Nirvana spawners and Free Tibet activists Sonic Youth miraculously got visas and performance rights from China's Ministry of Culture - more into ginseng than grunge - but the local, and banned, support act wasn't so lucky

China’s punk pioneers Brain Failure do fashion shoots and sing in English. Where’s the bollocks in that? Beijingers used to stop and stare at the members of punk band Brain Failure when they appeared on Beijing's streets in the 1990s, all mohawks and dog collars. Today the band sings in English, for a Japanese record label, and spends as much time in America as it does in China. Nobody's staring now, but there's still shades of the old idealism

One of the most enduring and artful of China's rock groups, Muma talk with Beijing Beat