“We were a kind of low-budget Wrecking Crew, musicians who were happy to help each other but never got a chance to rehearse properly. More often than not, we learnt the new songs on the spot, in the studio. How on earth could we even think about playing gigs? And who’d have us anyway?
Well, Japan would, as we found out.”
In 1987, él Records label head Mike Alway discovered his roster had found a proper audience on the other side of the world, namely Japan.
The él sound, unashamedly light, poppy and colourful, but also ambiguous, chimed in with the sensitivities of young urban Japanese, and Mike quickly prepared for his artists to head out and play three nights in the heart of Shibuya, Tokyo.
Philippe Auclair, also known by his moniker Louis Philippe was one of those artists. A French singer-songwriter, musician, news correspondent and football journalist he was also a recording artist, in-house writer and producer with él.
In our latest blog piece Philippe writes about his experiences with that fabled visit to Japan – an adventure that included Simon Fisher-Turner (The King Of Luxembourg), Anthony Adverse (Julia Gilbert), Martyn Bates (Eyeless In Gaza), film director Derek Jarman and many more colourful characters.
Intrigued? Read the latest issue of our CHERRY RED BLOG here…
