1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Zhang Youan felt that he was a little unsure about Zhou Yan. Sometimes he felt that Zhou Yan was a little indifferent and didn't care about fame and fortune, but sometimes he felt that Zhou Yan was very concerned about these things.

The two chatted for a while, and Zhou Yan asked, "The Central Chinese Orchestra should have arrived in Los Angeles, right?"

At the invitation of ICM, the China National Traditional Chinese Orchestra is going to tour the United States, with Los Angeles being the first stop.

"Well, they arrived the day before yesterday and will be performing today. If they don't arrive soon, there will be problems. The staff at Tomson have already contacted them. I will give them a call later."

"How are the tickets selling?" Zhou Yan asked again.

"Of course, it's not as good as your concert. When I asked yesterday, there were still nearly 600 tickets that hadn't been sold. But there's still some time, so I should be able to sell a lot. For a hall with more than 2,000 people, it's already very good to have sold so many tickets."

Zhou Yan nodded. There were still 600 tickets left in the hall with more than 2,000 people, which meant that the attendance rate exceeded 70%.

With this kind of attendance rate, we can already make money.

The Central Chinese Orchestra received a fixed salary for their tour in the United States, and the box office performance would basically have no effect on their income.

Whether the sales are high or low is entirely up to ICM.

However, Zhou Yan and his team certainly still hope that the box office will be good, otherwise there will be no company like ICM to invite domestic orchestras to perform abroad in the future.

If the folk music orchestra can maintain a stable attendance rate of 70 percent for each show during its tour in the United States, that would be good enough.

Tickets are still on sale now, and we should be able to sell quite a few tickets on the last day. The attendance rate will naturally increase, and it would be best if it could reach over 80 percent.

Zhou Yan had previously thought about investing in this tour together with ICM, but was later blocked by Zhou Hong.

Zhou Yan's original intention was certainly not to make money. He just wanted to get involved and do more publicity for the folk music band's tour.

However, Zhou Hong said that his interference would not be a good thing for the folk music orchestra.

The folk music band's tour was initiated by ICM, and their company certainly wanted to make more money.

Since they want to make money, they will definitely not save money on publicity, so Zhou Yan doesn't need to worry about this.

If ICM company handles this independently and finds that this can make money, it will greatly stimulate their interest.

If Zhou Yan gets involved, even if he can make money later, ICM and some other similar companies will have doubts.

Zhou Yan felt that what Zhou Hong said made sense, and he should indeed have some confidence in the folk music orchestra.

Now it seems that it was the right decision not to intervene at that time. The folk music orchestra can carry out this tour on its own.

"Are there any tickets reserved for the front row?" Zhou Yan asked again.

"Front row tickets? I don't really know. Why are you asking?"

"I suddenly remembered that David Tao was also in Los Angeles."

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that. Tao Zhe has already contacted our office in Los Angeles. I heard that he has been working there recently, and the ticket has been reserved for him."

"He's pretty quick."

"It was pretty fast. He got to know the people in our office pretty well. The new equipment in the office won't be used by anyone else for a while. Recently, it's been used by David Tao, and he's so happy. If I signed with other record companies, I wouldn't have this condition."

"At least your purchases were not in vain."

"So, we have to thank him, thank Huanyin."

"Haha, win-win cooperation, win-win cooperation."

Zhang Youan smiled and said, "I think we should just merge Tomson's music department with Huanyin, so that it will be more convenient for us to cooperate in the future."

"It's better to separate them and not put all your eggs in one basket."

"Okay, both sides are basically serving you anyway."

"You can't say that. Didn't Tomson just sign Akina Nakamori? You should also pay more attention to her."

"Although we have signed Akina Nakamori, she still has to revolve around you. It depends on you to write more songs for Akina Nakamori so that she can develop better."

Zhou Yan laughed, "It seems that you still value her and have already started asking me for songs for her."

"We are all family. As the actual music director of Tomson, it is your job to write two songs for your singers."

"Okay, I won't talk to you anymore. If you continue, I will have to write two songs for Akina Nakamori right now."

"Haha, okay, go ahead and do your work. I won't bother you anymore."

……

"Sister Yuru, I heard that the tickets for this show in Los Angeles are selling very well."

During lunch, Zhu Lanxi came up to Wei Yuru with a smile and happily shared with her the news she had just received.

"Really? Who told you that?" Wei Yuru asked.

"Teacher He said so."

