Originally Posted by
moondog
I vaguely recall, around 5 years ago, that a big name band (Rolling Stones, U2, etc) was scheduled to play BJ/SH and ended up bailing on the trip very close in, reportedly due to issues with the censors.
I have heard that for one off concerts, it's common practice to submit set lists that please the Big Brother, but then play other stuff.
Rolling Stones, but unofficially the real reason they were happy to bail on the China part of the tour was poor ticket sales. AFAIK, U2 has to date not really tried to do shows in the PRC. But Dylan definitely was supposed to play China several years ago and got deep-sixed by TPTB. And then there was the famous flap over the Shanghai 2008 concert by Bjork, the Icelandic singer...