In a great bit of news for music fans in Thailand, it looks like the British rock group Muse are set to head out this way some time in December. I’ve been unable to find any solid info about this with regards to dates, but during an interview at the Q Awards earlier this month, frontman Matthew Bellamy said that the final date of the Muse world tour will be in Bangkok.

After the disappointment of the Bangkok Rock Festival getting cancelled this year, having a band like Muse drop into town is a great sign. What’s even better is that Matthew Bellamy said that after the tour is over, the band will come to Phuket to write material for their new album. Maybe I’ll bump into them in Patong.

Bangkok could certainly do with more credible bands playing there. I think there are only so many Korean boybands the world needs. And please, no more Black Eyed Peas concerts too.

I love it when things like this happen. I was in Bangkok over the weekend, but it appears that not everyone knows who I am. If ever you want to engage in a bit of role play, Bangkok is the place to do it.

The first case of mistaken identity happened on Friday night at CRC Tower. I was queuing to get into the Heaven and Hell party when one of the girls at the reception desk said, “Oh hey, you work for Prestige don’t you?” I freelance for Prestige sometimes so I just nodded. The girl then turned to another girl and said, “It’s the Australian guy from Prestige,” obviously mistaking me for my friend Jay.

I just went with it. “I graduated from Canberra University,” beamed one of the girls. Apparently, Jay is held in quite high regard at CRC Tower because the girls made a real effort to get me in, and at the bar one of them even came to serve me before anyone else.

Even better than being mistaken for an Aussie: at the big Halloween party at Chula on Saturday, I was sat down with two French friends when a couple of very excited guys (one Thai, one farang) came over and asked, “Are you guys the band?” I was stunned and just said, “Yeah, we’re the band,” with a big smile.

Whatever band we were supposed to be, apparently these guys were fans because they enthusiastically asked if they could join us. “So what time are you on,” said the farang guy. “Later on,” I replied. “So are you guys on tour? How long are you here for?” he asked. “We’re here for a couple of weeks. Gonna head down to the islands I think; travel about for a bit,” I said.

As it transpired, I was the singer of this band and my two friends were the keyboard player and the bass guitarist. Unfortunately our drummer was AWOL. These two guys, no older than myself, seemed ecstatic to be hanging out with us. “You want some pizza?” the Thai guy asked my friend. “I’ve got some in my bag.” Sure enough, he had a pizza in his backpack.

It was just one of those weekends when crazy things seemed to happen. I guess that’s Bangkok all over.

You know those moments when something happens and your heart stops? This was one of those moments. I got home after a night out and was lying on my bed minding my own business when a strange feeling in my right ear came about. It felt as if I’d just been swimming and I could hear this kind of muffled sound. I thought nothing of it, but then when I moved my head, I heard the sound again.

I prodded my ear to find out what was wrong with me and noticed that one of my piercings was missing. It was a small, silver stud, about one centimeter in length, and it wasn’t in the place it was supposed to me.

I got up and turned the light on to see if the stud was somewhere on my bed. It wasn’t. It then dawned on me that it had somehow made its way into my ear. I poked my finger in my ear but couldn’t feel anything. Still a little tipsy, I decided that it was no big deal and that the stud probably wouldn’t do any harm and might just fall out by the time I woke up.

Then it hit me that this was a stupid line of thought to take and that having a metal stud stuck in my head was certainly a bad thing. I poked and poked, but to no avail. So I started shaking my head. Still nothing. The thing had fallen into my ear hole and I was beginning to have visions of going to hospital to have it removed.

I looked in the mirror and couldn’t see anything. I was a little panicked by this point, so I lent my head to one side and started hitting the other side with my left hand. After repeatedly smacking myself over the head for what felt like an eternity, the stud eventually reappeared after its brave journey towards my brain.

The whole thing totally freaked me out.

