Tales from the Underground - todays NEWSPAPER article...

MIKE BURN

MIKE

10 free song uploads||1 free video upload

bbchris

Thank you Mike!! :bday

droolymutt

hahaha - cool..!

Tell me something, Chris.....

Why do you always love to point at the camera when you're being photographed?

Don't get me wrong - I think it's lovely...

Just curious as to why you do it...

Ya banana..... :banana

bbchris

hahaha Drooly, you don't know how many people asked me that today! It's much bigger in the paper!

I love pointing at the camera cause I feel confident, plus my long arms don't look so weird!! hahahahaha

Thanks for reading it!! :banana

Seismic Anamoly · Joined: 22 Aug 2002 Posts: 3039

The Rock Diva Legend of Hong Kong continues to prosper....

Outstanding!!

bbchris

Friday, July 16, 2004

Michael Peart (left) and Chris Bowers are giving live music fans fresh reasons to visit Joe Bananas in Wan Chai.

TALES FROM THE UNDERGROUND

By Clare Tyrrell

IT'S A GOOD bet this was the first time a band from Mongkok had dressed in drag and donned gas masks to play goth metal at Joe Bananas. The audience was stunned by the heavy makeup, PVC garb and post-Sars accessories - and now word of that May 20 performance has spread.

News of The Headhunters' antics prompted me to head for Wan Chai on a rainy Thursday to examine Hong Kong's emerging band scene in the last place you'd expect to find it.

For four months now, an alternative, live-music night known as The Underground has been bubbling away at Joe Bananas. The nightlife institution that once dominated the Jaffe Road club crawl with its cocktails, cheesy music and annual wet T-shirt competition has been on the wane since the handover. It's become more of a haunt for professional party animals, lesser visiting sporting teams and roving lost souls, than the heartbeat of the club scene.

Which is perhaps why the management allowed Michael Peart, a loyal customer for more than a decade and an established figure in local music circles, to introduce The Underground. It would take place every third Thursday of the month and showcase local bands dedicated to playing original music.

I'm stunned when I swing open the doors of JBs. The windows are blacked out, and inside is an unlikely assembly of suits, tourists, locals, expats, punks and prostitutes. All appear thoroughly entertained by the raw, 1980s-inspired rock being thrashed out by the five-piece Flowers of Babylon.

This is the new group fronted by Peart, lawyer by day and rock singer/promoter by night. He sweats buckets as he twangs his guitar and shouts agitprop down the long, crowded bar. ICAC is a moody groove reminiscent of The Cure or The Jesus and Mary Chain. Beside him, a tattooed Eurasian guitar goddess swings her purple-tinted tresses and screams: "We're the ICAC and we're better than Scotland Yard!" That's Chris Bowers, renowned local rock-chick and a co-organiser of the night. To add to the drama, a video is played on a huge screen and on TV monitors throughout the club. It depicts Peart in Hong Kong Park, accepting bribes from another suited westerner while an ICAC agent hides behind a potted plant, before nabbing the pair. As the chorus rages, the wobbly camera focuses in on the ICAC logo.

A Hong Kong businessman in the audience starts to shake with laughter. "People are petrified of the ICAC in Hong Kong," says Peart days later when I track him down for an interview. "The song is acknowledging that, but taking the p*** at the same time."

Civil litigation lawyers are rarely so vocal about such issues, but Peart is no stranger to controversy. The long-time resident of Hong Kong has been shaking up the music scene with his other band, PNS, for more than a decade.

"In the 90s it was very easy to get into the newspapers simply because we were singing about Chris Patten and Lu Ping," Peart says, with the glimmer of a smile. "We were on the radio a lot and thought of ourselves as minor celebrities." Flowers of Babylon, however, is funny and political.

"I wonder if people think we're a reggae band," says Bowers as she joins our table. "I like it, looking beautiful on the outside but actually we're full of sin." Best known for her previous female rock outfit Sisters of Sharon, the guitarist took time out from her current band Thinking Out Loud to join Peart's Flowers. The Flowers are comprised of former members of PNS, Bowers and a local keyboardist who has never been in a band before. Having band members with other musical commitments is normal in the expatriate music scene, says Peart.

"The gweilo scene is quite incestuous," he says. "But the bands we've brought in for The Underground, you would never see unless you went over to Kowloon. We're bringing some culture to Hong Kong side."

"That's how I approached the Chinese bands," says Bowers. "I said, `Don't worry that this is a gweilo bar, we're merging the audiences'."

Since April, the night has showcased such diverse acts as up-and-coming rockers Airtub, pop-rock act Papa Jack, Edmund Leung from local outfit Huh! and the band that drew me: The Headhunters. "It was a really bizarre night," says Bowers of the group's show with a cackle of laughter. "I walked in and they had gas masks on. I saw all the people staring with their mouths hanging open."

Next week The Underground features PNS, Nothing None and Thinking Out Loud, Thu, Jul 22, 8.30pm-late, Joe Bananas, Jaffe Rd, Wan Chai. Entry free.

RonOnGuitar · Joined: 08 Jan 2003 Posts: 1916

Quote:
Why do you always love to point at the camera when you're being photographed?

You don't like having Chris point at you, Drooly? :aw

Cool article.

bbchris

Thank you Seismic! Thanks Ron!

I particularly like the description of "a tattooed Eurasian guitar goddess swings her purple-tinted tresses"

I'm desperately looking for another female guitarist in HK in any band so that I can have them play at Underground - need MORE WOMEN!! :wgrin