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B’in Music, en masse and on stage

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

The whole of the B’in Music label – Mayday, Fish Leong, Victor Wong, Champion, and Ding Dang – gathered together for a special joint concert the other night in Macau. Okay, I know I’ve been just a wee bit skeptical of a few of these acts in the past, but doesn’t that just sound like some good, clean fun?

Champion kicked things off and warmed up the crowd, but even a nervous Ding Dang performed well on the Jonathan Lee classic, “I’m just a small bird (我是一隻小小鸟).” She followed that up with a performance of “Crazy in Love” that supposedly showed off her sexy side (with a very risque v-neck shirt) (okay, that doesn’t sound that risque to me, but maybe I’m just a wild woman).

Fish Leong showed off her white ruffled dress and sang songs like “Peaceful Summer (宁夏),” “Happy Break-up (分手快乐),” and “Courage (勇气).” Everyone sang along, like a giant KTV room. Victor Wong brought out a new song “Love while Changing Planes in Hong Kong (爱情在香港转机),” no doubt taken from personal experience, and also performed Emil Chau’s “Friends (朋友).”

Mayday anchored the show, and upon their introductory video the crowd rose to its feet. The band played twelve songs, and by the last three – “Jump (离开地球表面),” “Spring’s Scream (春天的呐喊),” and “Motor Rock (轧车),” the crowd had gone completely wild. (Side note: I love these totally uncritical, almost paid-advertising like news articles about concerts. You can practically summarize them without reading them….) The band made all the usual remarks about how they’d expected Macanese fans to quietly sit in their seats and listen, not be so enthusiastic. Fish and Victor got cheers for addressing the crowd in Cantonese, but when Masa asked if those who couldn’t speak the lingo could get a good reception as well, the answer was decidedly in the affirmative. Guanyou and Ashin still tried to say a few things in Cantonese, to much general amusement. There are some pictures at the link, though Ding Dang gets the shaft.

In other news, KKBOX has revealed that in 2008 its users had terrible, terrible taste in music. Cowboy Jay walked away with the top two albums of the year – with Capricorn number one and the wretched Jay on the Run as number two. As in, number two above all the albums that came out in 2008. Mayday doesn’t track at all, nor do any of the really good albums from last year. Who are these people, and what on earth is wrong with them? Jay’s comment: “It doesn’t matter what kind of chart it is, I want to be at the top of it.” Classy, that’s our cowboy.

Finally, Jam Hsiao appears to have been inspired by the Superband – he says his dream would be to form a band with Khalil Fong and Crowd Lu. Hmm, looks like they would have an opening for a drummer. Any takers?

Posted in Cowboy Jay, Fish Leong, Mandopop, Mayday, Victor Wong | 9 Comments »

Um.

Saturday, February 21st, 2009

Do you ever feel like the Mayday/Fahrenheit connections are just far, far too prevalent? This isn’t all that direct (not like last time), but doesn’t this just look like it should be the Fahrenheit guys in this picture, but Mayday was photoshopped in instead?

battle-ready, I guess

There are more pictures here.

The pictures are for Mayday’s promotion of the video game “Twelve Sky,” so they’re wearing video game warrior outfits. Worryingly, the boys LOVED their outfits, and they were jostling for glimpses of themselves all armored up in the mirror. Well, as long as these keep these costumes off the stage, I guess it’s okay… how’s that for grudging acceptance? But seriously, it just looks SO boybandy. I mean, look at this. ‘Nuff said.

On February 18th, Victor Wong held a concert in Hong Kong and his erstwhile singing companion Michael Wong appeared as the special guest. This means that the two have taken the stage together twice in the last few months, increasing speculation that they might be considering getting Wu Yin Liang Pin back together. Hearing this chatter, Victor begged for time, saying that both guys are with different labels, working on different aspects of their careers right now. It’s not yet the moment for considering reforming the group.

