Shonen Knife, written in Japanese as 少年ナイフ, which transliterates as Shōnen Naifu, literally "Boy Knife", is an all-female Japanese pop-punk band formed in Osaka, Japan, in 1981. Heavily influenced by 1960s girl groups, pop bands, The Beach Boys, and early punk rock bands, such as the Ramones, the trio crafts stripped-down songs with simplistic lyrics sung both in Japanese and English. Despite their pop-oriented nature, the trio maintains a distinctly underground garage rock sound rooted in edgy instrumentation and D.I.Y. aesthetics, which over the course of their long career has earned them a solid, worldwide cult following and made avid fans out of seminal '90s alternative rock bands such as Sonic Youth, Nirvana, and Babes In Toyland. The band has been credited with making the international pop underground more international by opening it up to bands from Japan. They have also performed as a Ramones tribute band under the name The Osaka Ramones.
Peel seemed to discover the band in the mid-80's, when on his 25 March 1986 show, he played a Japanese record that he could not recognise because it was written in Japanese. The song turned out to be Miracles by Shonen Knife. The group didn't get a chance for a session on Peel's show until the early 90s, despite Peel regularly playing them and seeing them live on tour with Nirvana. The DJ also gave airtime to cover versions of Shonen Knife songs from the Every Band Has A Shonen Knife Who Loves Them compilation LP, including contributions from Babes In Toyland and Sonic Youth.
After 1992, however, Peel seemed to lose interest in the group, after they were signed to major record labels and their sound became more commercial.
After Peel's death, the group performed at the John Peel Centre in 2013. Singer and guitarist Naoko Yamano commented:
“I remember we had John Peel sessions twice. I had no chance to see him directly. I was very honored to do the sessions. He even played our song A Day At The Factory in the early 1980s on his BBC radio program. At that time, our albums were released just in Japan and I’d never been overseas. I was surprised about it. I’d like to have thanked him.” [1]
Sessions[]
Shonen Knife - John Peel Sessions (Tribute to Shonen Knife with Videoshow)
Two sessions. Both sessions are found on an unofficial cassette release of the Peel Sessions 1991-92
29 November 1991 (BFBS): Space Christmas (single) Seminal Twang
02 December 1991 (Ö3): 'Space Christmas (7")' (Seminal Twang) (JP: 'I'm one of those people, I have to admit, who really dislikes the whole Christmas period, mainly because it's the time of the year at which we become incredibly sentimental about children, and the old, and also the homeless by and large, whereas the rest of the year round, of course, we couldn't give a toss about them. I really hate that: it's their one day a year they really needed us. The rest, forget it. I'm sure it's not the same in Austria. Is it, I wonder, the same in Japan?')
08 December 1991: Making Plans For Bison (LP - Pretty Little Baka Guy) Subversive
04 September 1992: (JP: 'On the Saturday at Reading, I was unable to get along to the tent at all because the whole of the backstage area was so jammed with people pretending to be NME and Melody Maker journalists that you couldn't really fight your way through them. But our Thomas, even before he got to Reading, in fact for weeks before, was saying that the thing he was looking forward to most was Shonen Knife. Where he got this from I simply don't know at all, but this is what he was after, and after he had seen them, he pronounced himself well-satisfied with them. So, Tom, if you're listening, this is a record by Shonen Knife, and you ought to be asleep by now.') 'Bear Up Bison (CD single-Space Christmas)' (Seminal Twang)
