Canceled China 2011 Shows

[hahninator]

A few years ago I heard a rumor about the band not performing in China on their ATS Asia Tour. Apparently some shows were booked and then the deal "fell through". At the time I thought it was possibly the same thing that happened with the Auckland, New Zealand shows (two nights) that were "rumored" for December 2010 - something must have fallen apart with the promoter or something.

 

Finally I've run across a source that confirms what the real deal was with the shows. Three shows were booked for China - Beijing, Shanghai and Wuhan in September 2011 (all three had canceled shows in 2008, but Wuhan was the one that wasn't made up). Basically, China told the band they were no longer welcome after they participated in the PTTOW! conference with the Dalai Lama. http://www.goodhappens.org/livingpeaceseri...th-media-summit

 

From a website about the Chinese music scene from July 2011:

 

"This is a band that has been promoted extensively in China for over 10 years, has done 2 tours of the mainland, and were slated to return to China this September for a run of three stadium shows (Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan) that Livenation were putting together. Contracts were signed, licenses applied for, things were looking good. A rock stadium show in Wuhan – we’re not the biggest LP fans in the world, but we would have gone to that show….

 

Until a couple of weeks ago that is.

 

It seems that the band were attending a conference for youth in LA – PTTOW, a summit for Youth Media and Innovation. There were lots of other celebrities in attendance, including a recently abdicated leader of a country that isn’t a country in this country (a bit obscure, but you should understand what we mean).

 

In any case, the two groups overlapped and there are photos all over the web with members of the band on a stage with the “High Llama”. Hugs and handshakes were exchanged and it is pretty clear for those caring to notice that they were pretty chummy. Another star of another equally famous band in China was also on that stage.

 

Unfortunately, someone inside the local hierarchy here in the Middle Kingdom have decided that Linkin Park are no longer welcome in China, certainly for this tour, and perhaps for the longer term too.

 

We can understand the desire of artists to support causes, and certainly PTTOW! seems like a very worthwhile event. On the other hand, it seems like commercial suicide for a band that are so invested in the region to appear on the bill of something like this, especially at a time that their permits were being processed. The ministers of culture have certainly learned how to use search engines over here, and that is one of the first things that is searched for, an association past or present with the TB cause.

 

It also seems a shame to deprive Chinese fans of a band that is really very popular and influential here. It also seems more than coincidence that Linkin Park recently split with their long term manager Rob McDermott, who was very invested and knowledgeable in China and the rest of the region. We hope that this can be resolved somehow, but similar to the Beastie Boys, we imagine it will be a long time before China sees Linkin Park in a stadium near you…"

 

Read more here: http://www.chinamusicradar.com/live-music/...th-linkin-park/

 

Here's also another read about how LP came to play in China in 2007 in the first place: http://www.chinamusicradar.com/western-ban...-park-in-china/

A cool note about the Seoul 2003 M&G is included, "The whole campaign connected “Bring Linkin Park to China” with record sales directly. We sold 100,000 copies of the Meteora album during that period. This was unprecedented for an international album in China. The fans who went to meet the band in Korea brought them a gift: a huge banner (4×6 meters) filled with signatures from fans in China. The band was shocked and this left a lasting impression with them. Linkin Park signed their own names on the banner and then took a photo of it. The photo is included in the album artwork for worldwide release of the Live in Texas CD/DVD."

 

Pretty interesting that we finally run across some confirmation about why LP hasn't been back to China. A few of us have suspected it was because of the LP meeting the Dalai Lama but at least we now have something concrete from a Chinese music source.

 

http://lplive.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=7367

This is probably a ticket/promoter/event/whatever source from China that added a show that LP was coming to Shanghai in 2011 as well.

http://www.timeoutshanghai.com/features/Bl...o-Shanghai.html

http://www.chinamusicradar.com/government/...ont-they-again/

That's a government source website but it's interesting rumors flew around for both December and September for the band touring there. The December stuff is probably bullshit (interesting it's from a gov't website though) but the September shows were definitely legit.

 

We don't have dates for the September 2011 canceled shows but I have inquired to this website to see what they might know about the dates and permits (since they have insider information).

[RogueSoul]

Cool find! Hope we can find what dates the shows were on. I'm assuming near or after the time they were in Japan and Singapore.

[Skipees]

no three days in a row in september 2011 without shows, except 01 to 05 and 26 to 30.

 

06.09.2011 Chek Lap Kok, HK

08.09.2011 Seoul, KR

09.09.2011 Tokyo, JP

10.09.2011 Chiba, JP

11.09.2011 Chiba, JP

13.09.2011 Yokohama, JP

14.09.2011 Nagoya, JP

16.09.2011 Osaka, JP

19.09.2011 Taipei, TW

21.09.2011 Jakarta, ID

23.09.2011 Bangkok, TH

25.09.2011 Singapore, SG

 

but maybe they reschedule new shows over the old ones (in the same date).

[Astat]

China's a total shithole anyway. The only reason they're going through an industrial revolution/economic boom is because the U.S. was dumb enough to start outsourcing all of our labor there 15-20 years ago.

 

...LPLive will probably get banned from the Chinese Internet (if it hasn't been already) because of me saying that.

[hahninator]

They definitely scheduled new shows over old ones. Perhaps that's why they even returned to Jakarta, for example. Look at the Istanbul 2008 show that was "confirmed" but not announced and then Mannheim was scheduled over it. Stuff like this happens quite a bit I am sure.

[hahninator]

Looks like this is changing since LP will return this year to China, per Brad.

[Vorist]

China's a total shithole anyway. The only reason they're going through an industrial revolution/economic boom is because the U.S. was dumb enough to start outsourcing all of our labor there 15-20 years ago....LPLive will probably get banned from the Chinese Internet (if it hasn't been already) because of me saying that.

Well mate you have to know China is not an ordinary country.You can not use a western way to think about China.