Dealing With The Setlist Conundrum

Shonen Knife are nothing short of a phenomenon - in every sense of the word. The legendary all-girl Japanese pop-punk band formed all the way back in the early 1980s, have released more than 20 albums in that time and have toured the world endlessly. There has been but one constant in the band for that entire time, at least as far as the line-up is concerned: lead vocalist/guitarist Naoko Yamano. Speaking from her home in Osaka, it appears that Yamano takes all that history in her stride. "It's hard to believe so many years have passed, but I don't look back," she states. "I just look a little forward and I tend not to notice the years passing. I'm always fresh."

She has a secret for keeping herself "fresh" and in the best possible shape to front a long-running rock'n'roll band. "I play tennis for my health, so I'll be keeping myself healthy."

It is difficult to believe, but in more than three-and-a-half decades her band has only toured Australia twice before. They came for Big Day Out way back in 1997 and then did not return until two years ago when they were here for their own headline tour. According to Yamano, there is a very simple explanation for such a long time between drinks with their Aussie fans. "No one invited us!" she laughs. "That's the reason." However, Aussie and Kiwi Shonen Knife lovers have a much shorter wait for a return tour this time around with the band's antipodean tour kicking off in late September. Things have apparently changed significantly since that 18-year drought and Yamano tells, "Fortunately this time I have a very good person who has invited us again... I'm so excited to come back to Australia, the people there are so friendly and cheerful... I want to come more."

The band released their latest album Adventure a little over a year ago and tracks from that album will feature heavily in their upcoming sets on this Aussie soil. That just leaves another 21 albums for them to attempt to include in their live show, and Yamano admits that writing a Shonen Knife setlist while trying to please everyone is almost impossible. "It's very very hard," she states. "I always need two or three days to decide a setlist. Sometimes we play songs that people have requested and we have done shows in the past where all the songs were requested by fans. We did that in London once and of course in Japan, too. But it's always difficult to choose and someone is always unhappy. People's favourite songs are different by country, so I will have to think about what are the Australian people's favourites."

So does she feel she has another ten years or more left in the band? "If I'm alive!" she laughs.