PLAY NICE

IN...BLOGS

The blogs on this site are a separate entity from the other content; we do not moderate or edit them. The blogs serve to enable people to express their personal opinions and are in no way affiliated with Shanghai 24/7.

Nontheless, there are certain rules we kindly ask our bloggers to follow:

No one should use this blog space as a forum to say anything hateful to anyone else in this community. No flaming, no personal wars. To make it a bit simpler, no one should say anything on here that they couldn't say to someones face. No hiding behind your sticky keyed laptop. Play nice.

Interview with Gary Wright by Scottish Mike

IN...BLOGS

Gary Wright is the brother of Kevin Wright, Girls Like Mystery lead vocalist/bassist and sometimes acoustic guitarist. He is here in Shanghai visiting his older brother and he also happens to be a damn talented musician himself. So, we invited him to join us tomorrow at Lune here. I got together with him via email to ask him a few things about coming over here and what to expect from the show:

1. Welcome to Shanghai! Care to give a brief low down on your style, how long you've been playing and the typical gigs you play?

I think it’s quite hard to put a name to my style, I’d say I aim for a brand of Indie/folk. Mostly trying to take Indie band songs and producing acoustic versions in my own style. I’ve been playing guitar for about 6 years, but only really got serious with it for the past 4 doing quite a few gigs including local pubs, folk clubs and even weddings/birthdays.

2. How does it feel to be doing a gig here in Shanghai? Can we expect any sibling rivalry/unity during the show?

It’s crazy, I don’t think I ever thought I do something like this, so I’m very excited! But also slightly nervous, to what playing gigs in Shanghai is like, eg. What Chinese or Shanghai audiences are into. I don’t think there’ll be any sibling rivalry, I am quite excited to hear Kevin’s band as I’ve only seen him play acoustic solo shows, so to hear the band will be a great experience.

3. Who are some of your favourite acts and please send some recommendations this way to me as well, please!

I’d say a lot of my favourite acts are acoustic singer songwriters, particularly Frank Turner who was introduced to me by my brother, which can be said for a lot of the music I listen to. Frank is a great live performer, seeing him numerous times, his likeable character and honest music connects to a lot of people. If I was to recommend an album to listen, it would have to be “England Keep My Bones”.
Another performer I’m really into at the moment, who I saw live on Tuesday is a slightly unknown artist called Benjamin Francis Leftwich, an acoustic singer songwriter from York in England. He has a very individual voice and style, but what impressed me the most was that his live music was just as good as his recorded material which can’t be said for a lot modern performers. I would definitely recommend his album “Last Smoke Before The Snowstorm”.

Other than them two, I listen to quite a few ambient/post rock bands, particularly Sigur Ros and Explosions in the Sky. Two very good bands that produce relaxing music, that is great to do work to!

4. Shanghai is a bit of a world away from Saltburn by the Sea.....are you ready for 21 million people, crowded subways and air quality issues?

Well Saltburn has around 6,000 people living there, where I live there isn’t many people you see in the street or town that you don’t already know so it will be slightly strange, but something I am very excited to experience. I have been to Hong Kong before, so I’m also interested to see the differences between the two cities. Along with this I have spent the past year living in the city of Newcastle at university, so I have had the experience of city life although on a much smaller scale than Shanghai.

5. Finally, what's the plan for your own music? Any plans to do further recording and how can people get access to your music?

Yes I do hope to carry on with my music, particularly record a few more of my own material, which is something I’m looking to do this summer. I have got a couple of recordings on Youtube which can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc-pMiaNO4Y and another at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg9tphjDJdE.

Recently I’ve teamed up with a few different people, which is something that is going to continue with the view of hopefully forming a band this summer.

Also the duo of me and my girlfriend Georgina Bunn seems to work quite well, with me providing guitar accompaniment to her incredible voice. We’ve played in numerous open mic nights, university events, pubs etc with a lot of positive feedback so hopefully we can entertain the audience in Shanghai and people will enjoy our music.

