[The Sun 03/10/06]

Hacken and Joey to Support TVB Anniversary Show

After it's spectacular return last year, "All Singers Celebrate TVB Anniversary" will be taking place again this year on 4th November, but after fighting against EEG last year for the 'female team captain' position, Gold Label have decided to pull out their singers altogether from this year's event as they take on a mainland engagement instead and putting up a stance against TVB.

TVB has been busy negotiating plans with the various record companies for its musical gala, but there is an obvious gap as the Gold Label stars are missing from the rundown, which currently includes Andy Lau, Hacken Lee, Eason Chan, Kelly Chen, Joey Yung, Jordan Chan and Denise Ho. Sisters Janice and Jill Wei will be doing shadow dancing with brother duo Solar in what is a promising act.

As the show traditionally features a contest between the men and women, there was a fight over the female captain position last year between Joey and Miriam Yeung and to avoid showing favouritism for either company, TVB did the tactful thing of offering joint captains opposite Andy and Hacken for the men. This year Miriam will be absent, so the female team captains are likely to be Joey and Kelly. Reports indicate that the Gold Label artistes will all be taking part in a concert in the Mainland that happened to be on the same night because executives decided to turn TVB down.

TVB have been racking their imaginations for new combinations this year and among those planned include Jordan and Joey, Eason and Kelly and Hacken and Denise. Some seniors will also be singing opposite junior singers. In response to the news that Gold Label will be absent from the show, TVB Production Department Assistant Director Ho Lai Chuen said: "I really don't know, but it doesn't matter, there are still plenty of singers taking part. (Who will be the male and female captains?) There should be two of each, but we haven't decided on names yet."

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