In The Beginning...

[Cheery Cherry]

Do you remember where you were (or who you were with) when you first heard Japan/Sylvian song that got you hooked? What song was it? What made you a fan?

[Nath]

it's John Taylor & Nick Rhodes from DURAN DURAN who made me become a fan...
and the song was "Life in Tokyo"

Nath

[Poisoned_Apathy]

It wasn't too long ago. I was at home , watching tvwith my mom and then I watched the video for 'I second that emotion' on Vh1...I just loved it. I was like 'What's that band???' XDDDD I became a fan on that right moment.

[tallulahtaurus]

Another person who has Nick Rhodes to blame, Japan were mentioned and so I looked on Hype Machine and someone had posted Quiet Life, Taking Islands in Africa and Nightporter in their music journal. I think I hears Quiet Life first and was like wow this is perfect stuff and then as the other two were pretty ace too I decided to look into this band.

I came to YouTube and once I saw David I was smitten....absolutely unequivocally in love from that day forth...why can't everyone see the light??

[Silver Moon]

Another person who has Nick Rhodes to blame, Japan were mentioned and so I looked on Hype Machine and someone had posted Quiet Life, Taking Islands in Africa and Nightporter in their music journal. I think I hears Quiet Life first and was like wow this is perfect stuff and then as the other two were pretty ace too I decided to look into this band.

I came to YouTube and once I saw David I was smitten....absolutely unequivocally in love from that day forth...why can't everyone see the light??

Yeah... That is almost exactly what happened to me!!

-K-

[krausy]

Yep. Nick Rhodes and Simon LeBon were guest VJs on MTV waaaay back when and they played the video for "Visions of China".

Hooked.

[deadbees]

in 1981/82 both European Son and Visions of China were on compilation albums i had brought for other tracks, around this time magazines such as Smash Hits, Record Mirror, NME started to feature them.

[Brecht]

I heard Quiet Life on http://www.pandora.com. I was immediately hypnotized by the synthesizer loop. It still is one of my favourites.

[baht habit]

I wasn't aware of Sylvian's music until 1988. I guess this was around the time that he was out on the road for the In Praise Of Shamans tour. National Public Radio (WHYY in Philadelphia in this case) broadcast a fifteen minute documentary of his career with Japan and as a solo artist....and then followed that up with roughly twenty minutes of some of his material. I can still recall the tracks they played in their entirety for the second half:
The Boy With The Gun
Words With The Shaman part one and two
Maria
Home
Upon This Earth
I was at first most intrigued by the connection to Fripp, who I was already familiar with and I liked much of the snippets of Sylvian's solo music that were played during the documentary.... the stuff with Japan didn't impress me all that much. The playing was fine but the material wasn't my preference.
So when I went to locate some of Sylvian's music in stores, I could find nothing. About two years later, I finally found a used cassette copy of Gone To Earth in an old record shop. That one was all I owned of Sylvian's releases until the release of The First Day, which was easy to find. Then slowly but surely, I began to come across more of his releases on cd. It is a lot easier now with the development of the internet and the vast amount of info at one's fingertips.

[Tanya80]

Yep. Nick Rhodes and Simon LeBon were guest VJs on MTV waaaay back when and they played the video for "Visions of China".

Hooked.

tee hee hee, i got a copy of their MTV Guest VJ Hour & was thrilled to see they aired Japan , but i became hooked when they showed a clip of VOC video on MTV's, " It Came From The 80's " back in 95', i didn't know their name @ the time, until i VOC for the 1st time on VH-1 Classic on Thanksgiving night back in 02' & the rest is history & also @@ Nath, i knew i created a monster when i sent u, " Life In Toyko remix " last year, lol......

[Cheery Cherry]

To answer my own question, I was living in a small town in England. I was about 12 or 13 years old. I listened to my music box (radio) constantly and one night, as I was putting my posters of various bands/artists on my bedroom walls (Tears for Fears, Bauhaus, Kajagoogoo, Euythmics, etc.), I heard "Quiet Life". Although it sounded pop-ish, I heard the unique-ness in the way David sang and the way the band played their instruments. I have always been drawn to things that are "different"...some call it "weird"...I call it "unique".

I went out to purchase all their cassette tapes/L.P.s, and OMG, when I saw David Sylvian, I was instantly infatuated. I daydreamed a lot :oops:

[Cheery Cherry]

Oh...you know, as I am going through the threads here on this wonderful and informative and easy to navigate message board (yes, I'm sucking up :p), I see this topic has already been discussed. I am soo sorry about the duplicate, Silvermoon. Forgive me?

[Nath]

Yep. Nick Rhodes and Simon LeBon were guest VJs on MTV waaaay back when and they played the video for "Visions of China".

Hooked.

tee hee hee, i got a copy of their MTV Guest VJ Hour & was thrilled to see they aired Japan , but i became hooked when they showed a clip of VOC video on MTV's, " It Came From The 80's " back in 95', i didn't know their name @ the time, until i VOC for the 1st time on VH-1 Classic on Thanksgiving night back in 02' & the rest is history & also @@ Nath, i knew i created a monster when i sent u, " Life In Toyko remix " last year, lol......

yes it's because of you too!!!!
many thanks because listen JAPAN brings me so much fun...

Nath

[MoodyB]

I was at a disco with my older friends and the DJ announced "here's something new for you"...It was The Art Of Parties...We all turned to each other at the same time and said "What the **** is this?!!".
We'd never heard anything like it before!
The very next day, we all went down to Our Price Records in Maidstone and bought every piece of Japan vinyl we could lay our hands on!
I still have that very same 12" of AOP and it still gives me a smile to this day!

[proggrl]

Yep. Nick Rhodes and Simon LeBon were guest VJs on MTV waaaay back when and they played the video for "Visions of China".

Hooked.

I thought we discussed this before, but maybe it wasn't here. Anyway, Krausy just told you my story. It's the same as hers.

To Moody: That's a great story.