THE tragedy behind Beyond lead singer Wong Ka-kui’s accident in Tokyo last week is that it could not have happened to a nicer band.
The accident, in which Wong fell three metres from a studio stage while filming a top-rated comedy show for Fuji Television, has put the brakes on the band’s biggest challenge yet - the conquest of the Japanese market.
Beyond was about to start promoting and marketing its records on Friday, the day after Wong, 31, slipped on a pool of water during a sketch. The accident is a severe blow for a band which had fought its way from obscurity to international success.
Beyond formed in 1983 - four friends who loved music and wanted to play it - as an independent, alternative band.
It developed a following, playing punk and new wave shows at small venues such as the Ko Shan Theatre and represented an important counterpoint to the all-pervasive Canto-pop.
Wong, brother Ka-keung, Yip Sai-wing and Wong Koon-chung refused to compromise, sticking to the brand of music they wanted to play and paying the financial price for not signing to the Hongkong pop machine.
They pooled savings, designed costumes and kept their hair determinedly long.
Then, after a few line-up changes, the original members had the hit single, Arabian Dancing Girl, in 1987. That, coupled with the new-found popularity of bands (Blue Jeans and Tai Chi were going strong at the time) thrust Beyond into the public eye.
Album releases followed a contract with the Cinepoly label. Then came a string of hit singles and it wasn’t long before Beyond was a regular on the sort of TVB Jade shows it had formerly ridiculed.
But controversy followed Beyond’s ascension to the mainstream. The band boycotted a Radio Television Hongkong awards show and all related functions in 1988 because it claimed the station’s charts were not representative of record sales.
At the same time, the band found itself under attack from the ’‘alternative crowd’’. Accusations of sell-out were whispered around town.
Beyond’s response was to carry on working and also to take part in a 1990 TVB special in which the band told its story, recreating sparsely-attended early gigs in small halls, and remembering early criticism and rejection by record companies.
Despite the success in Hongkong, however, Beyond became frustrated. The assault on the Japanese market began in earnest last year when the band decided its brand of music would be more widely received there.
Beyond toured Japan and then struck up a major distribution deal.
In a recent TVB interview, the band angrily criticised the Hongkong music scene. The programme demonstrated that despite being part of a band which had three platinum-selling albums to its name, drummer Yip shared a small North Point flat with his familyand slept in the sitting room every night.
Were it not for their dedication to music, all four would probably have earned more by now had they stuck with their jobs in advertising, insurance and design.
Those harsh facts of life in Hongkong’s entertainment scene were responsible for driving Beyond to Japan. The bitter irony is that Wong should have his accident while appearing on a show with a 15 to 20 per cent share of the TV audience - a show which would surely have served as a springboard to great things.