Victor was glad to be in Hong Kong, noting that his girlfriend lives there, so every time he has to change planes in the city he strikes out to see her. He did sing one song in Cantonese, noting that there were lots of Cantonese speakers where he grew up in Malaysia – he actually learned Mandarin second, so singing an occasional Cantonese song was not any particular hardship. On the 21st (um, today, I guess), Victor will join label-mates Fish Leong and Mayday for a performance in Macau.

Okay, jumping forward to the next totally unrelated topic: the first song from Superband 纵贯线 is now out, and it clearly demonstrates why the other guys wanted Chang Chen-yue in on it. They’ve just filmed the video, and they’ve got concerts scheduled for Taipei and Hong Kong next month and Beijing in April. The album should be out in early summer, or so go the rumors. [Edited to add: I'm going on record now that I love this. I think the album will be fantastic, and I hope they'll come down to the central regions on their tour. My spring schedule is just too tight for Beijing, but Shanghai/Nanjing is wide open....]

Finally, I have two random Mandopop Movie observations to make. First, I watched Butterfly Lovers on one of my many recent long-haul flights. Yes, I voluntarily watched a movie staring Wu Chun of Fahrenheit and one of the girls from TWINS (I forget their names, but it is the one who did NOT get into Edison Chen’s pictures), though I think we’ve established that I’ll watch anything at 35,000 feet (*coughhannahmontanacough*). It was showing, and I thought it would be diverting. Mostly, I was right. Neither pop star has much going for them in the acting department, but the first half at least was sorta cute. The cutest thing, though, was when the seventy-year-old Filipina woman in the seat next to me leaned over to tell me that she went out to see Wu Chun when he visited the Philippines to promote one of his dramas. “He’s SO handsome!” she sighed.

The second one is that Cape No. 7 has finally been released on the big screen here in China. It’s about about a half an hour shorter than the Taiwan version, so I might still go find that one eventually, but at least it’s out. I loved the movie so much – it was much funnier than I expected, and by the end I was really cheering for Old Mao to get his moment in the sun – that I stopped on the way home for the soundtrack. Highly recommended, and (note for American readers) available on Netflix. :P

Posted in Chang Chen-yue (A-yue), Fish Leong, Mayday, Victor Wong | 13 Comments »

Need it, got it, need it…

Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

I am pausing to take stock in the new 2008 albums, an exercise sparked by the news that 1976 has a new album coming out shortly. The Taipei band has been on the scene for 12 years already, and their first single off the new album bodes well for the rest of it. It’s called “Knut (努特),” and it’s named after the Berlin Zoo polar bear that captured the hearts of so many around the world after it was abandoned by its mother and reared by a zookeeper. There’s a sad twist to the Knut story, as the zookeeper who raised him in his mother’s absence died very young of a sudden heart attack just over a week ago.

Polar bears have also become a sort of mascot for the fight against global warming, although not without controversy. Picking up on the theme, however, “Knut” addresses the issue of global climate change. You can hear the song and watch the fun video, complete with cartoon bear, here.

1976’s new album is called This Planet (這個星球),* and preorder sales have been so good there’s some talk about them shifting from being an underground band to a more mainstream act, following in the footsteps of the younger sodagreen.

Now, by my count, the albums I’ve been looking for this year that are already out include Jam Hsiao’s eponymous album (have it, but I’ve only listened once), Lu Guangzhong’s 100 Ways for Living 100種生活 (love it), Fusion’s If the Future 如果未来 (didn’t know I needed it ’til I had it, but I adore it…), Khalil Fong’s Wonderland 未來 (haven’t gotten it yet, but it’s easy to find here), PK 14’s City Weather Sailing 城市天气的航行 (on order), and 13 Band’s (erm) Horse-faced sailor’s summer (?) (馬臉水手的夏天) (need it, but I still don’t have the full-length Silver Sun from last year*). Hmm, is that everything? I am uncertain if I should care about Aska Yang or Yoga Lin. On the B’in Music front, there are new albums from Ding Dang, Champion, and Victor Wong, none of which I’ve snapped up yet.

