The Plastics - Top Secret Man

[Charles]

I've been looking for this video for 30 years, I remember first seeing it on SCTV around 1977. And I just discovered it on YouTube, so here it is.

[YT]CF3MvF-KQvI[/YT]

The Plastics were the only band from Japan to hit it big in the first wave of Punk in 1977. Today they're considered the one of the greatest forerunners of modern rock in Japan. This song was the only thing they ever did that could be considered a hit, it even got airplay on MTV in the US. I love this song.

[ocelot67]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mFipU8PW4g

[Charles]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mFipU8PW4g

Hey, I forgot about that one, I found it on youtube a while ago. I'll embed it here for convenience.
[YT]4mFipU8PW4g[/YT]

BTW, like your avatar. I have that CD, hell, I have it on vinyl from when I bought it in 1979. One of the first things I did on my first visit to Japan was buy all the Plastics CDs. It was a special order, took a week to take delivery.

[Charles]

Another version of Top Secret Man I just found, a nice live performance.
(alas, it is cut short)

[YT]X2YuGCF5Bus[/YT]

[Greji]

Another version of Top Secret Man I just found, a nice live performance.
(alas, it is cut short)

Damn Charles, never saw them before. I asked some of the old, ah, I mean chronologically challenged, J-people in the office and they didn't know them either. Were they that big of a group, or just one with a narrow cult following?

[Charles]

Damn Charles, never saw them before. I asked some of the old, ah, I mean chronologically challenged, J-people in the office and they didn't know them either. Were they that big of a group, or just one with a narrow cult following?

Well, they were big in Britain, they made the cover of the New Musical Express, which is about like getting on the cover of Rolling Stone. But I don't know how big they were in Japan. They toured the US in 1980. Of course, any nihonjin who makes it big outside Japan gets some cult status.

I did some more checking and apparently they reunited and recorded a new album in 2003, I will definitely try to get it. It's probably only available in Japan so that's going to be difficult to obtain.

BTW, here's a Plastics tribute website with links to sites of the band members who are doing various other projects. In particular I recommend this site which has a new video of them doing "Deluxe" live, must be from the 2003 reunion. There's a few other Plastics-related videos too. Nice.