Mei ManuelKonnichassu!
Did you enjoy our nice teaser for today’s entry? I know I did because the concept was weeks in the planning and quite admittedly, something we spoke on the day itself. It was recently finished but hey, I got what we were intending. I love my kouhai that much even if she did winged most of it with just our short clips.
The fact we were all misleading… aaahhh! I love my job!
I know I kept you waiting for this for a long time (or technically 2 weeks since then), but I have my reasons. Reasons I know you guys would definitely enjoy! And hey! It’s V-Day! Totally filled with hearts today! Or heartaches… who knows.
Before you read this post though, please make sure you have your handkerchiefs or towels or something that would dry your eyes and water in case you find this one a bit touchy. I will be sharing some of the stories I can share to you guys with photos. Yes, I did get photos and some fancy stuff with it too. If you are in these photos or for some odd reason you want them for your collections, do comment either here, Twitter or Facebook so I know who you are and how I can send you a copy of these pics. I may not have remembered all your names since that day was completely hectic for me but it was nice meeting you all!
Let the entry BEGIN!
And yes, before I forget, the cover of this entry is made by my kouhai… I think… since she brought a second photog along (aka her sister). Plus, I didn’t include all the photos I got from people with me in it… hahaha, so many and this will be longer than that if I did. Thanks to all those who sent pics to me!!! YAY!
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Yours truly arrived around 9:30 am as always because again, for travellers from the provinces or those coming from abroad, Monday is not the perfect day for commuting and the only way you can get to your destination early is by leaving super early. In my case, I woke up around 5:30 am and was out my home in the province around 6 am. I had to commute for at least three hours to get to Manila that early and not meet any mishaps. I even enjoyed the ride to MoA because it was in those cute tuk-tuk style motorcycles offered by the city council where I dropped off from the train. I didn’t know we had those already.
And yes, I was actually wearing this when I arrived and met people. All black for the day. The mask was just there as a protection and pretty much to combat Manila pollution. Must not get sick during the con! Must not get sick!
Rules all concert goers must abide by!
Unlike the 2016 live where many people were already in this place to get the prime seats, this year, it was completely empty. However, by comparison, this year’s live is more organized than the previous live because the previous one doesn’t have a line sequence. The lack of line sequence caused many to go to MoA as early as 12 midnight (hello Jiji and the folks of Team Iloilo!) to get the prime slots in the barricades that time. This year has a line sequence, much like the Japanese lives and it enabled many to go to work or school first before heading to MoA- it is a Monday after all.
For those who had work, some had filed early leaves today just to be in the concert. Dedication.
When I arrived, they were slowly starting to fix this area and transfer the merch for easier distribution. Even this was 100% organized. Good job PULP!
These five were one of the early arrivals for this year’s live and they are all first time OOR live attendees and first-time PULP Royalty holders! Funny bunch they are, but they were ready for anything… including going early for the banner signing! I’m so happy to have met these girls. My padawans are growing up so fast. *Sniff* Next thing you’ll know, they are in Japan watching too. *Sniff sniff* Proud Jedi Master.
This photo was actually posted by PULP Live World President Sir Vernon in his Twitter account and it featured these guys! The complete early arrivals (minus me of course)!
One of them came all the way from Qatar just to see the show (talk about dedication!) and one came from the provinces as far as Davao. During the course of the day, I saw an Australian, a group of Japanese fans, and I think one of them was from Malaysia or Indonesia, who are in Manila for this very show. I hope they enjoyed their stay and well, enjoyed seeing Manila go wild!
While waiting for the official banner for signing, some small talk happened about what we were expecting, some fan promises since this year, group chats were opened for almost all zones when Nirvana, the girl with red hair, recognized this girl beside her as a schoolmate (ack, I forgot her name. Forgive me young padawan!). The girl didn’t know till Nirvana said how they knew each other and gotten reconnected. Truly a nice story! ONE OK ROCK reconnects friends.