I’m not sure what else is out that I’m missing. I tend to run a few months behind on releases, so a lot of the albums I acquired in the first half of this year were actually 2007 releases (or even earlier…). For example, I have just ordered Tanya Chua’s Hello & Goodbye – I know, I know. I’m terribly remiss on that one.

On the coming soon list, I see: Leehom (November 1, though delays still seem possible), Mayday (who knows when… they have been talking October, but if so, we should be starting to see preorder information), this 1976 album (due out October 24), Cowboy Jay (trying to shed his cowboy image, though I’m not sure he should get off that easy… album due out October 9). We’ve also been hearing that the new Fusion album has been in the recording stage for a while now, so presumably that will come out before the end of the year, and then there’s that whole A-yue superband idea, which may or may not be in the next few months given the fact that A-yue is currently touring; I wouldn’t say no to another album from just him, though. Wasn’t there still a collection of fast songs ready to go that didn’t make it onto the last album?

There are concert albums I sorta want from Cheer Chen and Tizzy Bac; I bought sodagreen’s right away (and now I’m waiting for the China version of the DVD…). I have not yet purchased the 7-Eleven Open Chan CD, though not out of protest so much as apathy. Maybe I’ll still pick it up, though. Cheer and Echo Band both had singles out this year. I’m watching now for news about future albums from Totem and Peng Tan; I’m not sure what is the current status of things for Deserts Chang or Secondhand Rose. But that’s already plenty to keep me busy for a little while, at least.

＊Update: Two corrections. (1) 1976 appears to be calling their new album Asteroid in English. (2) 13 Band’s 2007 album was called Are You the King? (你是王嗎?), not Silver Sun - the latter was the name of their 2006 EP.

Posted in Chang Chen-yue (A-yue), Cheer Chen, Fish Leong, Fusion Band, Leehom Wang, Mainland China Bands, Mandopop, Mayday, Sodagreen, Victor Wong | 7 Comments »

Space Cowboy!

Saturday, September 27th, 2008

Today I logged on to Ticketmaster to check on the Leehom concert (yeah, still there – my ticket purchasing really has not been easy, though… I hope to have it all taken care of tomorrow, but at the rate I’ve been going so far, who knows?), and it teased me with a banner ad for Chang Chen-yue live in concert! I excitedly clicked, and… no venue, no date, no tickets. It’s some sort of future event, but who knows when. Now I’m going to be obsessively checking… gee, thanks Ticketmaster.

Okay, that was probably not all that interesting, and really not the point of my post. Now, if you’re wondering where all the concert reports are from the Leehom concert in Taipei last weekend, well, I haven’t read them. I decided not to read too much once I declared I’d go to the concert in Shanghai. I want to have some surprises… of course, I still managed to catch a glimpse of these pictures, which naturally caused me to giggle madly. (Actually, that strange breast plate that goes only on the one side immediately made me think of the graphic novel, Y: The Last Man – in the story, there are these women who call themselves “Amazons” and burn off their left breasts. This look on Leehom looks just like the sort of armor they’d require….) (Oh, and yes, that’s a randomly very large picture of Victor Wong at the end. He attended the concert.) However, in other Leehom news, he’s not gay. Yup, we’re on this again. It comes up just about every year, like clockwork, really. He wrote something about “having good taste but not being gay” in the lyrics to one of his new songs (*sigh* Leehom’s lyrics, I tell you) so naturally the Mandopop world needed to revisit this issue yet again. He says that he’s had a few girlfriends since he’s been famous, that each one has lasted a few years, that they are always the ones to start things, and that he’s always the one to end it. He also says that his mom asked him once if he was gay, that he has a lot of gay friends, he respects them very much, and therefore he will not vehemently deny being gay as if it was some sort of bad thing to be.

Now, I’m afraid we can’t get our annual business done all at once and talk about an article on whether or not Ashin is gay, because none have come out recently. Frankly, we’re a bit overdue, but I’m sure our friendly neighborhood entertainment reporters will get on that shortly. That and whether Mayday is breaking up, whether they are really a rock band, and so forth. Though of course, I’ve written roughly 483 posts about Ashin’s suspenders, so I guess I can’t really complain that they’re repetitive.

