Stones Forced to Axe Sexually Explicit Songs for China Concert

It’s only rock and roll, but some really do not like it. For the second time in a matter of weeks, the Rolling Stones are having to cut back on the brown sugar rather than leave a sour taste in the mouth of morally indignant censors.

First there was the Superbowl, where organizers silenced Mick Jagger’s microphone during the sexually explicit song Start Me Up in the half-time concert in Detroit last month. Now China is set to follow suit. When the Stones make their Chinese debut next month, they will succumb to government pressure by dropping Brown Sugar, Let’s Spend the Night Together, Honky Tonk Woman and Beast of Burden from their playlist, an associate told Reuters.

The Chinese ministry of culture told the band in 2003 that these four songs -some of the most sexually explicit in the band’s repertoire - were unacceptable.

Plans for a concert that year were dropped because of the Sars epidemic, but their promoters say the Stones will play live in Shanghai on April 8 as part of their A Bigger Bang tour.

It has been a long time coming. The British band has been in talks about playing in China since the late 1970s, when a concert was denied by a government concerned about "spiritual pollution" from western culture.

But since then a growing number of overseas rock groups and singers - including Deep Purple, Elton John, Suede, Morcheeba and Bjork - have entertained crowds in Shanghai and Beijing. Alicia Keys and Cyndi Lauper were even allowed to play to crowds at the Great Wall in 2004.

But fears of spiritual pollution have not entirely subsided. According to one insider, promoters must provide lyrics and a video of past performances to the ministry of culture for approval before permission for a concert is given. And it is not just the playlists that are vetted. Two years ago, Britney Spears was told that her wardrobe would have to comply with bureaucratic standards of decency.

Money is also an arbiter. Seats for the April 8 concert at the Shanghai Grand Stage will cost between 300 Yuan and 3,000 Yuan (£21 to £213), according to the promoter, Emma Entertainment.