It has been announced that the performance held by Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) at the Warfield in San Francisco in June 2011 will be broadcast and streamed on WOWOW on August 11th. WOWOW has previously announced that they will be broadcasting and streaming the tribute concert held in Kyoto in May this year on July 13th, meaning that they will be featuring YMO for two consecutive months.
YMO was formed in 1978 by Haruomi Hosono, the late Ryuichi Sakamoto, and the late Yukihiro Takahashi. They popularized music production using synthesizers and computers, sparking a techno pop boom not only in Japan but also on a global scale. They restarted their activities in 2007, and performed in the UK and Spain in 2008, and in 2011 in the US for the first time in 31 years.
WOWOW will broadcast and stream the San Francisco performance on June 27, 2011, titled "Yellow Magic Orchestra Live in San Francisco 2011" on WOWOW Live and WOWOW On Demand from 7:15 pm on August 11.
At the concert, the band was joined by supporting musicians Keigo Oyamada and Tomohiko Gondo, and guitarist Christian Fennesz, and performed songs such as "FIRECRACKER," "BEHIND THE MASK," "LOTUS LOVE," "TOKYO TOWN PAGES," and "RYDEEN 79/07."
Prior to the program, a tribute concert held at the National Kyoto International Conference Center (Sakyo-ku, Kyoto) on May 20th will be broadcast and streamed on WOWOW Live and WOWOW On Demand from 5:00 pm on July 13th, titled "MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN - A Tribute to YMO."
This concert was held to celebrate the achievements of YMO, who was selected as the artist representing this year's MAJ at the Music Awards Japan 2025 (MAJ), the largest international music awards in Japan. In addition to Hideki Matsutake, who was called the "fourth man of YMO," guests who have publicly stated that they were influenced by YMO, such as Yasuyuki Okamura, Keigo Oyamada, Miu Sakamoto, Ichiro Yamaguchi of the band Sakanaction, Towa Tei, and the music unit Ginger Root, gathered together.
