Cliff Richard's endurance

I was in Manila to join hundreds of senior citizens to watch icon singer Sir Cliff Richard performed last Thursday at the Smart  Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.  It was a pity a lot of young ones do not know Cliff Richard who is now a “young once”.  Well, it's just normal for people to watch artists of their town time.  For instance pretty Rai Rai Ken supervisor Elaine Parilla is more familiar with Maroon 5 or Bruno Mars  rather than Cliff.  As expected it was a Senior prom “as Philstar's”  Ricky Lo would put it.  But I was amazed with Sunstar's Cheska Geli who texted me and asked if Cliff is going to sing

“Ocean Deep”. Of course he did,  In fact it was the most applauded song.  But what really amazed me even more was the staying power of Cliff who is 73 years old.  Cliff  sang more than 25 songs that included his hits “Summer Holiday”, “The Young Ones”, “ We Don't Talk Anymore”, “The Next time”, “Suddenly”, “Move It”,   “Livin Doll” and It'll Be Me".  Cliff also sang the seldom heard “Outsider” and “Evergreen Tree”.  We  were thrilled when he sang standards like “Twelfth of Never”, “Poetry In Motion”, and “Sealed With A Kiss”.  Some people  didn't recognized some of his songs especially the ones recorded in the 70's.  But  I knew most of them like “Miss You Nights”, Devil Woman  and  “Some People”.  Too bad he didn't sing “Daddy's Home”, “Legatta Ad Un Granello De Sabia”, “Constantly” and “Theme For A Dream”.  As I mentioned earlier, Cliff was dancing all night long.  When asked regarding his remarkable endurance, he said he was working out a lot and watching his diet.  But most importantly, he's drug free.  If you don't know why we call him “Sir Cliff”, well, he was knighted by  Queen Elizabeth to  the Order of the British Empire (OBE),  just like Elton John, Sean Connery, Roger Moore and Michael Caine. Indeed, Cliff is like a marathoner, he does it longer.  When asked if he's ever coming back here, Cliff said maybe when he's 80 or if he's still alive by then. Did you know that  Cliff's insperation  was Elvis?  The songs he performed during his first stage appearance in 1958 was “HeartBreak Hotel” and “Don't Be Cruel”, Oh by the way, Cliff's real name is Harry Webb, no relation to Freddie.

Elvis

Speaking of Elvis, I got an invitation to join the Elvis Presely International Club and I will be around when the group makes It's anniversary in May. I hope this time around, I get to perform on “ElvisNight” at Bistro RJ in Makati during the King's death anniversary in August.

Erwin Chiongson

As I write this column, former Mr. Philippines candidate and Winner's Gym owner Erwin Chiongson of IloIlo City is still fighting for his life in a Quezon City hospital.  Erwin suffered a massive heart attack last week, and even elapsed into a coma. Prosport's Boyet Rentoy who's been feeding me updates of Erwin's condition, said Erwin is showing  signs of recovery as he's been able to move his hands. His body building activities for over 30 years is really helping him.

Erwin was in a shampoo commercial and also on a Sustagen ad.  He was the one of the rowers on a canoe in that commercial). He organized a lot of body building  competitions in the Visayas together with Cebu's Dennis Delgado of Workout Fitness.  One of Cebu's oldest body building clubs.  He was also into running, organizing several runs in IloIlo City.  Keep on fighting buddy, our prayers are with you.