.

The venue and parking lot were again far apart, but anyone who found it too far to walk could board the free songtaew shuttle bus service. The tunnel-like entry was its usual photogenic self, made for selfies, and the vista of the venue gradually opened up as we walked through, as if traversing a valley, food and beverage stalls lining both sides.

This year’s Gypsy Carnival built on its circus concept and attendees happily went along with the fun idea, many people getting their faces painted.

As was the case with the inaugural event two years ago, this edition had the music, food and camping zones neatly organised, if rearranged somewhat so the concerts wouldn’t disturb the tent-dwellers too much. Some folks, on the other hand, enjoy hearing tunes as they nod off in their sleeping bags, regarding them as lullabies.

The area with food stalls seemed improved and more spacious, but I missed the zone they had in the first year, where vintage vehicles and motorcycles were on display.

I heard some complaints about the long distance between the concert seating and the two toilet areas at the entrance and near the food zone. I didn’t mind. You shouldn’t spoil people with too much comfort and convenience – otherwise it doesn’t feel like a real music festival.

No one was complaining, though, about the music, or about the stilt walkers and jugglers roaming the grounds.

I arrived too late to see the opening acts – Diaries, Yamin and Alyn – and the burger-eating and motorcycle contests held on a stage resembling a circus tent.

But I could hear Greasy Cafe and Po Yokee Playboy playing as I walked around and assessed the layout, noticing the terrific sound system.

And I got to see festival organiser Kamol “Suki” Sukosol Clapp – referred to as the tribal chief – presiding at the opening ceremony. In what’s become an annual traditional invoking the spirit of the Olympic Games, Suki carried a torch as he ran down the middle aisle between the seats to a bonfire.

Singto Numchok was next onstage, leading the crowd through singalongs. Then came the 13-member girl group Sweat 16, cute as proverbial buttons as they performed “Wing” (“Run”) and “Mungming” (“Love Attention”).

Hot new band the Toys got fans up to the front of the stage with great music, including their first single “Korn Rudoo Fon” and a cover of Nitaya Boonsungner’s “Jib Nid Diew”, released 22 years ago, before these guys were even born.

The ladies in the crowd were screaming over handsome frontman Thanwa “Toy” Boonsungnern, a good sign for the Toys and their label, What the Duck.

The intermission between live acts featured a Miss Gypsy Contest and music from DJ Mr Z, and then Flure got things rocking again. “Kan Lae Kan”, from the soundtrack to the romantic movie “Love of Siam”, proved especially popular.

The audience never sat still. Most people were dancing and singing along as songs-for-lifer Pongsit “Poo” Kamphee put on a headliner worthy performance with songs from his latest album and hits including “Mue Puen”, which became an even bigger hit after it was used on the TV show “The Mask Singer”.

It was approaching midnight, but everyone was in way too good a mood in the cool music and cooler air as the final act, T-Bone ended the evening with an impressive set of lively ska and reggae.

Popular duo New-Jew join up with vocalist Kangsom Tanatat for  “All Their Hits All Time Hits” concert being staged at KBank Siam Pic-Ganesha Theatre, on the seventh floor of Siam Square One, on February 24 at 7.30pm. Expect to hear “Khon Chao Namta”, “Rak Ther 24 Hours”, “Khon Nai Sode”, and “I Love Your Smile.” Tickets costing from Bt1,000 to Bt5,000 are on sale at Thai Ticket Major counters and online at http://www.ThaiTicketMajor.com.

Now they are three

Drummer Steve Gadd, saxophonist Michael Blicher and Hammond organist Dan Hemmer are all set to delight Thai music fans with a concert at the Dr Thaworn Phornprapha Auditorium on the fifth floor of Siam Motor Building on March 2 at 8pm. The three are is currently on a world tour in support of their new album, “Omara” and have sold out shows all over Europe. Tickets are Bt2,500 at Thai Ticket Major.

Nichkhun goes it alone

Nichkhun “Buck” Horvejkul, who shot to fame as a member of South Korean boy band 2PM, is to perform solo at his “First Asia Fan Meeting Tour – Khunvitation” taking place at MCC Hall of The Mall Bang Kapi on March 3 at 5pm. Tickets priced from Bt2,000 to Bt4,500 are available at Thai Ticket Major.

Music and the munchies

Food and music festival Cat Foodival returns for its third edition to Show DC Oasis Arena on March 3 with more than 100 food shops and mini shows by Scrubb, Sqweez Animal, Stamp, Boy Imagine, Max Jenmana, The Richman Toy, Greasy Cafe and Deepsea Drive Machine from Japan.

Tickets are Bt300 available at Thai Ticket Major.

Brothers wild

Siblings Asanee and Wasan Chotikul will rock fans at the charity concert, “Prakotkarn Sai Rung Rung Yoo Bon Fah”, at Impact Arena, Muang Thong Thani on March 3 at 7.30pm. Guests include Christina Aguilar and Pod ModernDog. Tickets from Bt1,000 to Bt6,000 are on sale at Thai Ticket Major.

King Rama VI, who is often referred to as “The Father of the Thai Stage Play”, was a great actor and stage director who demonstrated his literary talents in prose and poetry and in both Thai and English.

