At the beginning of June, Ayers went to Japan for a short series of concerts in the QUATTRO chain of clubs. This was to be a second visit, the first being four dates just before Christmas in 1988. For whatever reason on this latest visit, Ayers was to play the series as half of a semi acoustic duo with guitarist KEVIN ARMSTRONG who had himself played on Still Life. Armstrong's previous musical alliances had included his band LOCAL HEROES, followed by work with THOMAS DOLBY, MORRISSEY, IGGY POP and DAVID BOWIE in his TIN MACHINE guise. The Japanese sets come across as extremely pleasant - the set lists show that a greater variety of songs had to be rehearsed than was the case with the electric band of a month earlier, and obviously each song tends to be shorter - but there are few who would argue that Ayers' songs generally respond very well to an acoustic treatment. The tour was as follows:

Club Quattro, Osaka 2nd June
Club Quattro, Nagoya 3rd June
In-store performance, Disk Union Records, Shimokitazawa, Tokyo 4th June
Club Quattro, Tokyo 5th June
Club Quattro, Tokyo 6th June

Our man on the spot, SHIGEMASA FUJIMOTO, takes up the story.

I hear that his record company in England didn't want him to come to Japan and the tour was nearly cancelled only a week or so before the first date. I wonder if this is related to the sudden death of Ollie Halsall. Kevin revealed this in an interview, but seemed to deny it's connection with the cancellation that there might have been. ( this interview was on the 6th June apparently - Ed ) He never mentioned it on stage either. I personally presume that he was so shocked with the permanent loss of his long-time partner that he lost interest in touring, or doing anything. Probably after some negotiation between the British record company and the Japanese promoter Smash and record company MSI, Kevin ended up with coming only with another Kevin, Kevin Armstrong, on guitar.

I didn't go to the first two dates, but did on the last three. First of all, the in-store performance at the record shop Disk Union also treated us with an autograph giving session. Only the first 100 people who had bought the Still Life With Guitar CD at one of the five Disk Union branches were allowed to have anything they liked autographed. My friend, Shigeo Yamagishi, who is also a big Kevin fan, had bought two copies on the day the CD was released to secure the ticket to this event. Some other people who dodn't have the ticket were also let in just for the performance. About half an hour before the performance, in front of the shop I saw Ayers and Armstrong, an interpreter and a Japanese girl employee From MSI coming out of a taxi. According to one source, they had eaten at a Korean restaurant around Shimokitazawa Station. As soon as they got into the shop, Kevin had the light inside the shop turned down and wanted to be alone so the shop staff offered a work room for him. He reqested a drink and someone brought him a Wild Turkey and then he wanted a cup of coffee. Perhaps at around 6.20, we, who had been queueing in front of the shop, started to enter. The strict inspection at the entrance found Shigeo's video camera which he had to leave behind. As all the audience got inside, Kevin and Kevin started to play rather suddenly. They performed three songs and after a few minutes' break did autographing service. For myself I got his autograph on the inside of Whatevershebringswesing, my favourite album of his. While writing, Kevin said 'my old girlfriend', referring to the girl in the photo (Margaret Brand). The Interpreter, apparently an Englishman, was telling people they could only get one autograph per person because the artists were tired. Kevin said 'okay, okay', and calmed the interpreter down. He shook my hand very firmly at the end.

After this I went to a bar called Stories (after an album by David Blue), just a few minutes' walk away from the record shop. The owner likes Kevin very much and he was also one of the autographees - he got his on his UK 'After The Show' single. ( This bar looks a phenomenal place! 'Shooting At The Moon' is pinned to the door, the sign is the logo from 'Rainbow Takeaway', and the walls inside are adorned with Ayers albums and Guru Bananas. One day the rest of us will catch up with great ideas like this ! Cheers lads -Ed ) Inside the bar a sort of Ayers retrospective was going on, with his albums being played one after another ( they don't have a CD or cassette player ). Someone had suggested To Kevin that he visit this place after the day's events, but he seemed to say that he was too embarrassed to be among his enthusiasts. In fact, he didn't even know about that day's event he was supposed to do until he arrived in Japan. It had been planned by Japanese sponsors without his agreement. He would've refused if he had known earlier and I think his autographing and shaking the hand of each fan ( often with both hands for girl fans) is not quite a Kevin Ayers style in the first place. Anyway, a good time was had by all on that evening.

The first night at Club Quattro (Tokyo), where Stewart and Gaskin and Phil Miller's In Cahoots had also performed very successfully, was quite full. The capacity of the venue would be about 300. The atmosphere of the gig was very warm and friendly. There were even words exchanged between Kevin and the audience. It's not such a common thing in this country. Halfway through, he claimed that the light from the back was too bright, saying 'grill...yaki' or something like that. I believe this 'yaki' is a reference to the Japanese word 'yakiniku', which means grilled meat he had eaten at the Korean restaurant the previoius day. (Someone said he'd liked it very much and went back to eat again after the in-store event.) Toward the end, while playing 'Shouting In A Bucket Blues', Armstrong's electric guitar (Fender Stratocaster) went silent, so he switched to acoustic guitar. There seemed to be a problem with connections to his guitar effect box. It appeared to recover, but went wrong again two or three times after that. he gave up in the end and carried on with the acoustic guitar.

After the concert, I went to a CD shop and knew that Kevin's live CD ( the Windsong BBC In Concert) was out soon. On the way to a train station, I saw Kevin and a Japanese boy going into a posh little Japanese restaurant near the club he'd just played at. Next to us were two Japanese Ayers fans also watching and wondering whether to go into the restaurant as well. I don't know if they did as I had to leave.

The second evening at the Club Quattro on June 6th. They turned up[ at 7 o'clock on the dot as they did the night before. The venue was almost packed and the audience enthusiastically welcomed the duo. On the stage there were two chairs, the left of which the main man sat on, and between them a table with two tall glasses, cans of beer and probably a pack of cigarettes. The air was even hotter than the night before and I could sense something good was going to happen. I'm sure lots of people went to see him more than once in spite of the rather expensive ticket price. The performance went very smoothly this time without any technical problems and the duo was in a very good mood. Armstrong's playing is exquisite, if not as flamboyant as Halsall's. Ayers appeared very pleased with his support in every song. They played more or less the same songs in a slightly different order. After the first encore, the lights went on and an announcement to say the concert was over but not a single person left. hand clapping demanded another encore and the lights went down again. When the duo appeared on the stage once more and started to play 'Why Are We Sleeping', which Ayers had hesitated to play, the audience went bananas. A great night that was.

SHIGEMASA FUJIMOTO

SET LISTS

Osaka 2/6/92

1. Feeling This Way 2. When Your Parents Go To Sleep 3. Super Salesman 4. Shouting In A Bucket Blues 5. Everybody's Sometime Blues 6.Something In Between 7. I Don't Depend On You 8. Lady Rachel 9. M16 10. Ghost Train 11. There Goes Johnny 12. May I 13. Why Are We Sleeping 14. Thank You Very Much 15. Blaming It All On Love 16. Two Goes Into Four

Nagoya 3/6/92 Not known

Disk Union, Tokyo 4/6/92

I Don't Depend On You / When Your Parents Go To Sleep / May I

Tokyo 5/6/92

As Osaka in this order: 1,2,3,5,11,6,8,7,9,10,12,Champagne and Valium (17), Stranger In Blue Suede Shoes (18), 14,4, Don't Blame Them (19), 16,15.

Tokyo 6/6/92

As Osaka and Tokyo 5/6/92 in this order:

1,2,4,5,6,11,8,7,10,12,17,18,3,19,15,14,16,13.

SHIGEMASA FUJIMOTO