The story of Beyond: 25 years since Hong Kong’s biggest rock band lost its frontman

Rock star Wong Ka-kui was recording a Japanese TV show when he fell off a stage and sustained massive head injuries. His death six days later was the beginning of the end for Beyond, the Hong Kong band that have never been matched since

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Hong Kong rock band Beyond (from left): Steve Wong Ka-keung, Paul Wong Koon-chung, Lau Chi-yuen ( a guitarist who left the line-up in 1989), Wong Ka-kui and Gunno Yip Sai-wing. Photo: SCMP

Published: 7:30pm, 24 Jun 2018Updated: 9:27am, 25 Jun 2018

Twenty-five years ago today, the frontman of Hong Kong’s biggest rock band was filming a television show in Tokyo when he plunged three metres off a stage, sustaining massive head injuries and falling into a coma.

Beyond, the band Wong Ka-kui had led since their formation 10 years earlier, were at the peak of their fame, having evolved from an underground rock’n’roll band into Canto-rock superstars whose anthems such as Amani, The Glorious Years and Truly Love You had soundtracked the lives of an entire generation.

Radio stations played Beyond’s music on a loop and messages of hope and support flooded in from around the world for the singer-songwriter. Six days after the accident, Wong died from a cerebral haemorrhage. He was 31.

Beyond fans in Hong Kong, as well as in Chinese communities around the world, were devastated. A vigil was held outside the band’s studio in Mong Kok. Hundreds waited in the arrivals hall at Kai Tak airport for the return of Wong’s body on July 3.

Distraught teenage fans gather to say goodbye to Wong at his funeral. Photo: SCMP

Two days later, a crowd of thousands of Beyond fans and celebrities thronged Wong’s service at the Hong Kong Funeral Home and his funeral procession brought various parts of the city to a standstill.

The three remaining three members of Beyond – Wong’s younger brother and bassist Wong Ka-keung, guitarist and vocalist Paul Wong Koon-chung and drummer Yip Sai-wing – struggled to continue for several years, but ended up going their separate ways. Ka-keung placed the final nail in the band’s coffin in 2015, saying during a radio interview that a reunion was impossible and it would be “meaningless” to continue without his elder brother.

Beyond may be gone, but their legacy lives on. Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies, the band’s last big hit released before Wong’s death, has become an indisputable Canto-rock classic. In the rock ballad written by Wong, he sings about the importance of following one’s dreams and living a life with no regrets. Twenty-five years on, the song is an integral part of Hong Kong’s collective memory and the city’s signature anthem of freedom. It has been played nearly 6.2 million times on Spotify, and is still sung at many political protests today.