SCANDAL, Live At The O2 Islington Academy, London

April 26th saw Japanese all-girl pop band SCANDAL take the stage at London's O2 Academy Islington in promotion of their new album Hello World. Check out the photos and videos below!

SCANDAL Announce World Tour 2015 『HELLO WORLD』

Japanese girl band SCANDAL have announced dates for their 『HELLO WORLD』 tour, which takes place next year. The tour will be to promote their latest album.

They have announced four dates so far, with USA dates to come. These performances follow an extensive tour of Japan.

Tour dates are as follows:

Apr 25 - Le Bataclan, Paris, France
Apr 26 - O2 Academy Islington, London, UK (Buy Tickets)
May 10 - Wall, Taiwan
May 29 - Macpherson Stadium, Hong Kong

For more information visit the Sony Music SCANDAL webpage.

Meanwhile, here is their current single, released 19 November 2014.


Image credit: Header - Sony Music SCANDAL webpage

the brilliant green - The Swingin' Sixties

When it was announced that the brilliant green would be releasing a new album called "The Swingin' Sixties", I was, for a short while, quite excited. That was until I found out it was a self-cover 'best of' album. While I always look forward to any release by the brilliant green, as they are one of my favourite bands, the thought of them releasing the same songs again just didn't really do it for me, especially seeing as they had released a best of album already. I just wanted a new album full of new songs! Of course, I pre-ordered the CD anyway, as I generally buy everything they record.

I got mine from cdjapan for 3000yen (affiliate links below):

 

The Swingin' Sixties

the brilliant green

It was released on 23 July, and my copy of the album arrived through the post seven days later.

It's been described as songs inspired by British sixties pop, and features eleven songs, ten of which are re-recorded versions of some the band’s older songs. The eleventh track is a new song called "A Little World".

BABYMETAL, World Tour 2014, Live At The Forum, London, UK

Edit: Since the release of this performance on CD, DVD and Blu-Ray, some of the videos have been blocked. Please support them by purchasing their music. Links below.

BABYMETAL were in the UK this past weekend promoting their self-titled debut album, as part of their first world tour, with a short set at Sonisphere festival on the Saturday, followed by their own show at The Forum in London on Monday 7th July.

The concert was originally scheduled to take place at The Electric Ballroom, and I was lucky enough to purchase a ticket before they sold out the same day they went on sale! Then, due to the high demand, it was decided that the concert would be moved to The Forum, which is more than double The Electric Ballroom's 1100 capacity. So, luckily for some of those who missed out on the initial run of tickets, another 1250 or so extra became available.

Early afternoon on the day of the gig, I met with a friend, who had had a job interview in the vicinity of the venue. He told me that he had already seen people queuing up for The Forum at around midday! I've read elsewhere, that some fans had even started queuing at 6am! By the time my friends and I got to The Forum, the queue was already snaking around several blocks, and took a while for us to reach the end of it to begin our wait to get in. Someone uploaded a video on YouTube of the queue; check it out below!



By the time we entered the building, it was already heaving with BABYMETAL fans of all ages, from young teenagers to middle aged men. We got ourselves a drink each, and then I decided to purchase two BABYMETAL t-shirts. We then made our way as far forward as we could, in order to get a decent view of the show.

Shonen Knife - Live At The Coal Vaults, Coventry, England

Well, it's that time of year again. The time of year I go to see Shonen Knife play live, somewhere near where I live... Last year it was in Sheffield, and this year, May 4th, it was in the city of Coventry! I'd been to Coventry on numerous occasions, but I've never been to the Coal Vaults before. It's quite a small, intimate venue; perfect for watching one of my favourite Japanese bands!

The venue was quite busy from the start, and pretty full by the time the two support bands had finished playing, and Shonen Knife had taken to the stage.

Back in the UK to promote their latest album "Overdrive", the band started with "Banana Chips" to get the fans warmed up. They continue to play with the same gusto and exuberance they have become well known for, with drummer Emi on particularly energetic form. She moved about so much, that most of my photos of her were a blur, so I've only included a few of them here.

The songs played this year seemed to be a little heavier than usual, mainly due to the inclusion of songs from the latest album, which is heavily inspired by 70's hard rock. This suits me down to the ground, as I'm a big fan of rock music from that era. With this new harder sound, Naoko had the opportunity to show off some of her soloing skills, which I think with the release of the new album, seems to have improved. Along with these new songs were also the usual pop punk infused stuff as well, which of course, is great in my book too!

BABYMETAL To Make UK Debut At Sonisphere Music Festival 2014

Sonisphere Music Festival have confirmed that Japanese idol girl group BABYMETAL will be making their UK debut, performing a set in the Bohemia tent on Sunday 6th July 2014.

Edit: Their scheduled performance has now changed, and they'll be playing the Main Stage on Saturday 5th July 2014.

