Rock4four - the sound of choice for Kamakura beach beatniks

1.3 - The Beach scene

Yuigahama, Hase, and Enoshima are the rather spectacular, if somewhat crowded Pacific facing beaches of Kamakura. Lying at the head of a peninsula, just to the south of Tokyo and Yokohama, summer afternoons and evenings see the beaches thronged, with youngsters, down from the twin metropolises. They are here to chill, and forget, momentarily, about the hurly burly of daily life, and the demands that life in this most manic of countries places on them. For a few hours, courtesy of the themed bars and restaurants along the beach, they can imagine themselves in Hawaii, Goa, Ko Pha Ngan, or now, thanks to Yuji Fuji's Brighton Rock Bar, the South Coast of England. Or even just be content to be in Kamakura. They are not here for the temples, beautiful though they are - they're here to let their hair down.

And there's no shortage of options. Every summer, there'll be firework displays, Thai fire dancers, Thai boxing, and cocktails a plenty. The boys and girls from the American Navy base, across the peninsula often come down, to join in the fun too, which means R&B will be pumping out of many speakers. And for the Euro/Antipodean/hippy crowd, down from Tokyo, where they teach, or study there's no shortage of trance, and ambient.

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For cutting edge though, until now, there's been no substitute, for the mega clubs of Tokyo, where Japan's and the world's leading DJ's pass through, every weekend, and play, to packed crowds. Yokohama, though quite cosmopolitan, in a daytime way, has always been a non starter, regarding nightclubs, but Kamakura despite not having the edge of Tokyo, is just a great place to be, to dance, to drink, to bill and coo.

However, last summer, starting in Yuji's Brighton themed bar, a different sound could be heard, coming through the speakers. Sure, it was rock. And only rock. But it was to a continuous beat. Solid 4/4, looped, chopped, mashed up but seamlessly mixed rock. Everything from Blondie and the Strokes, to the Happy Mondays, Primal scream and the Stone Roses, Franz Ferdinand, U2, Radiohead, Blur, T-Rex, INXS, even a bit of Elvis, the Beatles, the Stones, and the Who, but not like anyone had ever heard them before. Not together. Not like this.

Pumping out onto the dance deck, of the Brighton Rock Bar, courtesy of DJ Zak (Fox) White, and his Japanese DJ friends, the Rock4four sound system played the summer of 2008 to larger and larger crowds. Yokohama and Tokyo kids, who wouldn't previously have been seen dead outside the clubs of the capital, on a weekend, let alone dancing to rock, were turning their Nissan Cubes and Honda Stepwagons, southwards, towards the beach. Something was going on, and it was going on in Kamakura!