Uptown Girl

As I am sure you are aware, I am not normal. And, as is probably also apparent, I never have been. One example is my taste in music. (Don't worry, for the moment I won't delve into more pansori tales.) No, I'm talking about my penchant, even as a youth, to listen to folk music rather than what could otherwise be deemed as popular music. Admittedly, I had my moments in the early 80s of listening to (and in some warped sense trying to emulate) Pat Benatar, but my musical purchases tended toward the obscure or 60s era folk.

All this is to say, when I heard that Billy Joel was coming to Korea for the first time, I thought, well, it could be fun to hear an icon of my youth, but seeing that I was never a fan, and never owned a recording, I didn't rush out to buy the $100+ tickets. But then my friend Matthew French suggested that we needed a reason to avoid a church singles activity, and that the concert was a perfect excuse. I agreed. So, we decided we would see if there any tickets still available.

Now, the next thing you need to know is that Matt is indeed all that I am not... a full-fledged Billy Joel fan. He has seen him in concert on numerous occasions and in fact does a mighty fine rendition of "Piano Man" -- harmonica and all. So, Matt taught his Korean kindergarten class to sing the chorus of said song, recorded it and put it up on YouTube [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SdDIEQpE9Y]. And then, just because he could, he decided to call Billy Joel's management company and inform them of the video.

Well, remarkably, they watched it, and called Matthew on the morning of the concert, commenting that Billy Joel had enjoyed it immensely, and oh, would he like some tickets for the concert and back stage passes. Sure, why not!

And so it was that Matt and I had the pleasure of sitting in on the sound check, spending an hour or so chatting and eating dinner with Andy Cichon, the bass player who, like Matt, hails from Adelaide,



and as the next picture attests, meeting and actually talking to Billy himself -- yes, we're on a first name basis now. (Except for Matt and I, there was only one other man milling around backstage, so we really were able to talk with him for a few minutes.)




The remarkable thing is that despite the fact that I never consciously listened to the music when it was first popular, I knew all but one song he sang, and even knew the words to most of them... amazing the power of pervasive music!!