April 20th is a day I would never forget. That is the day Sally Yeh and George Lam performed in Atlantic City. I actually wasn't planning to attend when HKVP Radio told me about the concert. I'm not a big fan of either. I know they are good, but to me, they're not in the same league as Sam Hui or Alan Tam. After contemplating it for a few hours, I realized there's not a whole lot of 80s Cantopop stars who can still perform, not to mention 2 of them together in one setting. Each singer could, in his or her own right, perform as a separate entity. (Plus, my wife is a huge Sally Yeh fan). I proceed with my purchase cautionously, thinking I could always falls back to the casino environment for our mini vacation hi-lite reels.

Well, as it would have, the stars lined up in my favor. The seats were fabulous! I told my friend in NY to get us the best seats in the middle, and indeed she came thru. We were in the middle of the second row from the stage, only sitting behind Raymond Mui, the promoter, and his pit crew. The whole performance, Sally and George were pretty much only 10 feet away from us.

Sally started off the show in great fashion (literally). For a woman in her 40s, she looks great! Her second song: got me jolted. I didn't expect much flow out of me since, because let's face it , "I'm a "geek". The music sounded almost as good as the CD. There were about 5 band members on stage, 3 backup vocalists and 4 dancers thrown in the mix as well.

After 45 minutes of Sally belting out her great hits alone, she exited the stage and George took over. He sounded off with one of his many hits. At one point, he walked off the stage and shook hands with the crowd. He joked about his age in between, telling us a grandpa he just met in the audience was a fan of him even when the man was a baby.

Forty-five minutes of George singing solo, I realized he yells into the mike, but notes would come out. If I were to do the same, you would hear noise instead. Sally, on the other hand, just sang with grace. With her dance movements, she is, indeed, more of a poetry in motion than George.

Next, Sally walks on in one of their numerous duet to follow. The karaoke session is a "duel" between the sexes. Needless to say, the females won the contest, but only because the song is in Chinese - and I can't sing Chinese. Towards the end, George was tossing autographed t-shirts and teddy bears to my right, and Sally was pounding autographed tennis balls into the audience with a racquet to my left. Of course by then, the mo-jo had gotten the upper hand of me. I was waving frantically for attention. Each of them noticed this "kid" and tossed an item to me. I almost forgot I had a 1993 CD cover that I brought in to be autographed by at least one of them. I hopped between the seats on the front rows toward the stage, spilling Raymond Mui's beer in the process. After Sally's tennis session, I caught her attention. She kneed down and signed my CD, probably wondering "is that the latest he's got?"

After that, I just didn't recall what happened next - I was on cloud nine. After the show was over, my wife and I stayed for 10 minutes or so, just to soak in what just happened and how mesmerized I was by their performance. Based on this experience, I can attest to say that 80s Cantopop is alive and well, if only for one day here. It is indeed a day I would never forget, less the slot machines afterward - but that's another story.