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dbstaches · 5 months ago

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2020 VISION Five of pop's hi-tech stars take a long look into the future…

Number One magazine, 7 January 1984 — full text of David Ball entry bellow

What records will you be listening in 2020? “I don't listen to many pop records now really. I tend to listen to film soundtracks by people like John Barry and Bernard Hermann.”

Will there still be records? “I think there will be records still. There'll also be many more video discs, and holophonic records, like the one Psychic TV brought out, may be more widely available.

What will your job be in 2020? “Hopefully by 2020 I won't have to work. And I hope nobody else does either.”

Will The Rolling Stones still be around? “If the Rolling Stones are still around they'll be in their seventies. Imagine Mick Jagger and Keith Richard with white hair and walking sticks. It would be grotesque.”

What will you be wearing? “Probably my old leather jacket and jeans.”

Will boys still be boys and girls still be girls? “Yes I think so. And they'll always be those inbetween.”

What will you have in the front room besides the TV and the stereo? “It would be nice if eveyone had a Brion Gysin dream machine. They have the same effect as LSD, but without taking chemicals. There's also the possibility that by that time we'll have 3D TV. They've already started work on it in Japan.”

What instruments will people be playing? “I think instruments will be pretty much the same as they are now. But the emphasis could be on microtones rather than the conventional tones and semi-tones in a scale. That opens up a whole spectrum of sound, rather like having grey notes on a piano.”

Will people still be going to concerts? “Yes. But people will be sick of everything being really loud. There'll be different ways to stimulate a crowd. Various doctors are already researching in psychoacoustics, although nobody in pop uses them. It's a lot more exciting and it wouldn't damage you.”

What's your favourite science fiction book and film? “I like J.G.Ballard's books - particularly Crash, The Atrocity Exhibition and a story called The Concentration City. For films I like Scanners and A Clockwork Orange.

Do you believe in UFO's? “Yes. Although I've never seen one. I'm sure there must be other forms of life that travel about like we send rockets to the moon.”

What sort of robot would you like t have around the house? “I'd like a robot I could programme telepathically. But I wouldn't want it to look human. That would be too much like having a slave.”

Will Big Brother be watching us? “Big Brother has been watching us for several years. Already lots of government computers are linked together, the growth of home computers will give a better picture of how we live and make it much easier for the authorities.”

Bearing in mind the current nuclear debate, so you think we will still be around by 2020? “I think it depends on America. People are paranoid about the Russians but I think America is the biggest threat to mankind.”

#Dave Ball #David Ball #Soft Cell #Psychic TV #dream machine #Number One magazine #synthpop #new wave #electronic music #1980s #1984 #interview #magazine #text #photo #image #nostache

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thistledropkick · 5 months ago

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It's been a while since I posted a long translation, so here's an article I translated a while back from Number Magazine. This article is about a year old, but it really changed the way I thought about both Hiromu and Desperado when I read it, and I think it's even more relevant now than when it was written.

The article and the accompanying photography are both by Masashi Hara - please go check out the original article even if you can't read Japanese, as the accompanying photography adds a lot.

Also, please don't repost this translation elsewhere. If you'd like to quote an excerpt, please link back to this source and credit me as the translator, and please also make sure to credit the original author and link back to the original article.

Will Takahashi Hiromu and El Desperado surpass the “Liger Era?” The true reason “NJPW’s Top 2 Juniors” fought in Freedoms

8/18/2023 - article and photography by Masashi Hara 原壮史

New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Takahashi Hiromu and El Desperado have taken every opportunity to fervently collide, from battles for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship to the Best of the Super Junior finals. They are both representatives of the current New Japan Junior division.

On August 11, these two men participated in the battle at Pro Wrestling FREEDOMS in the Yokohama Budoukan. They both fought in a ring marked with the phrase “The Bacchanal of the Free” rather than a New Japan ring, against opponents who were not New Japan pro wrestlers. In doing so, they revealed a difference in the paths they each have walked.

