"Distant Promise"
The wind from the Gobi Desert blows the smog out of the air and May Day dawns bright and clear. Haonen has said that we have the morning free, so we wander around the neighborhood. We run across lion dancers and several wedding blazing into local hotels in a barrage of confetti, silly string, and cymbals clashing. We crowd around along with the huge contingent of New Zealanders who have arrived--not to mention the Cubans, Danes, Swedes, Russians, Azerbaijanis, and Finns. Everyone takes photos in the wedding scrum. (I have dozens of the backs of peoples’ heads….)
Back at Chaoyang Park Haonan tells us that the Urinals are performing third in the opening ceremony, right after the St. Mary’s girls’ choir (from Aukland) and before the Azerbaijani dancers. He’s wearing the Urinals T-shirt John gave him. The band does a quick line check, decide the sound is hopeless but so what. They spend a couple of hours trying not to be nervous. The mayor of Beijing will be here. The governor. CCTV film crews. National radio. No pressure.
The stage is set up next to bumper cars. There are a couple of vomit comet rides nearby and stalls with grilled whole lambs (I don’t stick around to see how they’re served), pirated DVDs, and cheap hats. Crowds of moms and dads and their one kid enjoy the holiday and the clear, bright afternoon. I try to override my body telling me it’s 1 a.m. in LA and drink some sweet green tea from a bottle. And some sweet milky Nescafe. And some Coke.
We spread out on the grass in the area roped off as a green room. We have a small crowd watching and photographing everything we do. When I walk around the park, I get stopped so people can take their pictures with me. I put my arm around them and give the camera the peace sign and we’re all happy. The green room fills up with the Kiwi girls, who are wearing rattly wooden skirts over sarongs, loose hair, and drawn on chin tattoos. The Azerbaijani dancers are wearing their Cossack hats and boots. The Finnish folk dancers have on their outfits. The Cubans are wearing shiny blue satin ensembles. The Swedish brass band has on tuxes and formal gowns. The Russki prog band has on their 70s clothes. (Haonan said there was a group from Japan, but they were ummm uninvited.)
It’s so surreal. Here are all these accomplished performers brought from around the world. And then there’s the Urinals.* That Emily has arranged this and managed to make it all work is amazing.
I get very nervous. I have one task: to plug Rod’s foot pedals into the amp. Sorry, two tasks: plug in the pedals and get underfoot. We watch the ceremony begin. Party officials give speeches. They are translated into English for the crowd, many of whom are the parents of the young Kiwi dancers and choir and the younger members of the Swedish brass band and other ensembles. Big applause. The Swedish brass band is introduced and plays Enter the Dragon. The girls go on and stomp and make their scowling Maori warrior faces to huge applause. (Some of the girls are clearly part Maori but others are English roses--still, the effect is very cool.)
The girls clatter off the stage. Haonan hustles us on. I plug in the pedals, check that the power light is on, and then try not to trip over the stairs going back down. A woman wearing a spangly red and yellow ball gown starts talking, giving some kind of introduction. It’s translated: “From the United States of America, the Urinals band, performing a love song, ‘Beautiful Again.’”
From the crowds a few girls scream. I can’t believe it. Girls screaming. I look out and see a lot of people, most of whom don’t have their hands over their ears. As the Urinals play, the sound levels go up and down--you hear the drums, you don’t hear them, the guitar goes in and out, John’s vocals boom, fade, and hit just about the right level.
And in a few more seconds the song is over. Whew. Big relief. Emily seems happy. Haonan is giddy. Even though there’s a buffet with the party members at 6 and a performance at 7:30, the pressure is off.
---
*(I don’t think I’ve mentioned that the band’s name has been transliterated and not translated, so apparently no one knows what the band’s name means. We’re told that the characters that have been used for the phonetic transliteration mean “Distant Promise.”)
Back at Chaoyang Park Haonan tells us that the Urinals are performing third in the opening ceremony, right after the St. Mary’s girls’ choir (from Aukland) and before the Azerbaijani dancers. He’s wearing the Urinals T-shirt John gave him. The band does a quick line check, decide the sound is hopeless but so what. They spend a couple of hours trying not to be nervous. The mayor of Beijing will be here. The governor. CCTV film crews. National radio. No pressure.
The stage is set up next to bumper cars. There are a couple of vomit comet rides nearby and stalls with grilled whole lambs (I don’t stick around to see how they’re served), pirated DVDs, and cheap hats. Crowds of moms and dads and their one kid enjoy the holiday and the clear, bright afternoon. I try to override my body telling me it’s 1 a.m. in LA and drink some sweet green tea from a bottle. And some sweet milky Nescafe. And some Coke.
We spread out on the grass in the area roped off as a green room. We have a small crowd watching and photographing everything we do. When I walk around the park, I get stopped so people can take their pictures with me. I put my arm around them and give the camera the peace sign and we’re all happy. The green room fills up with the Kiwi girls, who are wearing rattly wooden skirts over sarongs, loose hair, and drawn on chin tattoos. The Azerbaijani dancers are wearing their Cossack hats and boots. The Finnish folk dancers have on their outfits. The Cubans are wearing shiny blue satin ensembles. The Swedish brass band has on tuxes and formal gowns. The Russki prog band has on their 70s clothes. (Haonan said there was a group from Japan, but they were ummm uninvited.)
