David Tao Travelling

David with 2 of his fellow EMI artists, Anson Hu & sry dun know how to translate the other guy's name but he held a concert in Beijing at the same time as David in Shanghai. Here's a nice review of both their concerts. There was another review where much was made of the fact that the other artist, a veteran singer, used only 1 guitar in his concert while David used 4 *sigh* All I wanna say is there are many types of guitars - bass, electric, acoustic, classical, steel-stringed, nylon-stringed, 4 stringed, 6 stringed, 8 stringed, etc - & they have diff sound & served diff purpose in music.
Other trivial news is there is a brandnew concert venue in Taiwan & apparently there is like a competition to see who is the first performer. David was said to be the first & then it was announced Jacky Cheung will be the first with his musical, Snow Wolf Lake. Now it seemed A-Mei will be first cos she will be promoting for them but before the actual opening *roll eyes* seemed to be like cheap advertising for the venue. So long as David will be staging more concerts it dun matter where the venue, even if he is performing on a small mat on top of the Statue of Liberty, he will still sound great ^__^
Good to see some more online writeups in english below:
Tour of love
Taiwan singer David Tao Zhe, who is on a performing tour around the world, arrives in Beijing next month. Tao Zhe was born into a highly musical family. His father is an expert in Western pop music while his mother is from a family famous for playing Beijing Opera. This probably explains why Tao Zhe's music is a mixture of Western and Chinese styles. Tao Zhe approaches pop music from a unique angle, which separates him from common pop singers. Having just completed his new album Times of Peace and Prosperity - which he says is aimed at making fun of the present pop climate - he is now concentrating on an extended tour. With the song Forever Love You as the theme of the concert, Tao Zhe aims to share his love and ideas for life and music directly with his fans.
Tickets: 180-1,280 yuan (US$22-158)
Time/date: 7:30 pm, September 10
Location: Capital Gymnasium, Baishiqiaolu
Tel: 6835-4055
Love Me or Him
2005-08-15 16:06:30 CRIENGLISH.com
Tao Zhe, David, Taiwan's godfather of music finally realized his dream to hold a big-scale ticket-selling concert in the Chinese Mainland... Tao Zhe, David, Taiwan's godfather of music finally realized his dream to hold a big-scale ticket-selling concert in the Chinese Mainland. It was held last Saturday in Shanghai. The stage arranged like a rain forest looked very glamorous. And it cost 1.8 million yuan, breaking the record of 1.2 million yuan set by competing pop icon Jay Chou. Besides the glamorous stage and costumes for the visual enjoyment, music is still the focus of David as his high-quality music is still the biggest attraction. Now, for fans who didn't have a chance to see him live, here is his latest hit "Love Me or Him".
Here's a sweet bit abt David's behavior on a plane, actually the original chinese version had been online a couple of times but rather nice to see it in english, basically it described some celebrities' behavior on a plane. Not vouching for its authenticity but since its extremely flattering to David, I would say David's piece is true unless its written by an extreme fan haha only extracted David's but go here if u wanna read abt the rest, quite fun, have to scroll abt 1/3 down.
Tao Zhe: He was going to Los Angeles. When the workers had to deal with him, he always kept saying "Thank you" and "Sorry to trouble you". For a popular artist to be so polite must mean that he had good upbringing. As we were about to land, I was doing the safety check. A little old lady in the first row had opened up the overhead compartment, took out a large suitbase and placed it in front of her feet. I explained to her that this was an emergency exit pathway and no luggage must be placed there. She said, "The suitcase is heavy. I don't want to take it back up again." I explained again that this may affect an emergency escape. She said, "In that case, you can put it back up." So I sighed and I lifted the suitcase up to my chest. But I could not lift it any further up. It was so heavy! Did she put marble stones in there? The old lady looked at me as if saying, "You asked for it!" But someone in the fourth and last row unhooked his seatbelt and got up to lift the suitcase with me. Yes! It was Tao Zhe! When I spoke to other workers about this, I found out that he was always friendly and polite. He was the most unforgettable star in my eight years of flying ...
Here's the latest interview with him & it broke my heart to read it. He put so much hard work & ideas into the Love Can Concert & still fans are not satisfied. They criticised his outfits, the commercialism, the dancing, the exposed chest & worst, compared it to Soul Power. Its The Great Leap 2005 all over again. But I guess, David, there are just some fans that would never grow & develop with you. They kept looking for the Black Tangerine David or the Soul Power David. Because in chinese entertainment, music that are popular are those that give the audience what they want repeatedly and not those that open their minds to accept new things. Its like what I said on a previous post abt Jewel in the palace, David will never give us the same things twice. But he will try to present new things in such a way that its easier to accept but if you go looking for his old shadow, it will not be there. Soul Power Concert is history, its no point for David to do the same thing.
In the Shanghai Love Can Concert David concentrate most was the sound. It was unusual but not just the singers but all the band mbrs wore earpiece in order to concentrate on the music. It was a lot of effort to get used to playing with earpiece but David wanted to do it cos it would bring a sharper sound to the audience. Later some media told him that it was the best sounding concert they been to & David was happy. I hope some of his fans also noticed the great sound. When asked abt his director ambitions, David said he has already put a lot of his movie dreams into his music & esp in his Love Can concert. This concert, he said, is like watching a musical where there is a theme & continuity of this theme with him as the director. He hoped that the audience would understand the meaning of the theme after watching & be moved by it.
I have been thinking abt this for a while, reason why I may have understood the concert more than the ppl who attended & maybe the reason is I probably attended more western live theater than most DT fans. I dun know abt chinese plays but I am sure in Beijing opera, the colors & esp face paintings actually tell you a lot abt the character. But if you ever go to western performance plays, you will understand how costumes can convey the personalities, moods & situation of the characters. Or have you seen WKW's In the mood for love where Maggie Cheung wear a series of gorgeous cheongsums? If you observed carefully you found the colors & styles of the cheongsums followed her change of moods & situation in the movie.
So I think the red outfit is not just to show off his chest. The 4 outfits tied in with the theme & songlist of the concert. They are not chosen just to be showy & decorative. They go with the songs & meanings David want to convey in his concert. Did you realised David ended the segment of his passionate red outfit with a song abt loneliness? You may ask how I can be so sure abt all this when I have not even seen the concert. Well, maybe I am wrong but as fans of David, do you think he will arbitarily wear such a flamboyant, chest-exposing outfit on stage without thinking abt the result? Obviously he knew that quite a few of his fans will react against it like he knew many fans will find it hard to accept The Great Leap.
David has put in a lot of hard work to come as far as he has now and even he himself never knew that he would be so successful especially in China. He promised his mainland fans that his concert tickets will not be too expensive, he also wanted to give them the best sound which meant the best sound equipment & making his band mbrs wear earpieces. He has made good both his promise. Maybe as a result of these efforts he will lose fans who want him to stay the same as always but as David said, he cannot stand still just because his fans refused to grow with him. He has to walk his own musical path and follow his own dream. His journey in music must carry on irregardless.
Some pixs courtesy davidcn as credited