In order to surpass “The era Liger built”

Takahashi Hiromu formed a tag team with Takaiwa Tatsuhito. Dragon Libre and Katori Takahiro of the ‘doms Junior division stood in opposition.

The impetus of this match was a “love call” from Libre to Takahashi. Takahashi attended a Freedoms show at Shibaken 1st Ring, to confirm for himself what Libre had said on the radio and SNS many times.

“I know my own worth. That’s why it’s still too early for you to wrestle me,” Takahashi said.

On January 5th, 2020, Takahashi was Jushin Thunder Liger’s opponent in Liger’s retirement match. Liger teamed with Sano Naoki, and Takahashi with Ryu Lee, each forming a tag team together with their wrestling career’s greatest rival.

In the match, Takahashi usurped Liger’s position, achieving a 3 count with TIME BOMB. After returning from a long-term absence due to a neck injury, the “Red-haired Time Bomb” had, one day earlier, defeated Will Ospreay to take back the IWGP Junior Heavyweight belt, and now read Liger his last rights as the symbol of the division.

Those two days were a manifest expression of Takahashi’s love and devotion to the Junior Heavyweight division. After those two matches from the new “Face of the Junior division,” one could believe that even though “Liger cannot be surpassed,” “that man will build a new era of the Junior division that will surpass it.”

Three and a half years have passed since then. After another serious injury, a torn pectoralis major, Takahashi has acquired the IWGP Junior Heavyweight belt three times since 2020, including when he regained it from Ospreay, and has won the BOSJ three times in a row. No one can complain about his many achievements, and he clearly continues to sit at the top of the Junior division.

In the Shinkiba ring, Takahashi continued to speak to Libre.

“What reason do I have to fight you? Depending on your answer, I might say NO.”

Libre replied,

“I must defeat you, to show you that the ‘doms Junior division has leveled up.”

(next page - Tokyo Dome main event is… Takahashi Hiromu’s “magnificent dream”)

After he wins a title match, or to close a big event, Takahashi shouts,

“More, more more more more more! Everyone, let’s have more fun!”

In order to face the crowd and say the words, “Everyone, have more fun,” he must find and face opponents who have the same level of skill as himself. For that reason, Takahashi accepted Libre’s “love call.”

Tokyo Dome main event is… Takahashi Hiromu’s “magnificent dream"

Takahashi has stated his dream many times.

“To hold the IWGP Junior heavyweight belt, and the IWGP Heavyweight belt”

But this isn’t all. His dream continues further.

“To have the match broadcast on TV during Golden Time” [note from me: this is similar to “prime time” in American English, and refers to the time between 7 and 10 pm when TV viewership is the highest]

“To fight for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight belt as the main event at the Tokyo Dome”

This dream cannot become reality without a suitable opponent. And thus, if Takahashi doesn’t excite not only the New Japan Pro Wrestling’s junior division but the entire pro wrestling world, it cannot happen. 1990 was not the golden age of only New Japan’s Junior Division. And creating an era that will surpass the era that Liger built, the era of the Super J Cup that included wrestlers such as Hayabusa, Great Sasuke, Wild Pegasus (Chris Benoit), and Black Tiger (Eddie Guerero), is a dream that can’t be achieved by one person alone.

Therefore Takahashi, for the sake of leveling up the Junior wrestlers in other promotions, did not say no to Libre’s request.

The match against Libre and Katori in Yokohama, one could truly feel the distance between Takahashi at the pinnacle of the Juniors.

Libre repeatedly absorbed Takahashi’s heavy strikes while constantly yelling “Come on!” And with one chop, Takahashi made it felt that his wrestling was on a higher level.

Ultimately, Takahashi finished the match not with a TIME BOMB but with a Dynamite Plunger. And after the match, he gifted Katori with another fierce chop, enthusiastically displaying the “difference” between the two of them.

“I don’t feel like I was even in a match. What do you mean “Come on!” You come on.”

After the IWGP Junior Champion once again starkly showed the difference in status between himself and Libre, Takahashi told the Freedoms president Sasaki Takashi, who had worked hard to make Libre’s dream come true, the conditions required for a rematch.