It’s so surreal. Here are all these accomplished performers brought from around the world. And then there’s the Urinals.* That Emily has arranged this and managed to make it all work is amazing.
I get very nervous. I have one task: to plug Rod’s foot pedals into the amp. Sorry, two tasks: plug in the pedals and get underfoot. We watch the ceremony begin. Party officials give speeches. They are translated into English for the crowd, many of whom are the parents of the young Kiwi dancers and choir and the younger members of the Swedish brass band and other ensembles. Big applause. The Swedish brass band is introduced and plays Enter the Dragon. The girls go on and stomp and make their scowling Maori warrior faces to huge applause. (Some of the girls are clearly part Maori but others are English roses--still, the effect is very cool.)
The girls clatter off the stage. Haonan hustles us on. I plug in the pedals, check that the power light is on, and then try not to trip over the stairs going back down. A woman wearing a spangly red and yellow ball gown starts talking, giving some kind of introduction. It’s translated: “From the United States of America, the Urinals band, performing a love song, ‘Beautiful Again.’”
From the crowds a few girls scream. I can’t believe it. Girls screaming. I look out and see a lot of people, most of whom don’t have their hands over their ears. As the Urinals play, the sound levels go up and down--you hear the drums, you don’t hear them, the guitar goes in and out, John’s vocals boom, fade, and hit just about the right level.
And in a few more seconds the song is over. Whew. Big relief. Emily seems happy. Haonan is giddy. Even though there’s a buffet with the party members at 6 and a performance at 7:30, the pressure is off.
---
*(I don’t think I’ve mentioned that the band’s name has been transliterated and not translated, so apparently no one knows what the band’s name means. We’re told that the characters that have been used for the phonetic transliteration mean “Distant Promise.”)
posted by Kat at 3:45 PM
2 Comments:
Chaoyang Pop Music Festival open vigorously with colorful and rich performances
(《Beijing Evening News》2004-05-01)
The seven-day Chaoyang Pop Music Festival opened since May,1. Over ten famous performance organizations and singers in pop music field will perform, to enrich the festival life for people.
The first day programs of the Pop Music Week, can be described as "colorful and rich". They contributed to a marvelous start for the music week. The performance organizations and singers from different countries, different race and folk, different performance style convened Chaoyang Park—the biggest park in Beijing, which instantly becoming a music ocean. Germany JB Girl Band, Congo (Jin) National Art Academy Music unit, Folk Singing troupe, Russia singing troupe, Spring and Autumn Band, Huang Zheng, Dada band etc, all become the hot topic in today's festival music shows.
The African artists present music feast with full-bodied Africa traditional tribe culture to the Chinese people. Africans with music talent sing the touching love songs of "Makeweila" along with bright national dances, which describe that some boys' laughing at a girl who doesn't want to marry the local youth but wants to find her lover far away. The song "endangka" means the wife; the song told audience the hardships and troubles in life and persuades people not to lose confidence, forget their trouble, and to love life! The bright songs, passion dancing attract fierce corresponding of the audiences, they sometimes also clap with the song's rhythm. During the enthusiastic performances, Kenya ambassador and his wife come to the performance stage to see the actors entering the shows, at intervals, actors in national wearing all take photos with the ambassador and his wife, and the ambassador and his wife are also pleased to take photos with the Chinese audiences. With the one climax after another in the performances of the African artists, they started to sing the traditional Chinese song Liuyanghe in Chinese to show their love of China and the Chinese people. Their clear and loud singing aroused another climax of the show.
The JB Girl Band from Germany brought a cool and vogue pop music taste to Chinese people, the Russian dancing troupe brought not only the Russian styled songs and dances, but also the dances with Latin and Arabian styled. The Spring and Autumn Band is a heavy metal bands that is active in the pop music field with distinctive style. This evening, the Spring and Autumn Band brings eight original rock music songs, which shall form a hot interactive scene between the fans and the band.
The Pop Music New Singer Contest, "popularity promote the dream, music change the world" entitled, is a highlighted spot of the Pop music week. On the basis of careful choice, the contest committee organizes over 70 new singers and groups to join in pre-contest. Today's 12 teams with their own excellent abilities entering the contest shall try their best to move the audience and judgers with their stunt and excellent shows.
With the famous stars, vigorous pleasant, colorful and rich performance, splendid stages, the citizens in the capital enjoyed fully the endless comfort brought by the pop music art during the Chaoyang Pop Music Festival, this relaxed completely much of their tense nerve. In the next few days, there will be more exciting and good performances, like Zang Tianshuo, Xue Cun, Jin Haixin, Shanying Team, Gaoqi and Overload, Aerken Bands etc, the high level foreign art troupes from Bulgaria, Canada, Holland and Egypt will show more rich and colorful performances, Besides, the scramble for the contest award cups will be more fury and exciting, it is believed that most music fans will surely find their bosom friend in the pop music week at that time.
I find myself wondering if the American "Spring and Autumn band" is not indeed the Urinals or "Distant Promise" is a heavy metal bands that is active in the pop music field with distinctive style.
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