One Love for Abra Charity Concert at The Star of Kings London

Had a wonderful time doing a charity gig for Abra, an island back home in the Philippines where children there are too eager to learn, however, they don't have a proper or decent school to study and no school supplies.  The project was very successful.  Port Mallilin and Carol Panday invited artists from Pilipino Musikero sa UK and loads pledged their support.  Also among the acts were Arisxandra Libantino, the pride of Filipinos in Britain who was one of the finalists.

I am the guitarist of Crossedwind and we are dubbed as the House Band during the gig. We opened the event and then we were the closing act.  It was a fun night.  There were some challenges though.  Like for example, although myself and Ashley (sound director) were early to set up the amps and instruments, the pub's sound guy didn't like that we brought guitar, bass, and keyboard amps because it's going to be too loud.  He just want us to use their monitor speakers and house speakers and plug it all in there.  That can be done, I must admit but it's not proper and it won't sound right for a band.  They could have hired a DJ instead if that's the case. Also, we had to go to their basement and get the necessary speakers and leads and mixing desk and amps. Ash, did all the wiring and setting up of the PA system.  I was the one who assembled the drumkit, amps, etc.

During our soundcheck, the pub's sound guys again came to us and was grumpy or shall I say angry-mad that it's too loud.  He really didn't like and was not pleased about it.  Well, we can't do otherwise because we're a band.  In the end, he was fed up and just let us be.  The instruments sound great but the vocals because there's a limiter... you can hardly hear what we are singing.  Pub was small for the event, by the way, it's the The Star of Kings.  At first, we felt that we are not welcome in that pub.  But, when the show ended, the staff was all right.  They also enjoyed the music, if not all, some.

Another thing was, because it was too crowded, we had to come out of the pub and have a breather and lucky enough we met three London ladies and had a nice chat with them.  That made our night and I hope we made their night as well with the lovely chat and all.  Such a shame we had to go back for our second set and we did not get the chance to really invite them in and listen to our music.

Overall, the event was successful and was really well supported by Filipinos in the UK.