Eldest band member SU-METAL (sixteen year old Suzuka Nakamoto) said:

“I am so honored that we are confirmed to play Sonisphere Festival UK,”

She continued:

“There are so many different types of artists playing this festival but I hope to deliver a one and only, unique style metal –BABYMETAL – even to those who will see us for the very first time. This will be our very first time in the UK, which makes us nervous, yet excited just imagining what type of people will come and see us, what sort of show it will end up being, and whether the audience will enjoy our show. We’ll hopefully get to see Metallica-san’s performance again after witnessing them at Summer Sonic festival in Japan which we are very excited about.”

You can BUY TICKETS from the Sonisphere website. The festival is headlined by The Prodigy, Iron Maiden and Metallica.

***

Formed in 2010, BABYMETAL started out as a subunit of the idol group Sakura Gakuin, releasing their first video in 2011 "Doki Doki☆Morning". They described themselves as Kawaii Metal.

Doki Doki☆Morning (ド・キ・ド・キ☆モーニング)

J-Pop Singer Rie Fu Got Married

Congratulations go to Japanese singer-songwriter Rie Fu, who recently tied the knot with a British man this month.

She posted on her official Facebook page:

"Just when I thought true love was a myth...
I met and got married to a funky British gentleman.
I wish to continue to deliver music filled with love, to every one of you who are generous enough to support me. 

Rie xx"

She also stated on her Facebook page (with a little help from Google translate and my Japanese dictionary):

"He is full of humour and affection, and above all else, he has been sincerely supportive of my songs."

Congratulations to Rie Fu and her new husband!
おめでとうございます！

HALLOWEEN JUNKY ORCHESTRA - HALLOWEEN PARTY

Today sees the release of "HALLOWEEN PARTY" by J-Rock superstar HYDE's special project HALLOWEEN JUNKY ORCHESTRA, a collective of quite a large number of artists from the world of Japanese music.

A friend of mine alerted me to this song today. I'd had an email a few months back announcing this forthcoming release too, but I kind of just dismissed it at the time, and forgot about it until now.

Here's the promo:


The musicians involved are:

Shonen Knife - Live At The Queen's Social Club, Sheffield, England

First of all, I'd like to say a very big thank you to all of you who read my recent blog post with my Top Ten Japanese Bands, in which Shonen Knife were featured; so far it's been one of the most popular posts I have written yet, so thanks again!! Please do comment with your favourite bands too; I'd love to hear what else is out there, and maybe find some new music to listen to. Also, don't be afraid to disagree with any of my choices, I'm always interested in others' opinions.

Anyway, on to the gig review...

On Friday night a friend and I went to see one of my favourite Japanese pop punk girl bands, Shonen Knife play live at The Queen's Social Club, Sheffield, England. I've enjoyed their music for twenty two years now (Wow! Is it really that long?!), and I'm sure I'll continue to do so for many years to come. In fact, they celebrated their thirtieth anniversary a couple of years ago (I was at one of those shows too :D).

Do You Know YUM!YUM!Orange?

I'm a little bit late with this release; I had no idea that YUM!YUM!Orange had released a new mini album called Oh! My Princess back in April earlier this year. Anyway, I ordered it July 18, and it just arrived yesterday, shipped by SAL.

They are one of my all-time favourite Japanese bands, whom I discovered back in 2003, and have continued to listen to ever since.

In case you didn't know, YUM!YUM!Orange are a six-piece ska/pop punk band, who formed in 1999, hailing from Nagoya, Japan.

Ever since their first single Letter (2002) and debut album Orange Street 33 (2002), they have consistently produced their delightful brand of feel-good and happy sounding music. To me, their songs are so infectiously catchy and upbeat, that I can't help but wear a big cheesy smile whilst listening to them!

Shonen Knife × Soul Flower Train = Osaka Rock City 「少年ナイフ」,「ソウル・フラワー・トレイン」

Shonen Knife's song "Osaka Rock City", from last year's album Pop Tune is being used as the theme song to the movie Soul Flower Train, a live action adaptation of Robin Nishi's manga written seventeen years ago. The film is directed by Hiroshi Nishio, and a special trailer featuring the band has been released.

Shonen Knife - Two Live Songs From 2011

I've just been looking through some old videos I took during various gigs I attended a while back. Here are a couple of songs from Japanese all-girl pop punk band Shonen Knife, when they visited Nottingham, England in 2011.

The first song was their opening song, "Konnichiwa", taken from the 1998 album Happy Hour. I believe that they always open with this song when playing live, well they have everytime I've seen them. The song is a perfect greeting for fans to their live shows, which incidentally, are some of the most fun gigs you can hope to go to. I always have a big smile on my face when watching them.

Hitomi Shimatani 『15th Anniversary SUPER BEST』

Avex Trax have just uploaded a load of Hitomi Shimatani videos on YouTube, in time for the release of her "15th Anniversary SUPER BEST" 3CD package, available for purchace on 17th July. It's also available with a DVD too.