Well, folks. As you may already have heard from Fish Tank, Buck-Tick have at last announced the details of their forthcoming 30th anniversary extravaganza. To call it a festival would be an overstatement, seeing as by all reports, Buck-Tick are the only band who will be performing...though who knows, maybe we can hope for some guest appearances. In any case, here are the details, according to Fish Tank.
Buck-Tick will hold a pair of concerts in honor of their 30th anniversary entitled "Buck-Tick 2017 'The Parade' ~30th Anniversary~". We're tempted to point out that it's hard to have a parade with only one band, but for now, we'll be charitable. Day One of this two-day event, entitled "Fly Side," will be held on Saturday, September 23rd, in an outdoor venue set up specially for the occasion on a vacant lot right next to Aomi Station on the Yurikamome Line, on Odaiba, the magical island made of trash piled up on the bottom of Tokyo Bay. Day Two of the event, entitled "High Side," will be held on Sunday, September 24th, at the same location.
On both days, the doors will open at 3:30PM, and the show will start at 5:30PM. Fans are free to purchase tickets to one or both dates. Single-day tickets will cost 10,000 yen each, while a two-day pass will cost 18,919 yen. Why the strangely specific price, you ask? Because in Japanese number-speak, 8-9-1-9 can be pronounced "ba-ku-chi-ku," that's why. And for the record, the pricing was the same for their 25th anniversary festival, for the same reason.
Though there is as yet no word on how the venue will be arranged, it will be divided into blocks, and tickets will be assigned by block, with line numbers. Tickets go on general sale at 10AM on June 24th, but there will be a Fish Tank presale between April 8th and April 27th, the details of which will be printed in the forthcoming Fish Tank newsletter, due to be sent out on April 6th. For the record: for most of its existence, Fish Tank has sent out its quarterly newsletter in mid-March, mid-June, mid-September, and mid-December...but since Watanabe Sayuri took over from Ikeda Rumi as Fish Tank manager, the FT newsletter has been sent out several weeks late on more occasions than it has been sent out on time. Do these delays demonstrate a lack of professionalism on the part of the new Fish Tank management? Probably.
Rants aside, however, those of you who are interested in attending this festival and would like Cayce's help in obtaining tickets should contact Cayce via email around April 6th. If you're not a member of Fish Tank but you'd like to join in order to get Fish Tank tickets to the 30th anniversary extravaganza, you'll be eligible to get tickets through the Fish Tank presale if you join Fish Tank through Fish Tank web by March 31st. If you haven't joined Fish Tank yet but you want to do so specifically for this pair of concerts, I recommend you join as soon as possible and do not leave things to the last minute, as Fish Tank has been notoriously unhelpful toward foreign fans since their new dictator took office. I still do encourage all of you to make an effort to write Fish Tank emails in English about how much you like Buck-Tick. Recent fans especially - write to Fish Tank and tell them how you just discovered Buck-Tick five minutes ago! Most of Buck-Tick's Japanese fan following have been following the band since soon after their debut, and it wouldn't be a bad thing to let Fish Tank know that the band are drawing in new blood from overseas. They might not do anything with the information, but you never know.
As to rumors that tickets for "High Side" include a package of "candies" to help enhance your concert experience... they cannot be confirmed at this time, but neither can they be denied.
We will follow up with further information as it becomes available.
Is this kind of event likely to sell out before it goes to general sale? Will get right on fanclub membership if that is smart.
ReplyDeleteI very much doubt this event will sell out in Fish Tank presale - otherwise, what would the point of having it in a big outdoor venue? Plus, unless the management are even stupider than they appear, they'll know that lots of people who aren't in the fanclub are going to want to attend this show.
DeletePerhaps this is more of a question for the Buck-Tickistan Daily, but isn't Sayuri Watanabe (the former) mrs. Sakurai, or is the name a coincidence?
ReplyDeleteAs far as we can tell, the two women have the same name, but whether they're the same person or two different people with the same name cannot be verified at this time. If they're the same person, and it's true that she came crawling back to B-T begging for a job after great misfortune somewhere else, it would certainly explain her seeming hatred of the fans - jealousy.
DeleteIs "Watanabe Sayuri" a common name in Japan? I don't know, it seems too much coincidence...
DeleteIf they are the same person I don't understand the jealousy-their marriage may not have ended well but at least she has seemingly close interaction with the band in real life. As fans our relationship with them are quite superficial and built on passion for people we cannot reach.
DeleteAs I said above, it's entirely possible that the Watanabe Sayuri working for Fish Tank now is a new, different, unrelated person. But if you really can't imagine why an ex-wife of a famous rock star might be jealous of his fans, I suggest you spend some more time around 1) fans and 2) failed marriages. Invidia is a bottomless well.
Delete@Gisele - Watanabe is a really common surname. Sayuri is not particularly common as a given name, but neither is it unusual. Also I once met a fat, balding little financial securities analyst by the name of Hoshino Hidehiko. These things happen.
DeleteI would also like to direct your attention to the works of Atsushi Sakurai, acclaimed fish photographer (look up his books on Amazon).
DeleteOr Higuchi Yutaka, figure skating coach, commentator,and former figure skating Olympian.
DeleteOr indeed Hisashi Imai, Tokyo-based mixed martial artist, apparently (thanks to a friend for flagging him up to me /laughs).
DeleteMay I ask what happened with Mrs. Ikeda? She's been in the management since 2003.
ReplyDeleteIt's not like they announced anything about Ms. Ikeda - I just noticed at the end of 2014 that suddenly, she was no longer listed as head of Fish Tank and Watanabe Sayuri had taken her place. Soon after that, Fish Tank made the announcement that they were no longer going to print the "picture tickets" for non fanclub members. Subsequently, there were all the issues with seating for The Mortal's tour, and then a number of Blog-Tick readers began reporting to me that they'd emailed Fish Tank with questions about fanclub tickets, and Fish Tank hadn't even bothered to respond.
DeleteOverall, it seemed to me that Fish Tank's tone had changed and they were no longer friendly as they were under the management of Ms. Ikeda. It used to be that Fish Tank would respond to all emails within a day or two, and they did everything in their power to help sort out problems. Also, I'll never forget how when I returned to Japan after living overseas and wrote to Fish Tank to request my membership to be changed from international to domestic, a representative of Fish Tank actually called me on the phone to personally welcome me to Japan. Apparently they stopped doing this after the number of overseas Fish Tank members began to increase, but at the time, I was extremely impressed by their hospitality. Who knows why Ms. Ikeda quit, but I miss her friendliness and professionalism.
That's so sad they lost a very kind person to work with.
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