Speaking of Mayday, they’re currently negotiating to use the brand new Kaohsiung stadium for a concert, presumably in the next few months. Meanwhile, Carlsburg beer has a “win a free ticket to the Mayday/Linkin Park concert” promotion going that involves text messaging secret numbers from bottlecaps and such.

In other news, people in Singapore get all the good concerts. The Lee Guitars All Star Concert – which has come up a few times in the comments - will be in November, and will feature Mayday, A-yue, Wakin Chau, Tanya Chua, and of course, Jonathan Lee. Hmpf.

Okay, random last note before I go do more work. Today, Chinese astronauts took their first walk through space. Well, they brought some music with them, including Leehom’s version of “Heirs of the Dragon,” Jay’s Olympics song (hence the post title :) ), along with songs from Teresa Teng and others.

Posted in Leehom Wang, Mayday, Victor Wong | 6 Comments »

Returning to Hong Kong with a flourish

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

Well, the final concert on the Return to Earth tour has now come and gone. There aren’t a lot of very specific reports so far (maybe they’ve run out of things to say?), so in some respects it seems that this show went like any other. A few things, though.

Fans worried about rumors of the band breaking up or retiring need not be concerned. Yeah, if there were such rumors I missed them, but apparently none of the fans in Asia fell for them either. Anyway, it seems they were filming a new ad that (piecing together several stories here) appears to involve them in suits and promoting insurance. What they will be doing is shutting themselves in the studio to work on the new album, but I wouldn’t even take that too seriously, given that they are due to start their Hey Song Sarsaparilla contract this month.

The fans organized a mass audience sing-along of “Garbage Truck” after the final encore, a surprise and a delight to the members of the band; they also wore yellow ribbons to remember the Sichuan quake victims. Mayday did another performance of “Two Tigers” as well.

Some fans organized a slightly different kind of surprise for the band. This is damn funny, though if you are easily embarrassed you might want to stop reading now. I had mentioned in passing the reports that on the Jump! concert DVD Masa provides some explanation for his philosophy on why men should wear shorts on airplanes. I kept it pretty general before, but now we have to get a little more specific to enjoy this joke. What it seems he actually said on the DVD (I haven’t seen it yet) was that it was necessary to wear shorts in case your “lever” rises, which pushing against the tighter trousers would make for an uncomfortable flight. Now Masa can talk big, but how does he do when his fans prove they can be just as risqué as him? When Mayday landed in the Hong Kong airport on Friday, one of the LCD signs that are used for personal messages and advertisements was lit up to read, “To Masa, any leverage today?”

I cried when I read that, I was laughing so hard. To whoever did this in Hong Kong: I LOVE YOU. I wish I knew who you were so I could buy you a drink next time I’m in town. As practical jokes go, that one is pretty brilliant. Anyway, the band reaction was first shock and then embarrassment (although this is open to interpretation; some reports have them joking about it – my guess is that how their reaction is reported is directly related to how embarrassed the reporter was), and from somewhere in the ranks there was a nervous question: “Are we going to start getting this message at every airport?” Heh, I’m still giggling. That one will keep me going all week, I think.

Anyway, taking this story and running with it, one of the gossip columnists at the Apple Daily notes that he could never quite understand what Fish Leong saw in Masa, whom he considers very average looking (some here would disagree, eh?), but learning of Masa’s issues with his, erm, “lever,” suddenly it becomes very clear what the appeal was. He (she?) follows up with the airport story, and notes that Mayday fans are just way too “diao,” to borrow a word from the Cowboy Jay lexicon. It’s a good one for this story, because Jay spoke from on high and declared that it would be slang for “cool,” but its original meaning is more in line with Masa’s “lever.”

Anyway, there are some pictures here, which show a snazzy, suited Victor Wong as the special guest. This report (lots of pictures there, too) notes that the concert wasn’t perfect – in one place, for example, Guanyou forgot the plan to extend a song and stopped playing, which led the others to tease him. Clearly they don’t mind the mistakes. The mainland reports are teasing the “retiring” angle more than the Taiwan and Hong Kong ones, the latter I think having encountered this too many times before to take it seriously.

