Dazed & Confused sent two correspondents, Sarah Fakray and Ellis Scott to join the Love Noise tour,
documenting
every step of the trip through daily blogs and photographs. The tour started off in Beijing, and then
onto Nanjing, Hangzhou, Changsha, Wuhan, Xian and finally back to Beijing for the Converse Scream Weekend and
along the way, bands Angry Jerks, Self Party, 48V, Hualun and Echo Rush joined the party.
Hover over a city on the map to read an excerpt of Sarah's blog from that stop of the tour.
Beijing
The final picture taken was of me wearing Yang Haisong’s famous glasses, which he may or may not have worn
since he was a teenager, and we rounded the night off with a burger in McDonald’s. I am quite ashamed of
my actions, but Ellis likes to buy a new camera and sample a McDonald’s in every country he goes to, and who
am I to stop him. He had taken close to 100 rolls of film by the time we flew home, which we split between
both of our cases and hand luggage. Nobody looked at us suspiciously, not even with Ellis wearing his last
remaining clean T-shirt: one that said ‘noise’ in ten-inch Chinese characters.
Visit Converse Love Noise - Beijing
Nanjing
At around 8pm the locals crowded into the Nanjing venue, forming a respectful empty semi-circle in front
of the stage. Despite arriving 45 minutes earlier than the first band, they faced the stage with such
eager expressions that I felt like I should be paying more attention to the mic stand. When local
psychobilly-punk gods Angry Jerks came on, the semi-circle was soon trampled on by several hundred feet,
as a rock fist army packed in to form a moshpit. I've been told that at a Ministry of Sound event in
China in the '90s, guards stood at the side of the dance floor and used batons to hit anyone who dared to
dance. In 2008, we saw not only stage-diving but a tattooed skinhead bruising anyone who crossed his path.
Visit Converse Love Noise - Nanjing
Hangzhou
Queen Sea Big Shark got an incredible response. I'm not sure that this term has been used much since the '70s,
but the pogo was the dance of the day, especially to the rhythmic chants of "Buttfucker!" from QSBS's Fu Han.
Lots of talk of fucking from this band, in fact. The drummer told Ellis he was deeply saddened when he realised
no friends driven down to watch, meaning he had nobody in the busy room to play to. He balanced this sensitive
statement with a complaint about how women talk too much. He "just wants to fuck", which he claims is difficult
in a country where girls normally giggle in refusal if you invite them home for coffee.
Visit Converse Love Noise - Hangzhou
Changsha
This morning, we went with P.K.14’s guitarist Xu Bo to visit his old university digs. Our taxi passed a statue
of Mao on the way, who once studied at the Hunan Teachers College in Changsha, and looked very dashing in a
carved flapping coat. Xu Bo’s old ground floor apartment was positioned along a narrow winding road in the
university district. He used to pay about £25 per month to rent the entire floor. Today he wore a T-shirt with
the name of the Swedish city Umeå printed on it, a souvenir from P.K.14’s Sweden tour in 2005. This looked a
little out of place in the small street, also home to a woman scaling fish plucked from an outdoor tank. Around
the corner was a huddle of small guitar shops and a lady grating fresh noodles from a lump of dough into a giant
pot of boiling water, one at a time. We ate next door in a noodle cafe that had a health and safety rating
of :| on its certificate.
Visit Converse Love Noise - Changsha
Wuhan
During dinner with the same people that came to the lake, we drank our third sampling of baijiu, a clear Chinese
rice-based alcohol that is around 50% proof and damn disgusting unless you hold your breath and chase it down
with a mouthful of Tsingtao beer. Shi Xudong was the only one missing, but he had a good excuse: he was taking
a married woman out to dinner. It’s a hard life being the only single one in the group.
After some Wuhan whisky, Wu Wei took us to a hidden street of barbecued meat stalls and cafes. Finally tried
duck’s neck, which I’ve been waiting for. Tasted like duck. Back at our hotel, we have two and a half hours to
sleep before waking up to embark on yet another 18-hour bus ride. Imodium, here we come.
Visit Converse Love Noise - Wuhan
Xian
The Wieden+Kennedy, Converse and Dazed teams all got up to jump around together and throw popcorn, before heading
out with the bands to a cheap barbecue restaurant where I am proud to have sampled and enjoyed tripe, using the
plastic gloves provided. I finally figured out from the excessive amount of greens at the table that Yang Haisong
is a vegetarian, much to Ellis’s amusement. Tonight was the end of the official tour, and we feel like weeping.
Visit Converse Love Noise - Xian
