Jagger: I'm really excited. We all know that Shanghai is a big important city so we wanted to make sure it's on our itinerary. We don't want to leave it out. Although China as an economic force has been around ... well forever really ... as a place for us to play it's not really been on the map for that long.Richards: Shanghai? I've always wanted to get there. We're very grateful for being allowed in, we'll stick our noses in and see what's happening. ... I want to buy some of my own bootlegs ... I just want to get a whiff of it and look around and see what's happening, it's all brand new to me ... China will be a bit of an adventure for us, we've never been there before, it's a first and by now we don't get many first.
A Bigger Band
Shanghai Daily, China -
CBC.ca, Canada -
Xinhua, China -
Shanghaiist, China
April 1, 2006; Page A2
Next Saturday, the Rolling Stones will finally get some satisfaction in China. That is when they will hold their first concert in the communist country, after plans to play there three years ago fell through during China's outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.
But China is getting its own satisfaction from the Stones, too: namely, a chance to show the world that it is opening up.
The Shanghai concert is the latest, most-high-profile sign that China's mandarins are loosening their collars. During the Cultural Revolution, which ended in the 1970s, listening to rock 'n' roll could land a person in jail. Today, China's radio stations blare Taiwan rap and South Korean hip-hop. The Stones join a string of Western acts to play the country in the past year, including Whitney Houston and the Broadway musical "Rent," which deals with subjects such as drug addiction and AIDS -- edgy stuff for China.
Still, not everything goes. In 2003, China cut the Stones' "40 Licks" album to just 36, banning tracks -- including "Honky Tonk Woman," "Brown Sugar" and "Beast of Burden" -- that apparently were too sexually explicit. The concert promoter is playing coy about changes the band has agreed to make to accommodate Chinese sensibilities. Performances of "Honky Tonk Woman" in previous Stones concerts have featured a cartoon animation of an ecstatic woman riding a tongue.
China's Ministry of Culture, which approves all concerts after inspecting a playlist, lyrics and DVD of a previous concert, didn't answer questions about the Stones date.
Lately, China's Communist Party has been showing its paternalistic side in cultural matters. It slapped hefty restrictions on reality-TV shows after it said kids were skipping school to participate in an "American Idol" knockoff called "Super Girl." Such programs should "avoid vulgar or gross styles," said regulators.
A Chinese version of Rolling Stone magazine that launched last month with features on singer Bono and journalist Hunter S. Thompson has already run into legal troubles that could stop it from publishing.
On the other hand, the party has its uses for Mick Jagger, who at 63 years old is just one year younger than Chinese President Hu Jintao. A Stones concert could convey just the sort of multicultural worldliness that China is eager to project before 2008, when the world's eyes will turn to Beijing for the Olympic Games.
When the Rolling Stones land in Shanghai next week, Chinese authorities are scheduled to greet the band at a press conference. No word yet on whether they will stick around for the show.
Write to Geoffrey A. Fowler at geoffrey.fowler@wsj.com
