POP/ROCK - Nov. 6, 1987

Chris Mekow of the Nashville-based band, the Royal Court of China has been joining picketers before the band’s concerts in protest of Coors’ donations to the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). The catch is that Coors is a sponsor of the concerts, part of the Fourplay Tour, a series of free concerts featuring the Royal Court of China and three other young bands: Hurrah, the Northern Pikes and Will & the Kill. (The tour concludes Nov. 18 with a show at the Palace in Hollywood.) Though Mekow was reportedly unaware of Coors’ involvement with the PMRC before the tour began, he had already pledged to donate his tour salary to the campaign against rock censorship being spearheaded by Jello Biafra. Charges against Biafra stemming from from an allegedly pornographic poster that was included in an album by his group, the Dead Kennedys, were dropped after an August mistrial.