Now many have known for weeks about this, but everyone kept very, very quiet until they had their tickets on Friday. UTADA is touring the US and UK early next year. Tickets went on sale for her London gig at the Islington Academy for February 12th and sold out within hours (considering it’s only a 800 capacity venue and it’s her only European date, it’s not surprising however). To be honest, I would have expected a slightly larger venue, but it’s a good venue at least, and even if it’s sold out you’ll still probably be able to get a good view, unlike the Camden Underworld, where I saw, or rather didn’t see, abingdon boys school play last Thursday.
I’m very curious on what the set list will be. I’m a little bitter over the whole situation, as I can’t go for various reasons beyond my control, but I’m convincing myself I’m not too bothered as I expect she’ll mainly be performing from her US albums, which, as you may have previously read, aren’t my favourite things she’s done recently. I’ve also read that the tour is to promote the single “Dirty Desire” from her album “This is the one“. Okay, the album was a grower, but if I had one opportunity to see Hikki, I’d much rather see her perform her J-Pop style songs, which, I’m expecting will be few and far between, if any, at the concert.
End the bitterness, I hope everyone who goes has an amazing time. Oh and if anyone wants to pick me up a t-shirt or any other kind of merchandise, feel free to!
Due to a moment of boredom yesterday, you can now get here through
Back to the real world, outside of watching TV / DVDs all weekend and playing farmvile on face book, I’m attempting to use my google calendar a lot more effectively, and in the process, account for all the great – well I list them as – “J-Culture” events. This isn’t just the bi-anual Expos and the big Summer cons, but more the small local events, the WOTA nights and the J-Pop Go’s. Hopefully if it becomes conclusive enough I’ll make it a public calendar, and if I work out how to use it properly I’ll attempt to add people if they want to be added.
A new mini-album from former
Not in my wildest dreams would I have predicted this graduation – in fact, in an early post, I was dead sure that Koharu would be the least likely person to graduate next from Morning Musume, let alone the Hello! Project. I thought she would have a Mini Moni type career in H!P after her success with Kirarin Revolution, but instead, they seem to have decided that Koharu is next to graduate.
Today, for the first time in 5 years – I pre-ordered a single. As much as I love J-Pop, I have very little incentive to pay £15 a go for 3 tracks - one usually below par and another a karaoke track, wait an extra week or so from release for it to show up, when I can buy the main track from iTunes for 79p. However, there were two things that tipped me this time.