Fashion Conscious Chinese Rockers

The hair was fastidiously shaggy, the neck ties opened at just at the right notch. And every lead singer wear a hat Pete Doherty style. Even if the singing and guitars aren’t always spot on, China’s rockers can be relied on to turn on the style. So it was at Mao Live, Beijing's first purpose built mid-sized live venue, on Saturday night. Each playing ridiculously short sets – a couple of songs – bands like Houhai Sharks gave way to headliner Joyside, who came on stage about 11.30. The band Singer, whose every album title seems to be a salute to boozing, looks a bit more rakish than others, but lead singer Bian Yuan patently spends an age on that Gilby Clarke-like hairdo. Bass player Liu Hao also nourishes that happy-go-lucky, average guy shtick, recently adding a trademark polka dot shirt and toothy grin. There was T-Rex all over their sound on the night - the band normally worships the Stooges.

Joyside's set was the best of a night of dodgy Britpop. What the evening did show is that there’s a thriving market for rock music in China. The house was capacity-full, the bar was half-dry (no draught beer and the RMB15 (EUR1.50) cans of Yangjing and Tsingdao beer weren’t flying out so faster than the bar staff had time to chill them) and, unlike a lot of recent concerts in Beijing, the vast majority of the crowd was made up of locals. Perhaps it’s the location in no-nonsense centre of town, in the old city, where gentrification hasn’t yet set in and a wholesome dinner costs RMB15 (EUR1.50). Other clubs, like Star Live, sometimes struggle in more salubrious surrounds, or way north up in the nether land of the university district, like D22.

And judging by the number of Union Jacks in sight - on a giant pull down screen over the stage and on specially produced t-shirts on sale at the door - there's a big audience for old-school Britpop in China. Lets see if Whitehall or British Council cash were in the house...