We’ve been so lucky over the years to perform in some far flung destinations. From the beaches of Barbados to the deserts of Jordan! And this year we got to tick another amazing country off of our bucket list.
We flew with the lovely people at Virgin Atlantic to Shanghai in September this year. We were so excited to perform in a city steeped in history.
China or officially the People’s Republic of China (PRC), is the worlds most populous country with a population of around 1.404 billion! Covering approximately 9,600,000 square kilometres, it is the third largest country by total area.
Shanghai is one of the four municipalities under the direct administration of the central government of China, the largest city in China by population, and the second most populous city proper in the world, with a population of more than 24 million as of 2017.
Flying in to perform in Shanghai was an experience we will never forget. We flew the 11 hour flight two days before we were due to perform in order to acclimatise and have a chance to explore this vast city.
Pudong Shangri-La
We stayed at the 5 star Pudong Shangri-La on the banks of the Huangpu River, with stunning views across the diverse city skyline. The hotel rises above the city and the meandering Huangpu River on the East Side of the city. A perfect location for us to explore with easy access to the river taxis and subway system. There is an incredible restaurant and bar on the 36th floor which we stumbled across on our first day. We were greeted by a lovely manageress from Istanbul who gave us some great pointers of places to see and explore and then insisted that she would cover our food and drinks bill…very happy hens!
We were flown to Shanghai to perform for a large worldwide corporation with whom we have worked before on numerous occasions around the world. We knew that we we were in for a great event as previous years had always been such a highlight of our calendar.
Matthew & Andy went into the world famous tailoring area in Shanghai to get custom made suits at an incredible price. Fantastic design, cut and quality materials at the fraction of the price we would pay in the UK. Plus they were completed in 24 hours! Definitely worth exploring if you ever get to visit this amazing city.
We travelled to some of the old parts of town, which are now very few and far between with all the redevelopment that took place in the city after it became communist in 1949. A lot of Shanghai’s original history was obliterated and room was made for a new modern city.
Here’s a montage of pics from around this diverse city!
Shanghai Expo Park
We performed at the vast Shanghai Expo Park.
A mammoth room awaited for the thousands of guests attending the gala dinner that evening. We were looking forward to entertaining everyone on the vast stage with fully synced video backdrops for our set and a lot of new material that this crowd hadn’t heard before.
Such a wonderful experience, the crowd were as lively as ever and didn’t want to stop dancing. They invited us to join them for drinks in the Jade Bar on the 36th floor of our hotel after our performance. This gave us some time to see some old familiar faces and a lot of new ones. The audience had traveled from all over the globe and it was great to chat with everyone and the feedback was immense. We felt a whole lot of love in that evening in Shanghai!
Many Thanks From Madhen
We must thank the wonderful Vergil who looked after us on performance day. He went out of his way to make sure that we had every thing we needed and joined us for dinner before the event. He has kept in touch and is hopefully coming to study in the UK next year, so we will get to meet up again and thank him personally.
Thank you to everyone involved with such a huge operation. Delegates and ourselves had traveled from all over over the world, a logistics task in it itself. The teams behind the lighting and sound… plus our very own engineer the wonderful Robin Fox who made us sound spectacular that night. Plus big thanks to Mike Goodman who was on guitar with us…from Benidorm to Shanghai he is always a pleasure to work with! #legend
If you need a band for your event then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.