Impressions of Introduction Backstage, VII

Ofcourse after the classical Thai dance, which was also performed this night, and by doing so our small stage was officially open for use!
Here a short impression of some of the performers who got on our stage. Sadly some pictures taken were of bad quality and as such I decided to leave them out. As soon as I get the other pictures made on our Introduction, then I will place them on our weblog as well!





Right:Lipsing, or as we call in the west playback, is sometimes looked down on by westerners, BUT when one sees how intens our western songs are being performed here, one often forgets its lipsing and one can not help to forget the original at times as well. Here jeny giving an impresive performance, in daily life one can find him at Simon cabaret as well as sometimes in My Way.







Left: Was very happy that also my long time friend Rin took to the stage. In daily life he can be seen at My Way cabaret in Paradise soi... and sometimes at our place, but then he is 9 out of 10 not working but just relaxing, maybe eating some of that food we can arrange and talking with his friend(s) at Backstage ;-)








Below: Somchai did several songs, but the last performance of the night was" Dreams are fake", or "Dromen zijn bedrog", as the popular Dutch song by Marco Borsato is also called. If I am correct, this song is still the longest running nr 1 hit in the Dutch charts ever.

Impressions of Introduction Backstage, VI

Kik performing first time before an audiance on our Backstage-stage with his number "One man one woman",

Also first time he performed his number outsite Simon Cabaret in a specially selfmade costume for the occasion.
And wonderfull it was... really impressive to see him do it from close by, because thats what our stage offers as well: close contact with the public... something most performers like very much.... but it can also be a challenge because the audiance has also a much better view on what you are doing on stage! ;-)





Ofcourse I was extra proud to see Kik do this on our own stage! And therefor here 4 pictures out of a series showing his routine...I simply couldn't resist :-) The order of the pictures are clockwise ;-)

Impressions of Introduction Backstage, V

Left: Dear friend Somchai arriving with flowers to wish us good luck with our new venue. He had earlier helped us with preparing the food for our Introduction Party and was going to perform later for us and our guests. Next to him Kik, who was allready made up for performing his song "one man one woman" and ofcourse yours truly on the right ;-)



Right: Sandy, a former performer at Simon's, most know in her role as Cleopatra, arriving to celebrate with us and wishing us good luck with The Backstage



Left: Part of our crew, behind the buffet table. On the back (which gives a nice view of the backside of our new poloshirts) Mill, working the BBQ aaand facing camera from left to right: Gong, Cid (dear friend of Kik and now also me and former owner of J&B Bar, aand Ka, Kik's brother. Cid and Ka were helping us out to make the evening run more smoothly then otherwise possible ;-)

Impressions of Introduction Backstage, IV

Left: The 'German table', with facing in direction of camera, Andreas (from Loenoe Palace Hotel Patongl & Dempseys Bar) and old customer of J&B Bar, with left of him Jub, and Peter, a wonderfull upbeat guy







Right: Our neighbours from Super Boy enjoying themselfs with our karaoke installation. They, together with Wood & company have made us feel welcome in this little soi we now find ourselfs in





Left: Its getting late but the guests are enjoying themselfs. On the right of the pic, sitting with orange shirt is Danny, from Holland, who came back after he left earlier with his two dutch friends/owners from The Dutch Inn, having a wonderfull time. To the right, in white but sadly not that good visible, Phil and daughter Nathaly. Phil runs Adonis Guesthouse (in quite part of Paradise) and a true Brit who runs his hotel exempelary as I discovered personally last year when I stayed a couple of days at his place when I had some troubles at my house here ;-)

Shortly after the entertainment started, quickly followed by the first real heavy rainfall at night time in more then several weeks!

Impressions of Introduction Backstage, III

Left: Knud, from "Knud's Bar Thai's Best Boys" in Paradise and Kik. Knud is a long time and dear friend of Kik and since I got to know Kik in 2007, also from me ;-)






Right: Wood & company. He runs a simple but good little Thai restaurant opposite The Backstage, and allways willing to serve his food to us at Backstage and or our customers ... and allmost at any time of day!







Left: Anton and Dany from South Africa with yours truly. They own gay venues in South Africa and after finding out about our Backstage earlier they were happy to come and join us on our Introduction Party.
I had to get used to Afrikaans again, which is a version of Dutch .... I like to call it "old Dutch" because it has many similarities with how our language was spoken in my own country a long time ago. Its fun and have to admit, for South Africans who speak Afrikaans its easier to understand us then it is for us ...BUT we can understand eachother, and as such it creates a fun bond when being so far away from home ;-)

Impressions of Introduction Backstage, II

Right: Long time friend Robert and first arrival on our Introduction Party, with stafmember Kob.









Left: The Backstage crew, ready to start serving our customers and guests in the best of spirits.... (from left to right Gong, our manager, EJ, our inhouse guest and helper, Mill stafmember, Kik, Kob, Rob, Jack stafmember, Mos and volunteer stafmember Ka (Kik's brother ) (picture taken by Robert)




Right: Our friends from My Way cabaret group arrive on a surprise visit to congratulate us with our first step on the Phuket Patong gay scene ... they said they would come back after work, and they did to our delight and performed some excellent numbers, which also gave us the chance to really testdrive our soundsystem for lipsing performance (and that turned out to be above expectations!). On the right, giving me the flowers, Rin, very dear friend of me/ours (picture taken by Kik)

Impressions of introduction (party) Backstage on 1st of September, I

Left: Introduction Day for The Backstage started with a ritual of classical Thai dancing performed at The Backstage in the morning, after we visited Temple to pray and ask for good luck and fortune for The Backstage!





Right: The two dancers, who in daily life perform for Phuket Fantasea and are friends of Kik. These classical Thai costumes are very eleborate and it took them more then a good hour to get dressed!






Left: After a whole day of preparing, the finishing though is made with the buffet-table in the traditional Thai way. Our table had next to fruit, pork, beef and chicken satay, friend rice (one large portion we received as gift from our neighbour Wood), punch (with Sang Som, a Thai wiskey) and fried Thai chicken legs.
Our food had been prepared by long time friend Somchai, a co-performer from Kik at Simon Cabaret, also a friend of Rin and Gong, and an excellent cook (you should taste his spagethi bolognese, mmmm)