FOUR GREAT BANDS

IN...BLOGS

Mike Herd takes a look at the lineup of the Pink Berry CD release show with Sonnet, Tinderbox and Xiaoxinyiyi

Shanghai power pop punk rockers Pink Berry are back in town with a brand new album, for which YYT will be hosting the release party at on Saturday May 11th! Traditionally, PB have established a solid reputation for their energetic, winner takes all performances, led by their Shanghainese front lady Xiao You.

pink berry shanghai band

Formed in 2008, the band were a fixture on the local music scene, gaining wide popularity both locally and beyond, such that even Dickies had offered them a sponsorship with their music! At that time, their music leaned more on the pop side of things, with simple straight forward power chord rifftastic tunes ala Blink 182.

These days, their music has definitely taken more of a harder rock turn, with a definite salute to 1980’s American hard rock bands. With the track included here from the album (welcome to the show), it reminds me a lot of a Boston based band from the past five years by the name of Damone. Check them out!

Welcome to the Show - Pink Berry

shanghai bands tinderbox

Tinderbox are a promising act on the scene and have continued to gain significant popularity in and around Shanghai, having recently played a slot at the Strawberry festival last week. Fronted by singer Renia, a fixture in several bands, Tinderbox will bring their irresistibly catchy pop-tastic tunes with a hints of surf pop to the table and will definitely show you a good time!

Mikong - Tinderbox

sonnet band shanghai

Sonnet, Chinese post rockers featuring Pink Berry’s own bass player, Yang Fu, providing bass duties, have also been a fixture on the scene for a while, but have also recently been taking time away from performances. They will open the event. Expect elements of shoe gazing and even later Britpop influences to feature.

Perfect Son - Sonnet

xiaoxinyiyi

Xiaoxinyiyi – the band fronted by yours truly – well you can judge for yourself! Here is a recent video made by Rachel Gouk (who also took the photo above) of our song Petrol, which we recorded at Your Songs Your Show last month! Who do we like? My favourite band are The Wildhearts, Mike Bush’s is Green Day…..would be interested in hearing your comparisons!

MIDI ELECTRONIC LINEUP SPARKS CONTROVERSY

IN...BLOGS

Two Local DJs Upset At This Year's Midi Electronic Stage Booking

by Brian Offenther

Yesterday it came to my attention that there was some controversy being generated by Shanghai's DJ Mia and others regarding the Electronic Stage at the upcoming Midi Festival. Her comments, along wih those by others in agreement and disagreement, received a lot of attention on social media like Facebook and Weibo.

I asked Mia to tell us what happened. Here's what she said (edited for grammar, clarity, updated information, and to address general readers in Shanghai).

I was shocked, disappointed and angry when I saw the lineup of the electronica stage of the upcoming Midi Festival this year.

I have been playing at Midi since 2010, and for every MIDI then on, and they chose to give me the first time slot on Sunday. I would of said nothing if the DJs who played after me are the ones who had been in the scene in Shanghai for years, who have worked hard to build up the dance music scene. But down the program, I saw names I don't even know, or otherwise international artists.

So I called the music director and asked for the reason behind this whole lineup. The reason he gave me is because I play deep house. I told him, “Are you telling me if I played hard techno then you are going to put me at the best time slot, because I do play techno and minimal and you know that.” Of course I was being sarcastic. Besides, deep house is one of the hottest genre in EDM now. A lot of amazing underground EDM artists are producing and playing deep house in big music festivals all around the world. Using that as an excuse is a joke to me.

I heard this has happened to some DJs at the last Midi as well, so I feel there's a need for me to expose this. I refuse to work for someone who doesn't respect the artists and the audience. I believe there's a serious ass kissing competition going on on the lineup list.

There are many great local EDM artists that are not even on the list, such as Mau Mau, The Acid Pony Club, Teasy, Alex Marta, Razor, Santochino, STD, Void, Cha Cha, and many others...these artists worked really hard to build up this scene in Shanghai! When I asked them so why aren't they on there, the organizer said ''The problem in Shangai is because of these 'DJ gangs' that won't allow any newcomers in so that's why the scene never grows...and the DJs that you don't know on the lineup, some of them actually have years of experiences in DJing.'' So I said:

''Really, maybe your music director should remember who booked him when he was a nobody and gave him chances to play at my parties! About those 'we don't know who they are DJs' you are telling me as long as I have years of experience I can just show up in town and play at the big music festivals without earning any respect from the people in the scene first? So you are telling me if I go to Barcelona now I can just play for Sonar? If I move to Berlin I'm just gonna play at Berghain? I worked for you guys for years, if I'm a bad DJ I believe no one will back me up for this, but if this is what I'm getting for working hard for you guys, then no thank you!”