(next page - “The man who was too late” El Desperado’s awakening”)

“If you’re not a Champion, (a Freedoms junior singles match) is out of the question. I think that’s the bare minimum. I’m not disrespecting you but, I have my pride as the IWGP Junior champion, and my pride as a New Japan wrestler.”

And he added one more thing.

“Please keep mentioning the name Takahashi Hiromu again and again from now on.”

In order for Takahashi to create more fun, other wrestlers must rise to the same level as him, and fight on the same stage. If wrestlers like Libre and Katori are able to close the gulf they were forced to acknowledge on that day and once again stand against Takahashi in the ring, that means that “dream is growing close to becoming a reality” and it would be proof that “the era that Liger built” is close to being surpassed.

The Man who was too late - El Desperado’s Awakening

Of course, the energy within the New Japan Junior division is indispensable for the industry as a whole.

In Liger’s retirement match, Takahashi’s rival was Lee. When discussing “rivals coming together as a tag team,” Desperado’s name was not even mentioned.

“My quality as a wrestler took too long. Really, I just wasn’t able to get there. I was too late.”

That was what Desperado said at the end of 2021, at the end of year press conference addressing the Tokyo Dome show, about the champion Takahashi.

“I won’t make that mistake again. At last year’s BOSJ, Hiromu said ‘Let’s show them our era,” but, I’ll show you my future. To take hold of my own future, I’ll win, and I’ll open my own future.”

Desperado was victorious in that match.

“In order to make my dream come true, Desperado, I want to fight you. I always want you in front of me,” Takahashi said, after his loss.

If Liger’s retirement match happened now, the man standing next to Takahashi would be Desperado. But because those two did not team up, the different paths that they would go on to walk became clearer.

(next page - That guy, he fuckin loves deathmatch)

Desperado, who now stands shoulder to shoulder with Takahashi, once again formed a tag team with “Charisma of Deathmatch” Kasai Jun, this time fighting against Takeda Masashi and Yamashita Rina.

Desperado was thrown into a thumbtack board, was slapped in the face after having had thumbtacks shoved into his mouth, his mask was torn and his head cut with scissors, and he was slammed into the aluminum can board that he himself brought to the ring …… In other words, he freely enjoyed deathmatch to the fullest. But of course he also gave as good as he got, breaking a steel chair over the head of the “Deathmatch Amazoness” Rina, and cleverly countering Takeda’s attempt to use a fork board against him, as he faced off against some of the best deathmatch fighters in the world.

He sent forth a Loco Mono and Pinche Loco combo with Kasai, watched a Pearl Harbor Splash from a “special seat” and thoroughly enjoyed his time tagging with Kasai in a fun and super stimulating match, which ended with Kasai pinning Takeda for the victory. After the match, Takeda said of the rogue luchador, “Desperado… He’s fun. He fuckin loves deathmatch.”

All that is to say, Desperado is a person who pursues what he himself likes, and who takes action for his own enjoyment, and that is his what makes him so charming.

Truly, if you watch someone enjoying himself to the fullest, you will also feel enjoyment as a viewer. In addition to this, because Desperado truly loves what he’s doing, the respect in his heart is conveyed to the audience, and the quality of his matches naturally follows from and reflects that deep respect.

For Takahashi, it’s “Let’s all have more fun.” For Desperado, it’s “I’ll have fun.” However, Desperado’s matches make the audience have fun too. Despite being a rogue, he is more conscientious than anyone, and this mysterious balance allows him to mobilize those around him, form connections to others, and forge a path unique to himself.

Takahashi Hiromu and El Desperado have traveled different paths, but at key points, those paths have overlapped. They are truly eternal rivals.

Surprisingly, the connection between these two men once again pulled them together as they both attended “The Bacchanal of the Free” and the fans were able to savor an experience of utmost “fun.”

#el desperado #takahashi hiromu #njpw #pw freedoms #number magazine #my translation #Another long one and I don't have an editor so apologies in advance for any typos or errors that I didn't catch

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