The band Vodka Collins was like a comet that burned briefly and brightly across the sky of the Tokyo rock scene. In their two years as a unit they easily dominated the rock n roll world of Japan in the early 1970s, and their vinyl 33 RPM debut album "Tokyo New York" on EMI / Toshiba Records is a milestone. It is considered a ground breaking LP in the domestic Japan rock scene. The album still sells today in CD reissues in both the English and Japanese languages. There were three hit singles on the album, "Sands Of Time", "Automatic Pilot" and Billy Mars" and a TV theme song with "Scratchin' " was used for a Yakusa style series starring singer actor Kenichi (Shoken) Hagiwara.
The core band of Vodka Collins consisted of singer-guitarist Alan Merrill, and drummer percussionist Hiroshi Oguchi. They were much like their British counterpart band T Rex, and Marc Bolan and his wife June loved Vodka Collins' "Tokyo New York" album, and they marvelled at the glam rock style being done in the Japanese language.
The band was augmented by members Hiroshi "Monsieur" Kamayatsu on rhythm guitar, and Take Yokouchi on bass. With Merrill and Oguchi, this was the studio recording and live concert band lineup. Monsieur was already an established superstar in Japan with his band The Spiders, and he was the creative musical force in that band. The Spiders were one of the top three bands in Japan, with The Tigers and The Tempters. Take was the lead guitarist for The Four Leaves backing band, High Society. The Four Leaves were one of the first "boy bands", and they were also big hit makers in the Japanese market.
The group Vodka Collins actually started out when Merrill and Oguchi were called in to back up Monsieur on some solo shows after his band The Spiders broke up. Oguchi's band The Tempters had also split, and 1971 was a time of reshuffling and change in the Japan rock scene. Oguchi had done one album with the short lived supergroup hard rock band PYG after the Tempters. After PYG split, Merrill and Oguchi formed a musical bond, and worked with Monsieur, on bass and drums. The lineup for Monsieur's solo shows included guitarist Masayoshi Takanaka, who would later be a founding member of The Sadistic Mika Band.
Merrill and Oguchi started to experiment with Merrill's newly written glam rock songs at Yotsuya Studio in Tokyo, just guitar and drums. It was setting the foundation for what would become Vodka Collins proper. The guitarist Take Yokouchi was brought in to play bass on the Yotsuya sesions and Vodka Collins was born. They were probably the only rock band in Japan with a set of original tunes in English, and they set about recording the songs right away. The band did 3 or 4 jobs a day, with radio, tv, and live shows all in a hectic schedule. The fan base grew and they were the talk of all the music business in Japan in 1972. The album "Tokyo-New York" was hastily recorded and unfinished. Three or four tracks never were completed.
Vodka Collins split up in the winter of 1973, in an explosive response by Merrilll to the band's deceptive management, and their mishandling of the band's finances. Simply put, the band were being ripped off in a big way. Merrill got on a plane for London the day before they were to headline at the Budokan. On arrival in the UK he formed the band The Arrows. Six months after leaving Japan he was in the British top ten charts with The Arrows!
File UnDeR ;;;;;;; Japanese American 70's Glam
Tracklist:
1] C'est No More
2] Sorry
3] Bitches For Breakfast
4] Passion And Emotion
5] Miss Prettyface
6] Reprise
7] Possession Obsession
8] So Deep
9] See You Comin'
10] Bridge To The Moon
11] Instant Gratification
12] Foreign Prince Of Tokyo
13] Reprise
14] Knife
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