live_magic

ぼくが80年代に担当したミュージック・ヴィデオの番組「ザ・ポッパーズ・MTV」を子供の頃に見て、それからずっと音楽を楽しんで仕事にもしているクリエイティヴマンの平野敬介さんとタワーレコードの田中伸明さんの二人が、ぼくの監修する音楽フェスティヴァルを！と誘ってくれて2014年から始まったのが「Live Magic」です。

大人のための都市型フェスティヴァルで、ぼくが心からお薦めするバンドやミュージシャンを呼んで屋内の会場で二日間にわたって開催するものです。昨年のVol.1は、大勢の方が会場に詰めかけてくれて、知名度の有無にかかわらず様々なミュージシャンの音楽を大いに楽しんでくれました。今年のVol.2も、国際的な顔ぶれの優れたミュージシャンたちがやって来ます。

世界には、まだまだ素晴らしい音楽が沢山あります。そんな音楽を見つけ出し、紹介し続けることがぼくの一生の使命だと思っています。これまで通りラジオ番組を中心に今後も紹介して行くつもりですが、一度体験したら病みつきになってきたLive Magicを長期化することが夢です。

Last year I was invited to curate a 2-day festival for a predominantly adult audience, in an urban setting, and thus was born Live Magic, which took place over a weekend in late October 2014. Although most of the artists were not well known in Japan, with ample radio promotion the festival was well attended, and the satisfaction level was extremely high. We will be holding the festival again this year, and hope for it to be an ongoing event. Live Magic is presented by CreativeMan Productions, Tower Records, and InterFM.

The main venue is The Garden Hall, in the Ebisu area of Tokyo, which holds about 1,600 people comfortably without seating. There is also a smaller hall in the same building holding about 300, which we use for acoustic acts. The size of the hall and the limits on ticket pricing dictate the kind of acts we are able to promote. However, one of my primary aims for Live Magic is to be able to bring to Japan some of the many artists who, for one reason or another, do not have the same level of profile here as they do in the West.

From the experience of the first Live Magic in 2014, I am convinced that with careful nurturing an audience can be built up for music outside the mainstream, which in Japan includes a lot of artists who would be filling major venues in their own countries. Their fans are often starved for a chance to hear them play live, and I feel a kind of mission to try to assuage their thirst.

For details: https://livemagic.jp/