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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 sound
systems on 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 very rock n’
roll for a Chicagoan with a degree in sound engineering and a
decade in the music business. The change of scene that was due
took him northwest to Beijing, but romance had also intervened
to keep him 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 Worker’s Stadium, till now China’s
choice sports venue.
He’s had a chance, too, 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
covers 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 at least a few of their songs,” says Welton.
“ And they’re a lot of fun.”
Locally-based musicians with a 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
Andy Pi shares guitar duties with Oggie Marinski from Sofia, Bulgaria.
After a jamming session with guitarist and founder member Andy
Pi, Welton got 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 practice 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 the Sanlitun bar district has
become the group’s mainstay. “ We pick gigs according
to how they treat the bands and how good the sound system is.”
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 the New Get Lucky
bar in Beijing’s Nurenjie bar district 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.”
Over-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 in 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 looked at the crowd
first 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.” But then Australians
would. 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.
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 however, he concedes. “
Hopefully there’s 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 than isn’t tuned in.”
Keeping the group together may prove a challenge even bigger
than finding fans and venues. None of the band members is a full
time musician. “ Everyone here has a job,”
explains Welton. 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 AC/DC you’ve
got to get it down close since most everyone knows AC/DC’s
sound.”
To keep the Dirty Deeds sound sharp, band members meet once a
week for a two-hour practice 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
practice. “ 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 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, too, can
stick around indefinitely, he hopes. “ Someone has to do it!”
Playing the hits earns the band paying gigs but Welton is also
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, too, on and off Beijing’s
stages. A degree in acoustics and audio analysis and 12 years
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 (good enough) 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.”
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