High Voltage

AC/DC cover band Dirty Deeds shows Beijingers the highway to hard rock

 

It wasn’t your average rock n’ roll epiphany. But sound engineer, guitarist and singer Jamie Welton found China “wide open” for rock n ‘roll when he flew in from Hawaii for a week in Shanghai helping a friend hang lights and mount sound systems for an exhibition of relics from the ill-fated Titanic.

 

“He caught me at the right moment. There didn’t seem to be many qualified people here.”

 

The Chicago native was so taken by the potential of the eastern city that he flew back to America and loaded his guitars and sound gear on one of the next planes bound for China.

 

Still, Shanghai didn’t prove to be much of a rock n’ roll haven for a Chicagoan with a degree in sound engineering and a decade in the music business. A change of scene took him northwest to Beijing, but romance also intervened to ensure he remained in China. Welton moved to the capital in February 2005 with his Shanghai girlfriend, because, “Shanghai’s music scene is nothing compared to Beijing’s.”

 

Aside from working on sound for friends’ bands Welton has supervised sound for visiting musicians and worked on several events at the Workers’ Stadium, the centre of China’s sports consciousness.

 

He’s also had chances to play music. With long, curly hair Welton has become known to many as the singer of Dirty Deeds, a Beijing rock group playing AC/DC hits. The group got together when drummer Mauro Marescialli from Rome, and British guitarist Alex Williams acted on an ambition to start a metal cover band to sate expats’ taste for hard rock. The duo chose to play AC/DC covers over tunes by other metal icons like Led Zeppelin because of the former’s unfailing ability to churn out hits. “Most people like AC/DC and know a least a few of their songs,” says Welton. “And they’re a lot of fun.”

 

Locally-based musicians with knowledge of the AC/DC back catalogue were also easier to find. Keeping the beat alongside Marescialli is Tucson, Arizona-native Kaiser Kuo. His fellow Chinese-American pal Andy Pi shares guitar duties with Oggie Marinski from Sofia, Bulgaria. A jamming session with guitarist and founder member Pi got Welton the job of vocalist. “I was coming from Hawaii where I’d done Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and 70s and 80s rock and metal. I thought I could totally do AC/DC.” But high notes and a deep back catalogue means hard work and plenty of practise to get through a night’s gig. “AC/DC has a huge back catalogue and you have to strain your vocals a lot so it’s all you can do in one night,” says Welton, who prefers the bands earlier records, “…the Bon Scott era and the first few albums with Brian Jonson.”

 

A gig a month at Yugong Yishan in Sanlitun has become the group’s mainstay. “We pick gigs according to how they treat the bands and how good the sound systems are.” Loyalty to Yugong Yishan is based on the venue’s decency towards bands. “Some venues don’t even offer a complimentary drink to the band.” Other, less scrupulous venues, also falsely advertise popular bands as playing. Dirty Deeds’ inclusion on a billing with several Chinese metal bands at a bar on Beijing’s Nuren Jie bar street was one such false alarm. “We are constantly being advertised to play when we’re not even booked. People come up to you and say ‘Hey, where were you last night, I waited around all night for your gig?’ It seems like a lousy way of cheating people.”

 

Overly ambitious billings are also a problem in some clubs, which put several bands on the same night in hope of a larger crowd. “We like to play our own gigs, rather than play as one of five other bands.” Crowd-capacity and a functional sound system also secure Dirty Deeds’ loyalty to Yugong Yishan.

 

Capacity or facilities rarely compare Beijing’s other venues, says Welton.

 

A gig at Beijing’s black tie Australian Ball was the band’s most bizarre and memorable. “When I first looked at the crowd, I was freaked. They were all wearing black and drinking wine. They looked like they’d run out of the room when we cranked up. But they went crazy for it.”

 

The grave of AC/DC founding member and original singer Bon Scott is a national shrine in Australia, explains Welton, who laughs at the irony of a bunch of Americans and a Bulgarian being ambassadors for Australian culture. “But it’s a universal culture of sex, drugs and rock n roll.”