Discuss the concert, the “retirement,” or Masa’s, ah, equipment at the MaydayAmericas Forum.

Posted in Mayday, Victor Wong | 2 Comments »

Mandopop and Earthquake Relief

Saturday, May 17th, 2008

It turns out that Monday’s earthquake in Sichuan Province, PRC, is a lot worse than anyone realized when the news first broke. I was out of contact with the news for a few days this week, and when I started reading it again, I was horrified by how the casualty count had skyrocketed. Unfortunately, Ashin was right about numbers being a “sharp knife.”

There have been lots of responses to the earthquake from the entertainment sphere in Taiwan. There are relief activities, of course, and many stars have started to compose songs. S.H.E has recorded “A More Beautiful World,” JJ Lin has written, “Love and Hope,” David Tao has been shut away for two days writing, and Leehom Wang has also started trying to write a song about love.

100 Hong Kong singers joined together to sing “Promise.” From Taiwan, vetern singer Ling Feng (凌風) wrote “A heart unbroken by trembling,” to use music to comfort the hearts of the victims. Yoga Lin (winner of a reality show singing contest in Taiwan) is having a concert next week, and at an activity yesterday, he contributed 100,000 TWD for the Sichuan earthquake victims. Rock Records artists, including Bobby Chen, Gary Cao, Genie Zhuo, A-yue Chang, MC Hotdog, etc. contributed a total of 400,000 RMB [~US$57,000] to the Chinese Red Cross.

David Tao was in Shanghai when the earthquake happened, and right away he contributed 100,000RMB [~US$14,000]. After returning to Taiwan, he set to work writing a song. (Keep in mind that the SARS song “Hand in Hand” was co-written by David Tao and Leehom Wang, so it is unsurprising that he would be hard at work now.) Fanfan (范瑋琪) is also writing a song, which she will sing together with Angela Chang and Claire (郭靜).

JJ Lin canceled some of his activities, stayed up for two days and two nights, and on Wednesday produced his new song, “Love and Hope.” Then he rushed to Beijing to take part in fundraising activities, which raised 500,000 RMB for relief [~US$71,000]. JJ first encountered an earthquake five years ago in Taiwan, when he was living alone and waiting as the whole room shook. (Actually, I experienced my first earthquakes in Taiwan five years ago too… probably the same ones. I remember running out of my room in a panic, only to find the septuagenarian I lived with completely unconcerned.)

There’s an event this weekend, titled “Sending our love over (把愛傳出去)” that will include that icon of Mandopop, Jay Chou. Of course, he is taking the stage alongside every past rumored girlfriend, so it will be interesting to see if the news remains the earthquake and not the rather tumultuous private life of Pres. Chou. (Hey, half this article is speculating on this very point – this is not even me being cynical this time.) Aside from Jay’s discarded women, other stars taking part include Leehom Wang, Stanley Huang, Elva Hsiao. Jay was scheduled to hold a concert in Chongqing later this month, and there are discussions underway now about whether to cancel it, postpone it, or turn it into a charity event benefiting the victims. If they do this, they’ll restructure the concert to make it more appropriate for the situation. Let me just say, though, for as much crap as I give (Cowboy) Jay, I have no doubt that he’ll step up admirably and use his impressive fame and fortune to help the victims of this disaster.

Mayday, of course, is performing in Taichung tonight and therefore won’t be at the benefit, but they will have an opportunity for the crowd to make donations to the Taiwan Red Cross [correction: they will hook up with the TV station broadcasting the benefit, so a song or two from the concert will be part of the show. That's clever...].

