Hey kids! Wanna watch your favourite band slowly melting during a show at a stadium in Japan? Let's do it ;)
Here's some more gems from the collection of Japanese TV footage I dug out last week. This is some footage from Editors' appearance at the Japanese Summersonic Festival ago in 2007, and it was a very rare occasion indeed because they didn't actually finish their set. As I recall this was because the ever-rising temperatures within the venue reached such ridiculous levels that heat exhaustion came calling. You would think that having spent a lot of their early years as a band playing to packed rooms full of sweaty folks, this would be a breeze but there seems to have been several components at work here that forced the tap out from them.
There's a time stamp at the beginning of this video which indicates that the band began playing at 12.40pm, midway through the day. I haven't been to Japan...yet (it's on the bucket list) but if it's anything like noon on a clear summer day here in the UK, that's hot. Then there's the design of the stadium itself. All that heat is probably being trapped and held because of the enclosed nature of the venue. August 2007 was also the month that Japan recorded record-setting high temperatures, with some paces getting up to 40.9°C just five days after this gig. Mix all this together and you have a delicious recipe for dehydration, and a strong urge to disappear under the surface of an Olympic sized swimming pool full of ice. If the question was ever raised regarding what happens to the human body when you try to make music in a sauna, now we know. It tends to wilt, somewhat. You can get a feel for how tired they all were by watching Munich. Ordinarily they're just hitting their stride by this point, but by the end of that song Tom's not even singing the "You'll speak when you're spoke to" lines any more.
As you keep an eye on the perspiration levels of each individual Editor, note that the only man that held true to his glum instincts was Russell, who played this entire set wearing full black. He also looks relaxed, cool and ready to go for another 10 or 12 songs. Several extra style points, have been awarded. Powerful King Leetch.
There's also some bonus material including an interview and an acoustic take of Smokers. Enjoy the music, and try to stay cool ;)
The Setlist
1. AEHASHere's some more gems from the collection of Japanese TV footage I dug out last week. This is some footage from Editors' appearance at the Japanese Summersonic Festival ago in 2007, and it was a very rare occasion indeed because they didn't actually finish their set. As I recall this was because the ever-rising temperatures within the venue reached such ridiculous levels that heat exhaustion came calling. You would think that having spent a lot of their early years as a band playing to packed rooms full of sweaty folks, this would be a breeze but there seems to have been several components at work here that forced the tap out from them.
There's a time stamp at the beginning of this video which indicates that the band began playing at 12.40pm, midway through the day. I haven't been to Japan...yet (it's on the bucket list) but if it's anything like noon on a clear summer day here in the UK, that's hot. Then there's the design of the stadium itself. All that heat is probably being trapped and held because of the enclosed nature of the venue. August 2007 was also the month that Japan recorded record-setting high temperatures, with some paces getting up to 40.9°C just five days after this gig. Mix all this together and you have a delicious recipe for dehydration, and a strong urge to disappear under the surface of an Olympic sized swimming pool full of ice. If the question was ever raised regarding what happens to the human body when you try to make music in a sauna, now we know. It tends to wilt, somewhat. You can get a feel for how tired they all were by watching Munich. Ordinarily they're just hitting their stride by this point, but by the end of that song Tom's not even singing the "You'll speak when you're spoke to" lines any more.
As you keep an eye on the perspiration levels of each individual Editor, note that the only man that held true to his glum instincts was Russell, who played this entire set wearing full black. He also looks relaxed, cool and ready to go for another 10 or 12 songs. Several extra style points, have been awarded. Powerful King Leetch.
There's also some bonus material including an interview and an acoustic take of Smokers. Enjoy the music, and try to stay cool ;)
The Setlist
2. Blood
3. Racing Rats
4. Bullets
5. Munich
stream it here
By way of extra materials, we have Mr Smith and Mr Urbanowicz performing acoustic versions of Smokers and An End Has a Start at the time of their Summersonic appearance, on a Japanese TV show called Ride Live. There's also a fantastic interview with the band just after they came offstage at Summersonic, for which the term "Lost in Translation" could very well have been invented. It's outstanding to watch, if only to hear the immortal phrase from Ed
We saw a kebab van...
Gold.
We saw a kebab van...
Gold.
Smokers (acoustic) - stream it here
brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love :) x
