Rolling Stones start it up on mainland China with debut concert

SHANGHAI, China -- Mick Jagger strutted, Keith Richards hammered out chords and thousands sang along to classics such as "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction."

But the song list was censored, high ticket prices kept locals away and the guest star was a rocker who was temporarily banned after one of his songs became an anthem for pro-democracy protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

Western rock and communism made for a strange blend Saturday night as the Rolling Stones finally made their debut on mainland China.

As the audience in Shanghai showed, the Stones have yet to find a major following among the country's 1.3 billion people, to whom rock and roll is still largely unfamiliar.

Still, the band tried their best to tie the show to its location, with Jagger shouting out greetings in Chinese and welcoming the Chinese rock pioneer Cui Jian onstage to trade verses on "Wild Horses."

Cui was stopped from performing after the deadly June 4, 1989, military crackdown on Tiananmen student protesters, for whom his "Nothing to my Name" had become an anthem.

The show had another local element: an order from Chinese censors not to play five of the band's best-loved hits, apparently due to their suggestive lyrics.

Unfazed, the Stones kicked things off with the crowd favorite "Start Me Up" and proceeded to tear through almost two hours of classic rock. Richards' and Ronnie Woods' guitars rang and shrieked, Charlie Watts pounded out the intro to "Paint It Black," confetti fell and huge dolls inflated by the stage.

Jagger earlier dismissed questions over the small size of the local Chinese audience as "just the way the market works in a lot of Asia." He said a planned nationwide broadcast of the concert by Chinese Central Television would draw new fans.

Despite the relative lack of Chinese faces in the crowd, local audience reaction seemed largely positive, if a little preoccupied with the ages of the band members.

"So old, and yet he can really perform," said Song Jianghong, referring to Jagger, 62.

Beijing resident Xue Liang said the Stones enjoyed cult status in China.

"They were among the first acts whose music was smuggled in. To see them here in China now is just amazing," Xue said.

Talking to reporters before the show, Cui hailed the concert as a "milestone" for him and all Chinese rock fans.

"It is a big moment. I will never forget this," said Cui, who said he believed rock needed another five years to truly find its audience in China.

At a Friday news conference, Jagger said he was not surprised to be censored, but added acerbically: "I'm pleased that the Ministry of Culture is protecting the morals of the expat bankers and their girlfriends that are going to be coming."

He added that the Stones had another 400-plus tunes they could play.

The performance seemed a little rough before Cui's appearance, which led into a raucous performance of "Midnight Rambler" followed by other favorites including "Gimme Shelter," "Tumbling Dice," "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction."

Dressed in tight black pants and a sequined T-shirt, Jagger sometimes sometimes skipped along a catwalk stretching into the audience. He egged on the crowd with call-and-response shouts of "owww!" and urged them to join in on choruses, shouting out "zai yiqi!," or, "all together!"

The concert was supposed to take place in 2003, but the band had to call off a pair of Chinese appearances because of the outbreak of potentially deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.