First and foremost, a HUGE congratulations to Stone and Gougou on the birth of “Little Little Stone.” (So Stone has two boys and Guanyou has two girls? Adorable.)
Mayday is in Shanghai this week, playing Christmas concerts with a little help from their growing numbers of friends who are label-mates. Once the home of only five acts, B’in Music has almost doubled in size with the signing of bands Cosmos People, Magic Power, and (whoa) Won Fu. (That last one is way cool… and one I almost sorta kinda saw coming. I mean, Won Fu was using their studio, borrowing drum sets and not returning them and the like.) They’ve also added solo artist Yen-j to the line-up, and not on the website (that I can see, anyway) but also being reported as on the label is Nylon Chen. (According to this, Magic Power is known for having once played a “hip-hop” version of “Elope to the Moon,” which frightens me a bit yet sounds like it’s probably much better than the overly sappy original.) Another fun fact: according to Wikipedia, anyway, Fish Leong’s album earlier this year was the first B’in Music record not distributed by Rock Records, and a sign that they’re leaving their relationship with the big company.
Anyway, there were a fair number of disgruntled fans the first night of the Christmas show, as far too many hadn’t gotten the news that it was a “Mayday and Friends” show, and thought it was just a band. They waited through two hours of other performances before Mayday showed up. (I don’t blame them – I saw the concert on my go-to concert ticket site, and nothing there suggested it was anything but a “DNA”-style show.) To get into the Christmas spirit, Ding Dang sang “Amazing Grace,” which is not really a Christmas song anywhere but in China, Magic Power sang their own version of “Jingle Bells” (which is also not a Christmas song but a generic winter song), and Cosmos People covered Eason Chan’s Christmas song. Still, the opening act performances went on for quite a while as the fans grew more restless.
Some actually started yelling for Mayday, for refunds, or for the current performers to get off the stage as the night wore on and there was no sign of the headliners. When they finally showed up, though (dressed in red for Christmas), the fans jumped to their feet, resumed waving their lightsticks, and sang along. It speaks volumes for the popularity of the band… and just how badly they really do need better PR, something I’ve thought pretty much as long as I’ve been blogging their news (so three and a half years, now). Now, I’m not volunteering – I have a job I love, thank you – but someone needs to step up, especially since incidents like this one don’t do these struggling new artists any favors. And, of course, fans int he US continue to rely on good fortune to hear about North American concerts.
Mayday sang the first ever mainland performance of the Hokkien love song “Is that okay? (好不好),” which would have been great to hear, along with other more standard tour tracks (like “Loneliness Terminator,” “Crazy Life,” and “People Life, Ocean Wild”). The big boffo ending was “Love-ing” sung with all the artists on stage together, which makes me doubly glad I didn’t give up my Christmas plans to go to Shanghai to see this thing. Ah, I’m so mean. Let me get into the Christmas spirit: I’m sure it was lovely.
If it was the Chinese version, that version of “Jingle Bells” is more Christmas-related, since it talks about “圣诞老人.” Not sure what “Amazing Grace” has to do with it, though.
Magic Power’s version of “Elope to the Moon” is on that 7-11 album “大开天窗,” which is why you haven’t heard of it.
I also forgot to say, you shouldn’t be too hard on yourself about not being able to understand “亡命之徒” before translating the lyrics. To me, “去” sounds like “key” at one point. I’m pretty sure it’s just that one character at that one spot, but it throws me off whenever I hear it because it sounds like Hokkien.
They did 好不好 in Shanghai? Are they resurrecting the song or was it because they rehearsed it for Kaohsiung anyway? I was half asleep in Kaohsiung in the beginning of the concert, I think I only really hyped up a bit before the fireworks and really got into it during the encore. Those songs were what we had been asking them to sing for ages.
I heard a very lovely performance of “Amazing Grace” on Christmas Eve this year – it has kinda morphed into a Christmas song here in China, anyway. The Chinese version of “Jingle Bells” we sang in classes in Taiwan many years ago had no Santa references, which suggests to me there might be more than one… but I know people in the US certainly think about it as a Christmas song, so I suppose it is fair game.
I am, however, busted: I certainly did not ever buy the Open-Chan 7-11 album, so no, I’ve never heard the Magic Power song. And really, I don’t mind.
I’d love for 好不好 to become part of the rotation for a while. Lovely song.
Hey Merry~ hope you had a good Christmas! Thanks for keeping us updated with all the Mayday news this whole year =)
@Wenning: What did they sing in the beginning that made you fall asleep? I haven’t been keeping up much with concert news because they are essentially all 大同小異.
I’m so conflicted regarding Love-ing. It’s a perfectly upbeat concert song that makes me smile while wanting to pull my hair out.
This is the Teresa Teng version someone sent me on YouTube (except on Tudou):
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/nYo8MY8xieQ/
The YouTube uploader posted lyrics in Traditional Chinese, which start with:
看白雪飄飄飄飄向四郊 那車兒轔轔 那馬兒蕭蕭，
看聖誕老人 他翩然來到 你來看他白鬚白髮白眉毛
Oh, well that explains it, hobielover – that’s a completely different version. The title of that one is “圣诞铃声,” but I know the Chinese version of “Jingle Bells” as “铃儿响叮当.” This is a more direct Chinese translation of the original “Jingle Bells,” and it goes like this (simplified characters):
啊冲破大风雪，我们坐在雪橇上，快奔驰过田野，我们欢笑又歌唱，
马儿铃声响叮当，令人精神多欢畅，我们今晚滑雪真快乐，把滑雪歌儿唱。
叮叮当，叮叮当，铃儿响叮当，今晚滑雪多快乐，我们坐在雪橇上
That’s the version I know, and that one is a winter song, not a Christmas song. I don’t know which version the band sang at the concert, as the article gave the song title in English.