Rumors started flying this week that famous star Jolin Tsai refused to attend a charity event on the mainland unless she was given a fee for her appearance, but both Jolin and her manager have vehemently denied this rumor, calling it malicious. In fact, Jolin, Show Luo, and Faith Yang together have already donated 1,000,000 RMB [~$143,000] for earthquake relief; the reports of Jolin asking for 200,000 RMB to appear on the mainland have tainted this generous donation a bit. I’d say this: it can’t be true, because no Mandopop star would be able to get away with it. I’m not sure why Jolin is the unlucky object of the rumors, other than the fact that she’s a bit of a diva, so maybe it seemed a bit more believable.

In addition to the joint B’in Music donation, Victor Wong did some streetside busking for earthquake relief this week. Within ten minutes he had gotten contributions totaling almost US$200. At the urging of Jay Chou, all the B’in Music artists will also be donating all ringtone profits this summer to earthquake relief. If Jay is starting a “ringtone for relief” campaign, I can’t imagine many artists will refuse. So I guess if you live in Taiwan, now is a good time to go crazy buying new sounds for your phone.

Finally, a bit more about Leehom, he is promoting a new book he wrote about his experiences traveling and meeting children who benefit from World Vision charity programs. World Vision is actually on the frontlines of aid relief right now for both the Sichuan earthquake and the Burma Cyclone; they have an office in Chengdu so they were nearby to respond this week, and in Burma, they are one of the few charities to have a longstanding project in-country, so when the cyclone hit they already had 600 people on the ground. This means they’ll be able to distribute aid in spite of the Burmese government’s infuriating policy of rejecting visa applications for aid workers. It’s also a four-star charity according to Charity Navigator, which means – and this is key – most donations go to programs, not to staff or office expenses.

Leehom has personally contributed 3,000,000 TWD (which is… whoa, is this right? ~US$98,000) in earthquake relief, and all the proceeds from this new book – all of them – go to fund World Vision relief projects in Sichuan. Wow. Another good reason to support Leehom as an artist (hmm, I hope the book shows up on YesAsia…). Anyway, Leehom’s mainland fans aren’t about to be outdone – they have established his birthday – which, it seems is today – as a day for fans to donate funds and blood for earthquake victims. Taiwan fans will also likely donate – the coincidence of his birthday could turn into a good fundraiser for World Vision. I was a fan of this charity long before I was a fan of Mandopop, so I’m pretty happy to see these two worlds collide in meaningful ways.

I’m sure there will be more earthquake relief news to report soon. Things like this are always the silver lining of any disaster; after the worst happens, you get a little glimpse at how fundamentally generous and caring people really are.

Update: Anyone interested can order Leehom’s book directly from World Vision; they’ll ship to North America. Info here.

Posted in Chang Chen-yue (A-yue), Leehom Wang, Mandopop, Mayday, Victor Wong | 2 Comments »

Keep On Keeping On

Friday, May 16th, 2008

[Ashin's second entry on the earthquake, posted on May 15. Words in italics were photo captions in the original.]

What we can do right now, is be concerned and pray, and more determinedly than ever live in our own orbits.

Although it has already been several days since the earthquake, but Beichuan is still experiencing constant tremors, ceaseless rain.

As we go through our rehearsals, every time we take a break
we spend long periods of time staring at the television.

Just like almost ten years ago when the 921 earthquake completely shook up our own lives. On this earth, in the hearts of all Chinese,
those tremors have only just begun.

Yet only in the coldest air can you see the warmth of your own breath.

Only at this moment
can we clearly see each other’s warm blood and beating hearts,
like hot breath pushing out into the air.

Apart from doing our own work well,
we can’t do that much,
Victor Wong, Fish [Leong], Ding Dang, Champion, and Mayday
decided to make an urgent donation
500,000 RMB [~US$71,000].

We will keep going on together.

I know there are a lot of people watching the news constantly, or talking about the situation in the affected areas after classes.
They are worried, and there is so much they would like to do.
We feel the same way.

But I believe
these friends need to calm their hearts and focus on their studies,
and be sure to take care of their health.

This is important, because if volunteers or blood donors are needed,
only healthy people can roll up their sleeves,
contribute their strength.

The road to rebuilding hasn’t started,
once it does, it will require energy, but even more it will require patience.
I’m certain
we can keep going on together.

