ECG -Chapter 11 We Are the Black Knight Band

The two of them wolfed down the hand-rolled noodles and then went back into Wu Xiaozhou’s bedroom, closed the door, and lit a cigarette each.

Looking at Wu Xiaozhou’s smug face, Lin Hao really wanted to punch him.

It had been more than half a month, and this guy had only managed to learn six bars. It was seriously driving him crazy!

This song, Classical Thump, was indeed extremely difficult. And on top of that, Wu Xiaozhou had absolutely no foundation at all. He was basically just slowing the speed down more than ten times and copying the movements exactly. If an ordinary person tried learning this way, they probably would have collapsed already!

But six bars was still far too slow. At this rate, he wouldn’t even finish practicing before school started again!

“Haizi!”

Wu Xiaozhou held a cigarette in his mouth, his face full of sorrow.

“Don’t you dare call me Haizi again, or I’m going to get mad at you!” Lin Hao said unhappily.

“Look at you, why are you getting so worked up? I’ve called you that since we were kids. How am I supposed to change?”

Wu Xiaozhou grinned and continued, “How about we go out for a walk? I feel like I’m about to grow mold sitting here!”

“Not going!” Lin Hao glared at him.

Time was tight and the task was heavy. Did he really have the mood to go out and play?

Wu Xiaozhou’s eyes rolled around, then he said, “I heard a bar is opening on the pedestrian street. Apparently, they have a band too. Since we’re changing careers, why don’t we go check it out and learn something? It’ll also help us relax!”

After hearing that, Lin Hao felt it made some sense. He hesitated for a moment before nodding.

“Fine, but we’re only relaxing this once. After we come back, hurry up and practice your instrument!”

“Yep, I’ll listen to you!”

Wu Xiaozhou jumped up and hurried to change clothes.

……

A few days ago, after arriving at Wu Xiaozhou’s house, the first thing Lin Hao did was search for information online. After finally figuring out how copyright registration worked in this world, the result left him extremely disappointed…

It was currently 2002. This world really was very similar to his previous life. It was also an era where copyright was extremely chaotic, the early period of the internet’s traditional free era, when people were still relying on free content to attract more users online.

At this time, songs and movie piracy were everywhere on the internet, freely downloadable at will. Nobody cared about what copyright was or what intellectual property rights meant. The copyright laws of this world were basically the same as in his previous life—copyright was equivalent to intellectual property rights.

In this world, there were only two ways to register music copyright:

First, the original creator had to bring paper documents and a recording of the work to the China Music Copyright Association at Dongdan Third Street, Dongcheng District, Yanjing, to register.

Second, they could also register through the China Music Copyright Association website. The lyrics and the music composition had to be uploaded separately for review, and if there was audio, the audio file could also be uploaded.

Actually, the process for applying and registering music copyright was basically the same as in his previous life. In his previous life, the online registration platform was called the MORP Digital Music Copyright Registration Platform, a digital music online copyright registration service system approved by the National Copyright Administration.

After understanding everything, Lin Hao became even more depressed. There was no way he could travel to Yanjing just because of a few songs. Chunhe to Yanjing was more than 1,500 kilometers away, and with the current old green-skinned train, making one round trip would practically strip him of his skin!

Could it be that everyone in this country who wanted to register copyright had to go to Yanjing?

After searching again, he finally understood. In the past, people could register at the China Music Copyright Association offices in various provincial capitals, but starting last year, they had launched some so-called reforms to streamline bloated organizations and move things online… and had actually removed all those offices.

Fine. Since traveling to Yanjing was unrealistic, he would choose online registration!

But it was 2002. For Lin Hao, online registration was also extremely troublesome.

First, he had to scan all the written music sheets separately. But at this time, even USB drives were not yet widespread. Scanned files could only be stored on floppy disks or burned onto CDs…

Thinking about all these complicated procedures, Lin Hao got a headache.

Not to mention a scanner—his family didn’t even have a computer.

The only option was to go to a copy shop to scan them, then bring them back to Wu Xiaozhou’s house and upload them for registration.

But if he wrote one song and registered one song, he would have to keep going to copy shops to scan things. It was simply too troublesome.

After thinking about it again, Lin Hao decided that troublesome was still better than not doing it. No matter what, he needed to register them before he could feel at ease.

So he began searching for the China Music Copyright Association.

The result almost made him collapse.

After opening the website, there was only a single homepage. The announcement on it was extremely eye-catching:

Website under construction…

After his disappointment, he could only comfort himself.

After all, he was in a remote small city in Northeast China. In this era, both reality and the internet spread very slowly.

Since he couldn’t travel to Yanjing and online registration wasn’t working either, he would first write down and organize all the songs he had sung and the ones he planned to sing. Once the website officially started operating, he would find a copy shop and scan everything together for registration.

That way, the efficiency would be much higher.

……

The pedestrian street was a little far away. By the time the two of them rode there, it was already past eight in the evening.

There weren’t many people on the pedestrian street at this hour. This bar seemed to have just opened today. On both sides of the entrance were flower baskets piled up densely, with more than a hundred of them.

“Black Knight!”

Looking at the bar’s neon sign, Lin Hao muttered, “The name isn’t bad.”

After locking up their bicycles, the two walked inside.

Looking at the names on the flower baskets on both sides, Wu Xiaozhou kept exclaiming, “Damn!” nonstop.

