Miscellaneous - Interview

  by Olga Sladeckova

published: 15 / 8 / 2004

intro

Since appearing in Quentin Tarantino's 'Kill Bill', the 5, 6, 7, 8s' profile has escalated. Frontwoman "Ronnie" Fujimaya talks to Olga Sladeckova about the sudden success of her garage rock trio after nearly twenty years in the business

The Bride: “You and I have unfinished business and not a Goddamn fucking thing is going to change that.” Vernita Green (aka Copperhead) : “So when do we do this?” The Bride: “It all depends. When do you wanna die? Tomorrow? The day after tomorrow?” If you haven't heard this, then it is a small piece of dialogue from near the beginning of the first volume of 'Kill Bill ', Quentin Tarantino 's fourth and to date most popular film. 'Kill Bill' tells of the Bride, a member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, a group of professional assassins, who is shot in the head and left for dead on her wedding day when the group leader, Bill, and the other four assassins in the squad turn against her. Four years later the Bride (Uma Thurman) awakens from the coma the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad have left her in, and seeks violent revenge on all of the members of the gang in turn-Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox), O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Lui), Bud (Michael Madsen) and Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah)-picking them off by one before turning her attentions on Bill (David Carradine) himself. 'Kill Bill' has a lot of other similarly snappy dialogue and also a beautiful samurai sword, which as the film progresses, the Bride uses to cuts up most of the other characters. One of the undoubted highlights of the film comes at the end of the first volume when the Bride, armed with just her sword, takes on O-Ren and her Yakuza-style gang, the Crazy 88's, in a Tokyo bar/restaurant, the House of Blue Light, as the Japanese all-female garage rock trio, the 5, 6, 7, 8s, rock the scene and play a gig in the background. While ‘Kill Bill’ placed the 5, 6, 7, 8’s on the musical map, their story, however, starts a long time before that. “I started playing around about 1986.” the 5, 6, 7, 8s' principal member, and guitarist and vocalist, Yoshiko "Ronnie" Fujimaya tells me, talking through an interpreter, as we sit backstage at the 100 Club in London. The band , which also features in its current line -up bassist Yoshiko "Yama" Yamaguchi and Ronnie's younger sister Sachiko on drums, will be playing later there tonight and the venue is completely sold out. “The main reason why I started playing was because I just wanted to play rock n’ roll. Later my sister joined me and then we asked another 2 girls to play with us.” The name 5, 6, 7, 8’s was inspired by the band's influences, and music from the 50’s, 60,'s 70’s and 80’s. Influenced by rock n’ roll and punk bands such as the Ramones, the New York Dolls and Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, the girls started playing around Tokyo. Their shows were locally very successful although they never broke through anywhere outside Japan. That didn’t bother them at all though. “We were very happy with the way things were at the time” admits Ronnie. “We really liked playing and could do what ever we wanted. It was a really good time.” They released many recordings, but a lot of these albums and singles are nowadays very difficult to get hold of. The most essential one to look out for and one of the easiest ones to look out for is a singles collection, ‘Bomb The Rocks’. The compilation consists of songs that were written between 1989 and 1996. “The artwork for that album was designed by an illustrator called Rockin’ Jelly Bean” says Ronnie.“He also plays the bass guitar in a band called Jackie & The Cedrics. They are quite famous in US.” ‘Bomb The Rocks’ also includes the band's most famous song ‘Woo Hoo’, which Quentin Tarantino later picked for ‘Kill Bill’, and which has also been since used this summer in an advert on British television for Carling beer. “I was in Tokyo and had about an hour before I had to leave for the airport” Tarantino recollected later in an interview featured on the DVD of ‘Kill Bill’ Vol. 1'. “I was just walking around shops and there was a really cool hip retro store that sells really cool retro clothing. I went in and they had the 5, 6, 7, 8 s in the stereo. And I thought that the music was just amazing. So I went up to the counter and asked ‘Who is the music by?’ and they say ‘That’s the 5, 6, 7, 8’s.’ and I asked them ‘Can I buy that CD in a record shop?’ and they went ‘No, this is the store copy.’ So I offered to buy it from them. In Japan it’s very rude to be so impulsive, but it was worth it. I played the CD and knew that it was just what I wanted." “Then I decided to cast the whole band into the film. They came down, picked their favourite outfits and just rocked the house. They were great!” The outfits Tarantino was talking about and any of the stage outfits the band perform in are actually designed by one of the ex member of 5, 6, 7, 8’s. Omo. Omo played with the 5, 6, 7, 8’s and appeared in 'Kill Bill'. but shortly after that she left the band to concentrate on fashion design. She has been replaced by Yama. “She opened her own clothes shop in Tokyo. It’s a 50’s style antique shop” reveals Ronnie. “But at the moment it doesn’t have much merchandise in. She is designing our stage outfits and is hoping to sell her own designs as well.” “It’s not an original song” reveals Ronnie, going on to talk about 'Woo Hoo. “It’s by a band called the Rock-a-Teens from the 50’s. The reason we started to play the song was just to practise playing the drum and singing. So it was kind of just a practise song.” The 5, 6, 7, 8’s have attracted a lot interest recently and, as well as playing a seemingly an endless string of gigs all over Europe, they will also soon be releasing more music. The next release, a single called ‘Teenage Mojo Walkout’, will be out in September and there will definitely be more to come yet. “Since ‘Kill Bill’ it’s been quite a big change for us” admits Ronie. “A lot of people now come to our shows. We never even had an interview before. It’s okay but the other girls can’t quite get used to it. It’s too big change for us from being a local band.” An hour later the 5, 6, 7, 8’s take the stage at the 100 Club. They were great in the film, but to get a real taste of what they are like you have to see them live. Just as Ronnie said – They just want to play rock n’ roll and they do!

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