Speed, Glue & Shinki

Speed, Glue & Shinki was a Japanese psychedelic rock power trio formed in late 1970 by guitarist Shinki Chen and his mentor Ikuzo Orita, Japanese label boss of Polydor Records. Believing Shinki to be the Japanese Jimi Hendrix, Orita released two Polydor LPs featuring the guitarist: first as part of the experimental quartet Food Brain (Polydor 1970) and next with the semi-successful 'Shinki Chen & Friends' in 1971. Ikuzo Orita next took over Atlantic Records' Tokyo operation and brought Shinki Chen to the label, which was then enjoying massive success with 'heavy' bands such as Led Zeppelin and Cactus. Orita, in his effort to create a suitable 'heavy' vehicle for the guitarist's talents, invited ex-Golden Cups superstar bassist Masayoshi Kabe to join the band, while Shinki discovered Filipino singing drummer Joey Smith ("i.e. Joseph Feliciano Smith") playing in either Akasaka’s Mugen department store or Yokohama’s Astro shopping mall, with the quartet, Zero History. They took their name from Kabe's love of sniffing Marusan Pro Band glue and Joey Smith's obsession with amphetamines, as evidenced by the lyrics of many Speed, Glue & Shinki songs (all lyrics being written and sung by Smith). The resulting sound was extremely bleak and raw, with Kabe's crunching atonal bass runs and Smith's stop-start rhythms creating a unique foundation for Shinki Chen's euphoric blues. Song titles such as 'Stoned Out of My Mind', 'Mr Walking Drugstore Man' and 'Sniffing and Snorting', combined with Smith's dangerous outlaw lyrics and caustic Iggy Pop-like vocal asides, gave the band an edge that no other Japanese band could (or would have wished to) achieve. Unfortunately, the band split after the debut album 'Eve', resurrecting briefly (and mostly without Kabe) for festivals and a huge self-titled swansong double-LP, that was mostly the work of Joey Smith and new bassist Mike Hanopol ("i.e. Michael Hanopol, ex-Zero History"). When the single 'Run and Hide' failed to make headway on the Japanese charts, Joseph Smith (reinventing his stage persona as "Pepe Smith") and Michael Hanopol returned to the Philippines, where they became superstars of Pinoy Rock with the power trio Juan de la Cruz Band.

Author/musician/occultist Julian Cope dedicated 12-pages to the "Speed, Glue & Shinki" story in his 2007 book . [Julian Cope, Japrocksampler, Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2007]

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