Politics and Canto-pop hooked-up last night at Tat Ming Pair's concert, with new political stars Alan Leong Kah-kit and Ronny Tong Ka-wah of the Article 45 Concern group as special guests.
It was the first show of Tat Ming Pair's 20th anniversary concert, At the Service of the People, at the Hong Kong Coliseum. And it was the first time Anthony Wong Yiu-ming and Tats Lau Yi-tat had reunited on stage since 1996.
About 10,000 fans screamed when the lights dimmed, showing their affection for the cult kings of Canto-pop, who pioneered the genre in the mid-1980s, building a solid fan base despite their short lifespan (they split in 1991, five years after their first album).
Last night the pair kicked off with the political hit Asking the Heaven, which Lau wrote after the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown, and belted out other classics such as the Hong Kong handover comment We Should Have Been Very Happy Today, Chronicles of the Stone - named after Chinese literature classic Dreams of the Red Chamber - Street Angels, The Rollerskating Tribe and Tonight the Stars Shine Bright, a comment on the life of street children. And in keeping with the theme of social consciousness, the group urged the audience to care about Aids.
But the highlight of the show came when the pop duo joined the political duo in a performance of Do You Still Love Me? Mr Leong and Mr Tong had presented an award to the pair when that song was voted one of the most frequently played on RTHK's Headliner.
The show was a treasure for local fans hungry for good music, especially after the loss of James Wong Jim, Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing and Anita Mui Yim-fong. The duo paid an emotional tribute to Wong by performing Shanghai Bund.