Japan Underground: 24 March, ft. ASIDBLOW and Jake Emlyn

When: Saturday 24 March from 7pm.
Where: The Pipeline, 94 Middlesex Street, E1 7DA.
Tickets: £5 adv. (purchase here) or £7 on the door.
Event pages:  [facebook] [last.fm]

ONE OF JAPAN’s newest guitar acts, ASIDBLOW, is pleased to announce that their first overseas show will take place in London on Saturday 24 March. With influences ranging from Mötley Crüe, Kurt Cobain and Japan’s own alternative music legend hide (X Japan, Zilch), ASIDBLOW hopes to impress a British audience with their mixture of Japanese and western rock styles.

ASIDBLOW's Yuhi

Previously the band concentrated their activities on conquering Tokyo’s indie scene and finished the year with a solo show at Shibuya’s Duo Music Exchange, the 1,350 capacity venue part-owned by Jay Kay from Jamiroqui. This year is already taking the group in exciting new directions with the members currently appearing in hit Japanese music-drama ‘Hungry!’, alongside famed Japanese actor Osamu Mukai (BECK) and SMAP’s Goro Inagaki, as well as expanding their reach outside of Japan by performing in England for the first time.

Vocalist Yuhi says;
“It’s truly meaningful for us to be able to play in the UK this time. Regardless of the difference in countries or race, we can share a common passion through music. It really transcends all boarders; we’ve been so inspired by foreign music.”

Jake Emlyn and Kenji Suzuki

ASIDBLOW will be supported by Jake Emlyn, a British singer-songwriter dubbed ‘the cockney Willy Wonka’; partly for his eccentric sense of fashion, partly for his approach to music. His band also contains a connection to Japan with its guitarist, Kenji Suzuki. After launching his solo career in 1983 and opening for the likes of Deep Purple and Stevie Ray Vaughan, Suzuki went on to work with Bono (U2), Annie Lennox, Seal and more recently Corinne Bailey Rae. He was also a member of Simply Red until it disbanded in 2010.

Both bands will perform as part of the Japan Underground club night in London, taking place at Liverpool Street’s newly establish rock venue The Pipeline (94 Middlesex Street, E1 7DA). The event, recently featured in the Evening Standard’s article ‘Tokyo Is Trending’, celebrates Japanese music, particularly of the rock, metal and punk genres while also encouraging Japanese street fashion. There will also be hot Japanese izakaya (pub) style snacks available courtesy of mobile Japanese food company Peko Peko, as well as Asahi beer available on tap.

You can see a full gallery of ASIDBLOW, along with further details of each member, by clicking here.

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