Old Wounds: Joss Stone Still Sore About Her China Performance a Year Later

If you went to last year's China Music Valley Festival (CMVF), you probably had a very good time. I did – and I did. There were no problems getting a beer. The sound was pretty good. Security presence wasn't too intrusive; I even saw some security personnel jiving along. The music was great – Friendly Fires are one of my favorite bands, so I'd have liked it regardless, but they were very good. No one could accuse any of the foreign acts of not giving a committed performance, as is often the case when big names come to play in Beijing.

The festival took place in a Fuji-esque ski resort setting , and with all the space, and the huge stages, you could almost convince yourself that you were at a major music festival. I'd go as far to say it was the best outdoor live music event I've attended in my five years in China.

You might also remember a post I wrote the day after the festival had concluded talking about how Joss Stone, the headliner, seemed less than impressed that the audience wasn't particularly "diggin' on her" that night. God love her, she did her best to get the rapidly thinning crowd going that night, but a heady mix of what had been a long old day and anticipation of the last bus back downtown (CMVF was held at Yuyang International Ski Resort up north in Pinggu County) meant that Stone was fighting a losing battle. Her audience quickly dissipated as her set started out.

Well it seems she's not quite over the whole experience yet. Recently she appeared on The Jonathan Ross Show in England (kind of like our version of Conan, Letterman or Ellen – only it normally features UK soap stars or X Factor finalists instead of, like, presidents) and chewed out CMVF. In her version of events: "Military [...] were lining all of the audience [...] and slowly pushing the audience out." Despite being a few sheets to the wind after a wonderful day's reveling, I distinctly remember not being "pushed out." Check the interview out below. Skip to 3.20 for the part where she talks about CMVF.

If you watch this amateur footage of Stone's CMVF set, there don't appear to be any military menaces pushing the audience towards the exits.

For the record, Stone was great. But try as she did to engage the audience in some semblance of participation, it just wouldn't happen. Maybe that's what got up her nose.

As for this year's edition of the CMVF, we're still eagerly awaiting some official announcement. We hope the lineup is similar to last year's, which featured Stone, Fires, Pixie Lott, White Lies and The Jesus and Mary Chain among others. We'll be sure to let you know as soon as we hear anything.