Tag Archives: yue festival

Top 10 musical moments of the (half) decade

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Archie arrived in China in 2005 to set up Split Works, a company focused on building a music industry in China and generating compelling creative and content for brands that have a youth bias. Split Works book and produce tours all around China and Southeast Asia, and curate and produce festivals and brand campaigns — outdoor monster Yue Festival (watch out for this returning in 2010), the International Music and Arts Festival JUE | Music | Art, Bacardi Sino Sessions, Converse Love Noise, etc. He writes a blog on the Chinese Music Industry called China Music Radar and manages a Chinese language only blog on the music industry in China called Wooozy.

I arrived in China exactly half way through the decade. Now, at the end of it, I look back with affection on some of my favorite musical moments of the last 5 years, 5 years that have seen extraordinary growth in live music in China.

My choices are somewhat skewed towards Split Works events, because

  1. I attend them all
  2. I have generally listened to the music intensely for 3 months prior to the shows
  3. I have a large say in which artists, and thus pick artists that I love already.

I have tried to be objective though, and I hope my choices reflect this:

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Interview with Archie Hamilton of Split Works…

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There is a long, long interview on Creative Hunt with Archie Hamilton of Split Works, the Shanghai and Beijing based promoter.  It is a short history of the company in China, his personal road to now, and some thoughts to the future.

You can read all about it HERE.

(Disclaimer: Archie Hamilton is a major contributor to this blog)

MUSIC FESTIVALS IN CHINA — the inside track

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An industry insider presents a crash course in the basics of each of China’s 5 existing music festivals:

BEIJING

Midi Festival: China’s longest running festival, Midi was established in Beijing in 2000. Run by the headmaster of the Midi School of music and his wife

Analysis

The Midi Festival was founded as and remains a platform for the school’s students. With a non-corporate focus and a policy of generally not financing band fees/flights, the festival’s music standards have always fairly underwhelming, with essentially the same bands year after year (probably also due to a lack of depth in the alternative Chinese music scene). The lineup is mostly playing metal! However, with a ticket price of 50 RMB (US$7.1), Midi attracts an estimated 50,000 Chinese over its 4-day duration. In 2008, Midi is planning to come to Shanghai for the first time. The organisers eschew overt corporate branding and strive to keep ticket prices low and leverage relationships to allow for increasingly better production standards. 2008′s headliners are Mando Diao (who were a second-stage act at last year’s Beijing Pop Festival) and Danish band Raunchy. Midi do great work for Greenpeace and should be applauded for their commitment to the grassroots of Chinese music.

Beijing Pop Festival: Started in 2004 by the son of an (English) Hong Kong-based property magnate, BPF has always been hampered by having a small staff and a boss who started the festival more as a hobby than as a purely professional enterprise.

Analysis

BPF’s lineups have always been more about names and less about exciting live acts – the 1st year featured Ian Brown and Common, the 2nd year Supergrass, Placebo and Sebastian Bach. Year 3 was Nine Inch Nails, Public Enemy, Marky Ramone and the New York Dolls. Nine Inch Nails bucked the trend and put on an incredible performance, although they shipped in most of their own gear out of frustration at local “deaf ears” to their requests. Production is bare-bones and attendance is solid but tempered due to late announce dates and lack of strong promotion, which is ironic considering a rumoured US$1.5m sponsorship war-chest and a ticket price of RMB 200. The venue (Chaoyang Park) is problematic, as the local police demand a 30m “golden circle” around the front of the main stage. Rumour has it that BPF may not happen in 2008, due to timing concerns surrounding the Olympics and the organiser’s conflicts with local authorities.

Modern Sky Festival: Modern Sky Records is China’s only serious indie record label and home to many superstars once alternative music gets more of a hold in the mainstream.

Analysis

Modern Sky Records has been operating for 10 years and has continuously supported the underground scene. The inaugural MS Festival was set up to commemorate the record company’s 10-year anniversary, and was considered a success. With the bulk of performing bands made up from Modern Sky’s roster of artists, there was also one foreign headliner: NYC’s the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Production was done on a shoestring budget, but the vibe was good. The ticket price was RMB 60, and thousands of Chinese kids showed up. Word from the horse’s mouth is that 2008′s headliner will most likely be Blonde Redhead.

SHANGHAI

Yue: Shanghai’s first international-class music festival, Yue was feted for its good vibe and the high quality of production and talent on display. A slightly disappointing turnout of around 3,500 can be attributed to late promotion and a headliner unsuited to Chinese audiences. (Faithless have a huge following globally but have very little recognition in China.)

