ISpyShanghai

He’s a manrabbitpimp with a string of he-whores

Halloween isn’t really much of a holiday in the UK- we don’t seem to understand the fine difference between “Trick or treat” and “Your money or your life“, but I like to see people making the effort all the same. At Harleys in XuJiaHui last night they had a Halloween party- the whole place was cobwebbed up and full of people in costume to see a beat combo and dance to some gramophone records. 

Banana Monkey

This’ll be the band then, Banana Monkey- a four piece from, umm I guess Shanghai. I thought they were good, but a lot of their stuff kind of sounded like riffs taken from other people (Franz Ferdinand, The Libertines)- and the overall sound was a lot like Jet mixed with The Strokes. When I said this to Emma though, she pointed out that a band that sounded like this back home would be a bit lazy, but these lads are digging deep into a totally different culture.

There are no proper CD shops in Shanghai (or at least, I can’t find any), the internet has got more blocks than a game of Jenga, there’s no NME, no Rolling Stone. These lads are your equivalent of the original kids back in the 1950s in England; getting Little Richard 7″s on mail order, listening to Radio Luxembourg under the bed covers, forming a skiffle band called The Quarrymen.
The bass player had great hair too.

And here is the re-incarnation of Jam Master Jay providing the sounds for the revellers.

Best costume of the night for me was the lady dressed as Jackie Kennedy at JFK’s funeral. I went over to commiserate her on her loss which she took very gracefully, but didn’t want to get my camera out at such a private moment of grief so you’ll have to imagine the scene yourself.