I saw on television that Taiwan relief workers are all prepared, and today have already begun their journeys to Chengdu. Donating money is the most basic thing, but this is what No2Good and I can do so far.

Coming up, Mayday will also take part in relief activities.
We really hope to return to Sichuan soon, to use music to comfort your hearts.

[For those of us across the Pacific, two options for making targeted donations for earthquake relief are the American Red Cross and World Vision.]

Posted in Fish Leong, Mayday, Victor Wong | 1 Comment »

The Return to Earth in Shanghai

Friday, May 2nd, 2008

Whoops, I somehow completely forgot that Mayday’s big return to the massive 80,000 person stadium in Shanghai was April 30 – I had it in my head as May 30. Well, no matter, there is news to be had, and we shall have it.

The band played the new three-hour show to a 40,000-strong crowd, not bad given that it has only been a half a year since they were last in Shanghai. Why come back so soon? Well, the next trip back will be in 2009, so rather than make everyone wait such a long time, they thought they’d do one more show before the big album-preparation shut-in. They opened with the MV for “Little Sun.” Then, as is their habit, they rocked for about forty minutes before greeting the crowd, though when they did finally say hello, it was with heartfelt words of thanks for the continuing support. Stone sang “Ya Yi Yi” again, and the song list is the same as Singapore.

Victor Wong was the special guest, and he took the stage with the band to perform “Coax Me to Sleep” and “Things Those Women Have Taught Me.”

Masa’s skirt thing looks to be a regular feature for this concert series:

Masa's Skirt

The band is, of course, closing out the concert series by going “underground” – into the studio to work on the new album, due out this summer (Wikipedia oddly says 2009, but whoever added that is apparently wrong… this is a fine example of how you cannot always trust Wikipedia, so don’t base your term papers off of it).

You know, I’m a little bummed, because deep down I sorta hoped there would be a Fusion appearance, like as a warm up act or something. Oh well… anyway, I’m off. Today A-yue and I are celebrating our birthdays, though not together, unfortunately. There’s always next year (note to A-yue: I’ll be in Nanjing next May, perfectly positioned for joint festivities…).

Posted in Chang Chen-yue (A-yue), Mayday, Victor Wong | 5 Comments »

Odds and ends, whatnot, etc.

Thursday, April 17th, 2008

Assorted bits of information pulled from a wide a variety of articles seemingly at random follows.

Chinese fans preparing for the April 30th concert in Shanghai have taken the initiative in starting a fundraising activity to benefit the Chinese Red Cross. (Oh, and Monster’s back condition is benefiting from Chinese medicine – so he expects to be in good form soon.)

Mayday and Ding Dang were in Xi’an signing autographs this week as a part of their spokespeople duties for clothing line Kobron. Being a stand up guy, Ashin signed a t-shirt “Happy Birthday” for a fan who opted to spend her big day in a line of a thousand people waiting for band autographs.

Being perennially short of spokesman opportunities (okay, I’ll turn off the sarcasm), the band is apparently also now stumping for Hey Song Sarsaparilla (黑松沙士).

In other recent events, Victor Wong helped a mannequin strip and says his eyes are larger than Stone’s, so if Stone can get girls, so can he. Okay, maybe that mannequin thing requires further explanation. In keeping with the theme of his latest song, “Things those women have taught me,” several prominent female stars offered to teach him a thing or two. Penny Dai offered to teach him how to two-time while dating – though my general sense is that if this is not something he knows how to do already it would be better not to enlighten him – and actress Phoebe Huang (黄嘉千) said she’d show him how to undress a woman. This led to practicing on a woman who would not object to being undressed in front of the press, namely a mannequin.

Yu Siyuan has contradicted rumors that he is leaving BIZ. No, no, he says: they will be together forever. And to prove it, they have released a new single quite aptly titled, “Together Forever.”

