Style Resume. Noriaki Onuki #5

2025.9.10

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.

5 13

05. Late-night radio broadcasts were an important source of information.

I helped out with the Beavers at Shinjuku's ACB for about a year, and it was a period during which I was able to delve deeper into music. I was also influenced by the other bands that played at the same venue. As I mentioned before, many of the groups there played songs by overseas bands, and while the Golden Cups did play their hit "Long Haired Girl," they were more interested in playing cutting-edge rock and blues that they liked. I would listen to them and be like, "Paul Butterfield Blues Band...I've never heard of them," so I learned a lot from them. Everyone was really quick.

At the time, I wasn't yet an avid reader of music magazines; live information from the Beavers and their bands, along with radio, were my most important sources of information. I often listened to "95 Million People's Popular Requests" and "S-Ban Hour" (both on Nippon Cultural Broadcasting). I also remember a show called "Guyatone Lovely Night" (Radio Kanto), which was like a radio version of "Winning Electric Guitar Battle." In 1967, "All Night Nippon" (Nippon Broadcasting System) and "Pack-in Music" (TBS Radio) also started late at night. On the days when music critic Ichiro Fukuda was the host, "Pack-in Music" focused on rock music. I would write down in a notebook any songs or artists that caught my eye on those shows so I wouldn't forget them.

When I was in a band, a friend told me to dress up like a punk to go to a girls' school cultural festival. Inspired by the look of the Sex Pistols, I wore clothes from SEX (later known as Seditionaries) and stood my hair up.
It was probably 1971 or 1972, when I was a freshman or sophomore in college, and my family and I went on a trip to Izu.

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