See ya, Abe.

Sad to say that I recently spoke to Abe Deyo, one of Shanghai's main independent music promoters, and found out that he's leaving Shanghai next week.

Abe has worn many hats in the scene and as well as promoting shows, he is a photographer and writer. He was the music editor at Shanghaiist when I was there posting a bit on Yuyintang shows. He has also written many articles for City Weekend Magazine and he blogs at their website as punknotjunk.

Check the blog here.

As a regular promoter of shows in Shanghai, he also featured heavily in this blog. Check out articles tagged Abe Deyo here

He also gave us one of the hottest gossip stories of 2008 when he complained in print about Beijing band New Pants and their attitude. Revisit the story here: Handbags

Following a boom in general attendances once the Ol*mp*cs were done, Abe got more ambitious and tried to put on larger and/or better quality shows. We had the The Subs at Dream Factory and then The Queers and DOA at Yuyintang. Abe also took the latter two acts on China tours. Unfortunately the attendances were not there this time. Abe will now move on to Wuhan with work. Wuhan has its own scene which is a lot more punk than Shanghai. Perhaps the spark will be ignited one more time.

See ya, Abe.