big in japan

Big In Japan-Match of the Day          

Big In Japan were a supergroup before their time. They only released one e.p. and one track on one side of one single. They did have a great line up though. Dave Balfe; later to found Zoo Records with Bill Drummond, play in the Teardrop Explodes (and manage them) and set up Food Records, as well as managing Blur. Budgie; later to drum for both the Slits and Siouxsie & the Banshees. Holly Johnson; lead singer of Frankie Goes to Hollywood (massive hit singles etc). Jayne Casey; later to become driving force behind the superclub, Cream and an artistic director for Liverpool’s Capital of Culture thingy in 2008. Ian Broudie; formed The Lightning Seeds (big hit singles-Three Lions etc) and producer of lots of groups including the Pixies. Bill Drummond; founded Zoo Records, managed The Teardrop Explodes and Echo and the Bunnymen, formed the KLF, the JAMMS, also an artist, writer and maker of soup.

I never did see them live but apparently they played one song which was never recorded and to which the lyrics changed each week. It was a twenty minute noise/improv fest called “God Reads The Charts” over which Jayne Casey screamed that weeks’ top twenty at an ear-piercing volume. This still sounds like a fine concept to me. 

Two tracks of their seven recorded tracks were on a compilation album issued under the Zoo banner, “To The Shores of Lake Placid”. This was a lavishly manufactured gatefold album that probably cost a fortune to produce. No wonder that Zoo went bust shortly after it came out. It had rare and previously unreleased tracks from the Teardrop Explodes, Dave Balfe (as The Turquoise Swimming Pools and the only recording of Julian Cope as in his alter -ego of Kevin Stapleton. (This latter track was utterly bonkers and gives a very strong case as to why drugs are A Bad Thing.) The two Big in Japan tracks were from their John Peel session and hadn’t been released until then. I had the album for ages until it bit the dust in the great vinyl cull. It didn’t really matter though because a few years later everything that Zoo had ever released as well as this album was collated on one (bootleg) album. This goes to show that if you wait long enough for something to be released it will be. The days are long gone when I’ll pay over the odds for a supposedly rare track. I’ve had my fingers and wallet burnt too many times whilst falling for that scam.

This track though has never been re-released. I had it on a compilation of Liverpool post- punk bands called “Street to Street” that was issued by an art gallery/recording studio. It had early Bunnymen/Teardrop/OMD tracks, a terrible sleeve and good sleeve notes by John Peel. This track by Big in Japan was an instrumental and would have made a great theme tune for the football show of the same name. It still would do as well and I’m surprised the BBC has never used it. Like all things it’s bound to crop up somewhere. It’d be a bit ironic, though not wholly unexpected, if it turned up on Sky.

(This isn't MOTD though but still a good Big In Japan track.)