Saturday night, we went to a charity dinner, featuring ABBA's back, an ABBA tribute band from Australia. This dinner was in aid of three charities, namely the Catholic Welfare Services (of which Kung Kung Titus is the chairman, so we were all busy selling tickets previously...), The Sarawak Kidney Foundation and the St Vincent de Paul Society.
It was held at The Borneo Convention Centre. The production of the event, the entertainment, down to the cost of the food served were all generously sponsored! They managed to raise RM1.2 million for this event!
All 12 of Kung Kung's Kuching grandchildren were there to support this grand occasion.
Killing time before the concert...
We were seated up at the gallery. Tickets were RM100 per seat up here. Down in the hall, tables of 10 were sold for RM10,000, RM5,000 and RM3,000.
The whole gang enjoyed each other's company. Luckily there was a Gameboy, a PSP and many handphones to keep them occupied during the boring and super long opening acts which included a Chinese orchestra and Dayak sape music. They were good, but could not hold the children's interest and went on for waaaay too long.
They had the usual 8-course Chinese dinner downstairs...
... while we had a '3-course western' snack upstairs!! :)
L-R: Bishop Dominic Su (my mum's cousin), Archbishop John Ha and Kung Kung (who did join the seminary for a while in his younger days!!) launching the Catholic Welfare Services website. Kung Kung also gave a speech, inviting the public to help their cause, and it was screened on the big screens set up on the walls and all the little ones were so excited!
Here's one of the opening acts which was quite amazing. They're doing a line dance, which is boring enough, if not for the fact that they're hearing impaired (deaf)! I think there was one lady in the front who wasn't, so she lead them. Still, very well done!
Here's a guy called Stanley who was one of the Akedemi Fantasia (Malaysia's version of American Idol) contestants. He sang the Spanish version of "Unbreak My Heart" and has a very good voice. Then he sang Josh Groban's "You Raised Me Up" which he said was requested by the organizers and also reminds him of his mum who suffered from kidney failure. Coincidentally, this song also reminds us of our mum. We played it during her funeral.
Hmmm... I wonder if it was my dad who requested it, though I doubt he knows much about songs from this decade!!
Hehehe... better not underestimate him... :)
ABBA's back finally came on at 9:30pm! The kids were already pretty tired! It was worth the wait though, cos who doesn't know and love ABBA songs? The kids definitely enjoyed it more than the previous acts and were clapping along (even Solomon) while us old folks sang along! (If you know ABBA lyrics, I'm sorry, you are old!)
I really wanted to catch my favourite, "Dancing Queen" (which I later learned was left to the very end), but the kids were all too sleepy to stay on, so we left at 10:45pm. The concert finished around 11:30pm, after some encores. Annie was also hoping to catch "Mama Mia", but that was the third last.
Although a little draggy in the beginning, it was well worth the wait. The ABBA performance was of good calibre and now even the kids are singing, "Money, money, money... Must be funny... In a rich man's world..."!
You can have a peep at ABBA's Back here:
http://www.abbasback.com/video.html
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