Saturday 4 August 2007

In The Backyard Of The Record Collection (6): Tommy heavenly6/Tommy february6

Crazy stuff. This is the lead singer of the J-pop band The Brilliant Green with her solo stuff. Kawase Tomoko started off with her solo alter ego Tommy february6, the name coming from her nickname and her birthday. It's brilliant 80s pop music which came out in tons and tons from production studios in Europe. To me it sounds a lot like the stuff produced by Stock, Aitken and Waterman or Dieter Bohlen (anyone remember C.C. Catch?). I hated that sound back then but it seems with a change of language it really gets into my ear. She released two albums under that name (a self titled debut and another one named "Tommy Airline"), both with lots of hit potential. The mixture of Japanese and English phrases are well balanced and she even does a coverversion of "I Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You".

And just when you thought it can't get anymore weird she pulls off another stunt and changes her image completely. Now calling herself Tommy heavenly6 she now plays rock music. Apparently she changed her whole image on a television show after performing as Tommy february6. The heavenly6 thing was put up for two albums (again a self-titled one and the follow up named "Heavy Starry Heavenly"). Sometimes this is a bit too poppy but there are some good rocking songs on those records as well.

What I find very fascinating about this is the rapid change of her image. I believe I have never experienced an American or European poptar change their appearance so fast and unexpected. True, there have been image changes every now and then but that was mostly because the perfomer was lacking success at that time and was trying to give his or her career a boost by doing so. This could be seen when all those boygroup guys went solo after their "band" split up. But this is unheard of over here.
The Briliant Green are back together again it seems as they contributed a song for the now showing drama series "Tantei Gakuen Q", an adaption of a manga novel. So we might not hear new stuff from both Tommys in the near future.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yes I remember. Here is an exceprt for his biography. In 1988 Bohlen signed a young 15 year old singer named Anna Garcia (Sheree) "Ronnie Talk to Russia". The record was short lived and a sex scandal was covered-up. The song was abruptly pulled at Anna's (Sheree) and her mother's request due to Bohlens sexual advances towards her in a hotel room in Turkey where she was to perform the song as an opening act for Bohlen until Bohlen attempted to force himself upon the 15 year old Garcia. After refusing to have sex with him she was forced to sleep in the hotel lobby because he refused to give her a room. After her arrival back home she demanded to be released from her contract. To avoid the scandal the record company and Bohlen quickly agreed to release Anna Garcia(Sheree)and she was released. Later Bohlen wrote music for many German movies, TV series and shows.