To promote the release of the The Manks - Last New Wave Hero!!!!!! CD from Private Scandal, Nori, vocalist of The Manks, agreed to an interview to help shed some light on this cult band. The Japanese version is available on the SPIT-tn Instagram.
An Interview with Nori (SPIT-tn, ex.THE MANKS)
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| The Manks. |
Nori: Since we've always been a bit unknown, I guess most people won't know who we are (laughs). Even if you did know us, it's been so long that you've probably forgotten!
I posted a little but of history on the SPIT-tn Instagram, but to refresh everybody's memory...
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| Nori. |
The Manks was formed when we were students in our hometown of Tateyama City, the southernmost part of Chiba Prefecture.
As Tateyama is a rural town, there are no music venues in the city, so we would occasionally rent halls and equipment to hold events.
We wanted to do live shows but had no place to do them, and no money, so we would do surprise gigs at other schools' school festivals and any events where people would gather and we could play.
We would always get told off by older people and everyone would laugh at us, but that's fine.
Back in our hometown, our friends would say, "There's an event on this date, so let's be the Manks," or "There's another school festival on this date, so let's be the Manks," so maybe the name The Manks was almost like a collective for kids to play locally.
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| An early Manks performance at a school festival. |
After moving to Tokyo, we performed in Shimokitazawa and Koenji about once every 1-2 months.
Some members quit for personal reasons, but friends kept helping out, and we continued performing until 2001.
PS: What bands influenced you? Mainly the older Chiba punk bands, right?
NORI: There was almost no punk scene in my hometown, and music events were full of Boowy and Buck Tick cover bands. Also, since I lived in Tateyama City, there were a lot of X JAPAN fans, so the bands I saw were mostly visual-kei bands.
Despite that, I had a childhood friend who was in a punk band, and he'd show me a lot of their stuff.
I think I started to get interested in punk when I was around 15 or 16.
When I was in high school, my classmate, Hirokichi, and other people from upstate Chiba told me that there were a lot of punk bands there, so I'd go to Kisarazu Dynamite Dondon, an event that's still going on today.
It was around this time that I met Nao (The Manks bassist).
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| Nao, Nori, and Oletti. |
Since this sort of event didn't exist in my hometown, the bands who played and the people in that scene, all influenced me in one way or another.
Of course, I'd heard rumors about bands like The MARGAReTS and the C&C, but I couldn't get my hands on their music at the time, so it wasn't until much later that I got to hear the music of these Chiba punk veterans.
PS: I'd like to speak a bit about some of The Manks songs, particularly "Never You Mind" as this was a song you recorded with The Manks, The Plasters, and The Spit, and you're currently performing it with SPIT-tn. For the people who are hearing The Manks for the first time, is there a particular track you'd recommend as the ultimate Manks song?
NORI: I appreciate the chance to talk about it, the offer of the release came at a time when SPIT-tn was just getting started, and I wasn't very enthusiastic about releasing those early, raw recordings from back then.
I thought if I didn't like it, I didn't have to release it, but after hearing what others had to say, I thought it would be good to have Private Scandal preserve the recordings of the original band from that era.
I wouldn't exactly call it a recommendation, but I think "Never You Mind" has aged OK and probably sounds better now than it did back then!
We were all over the place in terms of skill, and the quality ranges from good and bad, but if you could enjoy it with a forgiving, open mind, like “Oh, this kind of band exists, too” that would be great.
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| The Manks. |
PS: You told me that Suck (the drummer for The Manks) would forget to dub songs on your tapes so that's why you didn't write the titles on the tape covers back then. Is that true? If anybody received a Manks tape back then that was missing songs, you can hear the songs on the new CD! (laughs).
NORI: It's true, it caused us a lot of headaches.
Back then, I'd make the covers for the tapes and Suck would dub them, we'd hand them out at gigs, or we did mailorder by placing ads in magazines.
However, he made so many mistakes during the dubbing process, like putting the wrong songs on or leaving the tape totally blank, so I'd have to get people to mail them back to us and we'd redo them.
I came up with a better solution, and decided I wasn't going to write the song titles on the tape anymore... since you didn't know what was supposed to be on the tape, there were no more mistakes!
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| Manks tape with no track titles... |
Just the other day, a follower on Instagram sent me a picture of a messy apology letter I wrote back then, saying that he'd seen an ad in DOLL Magazine (a long running Japanese punk magazine) and we sent a tape... but it was blank.
