Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on October 2012
Western rock fans in Japan a while could hardly have failed to notice the rise—and rise—of Hostess Entertainment. The music company started by Englishman Andrew “Plug” Lazonby grew from humble beginnings a decade ago to release such acts as Radiohead, Adele and the Arctic Monkeys here. On the way it eclipsed the likes of Sony to boast the second-largest repertoire of Western music after Universal.
But Hostess’s decision to launch a music festival into crowded waters this year came as a surprise. And the company’s plan for not one, but three events a year seemed downright audacious.
“As festivals get bigger, club shows are becoming economically less viable,” explains Lazonby, who arrived in Japan in the late ’90s. “So we stepped up our live planning between Hostess and sister company Ynos to establish the Weekender.”
The first one in February welcomed The Horrors and Spiritualized while June’s featured Bloc Party, The Cribs and Hot Chip. The final one of 2012 is headlined by US indie icons Dinosaur Jr [pictured] and Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore.
The event will showcase Dinosaur Jr’s new album I Bet On Sky as well as Moore’s post-Sonic Youth 2011 solo outing Demolished Thoughts—but there are other highlights on the cards. “The War on Drugs are one of those bands who are revered in the West for their live shows yet have never made it over,” Lazonby says, “while the Trail of Dead are making their first appearance here for some ten years, and performing for the first time ever their seminal album Madonna in its entirety.”
Lazonby says Weekender’s goal is to prepare ground in Japan for new independent music at a time when audiences are looking inward and Western music is struggling to keep its roughly 15 percent market share.
“If you instill confidence in an audience with such a rich history of music appreciation so they can continue to explore, then the market will grow,” he says of Japanese music fans. “If you make it harder to explore, then, given it’s not indigenous culture, it is going to drift out of reach.”
Weekender has been a sellout, and for its third incarnation moves from Ebisu Garden Hall to the larger Zepp DiverCity in Odaiba. But Lazonby says the festival will not attempt to go head to head with Summer Sonic et al.
“This isn’t a race for the big prize,” he says. “There won’t be random J-pop stars added to the bill to sell tickets. We’ll spend more where we need to make the experience as comfortable as possible while presenting uniquely exciting programs in a relatively intimate setting.”
“In essence, we shouldn’t all aspire to the LiveNation approach,” he concludes, referring to the global concert promotion giant. “It strangles the very soul out of the subject, and kills off the roots.”
