wow - China -different world-not better or worse just very very different....one of the best things about no being able to read, write or even speak the local languages is that you don;t get hit by any advertisiing -it was like a mind holiday in that respect - Beijing was fantastic - staying in the HuJong district kinda kept it very real, and it was beautiful weather -very cold bu clear, well as clear as Beijing kinda gets. The gig was in a punky kinda sweatbox called Mao Live....really grimy but delightful too -very real.....Shanghai was again - hot, steamy, very rawkus - but to sell out the show was an amazing thing for all of us...the people who are trying to grow the scene out there, not just exploit the numbers, are few and far between but tey exist, and are doing a great great job to slowly build a real culture out there, not the kind of culture where green Day fly and fly out of city after city - but a scene where Western bands can sit on bills with Local bands, play dingy venues, make it happen.....
it's hard out there - Beijing has like 2 record shops for a population of 15 million, and the venues are just as rare - there is like Barfly venues - then Stadium venues -and not much in between -so to find a run, to build this up, you gotta tour the hard way....but it's worth it - the hospitality, the food, the people....it's a beautiful, generous, and crazy country -my favorite discovery - the group Yacht were on the same bill in Hong Kong (Along with the awesome Blood Red Shoes-who had the police threateneing to shut the festival down due to noise complaints, and that was just their soundcheck !! the new stuff from their forthcoming lp sounds as grimy and hardcore as ever -it's going to be a treat)-they gave me some YAK Jerky they had brought from the outskirts of Tibet - sounds wrong...but it so soooooooo right....
the picture is from Hong Kong -it isn't a postcard - it's a phone pic from this bar we were hanging out in....if you can get through the ex pat thing hong kong is Mind Blowing -a true collision of east and west- i walked from the area with all the money, gucci, and de-beers shops to my hotel on the last night - a hot steamy hong kong night, raining a little, the 2 hours it took me to get back to the residential area i was staying in it was like walking the set of Bladerunner....
gotta say -thanks so so much to Ed from Outdustry and all at the label MicroMu, and Sean Jhawn in shanghai, and Justin in Hong Kong....ignore the bullshitters, and go straight for these guys....their heart is in the right place....we're not trying to impose our style on anyone, or say we're better, or cooler or whatever....we all just want an underground mmusic scene to develop in China....and they'll do it - one gig at a time.....
i learnt how to say "can i have a black coffee and two sugars please" in chinese - but to be fair, after the hundredth attempt or so, i did just resort to pointing....
more blogs to follow.....it's been a crazy few weeks...
fin