And the real funny thing is afterwards the music director is blaming the organizer, saying he has no control over the lineup and the organizer blamed the music director that put the list together without confirming with her before sending it to Midi. I think maybe they should stop wasting their energy on telling me this BS that I know for a fact is not true. Instead, they should put more energy on how to do things right!

After negotiating with the music director for an hour, he said the best he can do is to move my spot to the first one on the first day! Really?! Like, what's the difference? So I told them please give my spot to some other ass kissing champ because I think they would love to play for air, or just to put their name on it. So, I announced on my Facebook and Weibo that I won't be playing for Midi and the whole reason behind it. I'm so thankful that all I got positive responses from people.

I've been posting this on my FB and Weibo for half a day now, with 50 “Like” on FB so far, and many positive comments. Almost 7,000 people has read my post on Weibo and many have left positive comments as well. The people working for Midi this year said people in the Midi organization were angry about what I did and ask the organizer to contact me to take down the post on Weibo, and not to compare it with the Strawberry Music Festival, which I never did. If they have read my post carefully enough, all I said is I'm pulling out because of the unfairness of the lineup of Midi, and for those who wanted to see me at an out door music festival, I will be still playing for Strawberry Music Festival. I did not tell anyone not to go to Midi. Of course there are still are a lot respectable artists that are in the program (at Midi), and please support them as well. All I did was say the facts. If they don't like the facts to be exposed, they should probably not have done it.

Here is the whole story. We will still do great parties and together make Shanghai a better place to party. Big thanks for everyone's understanding and support!

DJ Mia then solicited DJ Thomas Cher for comment. Here's what he wrote (edited for grammar, clarity, updated information, and to address general readers in Shanghai).

The Midi Festival electronic stage is always a bit messy, but that's normal. It's a big festival, and there a lot of things to do. But this year might win the what-the-f*ck award.

No DJs, that has been contacted earlier by the organizers got any news about the Midi line up for weeks. Nobody called or emailed us to see if we were okay and/or were available with the time slots they 'd like to give us.

Suddenly the new "music director" put online the final line up on Facebook! I was a bit shocked I have to say, because I have played several time at Midi and the JZ festival, and such a thing has never happened before. I saw he put me at 1 pm when the audience is not around. He told me, as he told Mia, it's because the music style is more suitable for this time. That is quite hilarious when you see the line up he came up with. Don't get me wrong, there a are also good DJs in the line up. But it's very far from being a good representation of what the Shanghai electronic scene is today.

Anyway, I told the new "music director" if he wanted me to play at 1 pm he just would have had to ask me if I am okay with it. He could have simply told me, "Sorry, but there are a lot of DJs, there are no good time slots for you this year," and I could have simply said, "Okay, I understand. No worries if I'm not playing for this time and will play the next one.

"After all, we are human, and I can understand he wants some of his friends to play. I'm not greedy, but I can't accept people just using my name and putting it on the flyer without even confirming anything with me.

At this point, I felt he was confused. He said he was sorry, and tried to change the line up and give me a bit better time slot. But then i realize several DJs were as upset as I was, and were ready to just cancel the gigs. So we did !

At this point, I knew there were no way to come back to my decision, because the organizers will of course feel embarrassed and try to get some DJs back in by proposing the time slots of the other canceled gigs...we need to stand together and hope nobody will change sides.

And now, the only way that our actions make sense is that the media say loud what everybody deeply thinks.

After receiving these comments from DJs Mia and Thomas Cher, it came to my attention that some of the DJs that had announced they were pulling out of the Midi Festival had reconsidered. We asked Mia and Thomas Cher to comment on this. Here's what Thomas Cher said (edited for grammar, clarity, and to address general readers in Shanghai).

What I mean by stand together is not taking each other time slots. For example, if they were offering me the time slot that [Name of DJ Retracted] took for Midi, there will be no way I'll accept it, because it would be like I betrayed her.

Now, if some DJs finally accept to play at the same time slots that was initially planned, why not, it's totally acceptable.

Everybody makes his own choice, and at the end of the day, we are just the addition of all the choices we have made in the past.

