Some of the music were announced beforehand by Roth which somewhat dampened down the surprise to some extent, although all of us loved it when he had the full orchestra to play the 5-second FF Victory theme as a surprise. It was a choice selection of music pieces, although somewhat limited with the two-odd hours they have. The music performances were enhanced by vignettes from the respective gameplay/FMV cutscenes on two screens at the front. Nostalgia came flooding in when the piano intro started during Zanarkand. All of us laughed hard when the crap PSOne sounds from FFVIII were obvious when the orchestra played Don’t Be Afraid, at the same time reminiscing how great the gameplay was despite the lack of technology we see in this day and age. Throughout the show, I wondered why there was this gentleman seated slap bang in the middle by the pipe organ – like, d’uh, he’s only the organist, who played with the orchestra in one of the pieces from FFVI.
Talking about FFVI, music from this particular instalment seems to be somewhat popular. I wonder if it is one FF game which I should try out. In fact, I have a GBA version which I bought to play on the DS like 4 years ago. The set was FFVII and FFVIII-heavy reflecting the popularity of these instalments of the FF series. For the second time ever, we were treated to Eyes On Me, the first performance of late being at a performance in South Korea. No Faye Wong but Susan Galloway did a pretty good job whilst we savoured the visuals of Rinoa and Squall in the background.
The visuals were provided by Square Enix although I had a feeling they were YouTube rips for some reason or other. Nobuo Uematsu got onstage after the second set, and it was somewhat obvious what was to come next – the much-awaited encore that is One-Winged Angel. Gosh, how I wished Uematsu-san had brought The Black Mages with him for this. There were these two guys next to me and how we geeked out to OWA, shouting out for a second encore. Heh.
(Okay, that wasn’t from the Albert Hall show obviously, but from a 2006 show in Yokohama)
Roth announced that they were returning in November ’12, with the tix sale being next month. Looking forward to that and hope that there’ll be more stuff from X and IX next time.
Oh ya, here’s Lightning. Should’ve tapped on her shoulder and ask for a better photo. Tapi nanti boyfriend kurus bawak keluar gunblade la pulak kan.
Royal Albert Hall, London 5.11.11 set: FF Series: Prelude / FFVIII: Liberi Fatali / FF series: Victory Theme / FFVIII: Don’t Be Afraid / FFX: Zanarkand / FFXI: Memoro de la Stono – Distant Worlds / FFIX: You’re Not Alone / FFV: Clash on the Big Bridge / FFVII: Aerith’s Theme / FFIV: Theme of Love / FFXII: Kiss Me Good-Bye / FF series: Chocobo Medley 2010 // INTERVAL //FFVII: Opening – Bombing Mission / FFVI: Dancing Mad / FF1-111: Medley 2010 / FFVII: JENOVA / FFVIII: Eyes On Me / FFXIII: Blinded By Light / FFVI: Opera “Maria and Draco” / FFVI: Terra’s Theme // [ENCORE] FFVII: One-Winged Angel
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