The Stones in China

For today's China, Stones concert is only rock 'n' roll

Rowan Callick, China correspondent
10apr06

IT took the veteran bad boys of rock more than 30 years to reach China. But in the end, the first Rolling Stones concert in mainland China on Saturday night was just another gig.

For China has itself become hip, a magnet for young Westerners eager to travel there, work there and pick up on the contemporary Chinese vibe.
And to many young middle-class Chinese, who travel widely in the West and enjoy contemporary Western music and movies - available ubiquitously in cheap, pirated form - the Stones are essentially a postscript of a rock era that passed their country by as it was convulsed by the Cultural Revolution.

Today, Shanghai is wealthier, more cutting-edge and more decadent than many cities in Europe or the US.

The 8000 who filled the indoor arena in which the Stones performed on Saturday their usual high-energy, two-hour set were largely foreigners working in Shanghai.

The band had earlier agreed, in discussion with the authorities, not to include five songs: Brown Sugar, Honky Tonk Women, Beast of Burden, Let's Spend the Night Together and Rough Justice.

Lead singer Mick Jagger, 62, told a press conference before the concert, with characteristic self-awareness: "I am pleased the Ministry of Culture is protecting the morals of expatriate bankers and their girlfriends."

He began the show by asking "Dajia hao ma?" - "How is everyone?"

A more significant local connection was forged for the Chinese in the audience - most paying more than the average monthly wage for a ticket - when Jagger brought Cui Jian onstage.

Cui's song Nothing To My Name became the anthem of the student demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989, and it was years before he was permitted, gradually, to resume his role as the patriarch of the Chinese music scene.

He traded verses of Wild Horses with Jagger on Saturday night. State-owned China Central TV filmed the concert, and will broadcast it nationwide, reinforcing Cui's own renaissance.

The band was due to arrive in Sydney last night for its shows at Telstra Stadium tomorrow and in Melbourne on Thursday.