I have previously done a post discussing about the albums that have influenced me the most (see Influential Albums). One of them is “Maybe Tomorrow” by Rebecca. This was the first Japanese album that I ever listened to when one of my friends at my high school, Concord College, gave me a copy. I was…
Category: Music
Frankie Goes To Hollywood: Song By Song
A year ago today (7 May 2023), I saw Frankie Goes To Hollywood perform in Liverpool as part of the Eurovision celebrations in the city (see my Highlight on Instagram for more on this). Today, I agreed to write a book called Frankie Goes To Hollywood: Song by Song. Frankie Goes To Hollywood: Song by…
Japan Says ‘Western Pop’?: No Thanks, Don’t Do It
In 1995, Guy De Launey’s article ‘Not-so-big in Japan: Western pop music in the Japanese market’ was published. It sought to explain some of the reasons why the overwhelming majority of Western (by which that article implicitly and this paper more explicitly takes to mean those acts from North America, Europe and Australasia that release…
Book Review: “Dear Mr Pop Star” by D&D Philpott
In the past few months I haven’t been using Facebook as much as I used to, but one day when I was on there, I spotted the following post in one of the groups that I am a member of: As I am working on a book about Frankie fans (Frankie Fans Say Welcome to…
Holly Johnson in Concert – Holly Says Relax
On Saturday I travelled to Liverpool to see Holly Johnson in concert. The trip wasn’t without its dramas – I witnessed a car accident on the way up from Cardiff and then my Airbnb cancelled on me at the last minute so I ended up returning to Cardiff in the early hours of Sunday rather…
Blast from the Past – But Better
As I wrote about in another post (Welcome Back To Vinyl), I got a record player nearly 2 years ago. While usually I listen to music on my computer or phone (with earbuds), there are times when I prefer to use the record player. Even to my untrained ears, I can hear that the sound…
Frankie Went To Montreux
I still find it incredible to be writing that I saw Frankie Goes To Hollywood perform live the other day. Not only that, I met all of the band members afterwards. But all of that, and more, is for another post (possibly), although you can see some of the pictures already on my Instagram account…
Top Gun Music and The Oscars
Last night was the Oscars. I didn’t stay up for them. I’ve only ever stayed up once (keep in mind the time zone issues for watching in the UK) and an aspect of that was so disappointing that I’ve never stayed up again. Despite my interest in movies (and you will find many blog posts…
Book Review: “1984: British Pop’s Dividing Year” by David Elliott
1984 was a special year. Are there any other years that have such an iconic number? A few, but not during my lifetime, perhaps. While much of this is due to George Orwell’s book and how relevant its contents have become (albeit not when Orwell had expected), for many of us (of a certain age),…
Book Review: “Adventures in Modern Recording: From ABC to ZTT” by Trevor Horn
Despite Frankie Goes To Hollywood being my favourite music artist, I hesitated before buying this book by Trevor Horn. Despite the fact that I am working on a book about Frankie fans (Frankie Fans Say Welcome to our World), I hesitated before buying this book. In fact, it wasn’t ‘despite’, it was more because I…
Music Review: “Pop Up Dynamo!” by PG Roxette – Great Music, Fabulous Band, Questionable Branding
Every now and again I do some music reviews (e.g. “The Heart is Strange” by xPropaganda – Heaven from ABBA in Hell, “Europa” by Holly Johnson – Frankie’s Third Album?, and Transcendance by Berlin – Contemporary New Wave at its Best). In this one I am reviewing the new album “Pop Up Dynamo!” by PG…
My Juhachiban/’Go-to song’
Recently The Japan Society asked for contributions from members on the topic of their juhachiban or ‘go-to song’ at karaoke. Juhachiban literally means ’18’, but, according to the definition Wikipedia, its the term given to the one song which singers are especially good at and which they use to show off their singing abilities and…
Christopher P. Hood 