This year was once again touted as the year that Thailand’s DJ Nakadia was supposed to make DJ Mag’s top 100 DJs list. Every year since 1997, DJ Mag has compiled a list of the top 100 DJs in the world, as voted for by the general public. The credibility of the list is continually questioned, but that doesn’t stop most DJs from launching voting campaigns to try and break into the top 100. If a DJ makes the top 100, that DJ can then up the price he or she charges per gig because it raises the DJ’s profile.

Nakadia had her own campaign this year and her agent was confident of Thailand’s most famous DJ making the top 100. After touring the world, Nakadia’s reputation has grown steadily, and there was talk that she would make the top 100 list. I logged onto the official top 100 website this morning to see the results. Once again, Nakadia wasn’t in the list.

I think it’s a shame that Nakadia has been marketed as the “next big thing” only to have failed to make the top 100 two years running. Nakadia was in Phuket recently and she played a gig at Club Lime. I wasn’t able to stay for the whole night, but Nakadia did a solid job behind the decks and she drew the biggest crowd I’ve seen so far at the club. It wasn’t packed, but it was busy.

There may be more to Nakadia not making the top 100 than I first thought. According to her agent, there were a number of people in the music industry who protested against DJ Nakadia making it into the top 100. Although she wasn’t officially disqualified, her agent is claiming something went on behind closed doors.

It could be an excuse or there may be some weight behind such an allegation. It all sounds a bit vague at the moment. Regardless, Nakadia and her agent have now done an about-turn and said they won’t push for Nakadia to make the top 100 list next year. All this after campaigning so hard to get her in the list in the first place. It doesn’t add up.

The only real problem I saw with the campaign to get Nakadia in the top 100 list was a MySpace page that was touted by her agent as the official DJ Mag Top 100 MySpace page. The page was (not anymore) promoting Nakadia to make the list. I don’t believe it is a genuine DJ Mag page.

It would have been great to have a Thai DJ in the top 100 list, but Nakadia isn’t the only Thai who has achieved success as a performer outside of Thailand. Montonn Jira has just got back from touring with American electronica-musician Kenna, opening for the likes of Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado.

The contrast between Montonn’s career and Nakadia’s is astounding. Montonn also works as a DJ, but he appears more able to stand on his own two feet. I criticize Nakadia sometimes because I think she is over-marketed. After seeing her DJ recently, it’s obvious she is a genuine performer who loves what she does and can hold her own in a club, but I don’t know of any other DJ in the world who has an agent that is so much in the public eye.

She will be back in Phuket playing at Club Lime November 10 and I’d urge anybody in town to make the effort to see her. Phuket hasn’t had parties like this for a long time, if ever.

We had another guy quit at work today. He lasted one week. I hate this certain mentality of some foreigners who come here to work, but expect to be able to do so without doing any actual work. Why apply for a job, waste everybody’s time being trained up, getting a work permit, getting a visa, only to turn around and walk out the next day?

Is the concept of work so alien in Thailand? The guy who quit today had the revelation that he could earn more money teaching. Well, gee, I could have told him that before he’d even sat down at his desk. Sure, I could quit my job today and earn double my salary working as a language teacher, but what would I ultimately gain out of doing something I’m really bad at and have no desire to do in the long run?

If you want to earn real money, then why the heck would you choose to come to Thailand? I have nothing against the guy who quit, but we all put time and effort into helping him out, correcting his work and trying to train him up – I guess I feel kind of betrayed, which is silly, because it is ultimately his choice.

On the other hand, I can kind of understand why the guy quit. We do, after all, work on a tropical island, and yet work takes up almost all of our time. We aren’t living the high life here by a long shot, but it’s certainly not a bad existence.

It just seems so absurd for a young foreigner to switch career paths in Thailand based on his salary. I guess this is part of the problem a lot of companies face in Thailand. Many people are simply looking for vacation work, and for quick, easy money, language teaching is the obvious route.

Perhaps I’m just upset because it means my workload gets bigger once again, but I wish people would use some common sense when they come to work in Thailand.

Techno’ tags: Thailand, Phuket, Work in Thailand