Pop stop

Pop sensations Mayday (五月天) were edging closer this week to breaking the record for the most attended concert at Taipei Municipal Stadium, having already sold 35,000 tickets by the end of last week. The current record of 40,000 was set by the king of pop himself Michael Jackson and hasn't been approached in years. Given the frantic hype surrounding tomorrow's much anticipated concert, Mayday looks as though they're well on their way to shattering the record. Helping them out in the process will be their label Rock Records, which has chartered busses to bring in fans from down south. For information on how to catch the bus, call (02) 2651-8168.

Preparations for the show have become increasingly extravagant in recent days, as the stage was expanded, the band's two guitarists blew NT$200,000 online to buy six new guitars specially for the show and Rock Records acquired a Swan Lake ballet tutu which drummer Yan Ming (諺明) has promised to wear if the crowd breaks the 40,000 mark.

Yan's tutu gag probably won't go over as well as Korean transvestite He Li-hsiu's (何莉秀) appearance on Tuesday's episode of Variety Da-Ge-Da (綜藝大哥大), though. The show's host Chang Fei (張菲) is famed for his off-color jokes, gerri-curl hairdo, garish outfits and his shocking ability to turn every joke on his unfortunate guests. But on Sunday it was Chang's turn to feel the heat, so to speak, when He wrapped him/herself around Chang for a big, wet kiss that caused the unflappable Da-Ge-Da to blush quite visibly for the cameras.

Another lady with luscious lips and an apparently big mouth is Taiwanese transplant to Hong Kong Shu Qi (舒淇). Last week the starlet revealed the name of a mystery shampoo company for whom she had made advertisements before the ads were released, causing a furor with the ad agency and throwing a spanner in the works of the ad campaign, as well as putting into question any future deals between the actress and the company.

On a campaign of a different sort, but also geared toward securing more money for stars, Sun Yanzi (孫燕姿) has encoded her newest album The Moment with anti-pirating technology to prevent her music from making it onto the Internet as mp3 files. Following Madonna's example, Yanzi is also offering to sell B sides that didn't make it onto the album over the Net in advance of the album's release, which is set for next Friday.

That's about the same day that pint-sized rapper Maji (麻吉) should be heading back to the US to start the school year, if his father can pack him onto the plane, that is. It became know this week that young Maji is not the stellar student his father wishes he were, having gotten a D, a C, two Bs and only two As last semester. But after making a pretty strong run at becoming Taiwan's foremost hip-hop luminary, with a performance at the Golden Melody Awards two weeks ago, he has since been quoted refusing to return to the States (while stomping his feet and flailing his arms). He even somehow misplaced his passport -- accidentally, of course.