Sadistic Mika Band
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Sadistic Mika Band is a Japanese hard rock - glam rock group formed in 1972. Its name is a parody of the "Plastic Ono Band". Produced by Masatoshi Hashiba on Toshiba-EMI Records (present: EMI Music Japan Inc.), the band were led by the husband and wife team of guitarist Kazuhiko Kato, and his wife, singer (Sadistic) Mika. The word "sadistic" is reported to be inspired by her insensitive sense of humour.
The original lineup of the band included Kato, Mika, drummer Hiro Tsunoda, and lead guitarist Masayoshi Takanaka. This lineup recorded the single 'Cycling Boogie' in 1973. Subsequently Tsunoda left the band, to be replaced by Yukihiro Takahashi, and bassist Rei (Ray) Ohara joined the band. This lineup completed the band's first, self-titled, album. This album was released on the Harvest label in the United Kingdom.
Their second album Kurofune (literally 'Black Ship(s)') was recorded in England, produced by Chris Thomas. Thomas also introduced Mika to Badfinger while he produced their 1974 masterpiece Wish You Were Here, her vocals can be heard on the track 'Know One Knows' (translating Pete Ham's lyrics to Japanese. Keyboardist Yu Imai who had worked as a supporting musician on the first album was promoted to full member status. The album sold well in Japan. In the United Kingdom, where the album was released on Harvest records, the album sold poorly, but received high praise from critics.
Bassist Ray Ohara left the band, and was replaced by Tsugutoshi Goto. Chris Thomas also produced their third album, Hot! Menu. The album "Hot Menu" featuring tracks such as "Mada, Mada Samba" is now quite rare though it featured on Radio Four's "Sounds Interesting". They played live on BBC TV's "Old Grey Whistle Test" during October, 1975. The band featured two tracks from the "Hot Menu" album, 'Time To Noodle' and 'Suki, Suki, Suki'. When they appeared, a stagehand arranged for the name of the programme (usually shown hung from the back wall) to be spelled as The Old Gley Whistle Test.
The group also made an appearance on BBC TV's Pebble Mill at One and were interviewed by Jan Leeming. Photographs from this appearance were published in the book "S/M/B/2" (2006, Shinko Music) by Masayoshi Sukita who was a close friend of the group.
The band played live in the United Kingdom supporting Roxy Music. Recordings from these concerts were released as their Live in London album.
After this album was released, Kazuhiko Kato and Mika divorced, and both left the band. Mika later married British producer Chris Thomas, and moved to the UK, where she worked as a food researcher.
HMV Japan rated them #94 in their "Top 100 Japanese pops Artists".
The Sadistics
The remaining members, Takahashi, Takanaka, Imai, and Goto continued for several years as The Sadistics. They released two studio albums and two live albums, before the band eventually petered out in 1979 as the members became busy with their solo careers and other projects, such as the Yellow Magic Orchestra and Imitation. All members continued to work with Kazuhiko Kato on his solo albums in the 1970s and 80s.
