Thousands of fans were left disappointed last night when international violin superstar Vanessa-Mae's concert was plunged into chaos by technical problems.
The Thai-Chinese virtuoso, who was playing one night only in Hong Kong, repeatedly apologised to the audience of almost 5,000 throughout the first half-hour of her set, explaining that a system failure had knocked out her famous electric violins.
At one point, Vanessa-Mae, 23, stamped her feet in frustration as the technical crew struggled to sort out the problems at the Convention and Exhibition Centre.
As she soldiered on using an acoustic instrument, the normally polished and exuberant performer looked rattled and ill at ease.
After one number in which she had retried her electric violin, she said: 'I promise you, I played all the notes. They just didn't come through.'
The show began badly when Vanessa-Mae failed to appear until half an hour after the scheduled start, prompting a slow handclap from the audience. When the concert broke for an interval at 9.15pm for technicians to try to solve the problems, fans were not happy.