VIETNAM: 'AIR SUPPLY' PERFORM IN INTERNATIONAL ROCK CONCERT IN HANOI

Record ID: 603554

  • Title: VIETNAM: 'AIR SUPPLY' PERFORM IN INTERNATIONAL ROCK CONCERT IN HANOI
  • Date: 25th January 1997
  • Summary: HANOI, VIETNAM (JANUARY 25 AND 26, 1997) (REUTERS) AIR SUPPLY BANNER OVER HANOI STREETS AS PEOPLE RIDE BY ON THEIR BICYCLES AIR SUPPLY POSTER BANNER BEING HUNG AIR SUPPLY'S GRAHAM RUSSELL AND RUSSELL HITCHCOCK AT THE HO CHI MINH MAUSOLEUM HONOUR GUARDS AT THE MAUSOLEUM RUSSELL AND HITCHCOCK AT SOUVENIR SHOPS, SIGNING COMPACT DISC FOR FANS STREET VENDOR RUSSELL AND
  • Embargoed: 9th February 1997 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: HANOI, VIETNAM
  • Country: Vietnam
  • Topics: Entertainment,General
  • Reuters ID: LVAEA8BE5R4S98XSTZIBA673C37J
  • Story Text: Communist Vietnam played host on Sunday (January 26) to its biggest international rock concert since the war as more than 10,000 fans flocked to a performance by Anglo-Australian group Air Supply.
    Teenagers and young people began queueing outside the open-air venue in the capital, Hanoi, hours in advance. For many, the event was a rare chance to hear a live performance by Western musicians.
    But the concert wasn't quite the breath of fresh air that many had hoped for. The start of the gig was delayed by more than an hour and marred by technical problems.
    The group's lead duo, Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock, played down the problems in an interview after the concert.
    "Doesn't matter you know. I mean those things happen sometimes and you have to overcome that," said Hitchcock. "The show must go on." Before the concert band members visited Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum and the "Hanoi Hilton", where U.S. servicemen were held prisoner during the Vietnam war.
    Vietnam is one of the world's poorest countries and visits by international performers have only been permitted in recent years.
    During the late 1970s, Western rock music was branded "yellow music" and banned as a foreign evil.
    But music from that period remains widely popular. Fans waited outside their hotel to have Russell and Hitchcock autograph pirated CDs of their music.
    Illegal software and copied music is widely available in Vietnam, most believed smuggled across the border from southern China.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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