Before they even entered, they could already hear the deafening music.

The bar was very large, decorated in a rather rugged style. There was a long straight bar counter, the surface made of thick solid wood, while underneath were some oil drums.

Straight ahead was a stage. The band had not come on yet.

The stage lights were dazzling. On both sides were two Budweiser speakers, and the sound coming from them was a Western rock song he had never heard before.

It seemed this bar mainly focused on rock music.

The entire bar had a well-designed layout, with different heights and levels. Although the guests were almost filling the place, the spacious design prevented it from feeling crowded.

A fair-skinned young waiter led the two of them inside.

“Sir, sorry, there are too many customers tonight. Right now, there are only two seats near the stage.”

Wu Xiaozhou waved his hand casually.

“Fine, we’ll be able to hear clearly there!”

Lin Hao almost laughed.

This guy obviously didn’t come to places like bars often. Ordinary people usually didn’t want seats right next to the stage speakers—they were way too loud.

It was a table for two. The small square table wasn’t very big, and after the two of them sat down, Wu Xiaozhou ordered two bottles of small Corona beers.

They hadn’t even taken more than a few sips before the band came on stage.

“Damn!” Wu Xiaozhou cursed, leaning his head forward as he said, “That long-haired guy… isn’t he the guy who was selling fake guitars at the music store?”

Lin Hao nodded. He had seen him too. He hadn’t expected to run into him here. What a coincidence!

Qian Yu didn’t notice Lin Hao and Wu Xiaozhou. Although they had already tested the stage beforehand and the boss seemed fairly satisfied, today was, after all, their first official performance. It also affected his future livelihood, so it was inevitable that he was a little nervous.

After a few bars of distorted electric guitar solo, Qian Yu showed off a little of his skill.

The members of the band shouted together:

“We are the Black Knight Band!”

Lin Hao gave a bitter smile.

What a damn stupid name.

After that, the short, chubby drummer stepped on the bass drum. The double-hit accents sounded as if they were striking directly at people’s hearts, making everyone’s heartbeat follow the rhythm.

“Boom boom! Boom boom!”

After four bars of drums, the electric guitar and electric bass came in together. The keyboard used a trumpet tone, and a fierce, exciting opening piece began to play.

Wu Xiaozhou’s face turned red with excitement. He shouted at Lin Hao:

“Damn, this sounds great!”

Lin Hao smiled bitterly and shook his head. This idiot really hadn’t seen much of the world. This kind of opening song was something he had already played to death in his previous life when he was in his twenties.

Looks like he’d have to find a way to raise this guy’s appreciation level in the future.

Otherwise, bringing him out would just be embarrassing!

The opening song was very short. After a little over a minute, enthusiastic applause broke out across the venue. Lin Hao also symbolically clapped a few times.

He leaned toward Wu Xiaozhou and said:

“Pay more attention to that fat guy playing bass on stage. Look at his hand position. Don’t just stare randomly!”

Wu Xiaozhou nodded excitedly. More and more, he felt that his choice had been right. Being in a band was great! Every day he could stay in places like this—beautiful women, beer, and applause.

Damn, just thinking about it made him excited!

I want to join a band!

I want to play bass!

He shouted wildly inside his heart.

A male singer came up to start the show and sang two fast-paced songs in a row. The applause from below was fairly enthusiastic.

Lin Hao originally thought that after the female singer came on, they should start playing rock music. Unexpectedly, she was still singing pop songs, and the band also completely followed the original arrangement, copying the accompaniment exactly without even the slightest variation.

Lin Hao secretly shook his head.

This group’s skill level was really too average. The singers didn’t know how to sing rock either. If they continued like this, this bar would have problems.

After the two singers went down, the long-haired keyboard player sang a song called I Died in a Rainy Season.

The intense accompaniment and the desperate screaming seemed very rock-like, but they also exposed the band’s weakness.

These people had always played pop music. They simply didn’t understand rock. They thought that making things noisy and intense was rock, so they had completely ruined the song with their arrangement.

……

In a corner of the bar.

A thin man around thirty-five or thirty-six years old was sitting there.

His short-sleeved white shirt was spotless, and the crease of his black trousers was as straight as his posture.

He watched the stage for a while. Then, with an unpleasant expression, he waved at a bald man beside him.

“Third Brother!”

The bald man slightly bent his waist, looking extremely respectful.

“No good.” The man shook his head. “These guys won’t work! If this continues, Black Knight won’t be able to get started.”

The bald man looked troubled.

“Third Brother, this is already the best band in Chunhe.”

The man sighed. After thinking for a moment, he said helplessly:

“Go find one in the provincial capital. Let them make do for a few days first.”

A trace of disappointment flashed in the bald man’s eyes, but he immediately nodded.

……

During the intermission.

Lin Hao felt a little urgency and stood up to go to the restroom.

After finishing and pushing open the door to leave, he ran straight into Qian Yu.

As the saying goes, enemies meeting each other become especially hostile. During this period, Qian Yu had dreamed about Lin Hao several times. The moment he saw him, his eyes immediately turned red.

Lin Hao chuckled.

“Go in. Don’t pee your pants later.”

After saying that, he turned around and left.

Qian Yu’s face and neck turned red from anger. However, although Lin Hao’s body was a little thin, his height was still there. After thinking it over, he ultimately didn’t dare to make a move.

After leaving the restroom, he went directly to find the bald man from earlier.