China?s censors are sure to be keeping a close eye on The Rolling Stones when the band makes its mainland debut this April.

The Shanghai concert on April 8 will be part of the long-running British group?s A Bigger Bang tour.

In the late 1970s, the Stones held high-level talks about touring China but the plans fell through. The band then had two shows in China canceled in spring 2003 because of the SARS epidemic.

Even before the cancellation, the Chinese Ministry of Culture told the band it could not perform four songs ? “Let’s Spend the Night Together,” “Brown Sugar,” “Honky Tonk Women” and “Beast of Burden.” No reasons were given, but the songs are among the Stones? more sexually explicit hits.

“This time, they also probably will not play those songs,” a company employee surnamed Gu said, according to Reuters. “They know there are differences between Chinese and Western cultures. They don’t want to do anything against the Chinese government.”

The Stones, now entering their fifth decade, are touring the world in support of “A Bigger Bang,” their first studio album since 1997’s “Bridges to Babylon.” It was the top-moneymaking tour last year, hauling in a record-setting $162 million in ticket sales, according to concert trade Pollstar.






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