MAROONED IN CHINA
Though the Stones and Dylan had to drop a few songs deemed unsuitable for sensitive ears by the country’s censors who long march to the beat of their own drum before being permitted to perform in Mainland China, it was baffling to learn that nice, safe Maroon 5’s concerts this year in Beijing and Shanghai have been turned down point blank for “political reasons”. Maroon 5? Political? Some hidden messages in “Moves Like Jagger”? Whatever.
MADONNA IN HK
Meanwhile, with news that Lady Madonna will perform in Hong Kong after the Chinese New Year break, we wonder what type of red tape she’ll have to cut through if there are any plans for her to play China.
Trivia: The Rolling Stones collection of Greatest Hits called 40 Licks only had 36 Licks when released in China. Four tracks- and, strangely, “Street Fighting Man” wasn’t among them, were banned.
BACKSTAGE LIVE: DEAD.
And so it’s come to pass that another Hong Kong venue for ‘live’ entertainment- Backstage Live- has been forced to close its doors next month, another victim of the city’s Curse Of The Rising Rents.
With the creative community- those that fall into the “alternative category”- we can’t help but mention the Teflon man of the Hong Kong government in Duncan Pescod who was recently named the latest head of the bad fung shui West Kowloon Cultural District.
We still remember The Dunc in one of his previous incarnations with the government painting such a glorious picture of the-then yet-to-be-launched CreateHK as the panacea to all the ills affecting the local creative community. The Dunc went into particular overdrive over a “worldwide search” to find a fearless leader for the organisation.
As we now know, this leader was a lightweight from another government-friendly sector whereas CreateHK, like InvestHK, keeps its head down, plods along and hopes no one shines a light on how bloody useless it is and that the public is paying for another albatross and white elephant.
While “keeping book” on Pescod’s spectacular failures “with the bat”, and how incompetence is continually rewarded, while looking at the dire straits of Hong Kong’s moribund ‘live’ “scene”- there is precious little scene- perhaps some of those saviours navigating the local creative community need to be more creativity in how they go about looking for funding instead of clinging to the past and looking for good Samaritans like the Charities Trust of the Hong Kong Jockey Club with new- and more creative- business models?
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