Talking Tunes: Elton John (and Sean Kingston) to Come to Beijing

Where better to start than by confirming a long-standing and very exciting rumour? It seems as official as possible that Elton John will be performing in Beijing in November. Bringing to a head months of gossip and suggestion, tickets for a November 25 show have gone on sale.

You know as well as we do not to get too excited until we see old Reg in the flesh, but tickets are on sale and his management group have added the dates of Beijing and Shanghai shows to their yearly calendar, so lets keep our fingers crossed. It might be safe to at least get a little excited, and dig out your old Elton records for a catch up. But whatever you do, do not get in his way at the airport.

It rather pales in comparison to news of the king of pop gracing these shores, but Justin Beiber's bezzy buddy Sean Kingston is heading back to Beijing. A Le Nest performance on October 19 was confirmed today.

There have been a couple of updates on the forthcoming ANDA Festival of Mongolian Music. One is that it's lost one of its As and is now being called AND Music Festival. Another is that the three-day gathering has been brought forward a day and will now take place between October 1 and 3.

There have been a few more confirmations for Yugong Yishan's "jazz frenzy" throughout the month of October. We're set to receive the cream of Shanghai's popular annual Jz Festival here in the capital. In addition to two-time Grammy winners the Yellowjackets, traditional Cuban band Ochún and Grammy Award winner Terri Lyne Carrington, we'll also have German jazz virtuosi Quadro Nuevo, the Silke Eberhard Trio and Japanese-German trio Aki Takase Kanon. One not to be missed for the city's jazz enthusiasts.

Also at Yugong Yisahan in October, Japanese pop rockers Seattle Standard Cafe stop over in Beijing on their Asia tour.

To some home-grown news; Not There's "No Filler" show goes ahead on Saturday night. Tickets are still available at an advanced price of RMB 50 for a short time, but be quick. If you opt to just get in on the night, it'll cost you RMB 70. And Beijing rockers The Gar have revealed they have released a brand new EP called The City of Burning Identities. Expect to see them performing some of that material around town.

It was a close run thing whether to feature this or the Elton John classic Kiss The Bride at the end of this post. I think sanity prevailed.

Enjoy your weekend.