Living a childhood dream
ABC Radio, the popular FM Radio station of the country, recently became the first radio station of the country to be an overseas radio partner of a major international concert, when they partnered for the Guns 'n' Roses Live in Bangkok concert on February 28. As part of the partnership, the radio station ran a campaign to take six listeners to enjoy the concert live. Samannoy Ghosh, Creative Strategy Manager at ABC Radio who facilitated the partnership, writes about the experience of watching one of the biggest rock acts of all time live.
It was merely a chance that I had taken, when I had knocked the PR agents of IMC Live, with no expectations of actually being successful. But it was their positive response that had motivated the little boy in me, who grew up singing the likes of Sweet Child O'mine and Welcome to The Jungle in front of the TV and on the radio, to keep pushing and not lose hope. And then somewhere between singing and screaming in front the TV as child to actually seeing them live, I had made the deal of a lifetime which fueled my journey, along with six other lucky people, towards Guns 'n' Roses, live in Bangkok.
It was surreal, watching all of our childhood idols like Axl Rose singing our favourites like November Rain and Don't Cry, Slash jamming intros of legends like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd and even the theme of the famous movie 'The Godfather' to begin their own songs, was the taste of paradise we've all had only dreamed of as children.
The journey itself began with the whole team of ABC Radio (including the six lucky winners) flying to Bangkok in a rush as no one could hardly contain the excitement of witnessing their childhood music idols right in front of our eyes. Arriving a little late at the venue, we were kind of confused whether the songs we're hearing from afar were by any opening band or the legends themselves, but as soon as we entered, there he was, my idol, my dream Axl Rose yelling 'You know where you are?' That was when it finally sank in that my dream had taken the shape of reality.
And then the songs that sounded like our childhood and teenage euphoria kept playing on one by one, just that this time we could actually witness and feel the energy of Axl Rose's powerful voice, Slash's spine-chilling guitar tunes, with Duff Mckagan breathing life into it all with his breathtaking bass-lines in front of our eyes. Our childhood was right there in front of our eyes as we smiled, cried, jumped, shrieked and did all that we could to contain the inexpressible joy of seeing Guns 'n' Roses so close and upfront.
Even the guitar pick thrown into the crowd by Duff McKagan was caught by one of our team members. Singing and dancing to our all-time favourite tunes the show came to an end with Paradise City, giving us a memory so extravagant that we shall live it over and over again in our minds for as long as we live, seeing Axl and Slash standing neck to neck after almost 20 long years was indeed a once in a lifetime opportunity, which I am lucky, I made possible not only for myself, six other crazy fans, ABC Radio FM89.2, the radio industry, and most importantly, for Bangladesh!
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