I'm also open to communicating with the Midi organizers. I am not at war against them, and actually I have a pretty good relationship with [Midi organizer's name retracted] the boss of electronic stage, and she understands my decision and is not angry against me. But for this time, they already have their line up and, for sure, I am not going to take the time slots of the other DJs that cancel so I'm not gonna play.

I think this whole drama is going to be positive for the next festival.

I then solicited Midi organizers for comment. This response came from Steve Dowler (edited for grammar, clarity, and to address general readers in Shanghai).

As one of the main contributors to last fall's Midi Electronic Music Festival, I worked very closely with the people who were contracted this year by Midi to organize the electronic stage for this Spring's Midi Music Festival. While my focus is usually on sponsors and vendors, I am reasonably exposed to what is happening on the DJ stage while it is being planned (all be it more so then than now).

I remember very clearly a similar issue with one or two of the DJs at the last festival. A couple of very talented DJs dropped out because they were not happy with how the line up was created. I remember many stressed-out conversations brainstorming about how to make everyone happy when everyone wanted a later time slot and no one wanted to play early.

We went back and forth about what was more important. Was it more important that we played the people with bigger names and more experience last, or was it more important to control the rhythm and flow of music? What we decided after rounds and rounds of conversations was that ultimately it didn't make sense to put three DJs that played the same genre of music back to back, even if they were the three best DJs on the stage that day. There had to be a build up of energy, a peak, and finally a release where people could relax and go buy drinks, use the restroom or whatever.

I understand that the argument could be made that you could control the energy of the crowd in a similar way by doing some sort of a 2, 1, 3, combo (by rank of crowd appeal and recognition). The issue therein still lies that different styles of music do hold different kinds of energy. To make the most extreme of comparisons, a roots reggae vibe would be very relaxed and euphoric whereas something like heavy metal would be very high energy in-your-face kind of stuff. And it continues throughout the spectrum of electronic music as well (Moombahton vs Drumstep, etc.). I'm not saying anyone has argued this point but I'm simply playing devil's advocate.

Now I am not personally familiar with Thomas and his experience in the scene, unfortunately, but I do know Mia. I have the utmost respect for her and have seen her rock shows out here with no problem stealing the spotlight. She's an incredible DJ and a cool person. I personally booked her to play the Midi DJ stage after-party on May 4th, which even after talking with her today, she is still scheduled to play at alongside Dave K and Ben Huang.

I do understand where she is coming from. Her logic of not just being able to jump easily into a good slot at Sonar if you just moved to Barcelona, or in Berghain if you're new to Berlin, definitely holds water and is not something I will even try to argue with. Mia has paid dues out here and has quite a following to show for it. I can say though from someone organizing the event's perspective, that a festival is better with people there. The earlier the people are there, the better the environment is for everyone who comes after them and so on.

At least with regards to Midi Electronic Festival, the consensus was that by putting a couple of the bigger more talented people up front, we had hoped to draw people out earlier and thereby improve the overall experience of the festival for everyone (a music festival organizer's number one priority). Now, is this everything that was involved in making the decisions of the line up this Spring? I couldn't be the one to tell you, as I personally was much less involved this go around, but I can tell you I am sure from my experience working closely with this year's team contracted by Midi to organize the electronic stage, that it likely played a very large part. I hope that helps.

I consider myself a proud part of the Shanghai music scene. As the scene is small, it is impossible to cover any event completely impartially. Still, I have made the greatest efforts to cover this story with fairness and sensitivity. If you have any comments, feel free to leave them below, or write me a private email at b.ostyle@yahoo.com... I value your feedback.

Ramblings of a Scotsman in Shanghai - all talk for 2 years, now time for action

IN...BLOGS

"All talk" is a track I have written for my band 小心翼翼 - a cynical track I use as a pointed dig at the singer of one of my former bands, Quarter Acre (now defunct and I still have close to 500 copies of the CD we brought out here in the less than 10 gigs we did in total in Shanghai between 2009-2011 - email me for a copy if you're running low on coasters!). But that's quite a different story and moves away from the point of this blog - rather the point in titling this blog along those lines concerns a grandoise plan of mine to bring my favourite act to Shanghai, a plan I have spoken openly of before and done very little about up until now. This has been in part down to my own inexperience, not at the time knowing really anyone in the music scene here or how things like that work and, if I am going to be honest, incorrectly assuming it would be as easy as just simply getting someone else to do this. The band in question? None other than the legendary Wildhearts. A band who I became introduced to at the age of 11 years old after watching them on the British chart show TV program "Top of the Pops" doing the first song I ever heard by them called "I wanna go where the people go". A band who epitomise the hard working ethic of the DIY spirit, led by founding member and only consistent member during their turbulent history Ginger and have to this day maintained a strong loyal underground following. While they have never reached dizzy commercial heights during their career, they are a firmly respected and experienced act who have spanned a collection of classic albums such as "Earth Vs", "P.H.U.Q", "Chutzpah" and "Fishing for Luckies" to name a few (for you to do and download!).

