Japanese New Wave scores its biggest hit in America

Plastics : Diamond Head

In May of 1981 the Japanese new wave band Plastics released Welcome Back, a charming and quirky compilation of re-recorded songs that borrow freely from Devo and Talking Heads. "Diamond Head" was the new UK single, though critic David Hepworth of Smash Hits was not impressed : "I use the term 'music' loosely," he wrote. His colleague Fred Deller was a much bigger fan. He wrote : If you fed all the elements for a successful 80's band into a computer, you might come up with The Plastics, If you were lucky". 

In America, SCTV gave the Plastics their biggest break, playing their inventive "Top Secret Man" video. Though I must admit the introduction is incredibly insensitive.