"I don't know what it is about my music that appeals to the Japanese," says Victoria Hesketh, the British pop sensation better known as Little Boots. "A lot of people in England miss the point, and they're like, 'Oh, it's just pop music.' And the whole point is that I was trying to do something simple in a clever way, which people in Japan really seem to understand."
And understand they do. Hesketh's first-ever appearance before a Japanese audience was on the huge Sonic Stage at the Chiba leg of August's Summer Sonic festival (and the next day in Osaka). Her debut album, "Hands," had been released just one month earlier and, despite her early afternoon slot, a crowd of perhaps 10,000 turned out to hear her sassy pop tunes, which cram 1980s synthesizers and '00s production into onionlike layers.
As for Hesketh herself, she was clearly bowled over by the reception, telling the crowd it was the best gig she'd ever played.