It has been the question on most music lovers' minds: who will be performing at the big handover concert? Or, in fact, which concert is going to be the big one? Well, the votes are in. July 5 will see the largest international concert to be held in Hong Kong, featuring about 10 acts from all around the world. Although we may not be getting Elton John as originally rumoured, the concert will be of a mixed international flavour. Aside from British and American acts, there will be performers from as far as South Africa, Jamaica to Tibet and Thailand - and, maybe, Hong Kong. Confirmed so far are Wet Wet Wet, Lisa Stansfield, All-4-One, The Brand New Heavies, Dadawa, Zhou Feng, Freebee, Yosuke Eguchi, Mango Groove, Saint And Campbell, and Thai singer Tata Young. Local star Jacky Cheung Hok-yau is said to be debating the offer. If he accepts, it will be his English-language debut. Cheung, who was recently named world's best-selling Chinese artist for the second year running by the World Music Awards, also performed with All-4-One at last year's Heineken Music Horizons. 'We contacted just about everybody in the world,' said organiser Anders Nelsson. 'But it is matching dates with availability. Some also wanted outrageous amounts of money.' Headliners Wet Wet Wet and Stansfield should not be unfamiliar to Hong Kong music fans, even though the latter has not sung in Hong Kong before. The Scottish group, who recently released their new album 10, played at the Queen Elizabeth last March. The Brand New Heavies, a soul/hip-hop/rave band from London, have been in the charts with their new album Shelter. Their new lead singer, Seidah Garrett, sang with Michael Jackson on I Just Can't Help Loving You. R&B quartet All-4-One, who revived the classic I Swear, were also in Hong Kong last year as one of the four headline acts at the Heineken Music Horizons. Swedish band Freebee have gone platinum in Russia and Taiwan and achieved gold in Japan, Denmark and Sweden, for their infectious pop-and-dance grooves. The two mainland Chinese links in the concert will come from the Tibetan Dadawa 'Sister Drum' - whose ethereal ethnic sounds have won over audiences overseas - and Chinese-Russian Zhou, a best-selling Shanghainese singer who now lives in England. For Dadawa, who first performed in Hong Kong at Midem Asia three years ago, the concert has given her a good opportunity to visit the city and meet her fans again. 'This show is an international event and I feel very honoured to be part of it, especially since I will be the only representative here from China,' she said. Japanese actor-singer Yosuke should prove to be a popular draw for Hong Kong audiences who are fans of Japanese television serials, as his Living Under The Same Roof was aired here recently. True to her name, Young will be the youngest performer on the night. Despite being only 16, the American-Thai has gathered a number of honours including being the only female singer from Thailand to be nominated for the American Billboard Music Awards as well as being named one of the 10 Most Influential People in Thailand for last year. Organisers of the $20 million Celebrate Hong Kong 1997 concert were trying to get the Bee Gees, who have just released a new album after a long absence, for the event but Mr Nelsson said the deal fell through because the band's world tour was not starting until September. Mr Nelsson said that none of the artists approached by the organisers refused for political reasons but added that they had avoided heavily political artists or those who might cause riots or disturbances in the first place. 'The accent here is celebration and fun, not on politics. As you can see in the title, we are not even mentioning handover or reunification. It is celebration of an event with international artists coming to celebrate with us,' he said. 'Frankly we avoided people like that. There was no time to go back and forth with anything that might be too controversial.' Despite that, he added, there had been some concerns about safety and immigration problems. 'But we gave assurances there would be no problems.' Although there has been a question about the noise level, organisers are confident that they can keep to the guidelines. As extra precaution, they will be flying in stage specialists from Australia. 'The [racecourse] is big and not like a funnel. Technically speaking, the reason why the [Hong Kong] Stadium is a problem is that it's very close to the residential area and it's like a funnel so it actually amplifies the sound and projects it,' Mr Nelsson said. 'Happy Valley is flat and there is no building to block it and the speakers will be trained at the centre. We also went to the expense of bringing in people from Australia because they are the experts. We are confident we can stay within guidelines.' Everything is still in a rather mobile state as organisers are rushing to get artists and venue arrangements confirmed, even though tickets have been put on the market last Friday. With everything in full swing, Mr Nelsson's biggest nightmare would be Hong Kong's unpredictable summer weather. 'A typhoon . . . the weather, that would be the biggest problem but we have insurance.' But foreign electronic media seem to be a lot more confident that it will be sunny skies as they have been calling up with offers for full or partial broadcast of the events throughout the world. 'Hopefully, the message will go out that it will be business as usual,' he said. Celebrate Hong Kong 1997. July 5. Tickets at $297, $597 and $997 can be booked by calling 183 3308
