Back to the garden
- Source: Global Times
- [09:28 July 19 2010]
- Comments
A music fan is hoisted above the crowd in Suzhou. Photo: CFP
Some 1,160 kilometers to the north - and at the same time as the Guangzhou event - Suzhou was staging its first ever music festival. The Hoisland Rock Festival featured 24 bands from China and abroad and was staged at Xiangcheng, a new residential complex in the city. On the bill were a number of mainstream pop singers such as Joanna Wang and Zhang Zhenyue, both from Taiwan, as well as some rock legends including China's godfather of rock Cui Jian and the Irish singer Sinead O'Connor.
The festival didn't get off to the best of starts; teeming rain ensured audience numbers never got above 150 during the first day. The three-day event kicked off with Michael Angelo Batio's guitar set. A heavy metal veteran from Chicago, in 2003 he was voted the "No 1 Shredder of All Time" by Guitar One Magazine. The audience were appreciative of Batio's virtuoso performing, particularly when he started to play his "double-guitar," a V-shaped, twin-necked instrument he created himself. But the venue only really came alive about 9pm when Xie Tianxiao stepped on stage to wow the eager crowd. Xie is widely regarded as the successor to Cui Jian and who, in musical terms, has become almost the voice of his generation. His music combines uplifting rock 'n' roll rhythms with thoughtful lyrics. Xie also performed on the guzheng during his one-hour set. Combining this ancient Chinese instrument with rock music is nothing new, but Xie pushes this musical crossover to an artistic level rarely heard before. Sadly, just as Wang Feng was about to play the last set of the night, the audience was told the guitarist in Wang's band had been taken ill with a suspected heart attack and had been rushed to hospital. The performance was delayed, but Wang finally made it onstage, finishing his last song well past midnight.
Not everyone, however, was happy with the way the festival was organized, including the agent of one of the artists, who refused to reveal her name. "The reception, accommodation and organi-zation of the concerts have frankly been a bit of a mess," she told the Global Times. "China does have some great music festivals, but there are others that are very poorly organized. Of course the rock music concert scene is not as developed here as it is in the West. But rock and indepen-dent music is booming in China so this will change for the better, I'm sure. "