Analysis

The event was officially endorsed by the Shanghai Tourist Board (as part of the Golden Week Festival) and was held in Zhongshan Park – a large and high-profile park in the centre of the city. Yue received sponsorship from Bacardi, Converse and Tiger Beer, as well as significant media partnerships. The festival also supported the environmental education group Roots and Shoots to the tune of 5% of gross ticket revenue. 2007′s bill included Faithless, Ozomatli and Talib Kweli, with many Chinese bands supporting. The second iteration will feature a change of venue, a larger format and more regional headliners.

OTHER

Lijiang Snow Mountain Festival: A 2-or-3-day festival set in the mountains of Kunming, about 100km from the Tibetan plateau, LSM is curated by Chinese rock legend Cui Jian. The first festival was held in August 2002; the second festival was held in October 2007.

Analysis

Featuring almost an entirely Chinese roster, LSM is fairly inaccessible location-wise. It is approximately 3 hours by plane from the Eastern seaboard.

The Bjork Backlash

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It’s a difficult time for me to be in China as I feel morally involved with everything happening at the moment. Problems in the Sudan, Xinjiang and most recently, Tibet are causing schisms within the international community living in China. Can we live and work in this country with a clear conscience or are China’s interests best served by us just getting our heads down and trying to facilitate change from within? A recent incident involving Bjork has set tongues wagging…

Instinctively, I doubt whether the alleged call to arms by Icelandic singer Bjork at her recent Shanghai concert (3/3/08) has anything to do with the events currently unfolding high on the Tibetan plateau. Whilst her outburst seems timely in hindsight, it is more likely to have just been a case of opportunism that has done more for singer’s own publicity machine than for the people of Tibet. The singer allegedly closed her set with a song unauthorised by the Chinese Ministry of Culture. “Declare Independence” was seemingly a dedication, ending with the word “Tibet”, twice. I allude to doubt because of the 10 or so people I knew at the show, only one was certain that she said the word. Whatever the truth may be, the controversy has come at a time when tensions over the Beijing Olympics are beginning to run high. Steven Spielberg’s conscience has deprived us of his hand at the opening ceremony and now the Tibetans themselves seem set to keep the attention of the world’s press firmly on Beijing in the run up to the summer games.

As to Bjork, my view is simple. As music promoters in one of the most closely monitored societies in the world, we have a duty to ensure that international artists buy into the belief that the long term benefits to this country are better served by increasing exposure to external influences, rather than soapboxing and risking complete shutdown. One of the things that we do here is bring real diversity and choice to young people. Artists coming into China will leave a longer lasting legacy to their fans and newcomers alike by encouraging the Chinese kids to embrace creative thinking, diversity and individuality within the confines of both positive thinking and rhetoric. Having the chance to see role models week in, week out, from dubstep DJ’s to self funded Belgian turbo folksters can only be good for a youth obsessed with money, celebrity and materialism.

Increasing competition in the media means that Chinese youth can actually choose what to read and, although official publications still have to go through extensive censorship procedures (monthly editions must be submitted to the authorities by the 15th of the previous month), reportage is on the up in both quality and variety.

Further, many local promoters work with incoming artists to spread knowledge. Masterclasses from Beatboxers, DJ’s & producers are given free to local artists, local bands are given chances to support and learn form more experienced international ones and venues and music infrastructure are improving.

Finally, the growing music scene gives rise to increased awareness of charitable organisations. See the Midi Festival linking (and giving prominence) to Greenpeace, Shanghai’s The Shelter doing a monthly night called the Shelter Foundation where takings are donated to children and environmental charities, and Split Works taking LA based band Ozomatli to a migrant worker community for the day (and inviting some migrant workers to the show afterwards) plus extensive support for the Jane Goodall Foundation at the 2007 Yue Festival.

So, where’s this all going? In short, there are problems in China as there are in all countries, but especially so in one undergoing such an enormous development in such a short time. Problems are not sorted (or even helped) by high profile rants that frighten a government whose primary concern is an orderly society. This causes renewed repression and a reversal of many of the positive changes that we have seen recently in our industry. Change has to initiate from the ground up, with China’s citizens starting to understand the problems they face and taking account for these themselves. Change comes from education and increased enlightenment. Shouts of Tibet at a concert for the privileged (tickets were US$50 – $250) will turn back the clocks on our industry and make it harder to facilitate this change, which would be tragic in it’s own way.

–Archie Hamilton, Split Works’ Managing Director