My friend Peter sent me this link to a headline that is not made up folks. Reuters via WaPo has the call:After 14 failed attempts at joining the United Nations using media campaigns and presidential appeals, Taiwan is turning to a local goth-style rock band backed by Ozzy Osbourne in its quest for membership to the world body.ChthoniC is a well-known local band that supports democracy and independence. It's kind of cool that Taiwan is promoting itself in imaginative ways.
The band, named ChthoniC, will travel to at least 80 cities in four countries by the end of the year, supported in part by the Taiwan government, which is providing pro-U.N. literature and a slogan-painted truck.
The band will visit Canada, Germany, Britain and the United States.
ChthoniC has also recorded a song urging the United Nations to let Taiwan join, even though its bid for membership keeps getting knocked down because of objections from Beijing.
"I'm not for any political party, but I'm for my poor country's joining the United Nations," band lyricist Freddy Lim told reporters on Wednesday at the tour's launch.
Ozzy Osbourne, a satanic-theme rocker known for biting heads off bats on stage, is helping set up 20 of the U.S. gigs, paying some transport costs and letting the Taiwan band promote U.N. membership as it wishes, Lim said. He said the band hooked up with Osbourne through personal connections.
UPDATE: See the comments below for the tour schedule
UPDATE: a SF area friend said that a local radio station wants to interview Freddy. And another friend writes:
Wow, the whole "Ozzy/Chthonic" story has been getting a lot of play stateside today. NPR has a bumper this morning about it: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11744876And CNN has been mentioning it every 30 minutes today on Headline News. Right on!
[Taiwan]
wow, you really can't make this shit up!
ReplyDeletemaybe Ozzie will bite off the head of the representative from Beijing?
F@%*in' rock on, maaaaaaaaaaan!
ReplyDeleteFreddy's a real stand-up guy and his music happens to kick all sorts of ass. Check out the YouTube video to Chthonic's "Quasi Putrefication" video, which incorporates footage from a maybe-we'll-see forthcoming movie about the Wushe Uprising:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCSUN0LHjW4
Summer 2007 Tour dates are as follows:
Jul 12 2007 1:00P White River Amphitheatre, Ozzfest Seattle, WA
Jul 14 2007 1:00P The Gorge, Ozzfest George, WA
Jul 17 2007 1:00P Sleep Train Amphitheatre, Ozzfest Sacramento, CA
Jul 19 2007 1:00P Shoreline Amphitheatre, Ozzfest Mountain View, CA
Jul 21 2007 1:00P Hyundai Pavilion, Ozzfest Devore, CA
Jul 24 2007 1:00P Cricket Pavilion, Ozzfest Phoenix, AZ
Jul 26 2007 1:00P Journal Pavilion, Ozzfest Albuquerque, NM
Jul 28 2007 1:00P Coors Amphitheatre, Ozzfest Denver, CO
Jul 30 2007 1:00P Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, Ozzfest Kansas City, MO
Aug 03 2007 8:00P Wacken Open Air Wacken Open Air (Germany)
Aug 06 2007 1:00P Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, Ozzfest St. Louis, MO
Aug 08 2007 1:00P Germain Amphitheatre, Ozzfest Columbus, OH
Aug 10 2007 1:00P First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre, Ozzfest Tinley Park, IL
Aug 12 2007 1:00P Alpine Valley Music Theatre, Ozzfest East Troy, WI
Aug 14 2007 1:00P Verizon Wireless Music Theatre, Ozzfest Indianapolis, IN
Aug 16 2007 1:00P PNC Bank Arts Center, Ozzfest Holmdel, NJ
Aug 18 2007 1:00P New England Dodge Music Theatre, Ozzfest Hartford, CT
Aug 20 2007 1:00P Tweeter Center, Ozzfest Boston, MA
Aug 22 2007 1:00P Tweeter Center, Ozzfest Philadelphia, PA
Aug 24 2007 1:00P Post Gazette Pavilion, Ozzfest Pittsburgh, PA
Aug 26 2007 1:00P DTE Energy Music Theatre, Ozzfest Detroit, MI
Aug 28 2007 1:00P Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Ozzfest Charlotte, NC
Aug 30 2007 1:00P Sound Advice Amphitheatre, Ozzfest West Palm Beach, FL