Rubber Soul is where it all began. Not the 1965 Beatles album of the same name, but the bar and live house in the western Tokyo suburb of Kokubunji.
Late 2003 - Dom Pates (formerly of Britain's
The Zamora) wandered in for a beer. He was new to Japan, in search of refreshment and something familiar. Meeting bar owner Cheryo for the first time, they hit it off immediately despite the language barrier, on discovering similar music tastes. It would become a regular haunt.
The following spring, Dom asked for a track to go on an album he was compiling, the first Japanese charity album for peace. The song 'Hallelujah Jambo' by Cheryo & The Berovolas, originally written in Kenya with local musicians, appeared on the
'Peace Not War Japan' compilation when it was finally released in 2006.
In time, Dom and Cheryo decided to put their own band together. The bar owner's brother Chisato was drafted in on drums and a bass player was selected from one of the groups that played at Rubber Soul. A friend of Dom's suggested
Shelf Life for a name as everything in Tokyo seems to have an expiry date and the city is constantly changing. Thus, the band was born.
Shelf Life's first show was at Rubber Soul at the end of 2004, a set of rock and blues standards from pop's back pages. They played two or three times a year from then, rocking on for the fun of it all.
Bass player Kobayashi-san left in 2006. He was replaced by Jun, a veteran of the Tokyo rock scene. The present line-up was then completed. The same year, Shelf Life wrote their first original song. 'Vonnegut's Blues' was inspired by a diatribe from the late American writer Kurt Vonnegut against the actions of the Bush Administration.
In 2007, the band decided to create and release their own album of original material. Dom and Cheryo set about crafting a set of songs, drawing lyrical inspiration from the Iraq War, Global Warming, expatriation and the city of Tokyo itself. Musical inspiration was drawn from The Beatles, The Who and The Sex Pistols, amongst others.
The resulting collection,
'Best Before End' is due for release on December 8th 2007 on
Sounds Phenomenal Recordings, the 27th anniversary of John Lennon's death and Rubber Soul's 5th birthday. The disc will be on sale at Rubber Soul.
**UPDATE (Aug '08): 'Best Before End' now on sale through
.
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