Rolling Stones to make China debut

The Rolling Stones--whose 2003 plans to play their first concerts on the Chinese mainland were foiled by the SARS epidemic--will try again in April.

According to Chinese promoter Emma Entertainment's website, the Stones are set for an April 8 performance at Shanghai's Grand Stage, an 8,000-seat stadium.

At press time, the Shanghai gig wasn't listed on the Stones website. However, the site does list a slew of new dates for the group's "A Bigger Bang" world tour, including stops in Australia, New Zealand and Greece.

The Stones first attempted to schedule a gig in mainland China during the '70s, a period in which the Chinese government had a much stricter policy against Western entertainment.

Chinese officials finally gave the Stones the go-ahead to perform 2003 concerts in Beijing and Shanghai, but SARS fears resulted in the cancellation of both shows.

According to various published reports, the Stones won't perform four of its more sexually explicit songs--"Let's Spend the Night Together," "Brown Sugar," "Honky Tonk Women" and "Beast of Burden"--in China, bowing to the requests of the nation's Ministry of Culture.