After waiting for an hour, the banner came with the heads of the Philippines’ ONE OK ROCKers and it was stationed at the Platinum Rock Zone. I joined in the fun to write something for the boys and called for anyone who were coming in to sign. Her face was not shown in this pic, but the girl writing in this picture is Kumi-san (もう一度会えてよかった！) She came all the way from Japan to watch! She actually recognized me too, which was very cool. (4月に日本でお会いしたいと思います！)
The middle part of the banner and yes, my message is there “Keep reaching the top!”. I should have added “and don’t stop”.
To help everyone that day for their lines since MoA Arena is pretty large, these info guides were stationed near the entrances. So cool and so organized.
The numbers for the line sequence are also posted on the barricades so you know where to go.
The guy posing here is Philippines’ ONE OK ROCKers Admin JP, who was one of the early arrivals. He also got busy with the picture taking and the banner, plus some other crazy antics only he would do. He also held the special group gift for ONE OK ROCK, which was almost not given since he went missing when the organizers were asking for fan gifts. Fortunately, he did come back and handed it to the organizers. Shame we didn’t get to see it, but we did give it after all.
Didn’t I mention his voice was already so hoarse when I saw him in the morning and it’s not even the live yet! LOL JP!
These girls with me represent Davao’s P.O.O.R section and they are my very good friends Kim (the first pic) and Kirst (Second pic). We were all together in the first live and again on the second live! Even though we just met because of ONE OK ROCK, we became great friends. Kim especially. ONE OK ROCK: Connecting People? (That sounds like Nokia’s tagline… hahaha)
When it was around 12 noon, I joined the rest of the PULP Royals to claim our freebie items and tickets. I wasn’t able to get mine during the week so I got everything in one go. As always, our good friends from PULP are very accommodating and sometimes funny since we were so anxious to get our stuff and go run to get our lunches. Hahaha.
This is how the ID looks like and its the same story for Platinum Rock and Gold Rock. What only varies is the background color and the title on the bottom of course.
After a few hours, its almost filled. The banner this year was longer and a bit more slimmer. Next time, we will strive for multiple banners so everyone can sign up. Especially the late ones.
This was shot while I was looking for my video editor and kouhai Faith and our assistant photog Julia (they are actually sisters) so we can have lunch. Nagisaen will always be special to me, but that first Manila live changed everything. Seeing that TV Ad playing in MoA Arena was inspiring me to do more for the day. Which I eventually did when my friends told me.
Took this with a shaky and hungry hand during lunch, but it features me and my friends Sigrid and Tin! Sigrid is with me in PULP Royalty while Tin, our fellow PR mate from the first live, will be joining our good friends in Upper Box. Tin is one dedicated fangirl of the band as she flew all the way from Cagayan de Oro to watch! Eventually, she said she’ll return to PULP Royalty alongside another friend of ours in the next live.
After lunch and after some quick errands, I called for the official class picture of PULP Royalty so we have something similar to the photos other fans overseas when they watch ONE OK ROCK shows. Actually, this class picture thing was only raised up a week before the live, so I’m really happy we got everything through despite the fact we didn’t know each other that well. In the case of PULP Royalty, it’s not all of them since we’re roughly around 200 people give or take, but hey, its a nice pic no?
Here’s another funny clip! The clearer version of the GIF teaser I released a few days ago.
After the PULP Royalty photos, I joined up the team leader from Platinum Rock to do the same thing with them. Some of the PULP Royals joined in since they were late. Nice banner they have here too! They actually have more burst shots when I reviewed it for this post.
Here’s what I mean!
Final class pic that I got from my own stash and this one is for the Gold Zone. Some of the Pulp Royals who were unable to join the PRZ batch, joined here. Small group but they are fun! Look at where they are standing!
They also have this funny GIF. Pardon the guy who suddenly darted in this GIF!
Here are some of the other class pics and their respective photographers who shared their photos to me. Thanks you guys for sharing! The other pics will be posted in the next part since the time they were taken were after the concert.
Life for me got rushed after the Gold Zone photo ops since we had to line up for Royalty. Quite a lot of photos here! I can’t compare the two PULP Royalty batches for this band. Both batches are out of this world and if you saw our special teaser, haha, you saw what I mean right?
