🤘 She needs no introduction. It's The Underground's CHRIS B!!!
🤘 She needs no introduction. It's The Underground's CHRIS B!!!
LoTW: Rockstar, Artist Manager, Events Organizer, Charity Founder; all for live music
Hey High Tide!!!
I’m Chris B, the founder of The Underground HK, Mellow Yellow Music Festival, Wild Boar Festival, Noise Origin and recently the Musician’s Foundation. I'm also working on an event being broadcasted into Mainland China later this month with XR extended reality with Jane Zhang called Future Retro (very excited about that!)
I was born and raised in Hong Kong, and grew up loving live music. I’ve been working for more than 30 years in Hong Kong’s music industry and was dubbed by local media as “the tattooed fairy godmother of the Hong Kong scene” (such an honourable title!)
In the 90s, I was part of the Sisters of Sharon, an all-female rock band that toured internationally. We eventually won a nomination for Best Alternative Song ‘Will You’ at the Golden Sail Awards organised by the Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong (CASH).
Since founding The Underground in 2004, we’ve had over 500 events supporting grassroots rock and pop: 250 Undergrounds; 110 Shazzas and many others for promoters like the Lan Kwai Fong Music Festival. We believe in inclusivity and positivity; every up-and-coming act, as long as you’re passionate with your music, gets a chance to be on our stage!
In 2020, I also launched a campaign to protect professional musicians in Hong Kong, and secured funding for outdoor concerts at the West Kowloon Cultural District in a fight to keep music alive during a period when venues were shut because of COVID. This eventually grew into the ‘Musician’s Foundation’, a charity which strives to support full-time musicians.
Today’s all about musicians and live music. I hope you find the things we’re doing interesting, and thank you sooooo much for reading! Wooohooo!
Musician’s Foundation
What started out as a survey to find out how many full-time musicians were homeless or being evicted turned into a full-time mission to let Government legislators to know about the situation and to launch a charity specifically for musicians in need.
My goal is to get corporations and philanthropic organisations, to fund Musicians Foundation.
We also need volunteers, especially people willing to spread the word and also let needy musicians know they can sign up and get help (as soon as funds starts coming in!)
On 13 and 14 November, Musician’s Foundation (in collaboration with Sino Land) are having a jazz festival! I’m super excited about that.
Find out more in Harbour Time’s previous coverage of both Chris’ survey and Musician Foundation’s opening in 2020. We’re long time fans.
Underground Legends 2021!
I know that this event has been on High Tide almost every day for a week but now I’m here to give details straight from the horse’s mouth!
These five bands are considered legends on the local scene and have been some of the hardest working bands on the circuit. Having them all performing on one night in one show, is unheard of even during pre-Covid times - Check them out:
Wondergarl -
NOWHERE BOYS -
SHUMKING MANSION -
HELIUM3 -
Andy is typing... -
Chris has a secret
And its the only non-music related thing on today - well one of them
Find our how egg tarts reflect property prices and how to get the best ones.
Also did you know that you could get your albums into the local HMV Top 10 (back when HMV was in Hong Kong) with a secret purchase?
Our Paid Tide readers know -
Stuff that I’m up to? Not just the bands well….
Well have you heard of Vivek Mahbubani and his HO HO Hong kong podcast? I was a guest recently HAHAHAHA
Vivek gets around … he hosts our Harbour Times web servers …. he also hosts The Underground servers…. this man could shut the city down if he wanted
Underground Bi-Weekly Newsletter
I also write a newsletter! Every two weeks mailed to your inbox with all the hot news and hip events you could attend. Sign up here!
Noise Origin
If Musicians in Hong Kong got paid enough, we wouldn’t need a charity! The sad truth is that they’re just not very respected even though they give sooooo much to us. Noise Origin is an on-demand merch business I launched last November to give another form of income stream for the music community. I partnered up with my merch supplier, whom I have worked with for nearly 10 years.
Hong Kong bands, musicians, DJs, music bars and venues have their logos/artwork/covers on products such as T-shirts, masks, hoodies and even tote bags. It’s been really fun working on this project and I personally love wearing unique designs by creative Hong Kong musicians. Shop here!
Thank you for reading Free Tide!
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