As all Thai school-children know, one of his best-known literary works was “Phra Ruang”.

Originally titled “Khom Dam Din”, the story was written in 1907 then adapted as a dance drama in 1912, this as time as a drama with dialogue under the new title of “Phra Ruang” and staged as a kind of operatic drama in 1924. Now it’s coming back as a musical to mark the centenary of its completion and the coronation of Thailand’s King Rama X.

“I wanted to bring this literary work back to life and make it more interesting,” says Anawin Vipasawad, managing director of The Win Organiser and a strong supporter of the King Vajiravudh Memorial Foundation under Royal Patronage.

“Everything starts at zero, with only King Rama VI’s spoken drama in verse and prose. To make it more interesting for the audience, we updated the dialogue using modern language. The scriptwriter has put the words of some interesting poems to music and the musical also features such well-known songs as ‘Thai Ruam Kamlang’, the patriotic number made famous by big band Suntharaporn. Kaiwan Kulavadhanothai, a former member of Fongnam and the Suanplu Chorus, joined the team as composer.

“Phra Ruang isn’t based on historical fact but on fantasy. King Rama VI was inspired to write it when he visited Sukhothai and Uttaradit and heard stories about their legendary heroes.. The King wrote this literary piece to reflect a sense of ideology, patriotism, sacrifice, unity and women’s rights,” he adds.

Indeed, the monarch was known for using his literary works to reflect society and ingeniously convey his ideas about life and decency. With “Phra Ruang”, he was attempting to build a national myth about a legendary leader who battled Khmer rulers and eventually became king. Written as a patriotic poems, it conveyed a nationalistic message and displayed the virtues of Siamese kingship and national unity.

The 26-year-old organiser says that “Phra Ruang The Musical”, which will be performed at Muangthai Rachadalai Theatre, from February 22 to March 4, is set in three main locations – Lavo (Lopburi), Cambodia and Sukhothai.

The musical is directed by Napadol Kampinthong and stars Jaron “Top” Sorat as Phra Ruang, Kornkan “Arm” Sutthikoses as Man Puenyao, Panadda Ruangwut as Jan, Arnuttaphol “R” Sirichomsaeng as Phraya Decho, Pacharapon “Wit” Jantieng as Nak Khum, Vivid “Tee” Bavornkiratikajorn as Nak Kaew, and Worachon “Tum” Kaewchinda as Nak Suwan.

“I selected the performers for their personalities, voices and ability to rise up to a challenge. Top Jaron has never performed in a musical. He is suitable for this main character because he looks smart and charming. When he’s dressed in Phra Ruang’s costume, he really looks the part. Arm Kornkan plays Man Puenyao, a role that was originally performed by King Rama VI. At first, I wanted to find someone serious, someone polite with a good background but later decided it didn’t need to be played the same way as King Rama VI performed it,” says Anawin.

“Taking part in the musical has been a real challenge as I have had to learn different aspects of performing – how to act as Phra Ruang and how to sing in a musical,” says Top Jaron.

“I play Nang Jan, Phra Ruang’s mother. She tries to encourage Phra Ruang during his reign as king and when he ordains as a monk,” says singer and actress Panadda Ruangwut.

The cast offered the media a brief foretaste of “Phra Ruang The Musical” during the press conference at Phaya Thai Palace, playing out four of the scenes and performing four of the songs, including “Tai Rom Phra Baramee”, which is sung by Panadda Ruangwut and Arm Kornkan when King Lavo dies and Phra Ruang become the new king. Arnuttaphol, Wit Pacharapon and Tum Worachon sang “Amnaj” reflecting the prosperity of the Khmer Empire while Top Jaron crooned “Kusalobai”, which he performs in the scene where Phra Ruang is planning to lead the Lavo people through the crisis. The last song was “Patiharn” performed by Arm Kornkan, which comes in the scene where the Lavo people declare their wish to become independent.

“We have written and arranged the songs with international musical instruments and added in a few traditional Thai sounds,” says Anawin, who picked Thossapol Kerdkaew, one of young designers at the 2015 edition of Elle Fashion Week 2015, to take charge of the costumes.

“Phra Ruang is a kind of fantasy, so I would like the audience to use their imagination.”

Tale of leadership

– “Phra Ruang The Musical” will be performed at Muangthai Rachadalai Theatre at the Esplanade Ratchadaphisek from February 22 to March 4.

– Tickets cost from Bt1,000 to Bt3,500 at Thai Ticket Major counters and online at http://www.ThaiTicketMajor.com.

– Part of the proceeds will go to the King Vajiravudh Memorial Foundation under Royal Patronage.

Vinicio Capossela is a singer-songwriter, poet, writer, multi-instrumentalist, showman and bandbuilder. He chases sounds and tells stories about cultures and characters from every age, through a sort of bizarre suspension of time and unbelief.

His music, ranging from the Latin American languor to the dust of the Balkans, the polkas and rebetics, cohabit in an overflowing and universal songbook, yet are always unmistakable, thanks also to the literary quality of his brilliant texts, which allowed him to start a successful parallel career as a writer.

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