Nov 14
New Pants Album Release Party
RMB 80.
9pm. Yugong Yishan (6404 2711)

New Pants, Old Hat
The New Pants CD release party started off unassuming enough - Yugong Yishan was packed, but for some reason the very front of the club had ample room for seating right in front of the projection screen. A new film by New Pants’ singer Peng Lei was being shown. The opening shots featured the keyboardist Pang Kuan prancing around the streets of Beijing with various gorgeous models. Funny. Through a series of seemingly random sequences, a very amusing and poignant story coalesced, poking fun at fashion trends, culture clash, male insecurity, young love, Japanese infomercials, Chinese idiosyncrasies and even the movie Titanic. The basic plot was about a poor pottery artist and his work, his down-and-out girlfriend and their romantic troubles. The funniest part was probably when “the American businessman” came to appraise the pottery (which, by the way, was a chamber pot intended for a wedding present). Any foreigner would appreciate and relate to the hilarious obsequiousness of the potter and his friends towards the American. I think the Chinese people in the audience appreciated the joke even more when the American bought the pot for seven million dollars.

On Nov 8, French Cognac producers Hennessy held what they like to call their Hennessy Artistry Beijing Halo out at the Moon River Club & Resort. The residential complex attached to the Moon River project, which is doing its best to add a bit of class to Tongzhou District, was recently at the center of a dispute between a house buyer and director Feng Xiaogang - Danwei has a nice summary of the subsequent court case here. Anyway, as part of their "Halo" Hennessy organized for Wyclef Jean, Jay Chou (Zhou Jielun), Wilber Pan, Lena Park and other celebrities to perform for the invite-only crowd.

Those already in the know about DJ Shadow don't need a reminder that he is a living legend in the world of instrumental hip hop/turntablism/electronica (yes, all three). Or that he was one of the seminal players in the founding of the California Bay Area hip-hop collective Quannum/Solesides Crew. Or that his musical wizardry – which will be only display this Friday night at Angel Club – landed him in the Guinness Book of World Records (2001). Or that he is amongst a very select few who’ve had their music brought to color by Wong Kar Wai - see “Six Days” music video below.

Kanye West
RMB 280-2,000.
7.30pm. Workers' Gymnasium (6501 6655 ext 5033)

So Kanye West finally got his act together and made it to Beijing this past weekend, putting on an energetic, fantasmic, hour and a half light-show of a set at Workers’ Gymnasium Saturday night. The evening started off promptly at 7.30pm, with a rap group from Taiwan opening for his Westness, and receiving adequate applause at that. From what we’ve gathered here at the Beijinger, that group was not the originally advertised Will Pan.

Update: Ticket prices for the Kylie Minogue show have been announced. RMB 280-1,680. VIP 1,980 and VVIP 2,580. Keen fans can leave their contact details with either piao.com or mypiao.com and they'll call you when tickets become available.

We've just got confirmation that Kylie Minogue will be performing in Beijing in December. The date of the concert (Dec 1) had been set long ago, but organizers held back until last week to announce the venue and ticket prices. Unfortunately, the morning after they announced these details, they quickly retracted them. The pop princess was to follow in Avril Lavigne's footsteps and perform at the Wukesong Indoor Basketball Stadium. However, it seems that the managers of the venue were worried that the chaos that marred the Avril Lavigne concert earlier this month might be repeated and decided to pull the plug on the event.

Today we just received word that the concert will now go ahead on the same date (Dec 1) at the Workers' Gymnasium -  the same venue that Kanye West will be performing at this Saturday. Still no information on when tickets to the Beijing show go on sale, but you can check this site or call 6585 5755 for more information. Tickets to Kylie's show in Shanghai on Nov 29 went on sale last Friday.

The past month has seen some great Australian acts come to Beijing. Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu strummed an upside down guitar at The Egg's World Folk Festival over the October break and more recently Aussie mash-up DJ duo Hermitude attracted a decent crowd to White Rabbit. The latest in the line of acts from Down Under to make it to the capital is the Brisbane-based indie outfit Regurgitator. The genre-defying band supported Devo on the Australian leg of their world tour earlier this year. For an idea of what to expect, keep reading here or take a look at the video below. Beijing's own New Pants will be supporting the energetic Australians. There's more to come too, as Kylie Minogue, who has already confirmed her Shanghai date, is very likely to be peforming in Beijing (venue is still unconfirmed - though we've heard it's likely to be the Wukesong Basketball Stadium - let's hope they've worked out those seating issues) on Dec 1.

Another battle in the ongoing struggle to enforce music copyright regulations in major cities across China got underway yesterday as 100 of Beijing’s KTV establishments were threatened with a lawsuit by the China Audio-Video Copyright Association (CAVCA) for failing to pay royalties owed since Jan, 2007. At the end of  2006 the National Copyright Administration introduced new rules that required the owners of all KTV clubs to pay a copyright fee for the use of the music videos played in their venues. The new regulations were to be trialed in three of China's biggest cities, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing. The new regulations became effective on Jan 1, 2007 and apply to all the KTV venues in Beijing. Despite the offer of a preferential rate for those who got in and paid their dues early, the vast majority of KTV places in all three of the trial cities have refused to hand over a single mao. On Monday, CAVCA announced that they intend to officially file a copyright infringement lawsuit against about 100 of the KTV clubs.

Head over to the Beijinger Gallery to view images from some of the best events that took place in Beijing over the October holidays. We've just uploaded pics from the NO+CH 2008 Festival, Air's performances at Yugong Yishan and Acupuncture's First Anniversary Party at Star Live.

Update: It's official, Linkin Park have announced that they've cancelled all five dates of their Asia tour. This includes the concert that was to have taken place in Beijing on Oct 19.

Rumors are spreading that Linkin Park are going to be the next big international act to cancel their Beijing show in a year already chock-full of high profile no shows. A call to the Emma ticketing office was met with the ominous response that "ticket sales have been temporarily suspended" and a refusal to give any more details. A note on the band's official site also mentions the cancellation of a show on Oct 6 "as lead vocalist Chester Bennington has sustained a back injury and is under doctor's orders to rest."
 

Last night Avril Lavigne became the first performer to give the Wukesong Stadium a work out as a live music venue and, according to reports in today’s Beijing papers, the Olympic Basketball venue saw quite a show. Lavigne kicked off the performance, the last of her six-city tour of China, with her popular “Girlfriend” and the audiences responded by rushing forward to the VIP area in front of the main stage. Three songs in to the 70-minute performance, things became a little chaotic with barriers in front of the stage being bent out of shape by crazed fans. The stage lighting was turned off and the concert was forced to pause for eight minutes as staff standing on the stage asked the crowd to return to their seats. After fans had returned to the stands, the Canadian punk-pop princess continued on with the show. Reports suggest that the crowd control problems stemmed from more than just excitable fans but were also exacerbated by the poor lay out of the venue. The crowd simply filled the large amount of empty space at the center of the stadium and little security had been set up to prevent them from doing so. You can take a look at a video of the chaotic scenes here.