SEK GETS HIGH ON FB LIVE, BLE’S BRUSH WITH FLOOD PERIL, POP MAKES UP
Rocker needs a doc
Rocker Sek Loso’s family have issued an impassioned plea to the rocker to get his life back on track after he spent the past six days in a marathon Facebook live session.
The rocker, who has been holed up in his Sai Mai townhouse for the past couple of weeks along with his live-in partner, Apisaya “Eve” Pattanaworasap, says he wants the world to see that he is just like “ordinary” people and is not mad as his critics suggest.
He has self-tested his urine daily for drugs since the FB session began early last week, as he tries to live down the stigma he earned seven years ago when his ex-wife, Wiphakorn “Kan” Sukpimai, outed him on social media for taking heroin.
However, critics are now asking if Sek, who has bipolar disorder and keeps firearms at his home, is “off his meds” or has been mixing the drugs he takes to control his condition with alcohol.
Sek brushes off claims that he is unhinged, saying he has many responsibilities as a businessman rocker. He asks how he could keep his family and career going if he really was off the rails.
Despite that, the FB live session has sparked concerns from friends and colleagues worried about his fate but apparently unable to get through to him. To some, Sek looks like he is in self-destruct mode, and is determined the rest of the world should see it.
Reports have emerged that the self-branded merchandise companies which Sek owns are in trouble, with one ex-staff member saying he left after two years’ service when Sek refused to pay his wages.
He said the company, which makes Sek’s branded energy drinks, had closed with 50 staff laid off after Sek stopped paying bills. He said Sek was once an attentive boss, but things started to charge when he fell foul of the law last year for discharging a handgun at a temple in Nakhon Si Thammarat.
Sek’s FB live session looks ordinary enough, with the rocker appearing often at his kitchen table, eating, playing with an unlit cigar, strumming his guitar, checking comments on his FB feed, and tending to his animals. He takes few breaks, and one night slept just two-three hours before bouncing back again. However, he has also lit up the media with some comments referring to third parties who cannot defend themselves.
Among those he has attacked on air are former prime ministers Thaksin Shinawatra and his sister Yingluck. Sek admits he was once fans of the couple, endearing the rocker to their red shirt supporters, and had even composed a couple of songs for Yingluck.
However, he now accuses Thaksin of corruption and meddling in the country’s politics even as it strives for peace and harmony among the colour-coded factions.
“If Thaksin stops, I will stop my FB live session, and if I still refuse you can get the prime minister or his soldiers to cart me away. I am man enough to face up to things,” he told the media in an interview through the fence of his townhouse on Thursday.
Among other on-air targets were his former music boss, Grammy chairman Paiboon Damrongchaitham, also known as Ah Koo, whom Sek has accused of exploiting performers under his label and paying for prostitutes. He called Ah Koo while on air, spoke to him coarsely, and asked if he was prepared to admit he had done wrong. “That’s enough of that,” Ah Koo said, hanging up the line.
One of the rocker’s followers, who calls himself Na Loso, called on Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-Cha to exercise his Section 44 powers and get the army to take Sek away for attitude adjustment. “He is playing on the old colour-coded divisions and making things worse. Many red shirts will be hating him now,” he said.
His critics, meanwhile, ask who will take responsibility if Sek was to do himself harm during his live FB session.
On Friday morning, as Sek donned a collection of strange hats and got stuck into some red wine, his FB session was attracting up to 1500 viewers (by yesterday morning, 4500). Many send greetings or ask him to strum a song; few seem aware that he is making a spectacle of himself and that letting the public into his life to this extent is far from normal as he claims.
Speaking to the media through his townhouse fence, Sek defended his comments about third parties, saying he still wanted people to take responsibility for what they share on social media. He would not let reporters to talk to Eve, who told them previously her job was just to “listen”.
Asked why she does not offer to take him to the doctor, his former wife Kan said she left Sek long ago and the rocker could always refuse. However, late last week she issued a plea on social media to the couple’s eldest son, Sua, saying he was the only one who could pull Sek out of his “hole”.
Sua, contacted by reporters, said his father now occupied a different world and he was not sure how to feel about him any more.
The youngster, who is carving out a career as a singer with his mother’s help, and returns to the US next month to carry on his studies, said: “Dad is in a hole and he will find it hard to climb out of it. The women, drugs and people around him have changed him so he’s no longer in the same place as the rest of us. I am in the real world, and he’s in a different one.
“We can’t talk to each other. I am worried about him, but I am in a place where I can’t see him; I don’t know what to think or feel about him. I would like him to come back to the same world I am in, because at the end of it all he’s still my dad,” he said. The saga continues.
Singer aids rescue effort
A young Isan singer turned director says he was lucky to escape harm last week when flooding struck the Nakhon Nayok resort where he and his cast were filming. Ble Patumrach R Siam, who has taken a break from conscription duties to make On Sunday, his first venture as a director, said he, his crew and cast of more than 300 were stuck at the Sida Resort in the province’s central district, near the Nang Rong waterway, when floods struck.
“We had just filmed a bun bang fai (fire rocket festival) scene with many people. We didn’t think much of the rain at first when it started at 3pm but as the floods began to grow and the water threatened a bridge we started to grow uncertain. Eventually our team told everyone to head back to the resort about 300m away in search of higher ground.
“I took a motorcycle back and was shocked to find the floods had reached the first storey of the resort. Floods from the forest were really strong, but we didn’t panic as we were all together,” he said.
Singer Thanya, who broadcast scenes of the roaring river via FB Live, said they initially took shelter in a catering tent, but the rain was so strong it collapsed.
“As the flooding grew stronger we reassured each other we would be okay,” she said.
“At the resort, the army, rescuers and police turned up about 5pm and said we would have to leave because another wave of water was coming, which they were releasing from the nearby dam. We were stuck for a more than an hour before we could move out.”
Ble said he was busy ferrying people out, and moving equipment. “I didn’t spend too much time looking at the water, but I have never flooding so strong anywhere,” he said.
“We finally managed to clear everything out about 7pm, with our gear incurring minor damage but no one hurt. I never thought he would nearly end up being flood victims.”
Peuy forgives errant hubby
Former model Panward “Peuy’’ Hemmanee has made up with her husband Nithi “Pop’’ Boonyaratglin, after a troubled patch in which she took to social media to warn off a woman in whom he had shown interest.
Pop, son of former coup leader Sonthi, last week denied he had been seeing anyone on the sly and said media reports of troubles in his marriage had gone too far.
However, he admitted he had “erred” performing his duties as a husband and would make sure it didn’t happen again.
Earlier, Peuy posted a chat between a friend of hers and the young woman, identified as Palaya Khemthanaviset, a “pretty” product presenter, in which Peuy’s friend warns her off. “(Playing around with) someone who has a wife and child ... that’s sin. It’s just not worth it. If you mess with the husband of a woman who is well-known, you will be condemned publicly... society won’t accept it. She is also pregnant,” the message read.
Speaking to the media, Pop admitted he knew the woman, but denied straying. “I have never kept a little home or little woman,” he said.
Peuy, who is expecting their second child next month and was admitted to hospital with stomach pain during her ordeal, last week posted an image of her and her husband enjoying a Japanese meal, the drama now apparently in the past. She was a little annoyed with him, Pop said, but would get over it.
“She’s the best wife and mother to our kids, and I have never thought of leaving her,” he said.