This is an example of the kind of info Anthony is getting from ex-members and associates of the band. I'd recommend anyone who wants to pre-order a 1st ed hardback of the book places a pledge now before the door closes!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/748 ... -biographyThe text below is some of Anthony's interview with Rob Dean. It doesn't represent his writing style, it's just a taster of the kind of depth the book will include. It will be THE definitive book on Japan / Sylvian from '74 to '84 (Brilliant Trees).
'Japan were my first group, pretty much. I'd played with friends and at school and stuff. But I'd realised I wasn't band leader material. So I thought it better to join a band and follow someone else’s direction.
I was working, in offices and stuff purely so I could buy gear. I mean musical gear, not other kinds of gear..('Laughs').
I was 21, even though the ad in Melody Maker said '18 year old wanted' or something...
I think the ad mentioned 'Roxy Music' as an influence and I was a big Roxy fan. That was our common ground because I really wasn't into Bowie and Lou Reed that much. Not to the extent that the others were.
The weird thing was, I didn't reply to many ads. In fact that was the first. And I was the first guy that turned up too. I don't think they saw anybody else. And we clicked. And that was it.
Do I believe in fate? Very much so.
The 'audition' was at Dave and Steve's mum's house. I'm from Hackney so I'd never been to Catford before. It was a long way to go! It's a strange area...not that exciting.
I remember when they opened the door they looked pretty distinctive looking. Dave had long hair but it was spiky on top and it was dyed red. Definitely a Bowie influence. But other than that he just had on a T-shirt and jeans. Mick's was fairly similar but Black. Steve was still at school at this point so he wasn't looking so...distinctive. I wouldn't say it was Glam 'cos there was no make-up...
My own look? Oh, I don't know. My hair was probably some kind of blow dried bouffant....thing! (Laughs). Later Bolan was an influence on my look, but not at that point.
Rich wasn't there and when I arrived we went straight up to Steve's bedroom and plugged in two electric guitars and Dave started playing me one of his songs. He told me what key it was in first.
Mick, Steve and David were obviously very tight. And that was very impressive. They were very focussed about what they wanted to achieve. I mean the fact that they had their own P.A.! Very impressive. I don't know where they would have got it from but it shows real drive.
But back to Steve's bedroom, yeah, Dave would have played me an original song of his not a cover, and I just played along. I was at the house about three hours but once we'd decided I was 'in' we didn't play that much. We were talking mostly. Just chatting.
Soon after we started rehearsing in this small place, somewhere in Catford. Some crap place.
But Dave was very very prolific in those days. He seemed to come up with new songs all the time. They weren't fully formed focus wise but he had tons of ideas. And the influences of the day were pretty obvious as they are with young bands. Bowie. Roxy. And the songs sounded pretty free form. Yet were in fact very intricate. There was this song called 'The Apple'. And it was a ten minute extravaganza that went through all these changes. Different riffs and time changes, key changes. Underpinned by Mick and Steve who were from day one really tight together. It was a real epic. And part of that was the influence of Todd Rungrden in those days. We were all into Todd and we went to see a solo tour he did, a gig at the Hammersmith Odeon. And we were all bowled over by it. It was very impressive. Of course he also produced the Hall and Oates album, 'War babies' and that was the one David liked best. Its their most extreme album. David was also listening to Michael Jackson a lot.
We didn't talk much about the music we just got on with it. The songs were fairly open to our input and the arrangements just happened, it was quite organic. The guitar interplay between Dave and I, it just happened. And it wasn't merely him playing rhythm and me on top it was more intricate than that but we didn't discuss it much. There was no musical director as such but obviously, Dave came in with the songs already written.
We worked hard at getting our music out there. We'd play any place at all then. And we had our own white van. A little white van with 'Japan' painted on the side that Richard used to drive because he was the only one who could. But that van ended up in the knackers yard well before we 'made it'. I don't think it'll be on E bay.
Outside of music we used to go to the movies a lot. I was a movie freak. Mid to late 70's I used to go to the cinema all the time. But Dave was really into the movies too, we all had our favourite actors and stuff. Dave loved Dirk Bogarde but I was more into De Niro. But we both really liked 'New York New York' a lot. Yeah, we were very impressed by De Niro in that....'
Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 5:37 am
Well done to all nostalgics. 
