Big in Japan | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Liverpool, England |
| Genres | |
| Years active |
|
| Labels | Zoo |
| Past members |
|
Big in Japan were apunkband that emerged fromLiverpool, England, in the late 1970s. They are better known for the later successes of their band members than for their own music.
Big in Japan began from the sameMerseyside scene that would produceEcho & the Bunnymen,the Teardrop Explodes,OMD andDalek I Love You.
Big in Japan started off playing gigs aroundLiverpool, such as Ruffwood School inKirkby along withWah! Heat, but most notably atEric's Club.[1] Their stage show was unique: lead singerJayne Casey would perform with a lampshade over her shaved head, guitaristBill Drummond played in akilt and bassistHolly Johnson performed in a flamboyant manner which he would later take further inFrankie Goes to Hollywood.
As an initial idea ofDeaf School'sClive Langer, his friendBill Drummond (guitar, vocals), Kevin Ward (bass, vocals) and Phil Allen (drums) formed the band in May 1977, playing only threegigs, the first of them atBretton Hall College inYorkshire.[2] In August, the line-up grew to include Jayne Casey (vocals),Ian Broudie (guitar) and Clive Langer (guitar), who quit in September, but not before the bandrecorded their first release, "Big in Japan", which appeared on thesplit single "Brutality, Religion and a Dance Beat", released the same year. In October,Ambrose Reynolds joined to replace Ward who then left that December, but Reynolds himself quit shortly afterwards and was replaced byHolly Johnson.[3] In January 1978,Budgie (previously inthe Spitfire Boys and later member ofthe Slits andSiouxsie and the Banshees) replaced Allen on drums, and in early June, Johnson was sacked and replaced with ex-Deaf School Steve Lindsey, who was replaced in July byDave Balfe (previously inDalek I Love You), the last member to join.[4][5]
Hatred of the band reached such a level that a petition calling on them to split up was launched by a jealous youngJulian Cope resulting from a rivalry with theCrucial Three.[6] Displayed in local shopProbe Records, the petition gathered numerous signatures, including those of the band themselves.[7] According to Cope's autobiography, "Of course, Bill Drummond was into the whole thing and told us we needed 14,000 signatures, then they'd split up. We got about nine".[8] In the 1980s, Drummond becamemanager of Cope's band,the Teardrop Explodes.
The band broke up after a last gig at Eric's on 26 August 1978. During their time, Big in Japan recorded four songs which were included on theFrom Y to Z and Never AgainEP, released afterwards to pay off debts. The unintentional consequence of the EP was the formation of theZoo label, which went on to release early material by Echo & the Bunnymen and the Teardrop Explodes, amongst others. They also recorded aPeel Session on 12 February 1979, with a line-up of Casey, Broudie, Johnson and Budgie; the session was broadcast on 6 March 1979.[9] Balfe and Drummond then formed the short-livedLori and the Chameleons.
Big in Japan left a recorded legacy of seven songs: one on a single, four on their EPFrom Y to Z and Never Again, and two released on compilation albums. As of 2005, five out of these recorded songs are commercially available, on thecompilation albumThe Zoo: Uncaged 1978–1982.[10]
According to theLiverpool Echo, Big in Japan were "asupergroup with a difference—its members only became super after they left";[1] former members of Big in Japan would later find fame inthe KLF,Frankie Goes to Hollywood,the Lightning Seeds, the Teardrop Explodes andSiouxsie and the Banshees.[11]
The first single of German bandAlphaville was called "Big in Japan", named directly after the band.[12] Coincidentally, Frankie Goes to Hollywood's single "Relax" was displaced from the top of the German charts by Alphaville's "Big in Japan".[13][14] Singer/songwriterMarian Gold later said that "we never got to speak with him [Holly Johnson] but he must have wondered 'who is this German group with a song named after my band?'".[15]
Jayne Casey later states:
"We were all a bit too eccentric at a time when punk was quite macho and clear cut...a bit too much for people to handle. We always wanted to be likethe Monkees or something. We wanted to be a cartoon, and that's how we tried to sell ourselves to the record companies".[16]
Ian Broudie said:
"It was more performance art thanrock and roll. But it gave me a healthy disregard for musicianship. It's ideas that are important, not proficiency".[17]
Bill Drummond recalled:
[The] group only lasted 12 months but that's about as long as any punk band should last. We never got anywhere, but all went on to success later on with bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Teardrop Explodes.[18]
Three unreleased songs were recorded for the band's onlyJohn Peel session of 6 March 1979; "Suicide High Life", "Goodbye" and "Don't Bomb China".[19]
Abootleg CD is in circulation which contains all of the material listed above as well as demo versions of "Society for Cutting Up Men" (named after the manifestoSociety for Cutting Up Men), "Boys Cry", "Big in Japan", "Space Walk", "Match of the Day" and "Taxi". It also contains the audio from the band's performance of "Suicide a Go Go" on theirGranada TV appearance of 23 March 1978 (onTony Wilson's,So It Goes).
Black-and-white, amateur home movie footage of the band performing live at Eric's still exists—excerpts of the band performing both "Big in Japan" and "Cindy and the Barbi Dolls" were used in the BBC Television'sRock Family Trees: The New Merseybeat, originally broadcast in August 1995 and repeated in 1997.
{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)| International | |
|---|---|
| Artists | |
