Post by kim on Apr 9, 2006 9:20:21 GMT -5
Thought this was rather interesting.
If you feel bad about ticket prices here or in the UK, check out the going rate for these kids...
Some of their classics were missing, but the unmistakable swagger that made the Rolling Stones the “world’s greatest rock n’ roll band,” was still front and centre.
After roughly 40 years of rocking out across the globe you’d think there wasn’t much the Stones hadn’t done, but Saturday the band made its first appearance in mainland China to a raucous crowd of thousands at Shanghai’s indoor stadium.
Chinese censors restricted which songs the band could play, eliminating five hits from their repertoire. Brown Sugar, Honky Tonk Women, Beast of Burden, Let’s Spend the Night Together and Rough Justice were banned because of their suggestive lyrics.
Still, the crowd, mostly foreign and paying more than the equivalent of $680 Cdn. for tickets, appeared to enjoy the show from the moment guitarist Keith Richards struck the opening chords of Start Me Up.
The Stones also incorporated some local flavour into their show when they invited Chinese rock pioneer Cui Jian to join in on the song Wild Horses. Cui was temporarily banned from performing after the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989 when student protestors used his song Nothing to my Name as an anthem.
But with all that in the past, the Stones made rock history and a strong impression on some who were seeing and hearing them for the first time.
"So old, and yet he can really perform," said Song Jianghong, referring to the 62-year-old Jagger.
"They were among the first acts whose music was smuggled in. To see them here in China now is just amazing," local Xue Liang said.
And of course the Stones weren’t the least bit bothered by the attention or censorship.
"I'm pleased that the Ministry of Culture is protecting the morals of the expat bankers and their girlfriends that are going to be coming," Jagger joked the day before.
But politics aside, it was really a night all about rocking on a new frontier.
"It is a big moment. I will never forget this," said Cui, who added rock 'n' roll needed another five years to truly find its audience in China.
The concert was supposed to take place in 2003 but was cancelled due to the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. Instead, the band came to Toronto and played a free show to quell concerns about the city’s own SARS scare.
April 8, 2006
Thanks
Kim
If you feel bad about ticket prices here or in the UK, check out the going rate for these kids...
Some of their classics were missing, but the unmistakable swagger that made the Rolling Stones the “world’s greatest rock n’ roll band,” was still front and centre.
After roughly 40 years of rocking out across the globe you’d think there wasn’t much the Stones hadn’t done, but Saturday the band made its first appearance in mainland China to a raucous crowd of thousands at Shanghai’s indoor stadium.
Chinese censors restricted which songs the band could play, eliminating five hits from their repertoire. Brown Sugar, Honky Tonk Women, Beast of Burden, Let’s Spend the Night Together and Rough Justice were banned because of their suggestive lyrics.
Still, the crowd, mostly foreign and paying more than the equivalent of $680 Cdn. for tickets, appeared to enjoy the show from the moment guitarist Keith Richards struck the opening chords of Start Me Up.
The Stones also incorporated some local flavour into their show when they invited Chinese rock pioneer Cui Jian to join in on the song Wild Horses. Cui was temporarily banned from performing after the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989 when student protestors used his song Nothing to my Name as an anthem.
But with all that in the past, the Stones made rock history and a strong impression on some who were seeing and hearing them for the first time.
"So old, and yet he can really perform," said Song Jianghong, referring to the 62-year-old Jagger.
"They were among the first acts whose music was smuggled in. To see them here in China now is just amazing," local Xue Liang said.
And of course the Stones weren’t the least bit bothered by the attention or censorship.
"I'm pleased that the Ministry of Culture is protecting the morals of the expat bankers and their girlfriends that are going to be coming," Jagger joked the day before.
But politics aside, it was really a night all about rocking on a new frontier.
"It is a big moment. I will never forget this," said Cui, who added rock 'n' roll needed another five years to truly find its audience in China.
The concert was supposed to take place in 2003 but was cancelled due to the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. Instead, the band came to Toronto and played a free show to quell concerns about the city’s own SARS scare.
April 8, 2006
Thanks
Kim