Shaft is pumping up another Saturday night gathering in a cranny of Tokyo. Just as the five musicians lope to the end of the first verse of their self-proclaimed rock anthem "Shaft of Light," the infectious dribble of sticks across bass drums reels the audience into the chorus.

The local band helped to lure some 80 people -- an even mix of foreigners and Japanese -- to the Fiddler this evening. The basement pub in Takadanobaba could not have comfortably squeezed in more.

Across town in Ebisu, Orangey stirred up their own commotion three days earlier at the more spacious What the Dickens.

One towering Englishman was so aroused by the foursome's electronic pop vibe he tried to climb down the vines twisted around the trellis on the second-floor balcony. The Tarzan act hit a high note when his trousers got caught and he dangled like a Christmas tree decoration.

The weekly buzz found at small local venues is evidence of a burgeoning foreigner rock scene in the capital. "In my eight years here, there's never been so many foreigner bands playing original music," said Louis Scalise, the Californian manager of the Gladys, another band -- comprising three Brits and an American -- that is blossoming in this changing climate.

Although the lyrics are in English and the lead vocalists were not born here, the bands are not gaijin-only as the three Japanese, for example, in both Shaft and Orangey would attest. Instead, some groups call themselves nabe bands, after the Japanese style of cooking that mixes a hodgepodge of food into one pot.

The expansion of the scene, Scalise noted, has gone hand-in-hand with the emergence in recent years of more foreigner-owned British- and Irish-style pubs. The bands, which are cheap and hungry to perform, bring friends, i.e. paying customers. And the number of potential customers orbiting the groups grows as they improve with time.

"The quality's going up," said Jon Lynch, lead singer of Shaft, "and the number of bands doing original material has gone up and up. Pretty soon it's going to be a real thriving community of artists."

The scene is becoming so active that pubs are actually becoming choosy as more bands surface from practice rooms, even making them audition the way live houses do. Nick Ward, co-owner of the Fiddler, estimates he has 26 demo tapes of mostly virgin foreigner acts wanting to play for an audience.

"Basically [foreigner bands] can play the live house circuit, but why bother?" Lynch said. "It's not as much fun as playing in a pub because it's a very monodimensional event -- only music. And there's not much of a social element to it."

Adding a party atmosphere to grassroots music in Tokyo is the mission of Lynch and his fledging events company Global Vision Music. The company has been instrumental in igniting the scene.

GVM organizes two or three events each month -- either band nights at pubs or potpourris of DJs, dance acts, new fashion and local bands at a club or live house. One all-night rock and dance event in April at the newly renovated Shinjuku Loft featured seven DJs and nine local bands.

To date, however, the choicest fruits of Lynch's efforts have been two compilation CDs of mostly Tokyo-based foreigner bands and two daylong concerts in Yoyogi Park, which featured many of the acts on the discs. The first free event last July drew an estimated 1,500 people, while 2,000 or so braved a typhoon for the second one in October.

"Basically our main motivation is not promotion," explained Lynch. "We just want to express ourselves and help other people to express themselves."

Another crucial part of the 30-year-old Englishman's attempt to consolidate the scene is the bilingual magazine Juice. The key role of this free monthly, which debuted in March, is to provide background, reviews and updates on the bands and their gigs.

Traditionally, the only foreigner bands attracting an audience in Tokyo were cover bands. But pub-going Japanese have become more internationalized and sophisticated in their taste, believes Mark Rathmell, lead singer and lyricist of the Gladys. They are not as easily impressed by foreigner "jukeboxes."

About 20 foreigner bands play regular gigs in this new domain. They tend to back each other up rather than compete, said Rathmell. "In that sense there's a scene, because we all know each other personally and actually get on well together," he said.

Most of the musicians have day jobs (as teachers, engineers, salaried workers) that, for many, merely support their nightlife.

Brian Smith, for example, who has been in bands since he was a teenager, is a graphic designer by day, but came to Japan four years ago "hell bent on doing music."

The 30-year-old Brit is the leader of Minx. The five-piece Britpop band -- in the cheeky mold of Madness and Supergrass -- is soaring with the release of three CDs in three years on an independent Japanese label.

Lynch and one of his GVM partners, Gareth Monteath, however, are relative new-comers to the stage. The red-bearded Monteath joined a band for the first time two years ago. Lynch started three years ago, although he was in a group for a week in England when he was 16. "I had a blue mohican and everything -- I looked the part," he recalled.

Monteath, who coproduced GVM's compilation CDs and outdoor concerts, is the lead singer and lyricist for Sway, a popular funk-rock band with between six and eight members, depending on schedules. He shares with Lynch not only a fondness for wearing soccer shirts at gigs, but also an innate stage presence that may excuse them both for plunging so late into rock 'n' roll.

As the number of British musicians indicates, the dominant theme of the scene is a U.K. sound. The pubs set up the identity and GVM has stroked it for marketing to Japanese in particular.

The company's first compilation CD, "For My Urban Life," and the two outdoor concerts last year were part of the yearlong Festival UK 98. A portion of the CD's proceeds went to Princess Diana's favorite charities. Although the second CD was called "UK Sound -- Movement" this British emphasis does not necessarily pigeonhole the bands.

"You're getting a scene where there's just a few bands and we all know each other, and there's a feeling that something special's happening," said Rathmell of the Gladys.

"In London you couldn't get that now. You could only have gotten that in the early '60s or something -- just a few bands playing rhythm and blues who knew each other, who were writing their own songs.

"You've got it here, and maybe it's kind of a unique situation. It's happening now, and it feels good, so let's enjoy it."