I said I wasn't going to do this, but I changed my mind. I'm sure you've all been keeping track of this stuff while I was away, but, seeing as I was sans internet, I've been playing catch up and can't believe I've missed some of the stuff that's gone down. Here's a round-up:After all the hype, Mao Shanghai opened. Andy's review of the opening night is here and there's his write up of the Mushrooms gig that followed a few days later here. We've been hinting for a while that this could be the last Mushrooms show for quite a bit (making me doubly gutted to have missed it) and I wish I could say more about why this is, but rest assured all will be revealed when I'm allowed to say something. Rounding out the first slew of gigs at Mao was the Rock Shanghai anniversary party. I'm looking forward to catching a show there soon.
The Global Battle of the Bands competition returned to Shanghai. Despite a good turn out of local talent in Beijing (they had 20 bands, of which 2 were laowai acts), the Shanghai leg wasn't quite as successful. I speculated on some of the reasons for this before. Nevertheless, 7 acts took part and you can read all about it here.
Then, the real craziness kicked in. Maybe we should all be used to the ridiculous whims of the Party, but I was still pretty shocked to read about the decimation of the Modern Sky Festival on China Music Radar. That was followed by Andy posting that the ban extended too all gigs by foreign bands which apparently led to the bizarre spectacle of The (International) Noise Conspiracy standing around in Yuyintang unable to play at the gig they were meant to be headlining. What. The. Fuck?
Dan Shapiro continued his excellent series of posts on the awkward
relationship between music and commercialism. I'm not sure if it's
meant as a series, but I recommend you read them as such. If you
haven't read the articles already, start here with his piece on the Pepsi competition, then go to his guide to being a DIY band in Shanghai and finally hit up the most recent piece on Converse's Love Noise tour here. Seriously, Mr Shapiro's blog is on fire at the moment.
Plenty of other stuff happened too. Crucially, there was my music video debut and I also featured, slightly more embarrassingly, in another video. Seriously though, those are two class videos (my cameos aside I mean).
Finally, there was news that gigs might be starting up again at Harley's. Actually, that gig was last night and, after bumping into Swiss James (he of ISpyShanghai and Gang of Three fame) who mentioned it, I'd planned to go. Unfortunately, I'm still recovering from my travels and tiredness got the better of me around about the time I should have been heading over there. Still, it'll be interesting to see if this was just a one off or the start of regular shows there again. I think the last time I saw a show there was The Fuck'ndrolls with The Scoff, neither of whom exist any more, which goes some way to showing how long ago it was.
Anyway, hopefully that's the last gig I miss due to fatigue for a while. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more...
Plenty of other stuff happened too. Crucially, there was my music video debut and I also featured, slightly more embarrassingly, in another video. Seriously though, those are two class videos (my cameos aside I mean).
Finally, there was news that gigs might be starting up again at Harley's. Actually, that gig was last night and, after bumping into Swiss James (he of ISpyShanghai and Gang of Three fame) who mentioned it, I'd planned to go. Unfortunately, I'm still recovering from my travels and tiredness got the better of me around about the time I should have been heading over there. Still, it'll be interesting to see if this was just a one off or the start of regular shows there again. I think the last time I saw a show there was The Fuck'ndrolls with The Scoff, neither of whom exist any more, which goes some way to showing how long ago it was.
Anyway, hopefully that's the last gig I miss due to fatigue for a while. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more...
Cool photo. I hope you could write a bit about your trip to the Wild Wild West, after all the blog does not necessarily have to be about music only.
Fame! Yay!
*keys up Gloria Gaynor on the stereo for a rousing welcome*
"And so you're back, from outer space,
We couldn't contact you in X1nj1ang so the party could save face..."
Keep fighting the good fight my man
Man. I wanna go there...
YLK, I'm hoping to write something about it yes, just a case of when I have the time though. All my photos are here by the way, although i need to go through and delete some.
Thanks Chengdont. I can't tell you how long I've been waiting for someone to rework that song just for me. Incidentally, are you the same Chengdont who penned this excellent piece in the Telegraph perchance? (ahem, plug, ahem)
Archie, you can comment at last! Excellent!
In Shark Jumping news- I was sat next to an Italian guy in Wagas yesterday- he was talking about the ways to promote his Halloween 'party' at Bar Rouge. A proper bell end, and wearing the same Feiyue shoes as you.
Anyway you missed fun at Harley's and about 15 Oasis songs.