Back in Beijing
 
Yes, it’s that time. Time to take that deep sigh that’s been now eight weeks in coming.
 
SIGH.
 
Beijing, we’re back. Turns out that nobody prevented the band from entering the country, despite the rumours that abounded.
 
But, before leaving Denmark, first, we left the EU and headed into Christiania, a commune-ish ‘hood in the middle of Copenhagen:
 
Off The Road With Subs
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Dennis met us in Stockholm, to take Xiao Bai’s reigns, and it was with no small amount of emotions that we bid her farewell.
Seen from inside Christiania, the gate lets you know that when you leave, it’s back to Europe. A sort of co-op community, the police have, of late, been cracking down on Christiania, where drug use tends not to be so much widespread as much as just out in the open. So when we saw the bulletin board in the middle of town displaying the number of police visits since November 2005 (1113), and the times on that day that they police had come through on random searches (10.30am, 13.30pm) it wasn’t a surprise when, at around 5pm, four cops walked through the patio on which Martin and I sat sipping, patting down random folks while loud gangsta rap blared in the background.
 
Meanwhile, back at Loppen, the venue inside Christiania, a visitor:
That laowai is none other than Jonny! The Swede! The Drummer! The PK14 member! The Beijing resident! Just popped down from a visit to Sweden to hang. A pleasant surprise, indeed, and a much-needed body in a room that wasn’t as full as we’d hoped, what this being the Last Show of The Tour and all... But, alas, another room rocked.
And, the Fan of the Summer Award goes to...
(it was a tough call: Many nominees include the just-mentioned Jonny, who crossed a border to surprise us; the people who drove 2 hours from Kristiansand only to discover that the show in Arendal actually had started early and thus missed Subs; the dude who held up the pineapple at Ilosaari certainly won points for originality)
This guy, whose name, I believe, is Andreas but my memory has been known not to serve, takes the prize for having attended both Subs’ first and last shows of the Nordic Tour 2006. A fitting way to say goodbye to beiou, no?
And: Instead of spending an extra night in Copenhagen and driving straight through to Stockholm, Jonny offered to take us to his folks’ place for our last Nordic Night. And we let him. And it was great. Two generations of the Leijonhufvud family spoke perfect Mandarin, so, yours truly had a rare chance to keep his mouth shut. At Chez Leijonhufvud, somewhere near Helsingbor, before witnessing a massive storm and chowing on salmon and Swedish moonshine, we were taken down to the ocean (guess who didn’t drive?).
Would it be a rock and roll experience without more fruit-picking? No, it would not.
And, after an evening of listening to many records and sleeping a few hours, we awoke in the early morning hours of Sept 9, and Jonny led us to the highway, only a short drive down several dirt roads and winding forest paths, and we were off to the airport!
 
And here is as good a time as any to spend a moment on Xiao Bai, the big-ass van that could. Barely.
A summer of Epic proportions; a summer of numbers: Four countries; four currencies; twenty-seven cities; thirty-two gigs; four festivals; three days in the studio; thousands of fans; many many litres of gas (Beijing cabbies may be up in arms about local gas prices, but as the guy in charge of finances [laugh if you must], I can tell you, they’ve got no beef like they’ve got here); five tires; two near-door losses; one very loud exhaust pipe; two cracks in the windshield; more chicken log wraps than I care to count; at least five paper bags-worth of gummies, gum drops, sours, jelly beans and other completely synthetic sweets; two nights on ferries; one bachelor party; somewhere around 8000 km driven in upwards of 100 hours; one flight to the Arctic Circle; at least ten articles (and, thus, at least ten times the band was asked “So, what’s it like being a punk rocker in China?”); two radio interviews (add two more “what’s it like”s); two punk squat-house gigs; twenty-two blog entries… And One helluva summer.
Though I will credit Dennis with lightening the mood by stalling upon his departure. There he goes, off into the distance:
Once again, Morten -- Mr. Quartermain Records, Mr. Sonic Studios, Mr. Took in the band for three days in his studio -- was manning the board.