Special Report by Metal Postcards Rec‘s Sean Hockings
Here’s the story from our Metal Postcard correspondent on the ground in Shanghai. Obviously we can’t and won’t name the correspondent but it appears that the Shanghai authorities have decided that “western musicians” might be spreading subversive ideas or just encouraging people to listen to and do something a little different and this is the result. Luckily the Hong Kong music scene is so apathetic that there’s no worries here that the police will deal with them .. bands would only feel threatened if someone took their beer away !
If you’d like to investigate further and communicate directly with our person on the ground please email to metalpostcard@mail.com and we will forward you to our correspondent. Here’s his story.
Raids on live music events in Shanghai
Obviously I am going to have to be very careful with what I write here as I don’t want there to be any serious repercussions or knee jerk reactions and what not, so excuse me if I am a weak prick and don’t give names of the people involved, the places or how I know. Weak as shit journalism, what do you expect? Just wanted to let you know this has been happening in Shanghai.
Within the last week or so, cops have been targeting events looking for foreign musicians playing without permits or playing for money (In case any police are reading, there aren’t any! If I was getting paid for shows, I wouldn’t be setting my alarm every morning for 6am to catch a crowded subway to job that makes me cry) .
No one has any real idea if this is part of an on going thing or an intense kind of blitz that will move on after it has made the appropriate noise and scared everyone out of venues and in to poorly ventilated Internet cafes.
Yesterday (May 25th) at an outdoor event in Shanghai had local police in attendance. The band who played second last were allowed to finish their set but then taken in to the police station for questioning. Organisers and stage managers were also asked to go in and answer questions. Word is the questions, spoken in English, that were asked were similar to:
Where do you work?
How do you know about the event?
How much are you getting paid?
When was the last time you entered the country?
Why don’t you call or write anymore?
The cops took photos of certain people, got phone numbers and looked at passports. Allegedly, some people were scrutinized much more intensely than others.
The night before, an indoor venue in Shanghai was raided with cops in blue uniforms and officers in black uniforms who looked an awful lot like a SWAT team. Pretty extreme considering a student band had finished playing around 20 minutes before they came in and took the foreign musicians in for questioning.
I don’t have too much more info, or stuff that I can actually put to a weak as shit …., but just a heads up that this has been happening in Shanghai recently. Maybe the smart thing to do if you are playing any shows in the future is to have your passport on you. Let’s just see if this is part of a bigger operation or not. Either way, be safe.
Metal Postcard Bands Based In Shanghai – Please support them with some kind words in print and on the radio:
Pairs
Reykjavictim
Stalin Gardens
* Please note that the picture associated with this story is not the result of one of the raids conducted by the Shanghai police – it is just an illustrative photograph
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