I was really grateful that he kept that old letter and I'm sorry for the inconvenience we caused back then Mr.H!.
The songs are included on the new CD!
PS: When Hirokichi gave me the Dynamite Vagina CD in March, I didn't expect to be able to get in contact the members of The Manks, let alone do a CD (Nao came to the gig, but I didn't know he was a member of The Manks at the time (laughs)). Then a few weeks later, Yasuoka (G-3 Punx) told me that former members of The Manks started a new band called SPIT-tn and you were playing your debut gig in May. Could you introduce the members of SPIT-tn and let us know what you've got planned?
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| V.A. - Dynamite Vagina CD (Antique Records, 1999). |
NORI: I also went to Private Scandal Party in March with Nao.
I missed the bus back, so we had went drinking all night and went home the next day.
I met Yasuoka again for the first time in years in January of this year, and told him that I was no longer interested in being in a band. Then in February, he asked me to reform the band and play a gig with G-3 Punx if I fancied it. I'm truly grateful to him for that.
I told Nao, not expecting anything to happen, but he said, "Well, let's give it a try." Seiji, our guitarist, said, "So you're finally motivated to start a band," (laughs) and Chihiro just said, "I'm the only one man for the job."
It's been 9 years since The Spit's last gig on the 5th of March 2016. By sheer coincidence it was the 9 years and 1 day later on the 6th of March 2025 we decided to get the band back together using the name SPIT-tn.
I was surprised when you contacted me out of the blue in April, but you told me you'd heard about me from Shinobu (ex.Hysteric Concert). I met Shinobu by chance through the Dynamite Vagina connection after creating the SPIT-tn Instagram account.
After that, even though I wasn't particularly enthusiastic about those old recordings, I decided to that reissuing those recordings and preserving them was a good idea after hearing what Kiichi (the Mr) and the others had to say, and I explained everything that had happened to you.
In August, you contacted me to say that the official release date had been decided. It was September 24th!
I thought it was a nice gesture as this date means a lot to us, but I was taken back for a while, wondering if everything that had happened up to that point was really just coincidence.
SPIT-tn members are...
- Vocals: Nori
- Guitar: Seiji (Hiroya Okura & Funky Cool Band)
- Bass: Nao (the C&C)
- Drums:Chihiro (モザイクシティ (Mosaic City), The Cokes)
We have some gigs coming up this year...
- Sunday November 2nd at Hon-Atsugi Greenbud!! (Kanagawa)
- Sunday December 14th at Nishiogikubo Pit Bar (Tokyo)
More details will be announced at a later date.
Thank you for your support!
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| SPIT-tn. |
PS: Finally, Nori, thank you for letting us release a CD for The Manks. Is there anything you'd like to say to the people who buy the CD?
NORI: Thank you so much for releasing this CD.
I was just rummaging around for stuff in my closet, so I really left everything up to you. Sorry about that! You must be thinking, “I can't believe I asked him to do this!” (laughs).
Thank you to everybody who pre-ordered the CD. Thanks to you, the pre-order at Record Shop BASE sold out completely.
While quantities are limited, it will also be available at the stores listed below starting September 24th.
A small number will also be sold at SPIT-tn gigs, so please check there too.
The recordings are from about 30 years ago. While the songs and performances were made purely on impulse, showing the recklessness of youth, I'm truly grateful we can share this work – a record of how we lived, laughed, and cried just like everyone else, experiencing the same passage of time.
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| The Manks. |
I hope to follow up this CD with something by SPIT-tn.
Also, in the Kanto region, especially Tokyo, there are incredible punk events and many amazing older punks who have kept the same bands going for over 30 years.
In Chiba Prefecture too, the underground scene built by the previous generation continues today, with Chiba Punk bands and Kisarazu Dynamite Dondon. Why not come visit Chiba Prefecture sometime?
Private Scandal Productions will likely continue releasing many underground bands so please be sure to check them out.
I look forward to the day I can meet all of you someday. Let's cherish the present and have fun.
Thank you very much.
The CD will be available from the following...
- Record Shop BASE (Tokyo)
- Shimokitazawa Killers (Tokyo)
- PUNK AND DESTROY (Osaka)
- General Speech (USA)
- F.O.A.D. Records (Italy)
- Private Scandal Productions (UK)
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| The Manks - Last New Wave Hero!!!!!! CD (Private Scandal Productions PSCDR037) out September 24th 2025. |
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