A long way from Lewisham. David Sylvian in a Tokyo hotel bar, March 1980.
© Getty
In early 1979, Mancunian teenager Stephen Holden was big on Japan. “I’d seen them live as many times as possible,” says Holden. “From the Blue Oyster Cult support tour in June 1978 and whenever I could thereafter; St Albans, The Lyceum, Nottingham… all in the same year. I had every record, every cutting, T-shirts, fanzines, badges, posters. All signed. I had met the band backstage and in their management offices several times. I was an avid fan of the music and look.”
Stephen was in the minority. At this point in the UK, Japan, if they were considered at all, were considered an unfunny joke. In 1978 they had released two flop albums on Ariola Hansa – the raw faux pop funk of Adolescent Sex and its slightly more sophisticated, atmospheric sequel Obscure Alternatives. A handful of unsold singles joined both albums in the bargain bins of Woolworths up and down the country. You would not hear Japan on the radio nor see them on TV. However, they did appear regularly in the press; if only to be insulted each time. “There’s such a stench of musical decay,” wrote the NME of Adolescent Sex, “that my stylus refuses to go near it again.”