We also had a chance to hear a snippet of soundcheck and this time, its Bedroom Warfare. One of my favorites! Sadly, it was just a snippet but its better than nothing!
OH! To anyone reading this, can you guys link our fellow fans Glaiza de Castro and Thea Tolentino to this post? Hope they see it! And thanks for joining the crazy video when I recorded it. Hope to see you both again in the next one!
Another beautiful picture of my friend Kim… well, yes, she had a change of outfit and hair. Hahaha!
Of course I have to include this pic! This is me and Kim with our friends Jumi (who loves my nephew to pieces even if they never met and loves… ahem and ahem… hey, they are both four letter names!) and Yani (who loves ahem ahem). They were seated in the Upper Boxes so they came by to say hi before we went in. Jumi is a dear friend to me since, like Kim, we only met up during the first few hours of the announcement of the first ONE OK ROCK Manila live but we bonded over mundane stuff… and yes, she is 100% eager to go to my house and see my nephew… and I suppose go ramening with me. Hahaha.
Here’s me reenacting my profile picture in 2016. Ahh so much memories.
Ahhh, I love PULP Royalty. I actually lost my ticket in the fray. Hahaha.
And I love the shirt! Go exclusive! (Thank you to my model whom I forgot the name)
It took us a while to get in since everything had to be 100% perfect and well, may I say the place was nothing like the 2016 Live. It had an elevated stage, three huge screens and admittedly a more compressed yet comfortable moshpit. In the 2016 live, it was smaller, jampacked in the VIP 1 and 2 zones and it was confusing on how to get the prime slots. I remember the questions, how early should people be in MoA Arena to get the prime moshpit slots.
Since PULP Royalty entered first, we got to see the arena still empty. They removed the seated areas in the ground so mosh has more space. They didn’t do that in the first live to share.
This is an amusing snap of my friend Raki from Asterysk. Hahaha, I would have included his barricade mates but he didn’t want to.
Yay, Selfie of the stage. Definitely elevated. More chances of seeing the boys and I am 100% reminded of their stage in Ambitions Japan Tour. Less fireworks though… next time.
I also took this snap of my friend Ayra… who once again found herself in her old place in 2016… lucky girl she is. She was one of the first who got in the area coz of her queue number. Lucky onna.
While waiting, I was shown this photo and well, proud to be a part of it!
Kampo de Toru (Toru’s Camp) is yet again the first place that got full than the other Kampos (as a rough guide, Kampo de Ryota is in the other side of the center ramp while Kampo de Taka/Tomoya is the center moshpit).
More mosh pics from these fans! You guys are the greatest!
Selfie with these two. I forgot your names but it was nice meeting you!
As we waited in the mosh, we mostly watched Lowerbox and Upper Box attendees wave at their friends in the mosh, them bringing food and such. Made us all hungry since we didn’t want to leave our barricade slots. They did sell popcorn, but no drinks. Though I suppose the no drinks sale was due to the fact the setup is 100% different and water would have been bad if it suddenly got into the tech.
Photos from my Kouhai Faith while she was in the Gold Rock Zone.
As we waited, I guess roughly 2 hours? The music playing was a bit random and some said it was the SM playlist. Though they did play War by Sum 41, but not the Taka duet. Sigh. Mantra that time was “They will be on soon… patience patience…”
And then, the crowds seated up above in the Toru camp suddenly started shouting as the minutes came close to 8:30 pm.
When the lights went dark… it all started falling into place.
>>>>>>>>>>>>
Let’s pause the entry here shall we? I know you have been waiting for it and I promise, the next one is a big one and unlike the 2016 coverage, I’ll give it to you in one go! Mei, why do you torture us so!
ONE OK ROCK 2018 Ambitions Asia Tour Live in Manila was brought to us by PULP Live World, B’in Live, and Amuse Asia Inc, alongside official TV Partner, GEM TV Asia.
For more information about the live, head on to www.pulpliveworld.com or their official Facebook page.
If you want to revisit the fan projects and fan discussions, head on to the Philippines’ ONE OK ROCKers’ Facebook Group or you can send me a holler at my official Twitter or Facebook page.
Ready for the next entry? I do hope you are!
