Liberians Philippines (Libera): October 2011

The angelic voice of Libera was heard once again in their Christmas concert last night that happened at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC), Pasay City, marking their third Philippine visit in promotion to their latest record, “The Christmas Album.”
Just before the ‘sold-out’ concert last night, Filipino fans gave them what seems like, 'the warmest welcome of all' by putting their Christmas album on the top of Philippine Music charts, both OPM and foreign.

Photo credits to Atroplus.

The venue – Philippine International Convention Center (PICC), which is located in CCP Complex, Pasay City, Metro Manila hosted the first of the two concerts of Libera in the Philippines. It has been the all-time venue of various social events such as conventions, meetings, fairs, and concerts just like this one.

PICC's facade.

PICC's titanic lobby.

PICC's extension lobby with a huge, beautiful painting in the far wall.

Libera's promotional poster found in the lobby.

A boy's choir who came to watch the concert.

The concert started at 8:00 in the evening, but we were let inside the Plenary hall at exactly 7:20. The line is already too long more than half an hour before the show started, showing that Libera really sold out their concert.

People lining up in the lobby.

Upon entering the Plenary hall.

A very long line of concert goers!

Checking our concert tickets.

Inside Plenary Hall’s lobby, a huge crowd was already packed with people lining up to enter the main venue. The line was divided into two; one is for the lower levels and the other for the ones who will be watching over the balcony. At the far left, a long table was set wherein they sell Libera’s albums and concert programs that went with a free poster.

Line (above) for the balcony. Line (below) for the lower levels.

Concert programs for the Manila Concert.

The table where they sell the concert programs, posters, and CD's.

Free poster

Aww I like this photo. A little boy buying Libera's album.

They also sell combo items.

Here is it again... their new album!

At around 7:40, people started to enter the Plenary hall. It is my first time to enter the venue, and all I can say is WOW, it’s massive and it can conveniently accommodate 4,000 people at most. Girls and boys wearing Filipiniana dresses were scattered around the hall, assisting everyone with their seat locations. At the center was the stage; huge enough to give way to the 28 boys of Libera who went on tour to the Philippines this year, being their first ever biggest contingent, bringing some new members who are currently on their first time away from home (lucky Philippines!). In both sides of the stage, two huge screens were projecting the different sponsors of the event, and will later project the concert.

The girl in Filipiniana dress who assisted us with our seat locations.

The whole of the stage.

This is exactly how far my seat was from the stage.

Screens projected on both sides of the stage. There you can see a UK flag. At the other side was the PH flag. Happy Phils-UK friendship week!

The audience over the balcony.

From 7:40 to past 8:00, people filled in all the empty seats before the concert proper started at exactly 8:20.

Talking about a sold-out show?

The concert was spearheaded by the presentation of the two National Anthems of both UK and the Philippines, followed by a short message by the chairman of the British Alumni Association, Mr. Robert de Ocampo, who is also responsible for making this year’s tour possible. The highlights of his speech are as follows:

“Christmas conjures many happy thoughts and memories of family get togethers, midnight Mass, colorful twinkling lights, gift givings and delectable dinners as people seem to come together in peace and harmony to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ heralded as it was then by angels’ voices spreading the good news to shepherds and kings. What better way could there be to herald the onset of this year’s Christmas in the Philippines than with the sound of angels’ voices proclaiming Christmas as brought to us by the celestial sounds of the world’s foremost boy’s choir, LIBERA?”

Mr. de Ocampo also made it a point that Libera’s Philippine visit this year is a part of the celebration of the Philippines-UK Friendship week.

The concert started at around 8:30 with dim light and 6 boys in white robes appearing on stage. As the light started to go on, 2 more boys entered the stage, 3 more, the taller boys went in, until all 28 boys of Libera filled the stage, opening up with the songs ‘Jubilate Deo’ and ‘Libera.’ It was then followed by a short but hilarious introduction by Barney and Cassius, introducing the choir and what we are to expect for the evening. It is quite familiar already to those who have been watching the previous concerts of Libera, but their introduction last night was a little bit different because they added their new Christmas songs from their album. This is the first time that they performed them live, in PICC!

