Dubbed "the king of live music" by both the Asian music press and a multitude of fans scattered across the region, homegrown guitar hero, Wu Bai (伍佰), and his band, China Blue will be bringing their 2002 Ninth Heaven Tour to fans across Taiwan over the coming month.
The tour, which is the combo's first such large-scale venture in Taiwan for nearly two years, comes hot on the heels of the band's recent sell-out Pub High sojourn around the nation.
While the mini-tour saw Wu Bai and his hard-playing band -- bassist Ju Jian-hui (
PHOTO: MAGIC STONE RECORDS
Beginning at Taipei Municipal Stadium (
Since hitting the local music scene in the early 1990s with its self-titled debut album, Wu Bai and China Blue have appeared on top music charts across Asia with a string of hit albums. The most recent of which, Dream River (夢的河流), although released late last year, is still riding high on pop charts in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and China.
While the Asian music scene is hardly short of heroes, the meteoric way in which the local rocker and his combo made the big time differs radically from many of their peers.
The phenomena that has become Wu Bai and China Blue was not created by record company executives with an eye on a quick profit. In fact, with the exception of popular indie rockers, Quarter Back (
"We all played for different bands up until about 1991, after which [Ju Jian-hui] and I began jamming together with the eventual idea of forming a newer, fresher, and original rock band," Zavolta said. "Then one day, he called me up and asked me if I would mind filling in for a one-off gig with himself and a guitarist named Wu Bai."
According to Zavolta, the trio hit it off almost immediately and China Blue fell into place shortly thereafter.
"Something just clicked between us. Both the music and the mo chi (
By the mid-1990s, the band had conquered the hearts and minds of a Taiwanese audience sorely lacking guitar heroes. With its eclectic brand of very Taiwanese rock `n' roll enjoying an all-time high the length and breadth of the nation, the combo branched out and began replicating this success across Asia. The band's high-octane gigs in China, Hong Kong and Singapore are now guaranteed sellouts.
A major factor of the popularity of the bands' live performances is the ability of the four-piece combo to continue to create original and exciting material. Material that not only has the capability to appease fans with a hunger for guitar-laden rock, but also charm fans with an ear for less raucous vibes.
"Although our styles may vary, our sound remains the same. Our most recent album is a good example of this. [The album] is extremely versatile. If you are a rocker, Broken (
Although the back-clad, helmet hair-styled Wu Bai has become one of Asia's most instantly recognizable rock icons and has would-be rockers emulating his low-slung guitar playing stance from Beijing to Bangkok, China Blue is far more than a backing band. Wu Bai is as much a part of China Blue as are China Blue a part of Wu Bai.
"Wubai is part of China Blue. He is the lead singer and guitarist of China Blue. Just as Hsiao Ju is the bassist, [Yu Dai-ho] the keyboard player and I'm the drummer," Zavolta said. "Although he writes the music and lyrics, we arrange each song as a band. Wu Bai makes a rough version of a song he has written and then we collectively arrange it together. Which is the crux of our contrasting styles."
What: Wu Bai and China Blue: 2002 Ninth Heaven Tour (伍佰 and China Blue: 2002巡迴演唱會 -- 九重天)
Where & When: Saturday, May 11 Taipei Municipal Stadium (台北市立體育場) Saturday, May 18 Changhwa Municipal Stadium (彰化縣立體育場) and Saturday, May 25 Kaoshiung (高雄澄清湖棒球場). All shows begin at 7pm
Tickets: Cost NT$1,000 or NT$800 and are available from ERA ticket outlets nationwide
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
Ahead of incoming president William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20 there appear to be signs that he is signaling to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that the Chinese side is also signaling to the Taiwan side. This raises a lot of questions, including what is the CCP up to, who are they signaling to, what are they signaling, how with the various actors in Taiwan respond and where this could ultimately go. In the last column, published on May 2, we examined the curious case of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweight Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) — currently vice premier
The last time Mrs Hsieh came to Cihu Park in Taoyuan was almost 50 years ago, on a school trip to the grave of Taiwan’s recently deceased dictator. Busloads of children were brought in to pay their respects to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正), known as Generalissimo, who had died at 87, after decades ruling Taiwan under brutal martial law. “There were a lot of buses, and there was a long queue,” Hsieh recalled. “It was a school rule. We had to bow, and then we went home.” Chiang’s body is still there, under guard in a mausoleum at the end of a path
Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50