Punk Rockers The Boys Forced to Cancel Saturday's Gig at School

Crusty British punks The Boys have had to cancel their January 24 show at School Bar as well as their other eight China dates after the Chinese Ministry of Culture ruled that they posed a safety hazard, apparently another casualty of the Shanghai New Year’s Eve stampede, which killed 36.

The organizers made the announcement via WeChat on Saturday and appeared confused and angry in equal measure, understandable given that the arbitrary decision appears to have been made in light of a tragic incident that occurred in an entirely different city and had nothing to do with punk rock. Additionally, The Boys, who formed before you were even born, would probably only draw 0.1 percent of the 300,000 people that were present on the Bund.

Read the announcement in full below:

"I and other organizers spoke with the Chinese ministry of culture for over an hour last night and they say in light of the recent stampede on the bund and the sensitivity of the times they feel for "public safety and crowd control" all dates should and will be cancelled regardless of live performance visa in each venue. This has unfortunately been a common occurrence these past few weeks and we too have now fallen victim. We were assured that Shanghai would be the only casualty but obviously that doesn't seem to be the case. We deeply apologize for any of you who have made plans or canceled plans or spent money on tickets to see these guys in action but this whole thing is completely out of our hands. We tried, we really really tried hard. F*cking. Sucks. Very very sorry."

For those wondering what you’d be missing, here’s a vid of The Boys in action:

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Photo: firerecords.com