China in their hands

Warrington band Exile Parade have achieved what Bob Dylan and Oasis could not by battling through Government red tape to play live to millions of people in China.

The five-piece played the main stage of the Zebra Music Festival in Chengdu in front of more than 20,000 people and an estimated live television audience of more than 100 million.

Tour manager Yann Finn said: “I love the band so much and it was emotional to see them playing on such a huge stage and hear thousands of Chinese people jumping up and down and singing along to their songs.”

The performance was only allowed to go ahead with the permission of the Chinese government, which studied the band’s lyrics before giving approval.

Scheduled concerts by Bob Dylan and Oasis were both pulled by government officials just days before the expected performances.

But once the band were granted permission to play they still had to overcome Mother Nature with volcanic ash threatening flight plans and torrential rain turning the festival site into a mud bath.

Singer Lomax said: “It was great to finally take the songs to our fans in China.

“We had a thunderstorm about half an hour before we went on but thousands of people stuck around to watch us and it was a real compliment to us that they did – it showed us how much they wanted to see us play.”

The band’s popularity in the Far East is a result of their huge fanbase on the Chinese social networking site Douban.

With further shows in Shanghai and Beijing receiving exceptional reviews, Exile Parade are already finalising plans to release their debut album in China when it is released in the summer.

Yann Finn added: “I was standing in the rain at the front of the stage at the Zebra festival and I now know how big they are going to be over here.

“They are getting bigger and bigger on the internet on the back of this tour and everyone is waiting for the album to come out.”

Exile Parade are Lomax, brothers Phil and Dave Hennessey, Chris Owen and Gary Mutch, who live in Stockton Heath, Padgate and Callands. They are adding the finishing touches to their debut album at Mike Crossey’s (Arctic Monkeys producer) Motor Museum studio in Liverpool.

The album, produced by Owen Morris, the man behind the first three Oasis albums, is due to be released later this year.

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