Beyond's Musical Career in Taiwan

Wong Ka Kui

From the year of 1997, Beyond actively recorded the Mandarin Chinese record, which showed that they paid much attention on the music market in Taiwan. After the traditional Chinese spring festival of 1998, Beyond again released its new Mandarin Chinese record named Here and There. Although most of the songs in this album were the old songs in the past, Beyond interpreted all those songs in the new way on the aspect of music. In addition, the electronic music became the mainstream of Beyond music. The light cold tune of the song Slow was better than other songs in this album. The publication of Beyond in Taiwan was more since this year.

In March 14th, Beyond held a concert in Taiwan. Besides the fans in Taiwan, there were audience from Hong Kong and South Korean, which made the Taiwan press feel the charm of Beyond. In addition, in April and May, Beyond took part in a few campus concerts, which showed their wish to expanded their music career in the Taiwan market. In April, they released a record of best Beyond songs. The song Leave Me Along was changed into Cantonese edition and the bands from the Hong Kong universities were invited to accompany with Beyond in this song.

Beyond Tried New Musical Style in 1997

Beyond didn't recruit new member after the death of Wong Ka Kui

After a long time since the last album, Beyond eventually released its new album named Please Let Go of Your Hands. The whole album could be seen as a completely new experiment. In addition, psychedelic electronic music was added in their music. The songs such as Let Go of Your Hands and Big Era were excellent in describing Hong Kong citizens' inside world in the end of the 20th century. They also composed songs for the animal welfare fund and deaf persons such as Who Names Me and Echo. However, the song of Echo was criticized that it imitated the style of Oasis. This whole album was recorded in their own record studio, which made them being proud.

At the end of the year, Beyond released another album Surprise and the style of electronic style was still contained in this album. In this album, the members of Beyond tried to change their singing voice and gave the audience completely new experience. However, the musical critic thought that the style of Beyond music was fixed and the pure rock music was not as popular as in the past.

Just in the year of 1997, Beyond worked hard to change their music style and did a lot of attempts.

Wong Ka Kui's Death in the Year of 1993

The year of 1993 could be a turning point for the young band of Beyond. Just in this year, the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and the founder of Beyond, Wong Ka Kui died after an accident in filming a game show in Japan.

After Beyond ended their propaganda in Taiwan, they returned to Japan to make their new album and worked hard in releasing their new album in Japan. In the end of May, they returned to Hong Kong and brought Hong Kong fans with the album of Rock and Roll. In this album, there was a song that is still sung by people now named Boundless Ocean Vast Skies. This song summoned the ten years of Beyond's pursuit of music. In the end of June in this year, they released their Japanese album.

This year was the tenth anniversary of the foundation of Beyond and they also planned to hold a large concert in the end of the year to celebrate their anniversary.

No one would have thought of the death of Wong Ka Kui on the day of June 24, which was a heavy and tragic shock for Beyond. In addition, his death was a tune point for the whole band.

The Tough Road for the Band Of Beyond

In 1985, there were four members in the band of Beyond: Wong Ka Kui, Wong Ka Keung, Yip Sai Wing and Chen Shi An. They composed many musical works together that year. Therefore, they tried to give a concert to share their songs. However, Chen Shi An planned to go broad. The band tried to look for a guitarist. In addition, Yip Sai Wing was acquainted with Paul Wong, who had taken part in another band and designed the post for beyond. Therefore, Beyond asked Paul Wong to help them and then the four people prepared for the concert together.

Beyond rented a place, stereo system, costumes and so on by themselves. In addition, they sold the tickets by themselves. They prepared all the things of the concert by themselves. Then they held the concert named Waiting Forever. Although the audience was not so keen, they were still active during the concert. Beyond had invited many record companies to their concert, but no record company had attended their concert.

They secured a loan of 16 thousand Hong Kong dollars from the bank for their concert. However, lastly they suffered a loss of six thousand Hong Kong dollars after the concert. This concert was an adventurous try for the band and showed their determinations. Their original plan was to introduce their works to other friends and make some money to pay the cost of publishing their cassette tape.

Although we could not call this concert a success, it was still a good start for the Beyond.