The next song was ‘Joy to the world,’ their first Christmas song for the evening, which stirred up the audience a little bit with their amazing rendition! I kind of felt the Christmas season for the first time this year! Mr. de Ocampo was right in his message, what a good way to celebrate the season, indeed! It was followed by the song ‘Still, still, still’ with Ralph doing the solo parts.

The lighting from above. I love the hall's ceiling.

Ralph did the solos again with their next song, ‘Song of life.’ I love the performance! It was so lively and smooth. Well done, Ralph! What a splendid voice he has. So perfect!

Another funny introduction was made by Cassius and Barney, bringing in a small moose doll named ‘Moose.’ This one made the audience laughing loud. They also gave us some things about their music, harmonies, and blending, wherein the next song was introduced; ‘Sanctus.’

‘Salva me’ was performed next with Matthew Madine standing in the usual place of the soloist who sang the traditional high ‘Salvas.’ He really did it well after Tom Cully and Joseph Snelling. It is also my first time to hear his voice standing out of Libera.

Next was ‘Stay with me.’ As expected, Daniel did the solo parts with Cassius, and with Matthew again with some of the high notes.

The audiences, mostly Josh’s fans, have had their hearts melt with his very low but still-pure voice as he joined Ralph in the song, ‘Veni Emmanuel.’ The lights of the stage did very well on their robes; it was like their traditional monk uniforms were absorbing the light and reflected it to the audience like a radiant light. I love this part where all the boys except for Josh and Ralph were at the far end of the stage. They have had their faces covered under their hoods while orange and yellow lights played around their robes.

After Stefan singing the solos of the song, ‘Exultate,’ Libera went backstage for a 15-minutes break. During that time, I called my friends who were over the balcony and shared our experiences and happiness over the first part of the show.

‘Carol of the bells’ was sung after the interval. This is their second time to perform this song live after their appearance at ASAP Rocks last Sunday. This is my favorite song from the album and I really enjoyed it as they performed it live. You won’t be able to see this kind of choreography anywhere else since this song was performed in concert first, just yesterday. ‘Gloria in Excelsis’ followed it.

Another short introduction by Cassius and a new member (I forgot his name. Please comment below if you know) intervened the show. This is their traditional monk-uniform introduction that you might have heard already in their Angel Voices DVD. This is, once again, very funny when Cassius covered his face with his hoodie and was left on center stage as ‘The fountain’ started. Of course, it is part of the show.

Ralph’s voice was amazing with this song, especially with the last chorus wherein he raised his voice to a note I never thought possible to reach. Listening to ‘The fountain’ live is just like listening to it directly from my CD. It was done very smoothly! Good job, Ralph!

Stefan went back to center stage to do his solos for ‘Eternal light.’ Once again, it is like hearing it from the record! So pure and smooth… although I felt that he’s a little bit nervous in the beginning because his voice is kind of shaking, he brought it down in the end.

The concert came to its last part with the songs ‘Sing the story,’ ‘Ave Verum,’ In dulci Jubilo,’ ‘Glory to thee,’ and ‘How shall I sing this majesty’ as their good bye song. After their bows, the light went off.

What happens next became the highlight of the concert. The audience gave them a really huge round of applause that happened for like, more than a minute! That’s very long I can’t even remember how long it was before we stopped clapping our hands while the others were shouting “more!”

Due to the audiences’ demands, the light went on again and they sang ‘White Christmas’ with Stefan as the soloist. The chorus goes like this: "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas..." and I felt like it;s already a dream come true; Libera is our White Christmas; they are our snow; they are our angels.
This is one of their best songs for the night and people clapped hard as I saw their eyes shining toward the stage. Just like me, I can’t take my ears and eyes off of them.

Just as I thought that the concert is over (quite disappointed that they did not sing ‘Bayan ko’ this time), Libera gave another surprise song to us! And guess what, IT’S A TAGALOG CHRISTMAS SONG called ‘Himig ng Pasko!’ With this song, people just can’t stop clapping their hands, especially for Ralph who is doing the solos this time. Wow! I can understand almost all of his tagalong words! His Filipino accent was brilliant! I wonder how long they prepared for this.

This is my one and only picture as the boys wave good bye to us. Picture taking was discouraged during the show.