The Teacher He that Zhu Lanxi mentioned is He Jianguo, the conductor of their orchestra, and also the leader of their trip to the United States. Since the news came from him, it should be correct.

"Did Teacher He say exactly how many tickets were sold?"

"They didn't say anything specific, but I know the ticket sales rate has exceeded 80 percent. So, by calculation, at least 1,600 tickets should have been sold."

Wei Yuru nodded. These data were indeed quite good.

The venue for the folk music group's performance in Los Angeles this time is the Emerson Theater. There are not many seats. If the arrangement is loose, there are only 1,600 seats. If the arrangement is tight, it can accommodate about 2,000 people.

The Art Center also has a relatively large concert hall, which is the Chandler Hall where Zhou Yan and his group performed before. At that time, Wei Yuru also completed her first performance in the United States with the Piano Youth Orchestra.

Chandler Hall has many more seats than Emerson Hall, more than 3,200, and all the tickets were sold out.

Compared with Zhou Yan's concert, the popularity of their folk music band's concert is much lower, but they are already very satisfied with the current data.

The reason why so many tickets were sold was also related to Zhou Yan and his team’s previous concert in Los Angeles. The previous concert allowed many Los Angeles people to learn about Chinese folk music.

In particular, the scene of Wei Yuru playing the pipa left a deep impression on many people.

Seeing Zhu Lanxi's excited face, Wei Yuru smiled and said, "You have experienced many big scenes, so you are excited already?"

Both of them are members of Qingyinfang, and they have been active in Neon for a long time.

Thanks to the group's unique form and Zhou Yan's strong appeal in Neon, Qingyinfang has been successful in Neon.

At first they were touring various schools, and later when their popularity grew, they began to hold some medium-sized concerts.

The early concerts only had a few hundred people, but as their popularity grew, the small concert hall could no longer accommodate them, so they began to hold larger concerts.

During that period, Qingyinfang held more than 20 large-scale concerts, and in the later period there were basically two or three concerts a week.

In addition to their own shows, they occasionally receive commercial invitations to perform with other groups, and they have also appeared on many TV shows.

Zhu Lanxi smiled and said, "After all, the feeling is different. We had it so smooth in Japan, and it always seemed like we were relying on Teacher Zhou's popularity. It would be the same if we changed bands, so we had no sense of accomplishment at all. Now that I'm back to the folk music band, especially after coming to the United States, I feel like I've fought for my reputation." In fact, Wei Yuru could understand Zhu Lanxi's feelings to some extent.

Neon is Neon, America is America, and they still give people a different feeling.

Although music in Japan is also very developed, and theoretically being successful in Japan is no less successful than being successful in the United States, the feeling is just different. Especially when standing on the stage and looking at the rows of faces that look different from them, that feeling is particularly obvious.

When Wei Yuru came to Los Angeles with the Piano Youth Orchestra before, when she stood on the stage and accepted the audience's enthusiastic applause, she was still very excited even though she had seen big scenes before.

“It’s okay to be excited, but you can’t let it affect the performance tonight. Today is the first time that our Central Chinese Orchestra will appear in the United States. Whether it can make a good debut depends on tonight. As long as we perform well today, the popularity of the next few performances will only increase.”

Zhu Lanxi laughed and said, "Don't worry, I have seen big scenes after all."

……

In the afternoon, the orchestra went to the Emerson Theatre.

As the car passed the theater entrance and headed for the side door, Liu Xiaoyu, who was leaning against the window, suddenly called out, "Sister Yuru, Sister Lanxi, look over there, it looks like the sign of your Qingyinfang."

Wei Yuru was originally resting with her eyes closed, but when she heard Liu Xiaoyu's words, she opened her eyes and looked in the direction she pointed.

At the entrance of the theater, there were several black-haired people holding three signs in their hands. One of them was facing the direction of their bus, with three large Chinese characters written on it: Qingyinfang.

Other people in the car also looked over.

"Really? The words are so big. I can see them from such a distance."

“But this handwriting is a bit ugly.”

"She should be of Chinese descent. She may have lived in the United States since she was a child. It's normal for her to write Chinese characters a little ugly."

"I don't think so. If he was Chinese, he would probably write the name of our folk music band instead of Qingyinfang. Maybe he is from Japan. Qingyinfang is so famous in Japan."

"Qingyinfang is famous in Japan, but can it still influence Japanese people overseas?"

"That's impossible to say."

