British Council/PRS Foundation Musician in Residence - Changsha, China 2014 Changsha 15/9/14 (pm) Just as I finished this mornings blog post (the ever so slightly moany one) I received a call from Ren. Could I leave my hotel now? The band from last night (who I now know are called Shuhtou, which means or sounds like Tongue in Chinese) had invited us to join them on a trip to nearby Yuelu Mountain - home to a 1000 year old Confucian university. 15 minutes later I was standing at reception having just called Ren so that he could speak to the desk manager and request that the hotel help me to hail a cab and (more importantly) tell the driver where to take me. She happily agreed and called over a young male colleague wearing a natty T Shirt, a trendy geometric haircut and a slightly arsey demeanour. I obviously didnt understand what was actually said but I assume she asked him to help me hail a cab and I can only say that he reacted like a stroppy teenager. He seemed to spend 20 seconds or so trying to talk his way out of this heinous task but then resigned himself to the fact that he was just going to have to grin and bear it. Which he did. Minus the grin. Now, Im not sure what he said to that taxi driver but Im wondering if he was trying to get his own back on me. Im wondering if perhaps it went something like this.. Oh hello there Mr Taxi driver. Thanks for stopping. Actually..its a bit of an emergency. My good English friend here has an elderly relative, an uncle who is on his death bed and is sadly slipping towards the other side as we speak. My friend here is the only person in Changsha who shares his uncles religion and as such is the only person qualified to administer last rights and allow him to pass over in peace. Please Mr Taxi driver you must put aside all thoughts of safety and make all haste! What followed was exhilarating. Intoxicating. Quite thrilling. In the course of the journey I came up with my own name for the Changsha driving style. I call it Beep and Go. I think that describes the general technique quite well and has a nice ring to it. Plus its a lot catchier than Beep and Go with scant regard for personal safety, traffic lights, pedestrians, other road users and common sense…oh and by the way if the opportunity arises to move into the opposing lane of traffic and drive headlong towards a bus at speed then if I were you Id go for it…you can always swerve at the last minute and probably avoid any fatalities! Certain moments were quite impressive. I say if you dont have to tilt over onto two wheels in order to avoid a pedestrian youre just not trying hard enough. I think if that had been my first journey when I arrived in Changsha Id probably have been visiting the laundrette. As it was Im pretty much used to the idea that the rules of the road here are less rules and more like guidelines. Suggestions that act as a kind of framework within which to express ones own driving style. In actual fact this particular gentleman was a bit of an anomaly. Its true that there dont seem to be any rules especially but surprisingly it seems to work quite well most of the time (apart from the frequent traffic jams). Most people drive at about 30mph all the time and no one seems to have right of way. Its like a continuous city wide game of chicken. The key thing that allows it to work is that everyone is constantly on the lookout for obstacles and so cars, bikes and people seem to respond in enough time to keep everyone alive. Id be curious to see what the accident statistics have to say on the matter but I think Ill wait until Im back in the UK before I check…no need to worry oneself. I arrived in one piece and with a renewed vigour for life at an extremely swanky hotel where Ren and I met the band and then all set off via bus, metro and for the band large mercedes cars. Half an hour later we were walking around beautiful ancient university grounds and I was getting my first taste of the China I imagined in my youth. I was keen to speak to the drummer (known as Funky) as soon as the opportunity arose. I was told he was the man to speak to as far as finding musicians goes. Finally I was going to get my chance to connect with some top level musicians. It really was a beautiful place and the band were just lovely. Making me feel very welcome and waving me over to have my photograph taken with them. Some of the other tourists also recognised the band and they spent a short while having their photograph taken with them. Encouraged by their friendly way of being I wondered over and started chatting to Funky. I learnt that they would soon be travelling to New York to play the first ever Chinese organised festival in Central Park - Modern Sky festival, where they would be one of 5 specially invited Chinese bands - the cream of the crop representing Chinese music and playing alongside artists such as Cat Power, Liars and Lenka. It all sounded very exciting. I chose my moment and asked Funky if he knew any good musicians In Changsha who might be good to get on board for my show. I was hoping hed have lots of suggestions as Shuhtou are probably the most interesting and alternative band Ive seen so far and I was sure hed know who to ask. Unfortunately Funky said hes not actually lived in Changsha since the 90s so he doesnt really know anyone these days. Bugger. Oh well. One of my dictates these days is that if youre not failing at something youre not trying hard enough. These small failures are all part of the adventure. Things started to look up this evening when Ren and I met Chou and his friend Young Lee (Ive spelt Young Lees name phonetically as I dont know how its spelt) - 2 Radio DJs who have branched out into several different areas of the music business including promotion, musak production and digital marketing. We spent a great hour or two having a beer and talking…mostly about the music business in general and just how very difficult it is to get any kind of alternative music project off the ground here, but, also about China and how they see it developing in the future. I was very encouraged by their enthusiasm for what Im doing and whilst nothing concrete came out of it they are going to speak to some musician friends and see if anyone might be interested to get involved in what Im doing. Meanwhile the countdown to the performance slowly continues. Ill keep you posted.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 16:38:29 +0000
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