The champion boys have professed their undying love for Fish Leong. When asked to speculate about why they are so often compared to Mayday, they suggested that perhaps it is because they are all together so much. Um, maybe. In completely unrelated news, if they one day manage to hold their own concert in the 80,000 person stadium in Shanghai, they will go outside and run around naked. Notice how completely unlike anything Mayday-ish that promise is. Oh damn, I wasn’t going to be sarcastic anymore, was I… well, it has been a long week. Week, month, whatever.

Recently, Deserts Zhang did a series of live shows at Mao Live House in Beijing. I keep thinking that this might be someone whose album I need to buy… though I admit, I haven’t yet. She hopes next time to bring along her friends sodagreen and/or Tizzy Bac. Sounds good to me.

Okay, that just might be the sum total of everything I know at the moment. Really.

Posted in Fish Leong, Mayday, Victor Wong | 3 Comments »

…in which Jonathan Lee makes me feel old

Sunday, March 16th, 2008

Victor Wong’s Shanghai concert apparently went off without a hitch on Friday.

Friday was White [Valentine's] Day, a holiday I’d never heard of before about ten minutes ago. Well, there’s always next year. Victor is the “King of Love Songs,” a title I’m pretty sure he shares with at least a half a dozen other Mandopop artists, and so he did his best to create a romantic atmosphere. He was helped out by special guests Jonathan Lee (李宗盛), Fish Leong, Mayday, and Ding Dang.

Can I just say, in this picture Ashin looks *really* into it, whereas Victor looks merely amused:

Maybe he's trying to remember the words?

Victor showed off his many talents, playing the piano and harmonica, dancing (hmm, not sure I can picture that, actually), and imitating other artists, particularly Fei Yuqing on his duet with Jay, “A thousand miles away.” For an encore, he sang “Things those women have taught me,” a song written especially for the concert by Ashin, with lyrics by record company president Chen Yongzhi (陳勇志).

Wait, does that mean that Ashin lost the lyrics contest? Funny, none of the stories seem to mention it… but I had thought Ashin’s lyrics would be a lock. Odd. Very odd.

In other news, Jonathan Lee made a second Shanghai appearance this weekend, and there he was joined by several members of Mayday. To tell you the truth, I’ve started reading this story about three times and lost interest after the first paragraph each time, so I’m not really sure what it is all about. There’s something in there about how Lee is not married… and something else about there not being much music made for people over 30… do people over 30 need special music written for them? It’s just that I’m weeks away from joining that demographic, and I have to admit, of all the things to consider when passing this particular landmark birthday, the idea that I’d be looking for different music wasn’t really one of them. Surely I am not doomed to a lifetime of easy-listening come May… no, I must have read that wrong. But I still can’t quite work up the interest to go back and read it again, sorry.

As long as we’re talking about Jonathan Lee, though, I’m going to note that my copy of Fusion’s debut album just arrived from YesAsia – Fusion being that mainland band “discovered” by Lee – and I’m really enjoying it. I wonder if it counts as appropriate music for a soon-to-be-thirtysomething… though now that I think of it, it *is* pretty mellow, actually. Uh oh.

Dammit, Jonathan Lee, I wasn’t even thinking about my age before this! Curse you and your strangely dull news article!!

But really, the guys in Mayday are all over thirty, as is Leehom, and A-yue, Victor Wong, Cheer Chen… Leehom sometimes appeals directly to the teenybopper demographic, but he has more mature music as well… No, no, I’m getting over it, I promise.

Anyway, one story I noticed a while back and keep forgetting to mention is that the annual MTV Japan awards are coming up. They have an award every year for the best/favorite Chinese artist – you may recall, Mayday won this last year – but this year’s nominations list is perplexingly eclectic. Rather obviously, it features Cowboy Jay and Leehom, but also Andy Lau and Eason Chan, and… sodagreen. Whoa, I had no idea that sodagreen had made such inroads abroad – and that is some pretty impressive company they’re keeping. Way to go, guys! Er, and Xinyi!

Update: I cannot get this Fusion song out of my head. Love it.

Posted in Fish Leong, Fusion Band, Leehom Wang, Mayday, Sodagreen, Victor Wong | 6 Comments »

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