Rolling Stones to rock in China for 1st time
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-28 19:40

Rock legends the Rolling Stones will play in China for the first time with a concert in Shanghai in April.

"The Rolling Stones have been confirmed to play a concert on April 8 at Shanghai's Grand Stage," Ellen Du, a sales manager at Emma Entertainment, the band's local tour organizer, told AFP.

Tickets for the show at the 8,000-seat stadium will cost 300 to 3,000 yuan (37 to 370 dollars), Du said Tuesday.

The band, which is currently on its "A Bigger Bang" world tour, had been scheduled to play in Shanghai and Beijing in October 2003.  

Approval for the Rolling Stones' 2003 shows was seen at the time as a breakthrough after the group had regularly applied to the Chinese authorities since the 1970s to play there.

The new letter of approval posted on the culture ministry's website on Tuesday confirmed organisers were "permitted" to invite the Rolling Stones, along with its 103-member entourage back to China.  

The Rolling Stones' official website has yet to list Shanghai, China's wealthiest city, as a destination on its "A Bigger Bang" tour.

However it would appear to fall in neatly between gigs in Nagoya, Japan, on April 4 and Sydney, Australia, on April 11.