In October '86 Alchemy Records ran into financial difficulties and I was forced to close the Tokyo office and return to my parents' house in Kyoto. However it had already been decided that we would play a session with Nagoya punk band the Genbaku Onanies at La Mama in Shibuya under the name "Genbaku Kaidan". I went to the Genbaku Onanies rehearsal studio in Nagoya for a practice for the show. The show itself had been planned by the record shop Fujiyama under the title of "Gan Gan Fight", and the idea was that various bands from the Fujiyama scene would play covers of their favourite groups. Genbaku Kaidan consisted of four members from the Genbaku Onanies, myself on guitar, Mikawa on signal generator, Junko on vocals, and a dancer in gold lamé (!) hot pants.
All the songs we played as Genbaku Kaidan were of course covers, and the songs to be played were chosen by myself and Tairo, the vocalist from Genbaku. The songs we chose were all rock classics, including Hawkwind's "Silver Machine", Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" and Led Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown". The mood of the times necessitated this kind of amateurism / return to ones' roots. When we played Status Quo's "Caroline" of course I struck some rock poses with my guitar and Mikawa danced around holding his signal generator in two hands. Even Watanabe-san from Fujiyama who was videoing the proceedings did a little boogie with his camera - fond memories. This performance was recorded to 8-track and was released by Alchemy in December of that year, under the title "Acidsoul".
Also in '86 we were included on some overseas noise compilations. The first was "Dead Tech Sampler" released by the German company Dossier and organized by Kishino from YBO2. This LP, which had the uncool subtitle of "No Wave from Japan", also featured Null, Boredoms, Ruins, YBO2, High Rise, ANP etc. Our track was recorded in '84 at the Eggplant gig just after the release of "Viva Angel". We entitled the track "Bad character, but great sound" as it was a live version of the track from that LP. Apparently when this compilation LP reached an American radio station the DJ pointed out this track and said laughingly that it was a great title.
The other compilation was "Dry Lungs2," released by the American company Placebo Records. This record was compiled by Paul Remos from Controlled Bleeding, and the Japanese artists featured were Hijokaidan and YBO2.
At the start of '87 we were able to appear again at the Shinjuku Loft for the first time in five years, at a concert organized by Totsuzen Danboru. I believe that we had been banned from appearing there due to the mess we had made of the venue during our performances there in '81 and '82, but now five years had passed and they must have decided to give us another chance. From around this time we also began to play frequently at La Mama in Shibuya and Antiknock in Shinjuku. When we were playing with Sekiri at La Mama, Shintaro threw a drum case into the audience and managed to hit one of the fans in the face. After this accident it was decided that Shintaro and Yuka would leave the band (it should also be pointed out that Shintaro accepted responsibility for the accident, and everything was resolved out-of-court with the injured fan). Hijokaidan thus remained the three-piece of Jojo, T. Mikawa and Junko for a long time.
At the Fujiyama-organized Gan Gan Fight "Negro" event at La Mama, we covered Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze". This cover was also performed at Hijokaidan's first ever open-air performance, at the "Oni no ichi" festival in Kyoto in the summer of that year. This open-air festival was very strange - it was held over several days on a piece of waste-ground that was ear-marked for development by Osaka Gas. As well as bands, there was also screenings of films and theatre performances. Looking back now, the underground theatre groups in Kyoto must have put a vast amount of effort into this festival. The bizarre twenty-metre stage they had constructed out of plywood boards was truly like something out of a dream. At this gig Kumiko from Sekiri guested on drums.
At our August gig at the Shinjuku Loft, Junko ignored a high fever to appear, and as a result we put in an unusually high tension performance. This performance was entitled "Before the heat" and was included on the "Limited Edition" LP (ARLP-016) released on Alchemy Records in November. This album consisted of live takes from our shows between August and October of that year, and it included the previously mentioned "Purple Haze" and a performance recorded at Antiknock in Shinjuku. At the Antiknock gig we also covered "Doko-e" by the German group Can. This song has since become a basic starting theme for many of our performances.
The reason why we chose the title "Limited Edition" for this album wasn't just because it was an edition of 444 copies, but also because Can had released an album with the same title. Later they reissued that album under the new title "Unlimited Edition", and Hijokaidan planned to do the same thing with our album. The jacket was plain black with just a round yellow and black sticker designed by Watanabe-san from Fujiyama. Out of all the Hijokaidan album's this one is possibly the most stylish. (Over seven years have now passed since the release of this album, and we are currently considering reissuing it on CD).
At the beginning of '88 we played at the Shinjuku Loft at the request of Batoh's (currently in Ghost) band Eikyu Konran (Permanent Chaos). In the middle of our set Junko suddenly snapped her microphone cord. She then leapt into the audience and began throwing all the chairs unto the stage. Soon the stage was covered with chairs, but we were somehow able to continue our performance. However as a result of this incident we were again banned from playing at the Loft. Afterwards Batoh was also turned down for gigs at the Loft, and I remember that he sent me a bitter and scathing letter.
In January we also played as SOB-Kaidan (a combination of SOB and Hijokaidan) at La Mama in Shibuya. At this gig there was a lot of trouble, including an excited fan smashing a monitor speaker with a concrete block and a newly-bought microphone going missing, and as a result Hijokaidan were barred from playing at La Mama as well. The theme for this performance by SOB-Kaidan had been "destruction", so to a certain extent we should have been able to forsee that the gig would not be the most tranquil. However while the actions of the band could be said to be our responsibility, those of the audience were certainly beyond our control. Nevertheless, Watanabe-san from Fujiyama who was in charge of booking our Tokyo gigs certainly caused a lot of headaches for Nakayama-san at La Mama.
For my part I thoroughly enjoyed this session with the hardcore band SOB. Especially when we played together with SOB at Eggplant's rehearsal studio in Osaka, I participated in a mighty guitar battle with Seki from SOB. I only wish that there was a tape of that studio performance. It is beyond doubt that we constructed a speed noise sound far in advance of those grindcore bands like Naplam Death who appeared years later.