S.M.B. PRESS RELEASE
about SADISTIC MIKA BAND 2
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In Britain "Black Ship" received numerous critical accolades. John Ingham in Time Out called it "1975's most essential record". "Found at last, real rock 'n' roll in Tokyo", declared the New Musical Express. Sounds praised its "inventive and abrasive rock 'n' roll"; "an important new force", said Music Week; "this sextet will stagger you", announced Derek Jewell in the Sunday Times. ("Makes very little sense to me", complained the Disc reviewer). U.S. crtics were no less impressed: Cashbox called the band a "supermonster from Japan" playing "exciting commercial rock 'n' roll with an accuracy not possessed of many American groups"; "let the Occident beware", warned Circus magazine. By now established as the leading rock in Japan, the Sadistic Mika Band won most of the country's pop polls for 1974. In Music Life, the biggest rock magazine (devoted almost entirely to Western bands) and with a circulation of 500,000, they were voted No. 3 Band, and No. 2 in the Best Musician/Group section, with "Black Ship" No. 5 Album. In the Japanese edition of Rolling Stone, which sells 250,000 (ten times the British circulation), they were voted No. 1 Band, with "Black Ship" as No. 1 Album; Kazuhiko was No. 3 Man of the Year and also No. 3 Songwriter. In both magazines all the band members were highly placed in individual categories, and this recognition was echoed in most of the other Japanese publications dealing with music. |
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During the summer of 1975 the band recorded their third album, again with Chris Thomas as producer. It shows a marked change of flavour from "Black Ship", just as "Black Ship" did from the first album. More direct than the second album, and with English lyrics, "Hot! Menu", is released in October (1975), to coincide with the band's first tour of Britain. The tour, with Roxy Music, is significiant as well as being the first that any Japanese band has ever undertaken in Britain. For some months the group had been planning to go international, but simply needed the right opportunity. Similarly, Roxy Music were looking for the most interesting and exciting support act possible: already familiar with the Sadistic Mika Band, it seemed the ideal matching. Back in 1973 the New Musical Express wrote of the Sadistic Mika Band: "If they were to tour Britain right now, they'd slay us". Two years later it's still true. |
To be continued.....
Original source of this page was taken
from
Harvest Records press release
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