Everyone was very excited about the discussion, but the bus did not slow down at all, and soon the main entrance of the theater was out of sight.

Someone suggested, "Why don't we go take a look later?"

"He's definitely Chinese, I bet you ten bucks."

"I bet fifteen that it's a Japanese."

"What do you mean by ten or fifteen dollars? We are already in America, so let's bet in U.S. dollars. I'll bet fifteen dollars."

"How much do you earn a month to dare to gamble like this?"

……

Everyone was talking about it. Chen Sanmei turned to look at Fan Yunling and said, "Yunling, after we move the instruments, let's go to the main entrance to take a look. After all, they are our fans. We should say hello. Maybe they came from China."

"Maybe he came from Neon."

"If Neon comes over, you can go say hello."

Mei Min smiled and said, "Let's go and have a look. It's still early anyway, and it can be considered as a promotion for our band."

A few people talked to each other and soon the matter was settled.

After the car arrived at the side door, Wei Yuru and the others were going to move the instruments inside first before going to the front door, but Wang Ciheng and the others took the initiative to volunteer to help them move the instruments and let them go directly.

Wang Ciheng plays the bamboo flute. He didn't bring many musical instruments with him, so they could all fit in a small box. He could carry it with one hand without any effort and could easily help Wei Yuru and the others carry it.

The girls stopped being pretentious and went to the front door after saying thank you.

After arriving at the front door, they originally wanted to get closer to the people who had just appeared and ask about the situation, but as soon as they appeared, they were discovered by those people.

The boy in the lead shouted something in neon language excitedly.

Although it was Japanese language, all five girls understood it. The boy was shouting "fairy".

Fairy is the nickname given to Fan Yunling by Japanese fans. As for why they gave her such a nickname, they don’t know.

They did discuss this privately, and concluded that there might be a word "ling" in Fan Yunling's name, and the meaning of "ling" in Chinese is a bit similar to the word "fairy" in Japanese.

The fairy in Neon language is not the kind of fairy that Chinese people have in their impression, such as the snake fairy and the white bone fairy, but it means a fairy or a elf.

Everyone else in the group has a nickname, but Fan Yunling's nickname is the most popular and has basically become a nickname for her among Japanese people.

Fan Yunling is petite and very cute, especially loved by Japanese people. Apart from Wei Yuru, she is the most popular member of the group.

Because of her popularity, many local producers in Japan have invited her to film TV series and movies, but she has rejected them all.

Their group had already agreed long ago that they would focus on making music and not film TV dramas. They would not get involved in the film and television industry for at least three years.

This matter was a private agreement among the members of their group and had nothing to do with Zhou Yan.

In fact, Zhou Yan doesn't mind them participating in the filming of film and television dramas. As long as it does not affect the normal activities of the band, occasionally participating in the production of some film and television dramas can also expand the influence of their band.

In addition to filming TV dramas and movies, Zhou Yan also has the same attitude towards taking endorsements and advertisements. You can't let them not make money.

Chen Sanmei turned to look at Fan Yunling and said with a smile, "It seems that your fans in Neon have followed you here."

Fan Yunling smiled. At first, she didn't like the nickname "Fairy", but after hearing it many times, she gradually accepted it. After all, this nickname was also a compliment from her fans.

The key is that there is nothing she can do about it. The fans have already spoken out, and there is no need for her to make a public statement on this matter.

The group of Japanese music fans were walking towards this side holding signs, and the five girls also came to meet them.

After the two sides reunited, the group of fans were very excited and shouted the names of the five people. Of course, everyone else was shouting names, but only Fan Yunling was shouting "fairy".

What surprised the five people even more was that the boy in the lead actually took out two Qingyinfang live albums and asked them to sign them.

Seeing these two albums, Chen Sanmei asked in surprise, "Did you really come from Neon?"

She spoke in Chinese, and several fans couldn't understand her, so Wei Yuru next to her asked again in English.

The other party finally understood and nodded with a smile, "I just came to Los Angeles in the summer. I have been in China before."

"Oh, are you here to study?"

"Well, all of us are international students who came to the United States this year."

Wei Yuru nodded suddenly, so that's how it is.

If the other party really came all the way from Neon just to watch the concert, that would be too outrageous. After all, Qingyinfang has many performances in Neon, and there is no need for them to come to the United States.

However, they were also very happy to see their fans in the United States. As long as there were fans, no matter where they were from, they would have more confidence in Los Angeles. (End of this chapter)