The concert ended with Nano Ben saying "Maraming salamat po, mahal namin ang Pilipinas!" (Thank you very much, we love the Philippines!). Man! He's accent is so adorable and cute!

Thank you so much Libera for the amazing show! And THANKS A LOT FOR THE FINAL SURPRISE! I was breathless just listening to it and my hands turned red while I clapped unstopping! Hope to see you again NEXT YEAR!

Good bye, Plenary hall.

Fans waiting for the boys to come out and do another afterconcert m&g.

Staffs fixing the stage after the concert. I saw Mr. Robert Prizeman there!

After the concert, libera did another meet & greet/album signing in the lobby. Only 150 album holders were allowed to fall in line since it is already late and fans are crowding in over the lobby.

In this video, you can see Ben hugging my LPH co-admins, Larissa, and her sister, Patricia... We also gave Josh another gift for his birthday, which is actually 30 minutes after that video was taken. Yes, it's already 11:30PM in that time.

When I said "See you (hopefully) again, next year to Isaac, he told me, "We're definitely coming back next year."

Oh well that's a very good news, because we, Filipino fans, just can't get enough of Libera!

LOOK AT MY ALBUMS... THEY'RE ALL SIGNED!

October 23 - The boys of Libera held a Meet & Greet session at SM City North Edsa - The Block at around 4PM as part of their Philippine visit to promote their latest album, "Libera: The Christmas Album."

Fans from all over the Metro gathered at the heart of Quezon City to see the boys of Libera live and to have their albums signed. This is the second part of their Philippine tour, which happened after their live guesting in the noontime show, ASAP Rocks wherein they performed one of the songs from their Christmas Album, "Carol of the bells."

OUTSIDE SM CITY NORTH EDSA

THE VENUE

Astroplus' booth was located just outside the venue. They sell Libera albums under PolyEast records such as Eternal, New Dawn, Peace, Angel Voices DVD, and Libera's latest album, The Christmas album. One purchase of any album is equivalent to one meet & greet pass.

This Libera Meet & Greet also gave way for fans to meet each other. It was really great meeting everyone there that I have only known in Facebook. I really had a great time with them, even before the event started.

Here are some of the people that I have met earlier.

Me with ate Thelma

Krizzle, Rozeann, Rozelle, and Princess.

This is me in front of the stage :)

Me together with Gerson (red) and John Dale (black).

Krizzle and Ingrid (LPH Co-Admin) :)

Larissa (LPH Co-Admin) and Paricia.

Kuya Kurt from Libera 360!

Now, take a look at the fans, waiting for Libera.

The host of the event. She have that same British accent although she is a Filipino and I am sure she had pronounced the boys' names right.

And then, around 4:20, LIBERA ARRIVED AT THE BLOCK. Here are a FEW photos from the meet & greet. We will be uploading more photos and videos tomorrow at https://www.facebook.com/liberaph

The Madine brothers

Henry Barrington

We gave Josh an advance present for his birthday on Wednesday. I'm glad he liked it. An LPH 2012 calendar with greetings at the back. We wrote our greetings for him.

Cassius gave me his famous "Meow." You may see it on the video that we will upload soon.

Also, we were shouting "Happy birthday Josh!" from time to time and that made him smile and wave at us. What a feeling!

We also gave our screams to Matthew Madine and also to the new members of Libera. They're just so adorable and cute, all of them!

Also during the meet & greet we were also able to have a small chit-chat with the director, Robert Prizeman,and the old Libera members who came with them to assist the younger boys, Sam Coates, Steven Geraghty and Ben Crawley. They were having coffee in a shop at the second floor so we went up to give Mr. Prizeman a gift. Unfortunately we weren't able to have a picture with him because he said, "I don't do pictures, I;m ugly." Hahahahaha... "That's not true, sir. " I said.

The meet & greet ended with Ralph Skan saying a small speech and he also invited the fans to watch them in concert at PICC on Tuesday. And then, after a few moments, they left the block.

Thanks to Gerson for these amazing drawings! I really like it! I showed it to Mr. Prizeman, to Josh and to Jonathan, and also to the one who brought Libera here. I forgot his name.

Here are my signed items.