The night The Yellow Monkey made their UK debut in front of a fervent Japanese crowd… supporting future superstars Travis.

Back in August 1997. always on the alert for the quirky tangents of pop culture, I went to write about a Japanese band who no one here had heard of.

The Yellow Monkey were making their London debut and it was so exciting for their fans that they chartered two jumbo jets and flew over from Tokyo especially for the occasion – even though it was just a support slot.

When I arrived at the Astoria 2 it was packed to the rafters with young Japanese people dressed in their usual array of eye-catching costumes, and they went berserk when a group who looked like Bon Jovi jumped on to the stage.

The girls screamed, the boys made those heavy-metal hand signs, and all of them sang every word; I stood at the back, entranced by the scene before me but bemused by their cliched pop-rock, which I never heard again.

When they finished, the audience cleared off – to the bar, I imagined. Except they never came back. They had only come to see their idols.

By the time the headline act, an up and coming came on half an hour later the room was virtually empty.

I felt sorry for them because they gave it everything to this meagre audience, and they had plenty of energy and some catchy songs. I remember one called All I Want To Do Is Rock, which… didn’t. Perhaps it was ironic.

This one, which would soon become their fourth single – and grazed the charts at No.38 – has stayed in my head ever since that night. It sounds especially good on a summer’s day… In contrast to what would become their biggest hit single a couple of years later.