Beat Child 1987

I've been looking for a reason to post a Blue Hearts clip for a while. They will feature in an upcoming documentary about the Beat Child rock festival from 1987.

Over the last 20 years summer festivals have grown to dominate the world music landscape. From Woodstock, Glastonbury, Lollapalooza, All Tomorrow's Parties, The Big Day Out, to Fuji Rock and Summer Sonic. They can shape the music of a generation. And everyone who has attended a summer music festival, especially one of the multi-day events that involve camping in crusty flood prone swamp, will grow to forget the cold damp misery of incessant rain, the mud caked shoes and socks, and no sleep. The fond memories of friendship and music remain.

One such legendary festival in Japan, called Beat Child, was held in Kumamoto in 1987. It was Japan's first all night music festival, and it rain non-stop, the music thrived, and 72000 attendees were soaked though. This event has gone into Japanese music history for the rain, and the passion of not only the drenched spectators, but the tenacity of the performers.

The line up consisted of The Heart, The Blue Hearts, Up-Beat, Red Warriors, Yasunobu Komatsu (小松康信), Yasuyuki Okamura (岡村靖幸), Takako Shirai and the Crazy Boys (白井貴子&Crazy Boys), Hound Dog, Boowy, The Street Sliders, Yutaka Ozaki (尾崎豊), Misato Watanabe (渡辺美里), Motoharu Sano and The Heartland (佐野元春).

Titled "Baby, Are You Alright? Beat Child 1987" (ベイビー大丈夫かっBEATCHILD 1987), the documentary will be in limited release from October 26th.