Band under fire: Mayday issued a statement claiming weather conditions were beyond their control.
Compiled by C. ARUNO, CASSANDRA VICTOR and R. ARAVINTHAN
TAIWANESE rock band Mayday got caught in a controversy after hired musicians claimed that they were forced to perform in the rain for a music video, Sin Chew Daily reported.
It all began on Oct 29 when a post circulated online, claiming that several hundred instruments involved in the shooting of a Mayday music video were damaged due to rain.
This was later corroborated by a musician who lashed out at the band for not caring about other musicians and their instruments.
“The logistics and planning were terrible. Musicians were forced to stand in the rain for several hours,” he claimed on Instagram.
He also complained that he was paid only TW$2,100 (RM311).
However, he deleted the post later and asked for forgiveness from the public.
Mayday’s label B’in Music later issued a statement thanking the musicians but said the weather was out of their control.
Internet opinion was divided on the matter, with some fans vehemently defending the band while others criticised them for a lack of care for others.
“If you think TW$2,100 is a small amount, why don’t you give the opportunity to others? Do you think you are the only one who knows how to play an instrument?” one netizen wrote.
But another person sympathised with the musicians, saying that musical instruments damaged by rain could affect their livelihood.
“These are their tools of the trade. It is frustrating,” he wrote.
Mayday debuted in 1999 and continues to be one of the best-selling rock bands in the Chinese-speaking world.
> A man in China’s Shandong province was so delighted with his son for passing his first math exam that he prepared a feast to celebrate the achievement, China Press reported.
The 11-year-old boy had worked hard, burning the midnight oil just to revise for the exam and managed to obtain 60 marks, making it his first pass this year.
According to an elder sister, her brother had never managed to score high marks. He obtained only 18 marks for math and 16 for English in a previous exam.
The father was thrilled this time, so he laid out a feast for the family to celebrate the occasion and as a way to keep the boy motivated.
● The above article is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with this ' >'sign, it denotes a separate news item.