 

Several years on Hawaii’s bar scene was good training for Welton’s life in China as a western musician. “It’s full of tourists and bars don’t hire bands playing original stuff.” Here, Dirty Deeds are itching to play to bigger crowds. “Any kind of gig where they want high energy rock and roll, we’d do it,” says Welton. The band is also pondering a visit to Club 13, a rock club in Beijing’s university district popular with students. Though slightly more cramped and out of the way than Yugong Yishan, the venue has potential—and good acoustics—says Welton. But getting an audience so far off the expat track may be harder, he concedes. “Hopefully there are some Chinese and college kids who know who AC/DC are.” Crowds at most Dirty Deeds gigs are “80 percent” made up of expatriates. “Locals who come are usually wide eyed… There’s an entire generation that hasn’t tuned in.”

 

Keeping the group together may prove a challenge even bigger than finding fans and venues. None of the band members are full time musicians. “Everyone here has a job,” Welton said. As a music teacher with 40 students and regular sound engineering projects, Welton comes closest to a professional musician, but bassist Kaiser Kuo has also been in well known bands. Lead guitarist Marinski was drafted early this year after Alex Williams moved to Shanghai. “Hopefully we’ll stick together, since most of us are established expats. Finding a replacement guitarist appeared easy at first. “People were jumping at it.”

 

Finding the right candidate proved more difficult however. “Most people think they know it, but, because it’s AD/DC, you’ve got to get it down close since most everyone knows AD/DC’s sound.”

 

To keep the Dirty Deeds sound sharp, band members meet once a week for a two hour practise session at Sky Music in Dongsi Beidajie. “We’re also expected to do some practice at home. Hitting the AC/DC high notes takes plenty of patient practise. “It takes me a lot of time to get my voice ready. It’s got to be loud, high and raspy.” But then the professionals don’t always get it right. “We have the advantage of doing it only once a month. When AC/DC are touring they’re playing every night and even ‘old’ Brian [Jonson, AC/DC lead singer] can’t hit them anymore!”

 

Cover bands usually succumb to an inevitable life span, but with offers of gigs coming from beyond the capital, Dirty Deeds has plenty of work left to do, says Welton, himself now in China “indefinitely.”

 

“We want to take it up a notch and add some show to it. I’d like to hire a sound and lighting technician to take it off my hands while I play.” Sound effects for future gigs could include the firing cannon during the AC/DC anthem “For Those About to Rock, We Salute You.” With two songs at a time being added to set lists, Dirty Deeds can stick around indefinitely, he hopes. “Someone has to do it!”

 

Playing hits earns the band paying gigs, but Welton is itching for his own creative project. “I miss writing music.” A guitar playing slot with local blues band Black Cat Bone has given some release. “Coming from Chicago I’ve been around the blues all my life. I’m no Buddy Guy but I like guitar.” Next to his work in other bands playing AC/DC is “a lot of fun,” says Welton. “You get a real rock n’ roll bonding experience…. With blues there’s a big open structure, and you can improvise, but, at the same time, there’s nothing better sounding than a guitar vibrating against your chest when you’re playing hard rock.”

 

Welton has been doing good deeds on and off Beijing’s stages. A degree in acoustics and audio analysis and 12 years’ experience on Chicago’s music scene has given him an edge, and something to teach local technicians. Despite new courses at the Midi School in Beijing, there’s a lack of knowledgeable technicians around, says Welton. “A lot of people do it by the book and you can’t. There’s a chabuduo mentality, turn up the fader and it’s good enough if it’s loud… When something wears out they don’t replace it… If you don’t have your own sound engineer you won’t get it. It’s not about throwing 50 people at a stage.

Ideally you should roll up to the gig with three sound guys and a few stage hands and everyone knows what they’re doing.”

 

For Dirty Deeds upcoming concerts contact:

Yugong Yishan Tel: +86 10 6415 0687

E-mail: jaimewelton@hotmail.com