So why relay this to you? Amongst my circle of friends, a few of them have had the inspiration and gusto to self fund other acts to come out here. I am fortunate to be playing alongside Bob Log III at his Wuhan show when he makes it here thanks to Mr Nathan Sidoti! Not long after that, members of Gou Shen, Round Eye and Hujiahuwei will bring M.O.T.O here too, out of their own pockets! The way I see it, if these guys can directly approach these artists and be willing to self fund this, I am mroe than prepared to do that to bring Mr Ginger himself to Shanghai! Brining the whole band to Shanghai - could be costly and I just don't have that kind of money. But buying a flight ticket from the UK over one of the holidays (but booking the ticket dates before and after that time), I am certain I could make that happen for less money than I could expect to pay if I bought a ticket to say Thailand over that time from Shanghai and went on holiday, paid through the nose (7000rmb usually - many dumb foreigners leave their holiday plans to the last minute and are banged for the buck big time in spite of knowing full well to plan ahead of time for such a trip) and felt like it was simply Shanghai in the sun. Why not spend the money bringing your favourite artisit to Shanghai, using the musical talent available in the city to be the backing bad, see more of China and have a hell of a lot of fun at the same time? Quite frankly, a good deal as far I am concerned so this is where I will now start to seriously venture into this campaign, moreso than I did a few years back here.

I have written to Ginger about this prospect - no reply as yet since I'm guessing as The Wildhearts are currently touring the 20th anniversary of "Earth Vs", probably too busy. Or perhaps maybe at this stage that this is a serious proposition I am willing to entertain! Shanghai needs more great bands to come here and I feel that what would be particularly special about bringing the man here is the fact it is their first potential shows in China to the best of my knowledge and during the 20th year of their first album, a total classic at that! This is what I wrote to him:

Hey ginger, just to say good luck with the Glasgow show! I really wish I could be there but sadly living abroad has seen to that! Are there any plans to play again in December during my next visit home?
I may have written before but I am involved in the shanghai music scene and a personal ambition of mine is to bring you here as I have been a fan if your music since the first time I saw "I wanna go..." on top of the pops in 1995 and was one of the first singles I ever bought! I have been putting on shows for about 2 years now and have built up a lot of connections and would be prepared to even lay out the money to bring you here! Obviously it's pricey to bring the full band here and I dint have that kind of cash, but I def can afford a return plane ticket for yourself if you were down for it? I would love to put a tour on of several different Chinese cities like shanghai, beijing, Wuhan, Tianjin amongst others and recruit some other quality musicians to act as your backing band too! Also, I read and speak Chinese so can promote the wild hearts easily via the Chinese means. If you're down for this, and to bring the man himself to china for the first time, perhaps in October, it would be a total honour to make this happen! I'm seriously not bull shitting about this (I even wrote to CJ about the prospect of this and he replied) so would definitely appreciate a response! There's a Market out here and reckon it would be a great, fun filled seller!
Let me know and hopefully we can talk more! Meantime, check out a great shanghai band by the name of Pairs - http://site.douban.com/pairs ....these guys are passionate about the scene here and very much adopt the DIY thing you yourself advocate a lot!
Cheers,
Mike

On this basis, I am waiting on the douban page to be approved but I did create it - I hope to make that available soon! Meantime I think a 'like' on his official Facebook page or that for The Wildhearts would go down well (even add your support to the page I made, which has been lacking in discipline but now determined more than ever to make it happen so just like it!)

Let's have some videos of the band themselves here

or here

It is my plan for this summer to book a mini tour of China of XXYY solo and to then promote the band and spread awareness of Ginger and The Wildhearts! Details of this will follow soon but any willing venue would be well appreciated!