China Music Radar

In our (seemingly regular) season of big Western Entertainment company problems, we present a story about AEG.

After taking a full 16 months to get the Wukesong arena in Beijing match-fit, and opening it last October in a blaze of Beyonce glory (losing shirts in the process), AEG, the global entertainment company, have had their relationship with the venue “restructured”.  The owners of the property will now be paying all the bills (heating, light and wages).  Contract renegotiations for key staff are ongoing.

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(hat tip to Mathdx for the heads up)

Billboard reports on the 20th annual benefit for Teebet House.  Iggy Pop, Regina Spektor, Patti Smith were among a stellar cast of artists that showed up to perform at London’s Albert Hall last night.  Teebet House is a non-profit organization with a remit to preserve Teebetan culture.

It’s easy to understand the desires of the artist to take part in this kind of activity.  It’s just sad that we probably won’t be seeing them any time soon here in China.

Read the full article HERE

We were quite quick on the uptake, announcing Dylan had plans to tour the region HERE.

However, we seem to have missed the fallout.  The Beijinger has done an excellent investigative job on the proposed tour, and you can read all about it HERE.

According to Sun MengJin, one of the foremost Western music champions here in China, Broker Bros were trying to mark up the Dylan shows by 60%.  Dylan’s Western agent was looking for US$250k a show, BBH were trying to onsell the shows for US$400k a pop.  According to the Beijinger’s translation of Mr. Sun

I mean, how money-driven can you be? Don’t they know about the international standard of maximum 15% for agent fees? 400,000 dollars for the 8,000 seated Shanghai Grand Stage, it’s impossible to make the money back by selling tickets. Those people are whistling ‘blowing in the wind’ while their black hearted money are also blowing with the shit out of their ass. FYI, there will be a day when Dylan is too old to sing.”

BBH have denied the claims and blamed the Shanghai Culture Bureau, who seem to get it in the neck every time there is a problem.

In two completely unrelated bits of news, China’s relationship with Taiwan gets put under a musical spotlight.

First, a Taiwanese promoter refuses to participate in an artist tour previously agreed to, unless the name of the tour changed.  Artist X is playing 6 dates on the mainland, and 1 in Taipei.  The tour was called “Artist X China Tour 2010″.  It is now called “Artist X 2010 tour”.  Right.

Second, the two shows in Shanghai’s Mao Livehouse for the Taiwanese band 1976 have been canned by the Shanghai Cultural Bureau due to “not meeting some unspecified rules”.

This seems to be ongoing.  We reported on the cancellation of Tizzy Bac’s China appearances last summer HERE and HERE.

The second coming of Shanghai and Beijing based urban art festival JUE is just around the corner. This year, the festival features just shy of 100 events across 2 cities over a 17 day period, 12 – 29 March. The festival is a big step forward from year 1, and features music from a wide mix of Chinese and International artists, as well as art from all across the spectrum. Highlights (from our unbiased position):

MUSIC

1)  4AD’s eccentric singer songwriter St. Vincent

2)  the launch of the quarterly “Crosstalk” initiative, for which organizers Split Works take bands that might not otherwise be able to from their city-of-residence to another Chinese city.  For JUE, Hefei’s Omnipotent Youth Hotel, Guangzhou’s Yufeimen and Mongolian folk act Hanggai all travel to Shanghai, while Shanghai’s the Mushrooms make their first journey to the capital.

ART

BEIJING

1) Chairman Ca (one of the main artists behind the Maybe Mars imagery) exhibition at the D-22 JUE opening party on March 11.

2) Solo Show from illustrator Huang Kai @ Amelie Gallery. Huangkai uses a cool comic-booky style to depict street scenes and social realities of 1980’s China. here’s some of his stuff here:

SHANGHAI

1) a free introductory screenprinting workshop conducted by nini sum of idlebeats, in partnership with neochaedge. march 13 3-5 pm.

2) Solo exhibition from Beijing-based photographer Han Lei at m97 gallery. This is the first time he’s exhibited in Shanghai since 2004. His photos are pretty awesome.

Yes, we like our multiplication signs here at the Radar.  We also like to follow the fortunes of Beijing label Maybe Mars and sneaker brand Converse.

So, we were excited to learn that Converse are taking their relationship with Chinese indie music out of China, by supporting the bands PK14, CarsickCars and AV Okubo on their tour to SXSW and the surroundings this month. Dates still aren’t confirmed, and Youku might be covering it.  It’s going to be interesting to see how the US receives Maybe Mars for the second time. We wish them luck!

In September 2009, China based promoter Split Works organized an 8 city Asian tour through China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore.  The tour was picked up by CNN, who gave Dan and Lex a pair of Flip Cameras to record their exploits.

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Music Matters, the HK based Asian music conference, is back.  Dates are confirmed (26-27 May 2010), the first keynote speaker is confirmed (Daniel Ek from Spotify) and they have a pretty spiffing free research report that you can download from their website.

Their latest press release reads as follows (after the jump)

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We hope you all had a wonderful Chinese New Year.  It is now year of the Tiger, and you can expect the following from the year (according to City Weekend)

The Tiger in 2010:

Tigers are the courageous iconoclasts of the Chinese zodiac. Brave and competitive, you Tigers dive into challenges at work, in life, and in love with unabashed zeal. But in the Year of the Tiger, you big cats tend to get kinda insecure and emotional. And all those tender little feelings will manifest themselves in the worst way imaginable.

If you get an inkling that something’s not going to your liking at work, your first instinct will be to get impatient. Who cares if your actions will offend subordinates and bosses? Pounce first, ask questions later! In love, on the other hand, insecurity takes its hold on you like a niggling ache. At best, you’ll find yourself relying on your partner for affirmation. At worst, you’ll focus all your nervous energy on your other half, demanding that he or she change to your liking. Needless to say, that’s a lot of pressure.

So in 2010, Tiger, when you’re unhappy and you know it, and you really want to change the world, there’s one word for you: Don’t. The Year of the Tiger is truly unsuitable for making any big changes. You must view any bad decisions made as good experiences had. Control your temper and seek inner peace.

So what should we in the music industry expect from this year of the Tiger here in China?  Casting an eye into the immediate future, we don’t think we’ve ever seen a busier month for the small to mid-size part of the market.  Venues such as the Maos, Yugong Yishan, Yuyintang, the Shelter, new Beijing clubs Lantern and White Rabbit (2) are all full to bursting this coming month, and at the bigger end of the market, Korea’s Super Junior and the Backstreet Boys are moving in for some stadium action.

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We received this update from LiveNation clarifying the cancellation of the Asian dates vis-a-vis the ongoing shows in Australia

Dear All

I am writing in regards to the very recent and very disappointing cancellation of last months tour by The KILLERS.

We keep getting asked why they are still playing Australia ? – so to set the record straight I wanted you to know that they have not played any dates in Australia and unfortunately the first few dates down there have been cancelled due to the severity of the illness of the family member.

Here is a full statement form the band released just now:
http://www.thekillersmusic.com/story/news-live/statement_from_the_killers-1

When it is appropriate we will commence discussions about rescheduling the shows.

Many thanks
LiveNation

Massively happy Chinese New Year to you all.