HENRY Kwok, guru to Hong Kong's alternative music freaks, is currently in the middle of negotiating a concert which will bring together Asian alternative bands in, of all places, Guangzhou.
Normally conservative China will be treated to weird and wonderful sounds from Japan (Ground Zero), Taiwan (Zi Ssy and His Band), Singapore (The Pagans) and Hong Kong's very own Tats Lau, AMK and Multiplex. Heaven knows what the Middle Kingdom is going to make of it all.
Mr Kwok sees the concert, set to take place at the end of July, as a celebration of alternative music and cultural exchange in East Asia, and he hopes that the event will be repeated in September during the Tsingtao beer festival.
'I believe that this is a really good time for alternative music to move into China,' said Kwok. 'Now that the [Chinese] Government has ruled that overseas artists [including those from Hong Kong] have to pay taxes on their performances, there should be alot more opportunities and a bigger following for less expensive events.' Mr Kwok was referring to a new tax on profits which indirectly led to Canto-pop star Jacky Cheung Hok-yau cancelling five Shanghai concerts in December. The tax was brought in to help combat profiteering in so-called charity performances by Hong Kong singers which were allegedly being used to line promoters' pockets.