In Shanghai, Wilkinson says, “We’ll be playing a selection of tracks from all seven Us3 albums, with an emphasis on the latest albums. The two rappers I’m bringing over are Brook Yung (featured on the latest album stop. think. run) and Akil Dasan (featured on the previous two albums Say What!? and Schizophonic). The sax player Ed Jones will be with us, he’s the only musician I’ve had on every Us3 album. Bryan Corbett will be playing trumpet, who features on stop. think. run too, and on turntables we have my favourite DJ in the world DJ First Rate, an incredible turntablist. He was a member of the Scratch Perverts when they won the DMC World Championship. I’ve hand-picked all the musicians in the band, and they are all fantastic performers. I think we’ve got a good reputation onstage!

“The band also features Sean Hargreaves on keyboards and Chris Dodd on double bass. I run the beats from my laptop onstage. We’ve been touring with this set-up for about 10 years now. It rocks!”

Us3 are playing at the JZ Music Festival, 8.30pm, 18 October.

Roarstafari: Lions of Puxi

In 2008 a French gypsy jazz combo teamed up with a band of brothers from Mauritius and their Chinese ‘cousins’. The resulting nine piece reggae monster is one of our picks for the JZ Music Festival.

“Everything started when we jammed ‘Englishman in New York’ one night at the House of Blues and Jazz,” says lead singer Robichou Gauthier, “and as I didn’t want to sing the original English lyrics I simultaneously translated it into Chinese and the crowd loved it. We realised we had to record it and do a music video with it.”

Things took off from there. “I edited the video with my laptop,” he says, “and it’s now been seen all over the world, on French and American TV, on websites in Holland, Hungary, Thailand, the Philippines. From there, we decided to start doing our own stuff, and until today, it’s worked pretty well.”

Gauthier describes their sound as “mostly reggae style with hints of funk and bits of hip-hop. We try to load our shows with musical groove, human energy, heartfelt smiles and do our best to communicate that to our audiences. And most of the times it works!”

One question hanging over the band is whether they can consistently produce reggae in a city as notoriously lacking in sunshine as Shanghai. Aren’t reggae musicians solar-powered?

Gauthier says, “Yes they are, but not just that. I guess we need sea, sex and sun to play better music, but Shanghai also gives us a powerful inspiration, and helps us to grow in a different way. The lack of sun pushes us to consider our environment, adapt, and find inspiration in the places others overlook. These Lions aren’t going extinct!”

In fact they’re just getting started. “We are happy to be at the beginning of reggae music in China, and happy to bring new vibes to this country. On the other hand, we get influenced by all the crazy little things that happen to us in the empire of the middle.”

Oh, and one other thing. Where do they get their weed and how much for an ounce?

“No idea,” Gauthier says. “That stuff is illegal.”