Zhu Ning says he will never forget the summer of 2005 when he was in Wuhan and boldly decided to rent a 170-square-meter bar that he turned into the city's first live-house venue for indie music.

Zhu, now 48, was a drummer of Wuhan punk rock band Sheng Ming Zhi Bing (bread of life). He left the band in 2000 and the band was renamed SMZB afterward. He named the venue Vox, referring to the voice of youth and voice of freedom.

"I can still recall that scorching summer heat," Zhu says.

"We opened the venue on March 28 and a few Wuhan local bands performed the first show. We had some students from nearby universities and others who were curious about the venue. But when the students went on their summer holidays we didn't do that well, with hardly any customers in July and August. Of course we had to pay rent, so to save money we opened the windows and doors to save on air conditioning."

Exactly three years to the day before Vox opened, Zhu had given his idea of a music venue a dry run, opening a bar in the city. On that occasion, too, Tongue had been the opening act, and over the next six months 100 shows would be held before the bar was forced to close because of a lack of patronage.