|
SHANGHAI, April 14-- Music lovers in Shanghai were thrilled by a Saturday night rock and roll concert featuring three Chinese rock music pioneers in the city's Mercedes-Benz Arena. Cui Jian, Zheng Jun and Hong Kong singer Steve Wong Ka-keung, all in their 50s, gave a three-hour gig at the cultural center that can accommodate an audience of around 18,000. The concert was warmed up with Zheng, 51, singing "Shooting Stars," an adaption of British rock band Coldplay's hit single, Yellow. Zheng gained national stardom for his folk ballads like "Cinderella" and "Return to Lhasa," both released in 1994. Cui Jian, a 57-year-old Chinese rock icon, was the lead performer during the concert. A singer-songwriter, trumpeter and guitarist, Cui is often labelled "The Father of Chinese Rock," and his best-known works, "Nothing to My Name," "A Red cloth" and "Wild on the Snow," have been heart-throbbing songs affecting hundreds of millions of Chinese. Most of the audience were mid-aged men or couples, who wildly sang along with the singers. The tickets, priced between 380 yuan (57 U.S. dollars) and 1,680 yuan, were sold out long before the show started. It was more like "a carnival or a get-together party" for Chinese rock music lovers, said Wang Jiang, a pop music critic in Shanghai, after watching the show. "People welcomed the return of these rock stars with true love, although their performance was not as good as when they were in their prime," said Wang. | 
