THE Rolling Stones’ 40 Licks have been cut back to 36 by Chinese censors, who have asked the band not to perform four songs from their greatest hits album that have been banned in the country.

Authorities have reiterated their blacklisting for Brown Sugar, Honky Tonk Woman, Beast of Burden and Let’s Spend the Night Together from the 2002 album, apparently owing to suggestive lyrics. A fifth song, which Sir Mick Jagger did not identify, has also been designated as unwelcome when the band plays for the first time in China tonight.

“We kind of expected that. We didn’t expect to come to China and not be censored. Fortunately, we have 400 more songs that we can play so it’s not really an issue,” he said.

It has taken the veteran bad boys of rock more than 30 years to play their first gig in China. Negotiations broke down in the 1970s and the outbreak of Sars forced cancellation of a concert in 2003.

Even so, they will play before only 8,500 people at the Shanghai Grand Stage — nothing like the 1.2 million who massed in Rio de Janeiro to hear the group in February on their Bigger Bang world tour.

The price of the tickets, ranging from £21 to £210, is exorbitant by Chinese standards. Even in wealthy Shanghai the average monthly salary is about £150. Jagger said sarcastically: “I’m pleased that the Ministry of Culture is protecting the morals of the expat bankers and their girlfriends that are going to be coming.”

Tickets were still available yesterday and Chinese media have reported that most buyers were foreign residents.

It is not only cost that has slowed ticket sales. The band is not well known in China, where rock’n’roll has long been relegated to the edges of popular culture.

Chinese-language media have scarcely mentioned the arrival of the world-famous rock group, although a music critic, Wang Xiaofeng, wrote that the Stones would likely have less popular appeal than Super Girl, the winner of the equivalent of Pop Idol last year.

State-controlled media shelter the Chinese from most rock music and young people tend to prefer saccharine love songs.

Jagger said that he hoped a broadcast of the concert by the state China Central Television would boost their exposure.

China’s morality mandarins have allowed Cui Jian, known as the father of Chinese rock, to join the Stones on stage for a duet — one of the few public performances by the singer who was effectively banned from 1987 until late last year.

OUTLAWED

I met a gin soaked/ bar-room queen in Memphis/ She tried to take me upstairs for a ride/ She had to heave me right across her shoulder/ ’Cause I just can’t seem to drink you off my mind
Honky Tonk Woman

No excuses offered anyway/ Let’s spend the night together/ I’ll satisfy your every need/ And I now know you will satisfy me
Let’s Spend The Night Together

Ah brown sugar/ How come you taste so good/ Brown sugar/ Just like a black girl should
Brown Sugar

I’ll never be your beast of burden/ So let’s go home and draw the curtains/ Music on the radio/ Come on baby make sweet love to me
Beast of Burden

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