Cry yourselves a river, because over the weekend it was announced that both Beijing and Shanghai Oasis concerts have been canceled indefinitely. Ticket sales for the April 3 and 5 shows were put to a halt on Feb 28, according to Jinghua.cn, and tickets which have already been sold will be refunded.

Reasons for the cancelation are still TBD, but rumors have it that it had something to do with an "internal company issue."

For details on how to get a refund for your tickets, stay tuned to www.emma.cn. And keep on The Beijinger blog for our pre-cancelation interview with the band!

More to come...

Jose Gonzalez
RMB 150.
8pm. Yugong Yishan (6404 2711)

Last night’s snow didn’t stop hundreds of Beijingers from heading over to Yugong Yishan to catch Swedish indie icon, José González. The crowd paid little attention to the soothing melodies of the acoustic guitar/harmonica playing opener, Wu Zhuoling, choosing instead to catch up with one another over a drink in anticipation of the main act. However, the crowd hushed in expectant silence as the lights dimmed and Gonzalez - who proved not to be a big fan of on stage chit chat, saying very little throughout the show aside from the occasional polite xie xie - dove right into his first song.

Update: Despite an earlier announcement, looks like the tickets to see Oasis in Beijing are still in the "booking available" stage, though Shanghai tickets are available. You can pre-book the Beijing tickets and they'll call you when they become available - which according to the guy on the phone, should be sometime in the next week. According to one source, all the RMB 200 tickets have already been booked.

As part of their Dig Out Your Soul World Tour, Oasis will be playing three shows in China. Tickets to the Beijing show (Apr 3 at the Capital Gymnasium) were supposed to go on sale at 9am this morning but are still only able to be "pre-booked". Tickets can be booked through Emma/Ticketmaster and prices range from RMB 200-1,600. You can call the ticketing hotline on 400 707 9999. More details here.

--Exclusive Interview with Organizer, Michael Vonplon

Switch back ten years ago and you’ll find the roots of this weekend’s SWITCH ON touring event. The cross-cultural event linking Swiss and Chinese electronic artists kicked off last Friday in Shanghai, gathering together more than 350 clubbers. The tour arrives in Beijing this Friday night at Tango with BaiCai’s special guest, Luciano, founder of Cadenza Records. The outstanding DJ and prolific producer is headlining the two-story extravaganza that will run between Mango and Tango’s main floor. On Saturday night the tour closes at White Rabbit with a notable line-up of live acts, visual artists, and DJs.

DJ Qbert did not come last week. That was not that cool for hip-hop heads but there’s good news this week in the form of the latest act to hit town. DJ Babu is the world renowned DJ and producer for Dilated Peoples, but that’s not all. He used to be part of the best DJ battle team ever –the Beatjunkies –and is part of the Likwit Junkies with Defari, as well as being a DJ in his own right. We caught up with him before his show at Block 8 on Saturday (Dec 13) to get the lowdown.

the Beijinger:What inspired you to start DJing?

DJ Babu: I was very inspired by the explosion of hip hop culture in 1984, at first I was trying to be a b-boy but much later found I had a fondness for DJing, hearing rap groups who had prominent DJs was also very influential; groups like EPMD who had DJ Scratch, Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, Gangstarr with DJ Premier, the list goes on.

Those already in the know about DJ Shadow don't need a reminder that he is a living legend in the world of instrumental hip hop/turntablism/electronica (yes, all three). Or that he was one of the seminal players in the founding of the California Bay Area hip-hop collective Quannum/Solesides Crew. Or that his musical wizardry – which will be only display this Friday night at Angel Club – landed him in the Guinness Book of World Records (2001). Or that he is amongst a very select few who’ve had their music brought to color by Wong Kar Wai - see “Six Days” music video below.

Kanye West
RMB 280-2,000.
7.30pm. Workers' Gymnasium (6501 6655 ext 5033)

So Kanye West finally got his act together and made it to Beijing this past weekend, putting on an energetic, fantasmic, hour and a half light-show of a set at Workers’ Gymnasium Saturday night. The evening started off promptly at 7.30pm, with a rap group from Taiwan opening for his Westness, and receiving adequate applause at that. From what we’ve gathered here at the Beijinger, that group was not the originally advertised Will Pan.

Update: Ticket prices for the Kylie Minogue show have been announced. RMB 280-1,680. VIP 1,980 and VVIP 2,580. Keen fans can leave their contact details with either piao.com or mypiao.com and they'll call you when tickets become available.

We've just got confirmation that Kylie Minogue will be performing in Beijing in December. The date of the concert (Dec 1) had been set long ago, but organizers held back until last week to announce the venue and ticket prices. Unfortunately, the morning after they announced these details, they quickly retracted them. The pop princess was to follow in Avril Lavigne's footsteps and perform at the Wukesong Indoor Basketball Stadium. However, it seems that the managers of the venue were worried that the chaos that marred the Avril Lavigne concert earlier this month might be repeated and decided to pull the plug on the event.

Today we just received word that the concert will now go ahead on the same date (Dec 1) at the Workers' Gymnasium -  the same venue that Kanye West will be performing at this Saturday. Still no information on when tickets to the Beijing show go on sale, but you can check this site or call 6585 5755 for more information. Tickets to Kylie's show in Shanghai on Nov 29 went on sale last Friday.

Update: It's official, Linkin Park have announced that they've cancelled all five dates of their Asia tour. This includes the concert that was to have taken place in Beijing on Oct 19.

Rumors are spreading that Linkin Park are going to be the next big international act to cancel their Beijing show in a year already chock-full of high profile no shows. A call to the Emma ticketing office was met with the ominous response that "ticket sales have been temporarily suspended" and a refusal to give any more details. A note on the band's official site also mentions the cancellation of a show on Oct 6 "as lead vocalist Chester Bennington has sustained a back injury and is under doctor's orders to rest."
 

Last night Avril Lavigne became the first performer to give the Wukesong Stadium a work out as a live music venue and, according to reports in today’s Beijing papers, the Olympic Basketball venue saw quite a show. Lavigne kicked off the performance, the last of her six-city tour of China, with her popular “Girlfriend” and the audiences responded by rushing forward to the VIP area in front of the main stage. Three songs in to the 70-minute performance, things became a little chaotic with barriers in front of the stage being bent out of shape by crazed fans. The stage lighting was turned off and the concert was forced to pause for eight minutes as staff standing on the stage asked the crowd to return to their seats. After fans had returned to the stands, the Canadian punk-pop princess continued on with the show. Reports suggest that the crowd control problems stemmed from more than just excitable fans but were also exacerbated by the poor lay out of the venue. The crowd simply filled the large amount of empty space at the center of the stadium and little security had been set up to prevent them from doing so. You can take a look at a video of the chaotic scenes here.