Style Resume. Noriaki Onuki #2

2025.9.3

Text： Kenichi Aono

Edit： Suzuki Yusuke

Whether it's fashion, music, or sports, there is a style that only each person can express in any genre. "Style is Everything." That's right, someone once said that style is everything. "Style Resume" is a series of interviews with adults who, as the name suggests, have style. Updated every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, the 13th installment features music critic, radio DJ, and organizer of the DJ event "LONDON NITE," which will celebrate its 45th anniversary in 2025.

2 13

02. He became passionate about music during the electric guitar boom.

When I was in elementary school, I didn't have any dreams for the future. But my father was very enthusiastic about education, so I was thinking about something like "getting into Tokyo University." On the other hand, my mother never told me to study, and she didn't interfere. So, I took the entrance exam for junior high school at my father's request, and I entered Meisei Gakuen in Fuchu. Of course, I also left it up to my father to decide which school I wanted to go to.

By the time I entered junior high school, my interest had shifted to music and rock music. It all started with the electric guitar boom, and my sources of information were radio and television.

The Beatles debuted in the UK in 1963, and The Ventures had been active since the 1950s, but they only became known in Japan after their visit. The Beatles were already popular worldwide before their 1966 visit, so information and records were already flowing in. Being a kid, I listened mostly to the radio. The Ventures performed in Japan in 1965, and the first rock album I ever owned was the red vinyl version of that live album, "Ventures In Japan" (1965). I would go to record stores with my maternal uncle in Kokubunji or Kunitachi, and he'd say, "I'll buy you anything you like," so I asked for this Ventures album, which I knew. Incidentally, red vinyl refers to the translucent red records made with anti-static agents that were pressed by Toshiba Music Industries until the early 1970s. I'd listened to singles up until then, but even as a kid, I was thrilled by the dynamism of live albums.

The first record Onuki ever owned was the red vinyl of The Ventures' "Ventures In Japan" (1965), and even today, DJs only own records. Incidentally, the red vinyl of "Ventures In Japan" required technology that only Toshiba had at the time, and it could only be produced at the Kawaguchi factory in Saitama. The photo shows part of the record room in the basement of Onuki's home.

Profile

Noriaki Onuki (music critic and radio DJ)

Born in February 1951, Kenrocks began his career as a music critic while still a university student, and has been active for over half a century. He has a particularly deep knowledge of punk rock, and launched "LONDON NITE" at Tsubaki House in Shinjuku in June 1980, a DJ event that continues to this day and whose influence is immeasurable. In January 2025, he published "HISTORY OF KENSHO ONUKI: A Memoir." "Kenrocks Nite - Ver. 2" is currently broadcast every Friday from midnight on inter FM.

Instagram @kensho_onuki