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Although all in their 50s, the Wynners Five Tigers are still active in the Cantopop music scene and promise to revive the oldies at next Saturday's concert in Shanghai. [Dong Zao]
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Alex Lu has been grooving to old Cantopop at KTV for three consecutive weekends, prepping for the upcoming concert of the legendary Hong Kong pop band, The Wynners, better known as Wynners Five Tigers.
They last played in Shanghai 13 years ago. They're back in town next Saturday, performing at the Shanghai Grand Stage in "Wynners 33 Good Time," commemorating over 33 years of music.
"I want to recall all their songs and get myself fully prepared for the show," says Lu, 38, marketing manager at a consulting company.
He's also busy preparing the posters.
"They were my idol during my adolescent days," he says. "My very first experience of listening to English songs was from them," though they mostly sing in Cantonese now.
Cantopop, short for Cantonese popular music, is sometimes called HK-pop.
It draws not only on Chinese traditional music, but also international styles including jazz, rock, rhythm and blues, Western pop, and electronic music.
The five-piece Hong Kong band is comprised of Alan Tam (vocal), Kenny Bee (vocal), Bennett Pang (guitar), Danny Yip (bass guitar) and Anthony Chan (drums).
The group debuted in Shanghai in 1996 at the Shanghai Gymnastic Stadium and promised to return.
At their concert next Saturday, they will perform golden oldies, mostly classic Cantonese and English songs, and a few Mandarin Chinese numbers.
"I've been waiting so long for this day," says Lu, "and I'm so happy."
Fans of The Wynners, like Lu, are mostly in their late 30s and represent the first generation of fans for Cantopop. For those younger generations of the 1980s and 1990s, however, the name even doesn't ring a bell.
"The Wynners? Who are they? I never heard of them," says Zhu Shijun, 18, a university freshman.
"They are too old, too out of date and their songs are too old-fashioned," says Helen Meng, 22, a fresh university graduate.
But their eyes light up when they talks about Hong Kong singer Eason Chan who also is performing on April 25 at the Hongkou Football Stadium.
He's more their type, and he also sings in Mandarin.
"I am glad Eason will hold his show on that day too," says Tam from The Wynners. "That means Cantopop still has market share in Shanghai, and I hope we can realize the golden era of Cantopop again."
More than 15 years ago, almost all the 1970s generation saw the "five tigers" as their idols, adoring their songs and movies and copying their fashion.
They were known for their curly long hair, tight bell-bottom pants, colorful shirts and black Western styles. They dressed like the Beatles.
Young people imitated them and even formed similar bands on campus.
"It was really cool if you wore a pair of tight bell-bottom trousers," recalls Liu Hong, 37, a manager at a logistics company. "If you knew how to play guitar, you would easily win a girl's heart."
Founded in 1973, The Wynners are regarded a pioneer of Cantopop music. They brought Western pop to China and the rest of Asia.
In the early days, they sang exclusively in English, performing pop from around the world. Their first English album, "Listen to the Wynners" (1974), was a big success.
In 1975, The Wynners collaborated with songwriter James Wong for the movie "Let's Rock," which Wong also directed. It defined a signature style of early Cantopop with colloquial lyrics.
Three years later, at the height of its success, members went separate to develop their own solo careers, but the band occasionally played together. The vocals, Tam and Bee, became two of the most popular Hong Kong singers in the 1980s.
"The disbanding of The Wynners marked the end of an era of Cantopop," says our fan Lu. "But fortunately, other singers like the late superstar Leslie Cheung (1956-2003) filled the void."
