mc_squared Posted April 6, 2010 Share Posted April 6, 2010 Bob Dylan left blowin' in the wind after China bans concerts By Mail Foreign Service Last updated at 2:35 PM on 05th April 2010 Comments (6) Add to My Stories He may be 68 and long past his protest days, but it seems Bob Dylan is still considered a subversive threat in China. The government, which remains in Communist hands 20 years after the fall of the Berlin wall, has refused to grant him a permit to perform. They do not want the Chinese public to hear him sing potentially dangerous tracks as The Times They Are a-Changin'. Times They Are a-Changin'? No thanks! China's denial of a performance permit to Bob Dylan means the protest singer has had to cancelled dates in South East Asia The American singer, who had been looking forward to his first performance in mainland China, was due to sing in Beijing and China. He has cancelled concerts in Hong Kong and South Korea. Jeffrey Wu, the head of operations of Dylan's promoter Brokers Brothers Herald, said: 'China's Ministry of Culture did not give us permission to stage concerts in Beijing and Shanghai, so we had no alternative to scrap plans for a South East Asian tour.' Mr Wu added that the 'chance to play in China was the main attraction for him [Dylan]. When that fell through, everything else was called off.' The South East Asian dates were to come off the back of a string of performances in Japan as part of his Never Ending Tour. Smoking gun: Björk's pro-Tibet slogans at a 2008 concert in Shanghai made officials nervous about Western singers Dylan, who performs 100 concerts a year, may have lost his chance to play following the controversy caused by Icelandic singer Björk in 2008. After singing Declare Independence at a concert in Shanghai she chanted 'Tibet! Tibet!' Permits for musicians to play on the mainland have since been tightly controlled. The Culture ministry said Bjork's performance had 'hurt the feelings of the Chinese people'. Since then, it was rumoured that the collapse of a planned Oasis concert in Shanghai last year was because the band had played at a Free Tibet concert in New York in 1997. The Chinese government, however, blamed the financial worries of the promoter for the cancellation. 'What Bjork did definitely made life very difficult for other performers. They are very wary of what will be said by performers on stage now,' said Mr Wu. He also added that Dylan's past as a counter-culture hero may have worried the Chinese authorities. The singer political profile was first raised in 1963 after he stormed off The Ed Sullivan show in the U.S. when producers banned the song his planned to perform. During that decade he created many highly political songs such as Only A Pawn In Their Game, which he sang during protest marches in Washington. But by the 1970s his tone and style had become more laid back and he attended less demonstrations. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1263680/Bob-Dylan-left-blowin-wind-China-bans-concerts.html#ixzz0kJT3VNvk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Italian Plastic Posted April 6, 2010 Share Posted April 6, 2010 Who would want to see him live now anyway? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mc_squared Posted April 6, 2010 Author Share Posted April 6, 2010 That's not the point.:dozey: Weren't certain Coldplay songs banned there too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobalt Posted April 6, 2010 Share Posted April 6, 2010 That's not the point.:dozey: Weren't certain Coldplay songs banned there too? Spies was, but I think they replaced it on the album for something else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reilly Posted April 6, 2010 Share Posted April 6, 2010 It's like you've given up on your thread titles! "Times They Aren't a-Changin" would've sufficed :angry: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mc_squared Posted April 6, 2010 Author Share Posted April 6, 2010 It's like you've given up on your thread titles! "Times They Aren't a-Changin" would've sufficed :angry: You do have a point. If you want, I'll change it just for you.:rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reilly Posted April 6, 2010 Share Posted April 6, 2010 Yeah :angry: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violet Posted April 6, 2010 Share Posted April 6, 2010 Bob Dylan looks like a godawful mess in that picture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reilly Posted April 6, 2010 Share Posted April 6, 2010 Uh, that's what people who are old look like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violet Posted April 6, 2010 Share Posted April 6, 2010 Not all old people, no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PolarMonkey Posted April 7, 2010 Share Posted April 7, 2010 Spies was, but I think they replaced it on the album for something else. yeah, i have a copy of the China edition of Parachutes. Spies was replaced with Careful Where You Stand. :dozey: as for that article.......Hong Kong & South Korea aren't part of Southeast Asia in the first place. tsk. :dozey: (just felt like being geographically picky today) :dozey: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobalt Posted April 7, 2010 Share Posted April 7, 2010 yeah, i have a copy of the China edition of Parachutes. Spies was replaced with Careful Where You Stand. :dozey: That would actually sound kinda cool tho, Sparks going into Careful Where You Stand then Yellow, instead of having two very similar songs and then Yellow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mc_squared Posted April 7, 2010 Author Share Posted April 7, 2010 Whatever happened, it's still pathetic.:dozey: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Italian Plastic Posted April 7, 2010 Share Posted April 7, 2010 It's the way their country works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mc_squared Posted April 7, 2010 Author Share Posted April 7, 2010 Fails, more like.:dozey: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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