Light Music Contest '81
The Light Music Contest (ライト・ミュージック・コンテスト), or LMC for short, was an amateur music competition held by the Yamaha Music Foundation from 1981 to 1986. It had initially started as a standalone music competition named the Yamaha Light Music Contest, running from 1967 to 1971 and serving as a precursor to other Yamaha contests such as EastWest, 8.8 Rockday, and L-Motion. When it was re-established in 1981, it became the secondary level of Yamaha contests, where winners would advance to LMC for the finals after winning EastWest or Rockday. All LMC events were held at the Nemu No Sato resort in Shima, Japan.
LMC '81 was held over 2 days, September 13th and 15th.
Day 1 (September 13th)
The first day of LMC 1981 featured performances from 15 bands (9 junior and 6 women's bands) from 9 regions across Japan. The 9 junior male bands were Sustain, Joker, Bystanders, Nashi no Tsubute, Grand Cross, Express, Bizz, The Checkers, and Screw. The 6 female bands were Tango Europe, Sugar Loaf Express, Lady Hurricane, Joan of Arc, Show-ya, and Tanuki Band[1].
On this day, the judges panel consisted of Katsuo Ohno, Akira Wada, Tsuyoshi Ujiki, Johnny Yoshinaga, Ken Watanabe, and Junji Yamagishi[1]. The MC for the event was Shigeki Torizuka.
The guest appearance for this day was Casiopea. They were interviewed on TV, along with 6 other bands; there was also a TV broadcast of The Checkers. An FM broadcast for this day may have also happened, but this is unconfirmed.
Awards
| Junior Division | |
| Grand Prize | The Checkers |
| Excellent Award | Joker, Express |
| Women's Division | |
| Grand Prize | Sugar Loaf Express |
| Excellence Award | Tango Europe, Tanuki Band |
| Judges' Special Award | Shizuko Sasaki (Joan of Arc) |
Day 2 (September 15th)
The second day focused on the 15 best senior bands. These were Chonwakan, Sunset Kids, Zett, Nashika, Aksmmit, Party Joke, New Fire Band, Bop Gun, T.N.T, Africa, Super Slump, More, 夏はプールだ!スイカ割バンド, Early Byrds, and Blood-Line. The audience on this day had a size of around 5000 people.
The judges panel for this day consisted of Katsuo Ohno, Jun Fukamachi, Shigeru Suzuki, Kenji Takamizu, Hiroshi Murayama, and Issei Noro. The MC was covered once again by Shigeki Torizuka, with the addition of Gene Nagao.
The guest appearance for this day was Masayoshi Takanaka. There was TV coverage of the Early Byrds and Bop Gun on this day, and more might have been broadcasted. NHK-TV covered the Early Byrds in a 12-minute news segment, including interviews from Issei Noro. Takanaka's performance was broadcasted on NHK-FM, where he played Palm Street and Finger Dancing[2].
Awards
| Finals | |
| Grand Prix | Early Byrds |
| Excellent Award | Bop Gun |
| Judges' Special Award | The Checkers |
| Best Vocalist Award | Akemi Nawa (MORE) |
| Best Keyboard Award | Masakazu Nagabe (Party Joke) |
| Best Drummer Award | Reiko Saeki (Sunset Kids) |
| Best Guitarist Award | Shunichi Shibukawa (Nashika) |
| Best Bassist Award | Akio Kato (Bop Gun) |
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A ticket for the September 15th concert. -
Takanaka performing. -
Excerpt from a magazine about Takanaka's performance. (Adlib 1981.11?) -
Flyer advert for the contest. "All tour participants will recieve a Masayoshi Takanaka T-shirt!"
