Jakarta marooned as Maroon 5 doubles down on Bangkok

The group on Tuesday called off their show Jakarta, saying they didn’t want to interfere with an annual religious festival that’s taking place at the same time. And then they turned around and added a second Bangkok show! 

Drummer James Valentine told Thai fans on Instagram that their prayers had been answered. “Bangkok! Due to overwhelming demand, we’ve added a second show on September 22, with our friends Dirty Loops. Tickets are on sale July 5.”

Heavy demand for seats was the obvious reason a second night in Bangkok was added, the day after the September 21 gig. But surely the fact that the boys had extra time on their hands after cancelling their September 23 appearance in Jakarta was another key factor. 

The announcement of a second chance to see Maroon 5 after the first Bangkok gig sold out rapidly was greeted with delight here – or at least everybody but the scalpers were delighted. They were poised to rake in some nice coin flogging passes for the original show. 

BEC-Tero, the concert organiser, took more of the usual abuse last month after fans who’d lined up for hours for tickets discovered that most of the seats had been sold even before the public sale started. They’d already been scooped up by scalpers and were being offered online at ridiculous prices. 

So adding a second show is a (well-deserved) slap in the face for the “ghost” ticket resellers. Seats for that show go on sale on July 5 at ThaiTicketMajor at prices ranging from Bt2,000 to Bt5,000. Why pay more? 

 

The Janie and Kueng saga

The plot thickens in a potential new romance for actress Janie Thienphosuvan. She’s been posting a lot of photos on Instagram from her recent trip to Yangon, and it turns out that she flew to Myanmar aboard a private jet courtesy of her new friend, businessman Chalermchai “Kueng” Mahagitsiri. 

It’s obvious from the “clues” Janie’s leaving here and there online that Kueng is among her most trusted friends at the moment. 

Meanwhile Kueng got a taste of celebrity media coverage while attending a recent press conference held by one of his companies, Thoresen Thai Agencies, which is tackling the problem of violence in schools. Reporters had Kueng blushing when they ambushed him about Janie. 

He said he and Janie and their friends had just been on a quick temple tour of Myanmar. “It was a day trip and a good thing to do, because we went to pay respects to the Buddha,” he said, adding that he also had some businesses to attend to. “It wasn’t a secret.” 

So is there a relationship developing or not? Squirming by now, Kueng still managed to stick to the lines Janie keeps repeating to the media. “We’re friends and we have business ties. We talk about things and, well, the relationship is – the same,” he laughed. Kueng said Janie’s a nice person, and then asked if it was okay if he started talking about violence in schools instead. 

“I never thought there would be so many journalists here, but anyway, please inform people about my company’s campaign as well,” he said. 

And so we await the next piece of the jigsaw puzzle.