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Lost in Consumption by Johnny & The Yee Men (single - 1980)

In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, there are a fascination with Asian culture in post-Punk music. ‘Turning Japanese’ by The Vapors; ‘Japanese Boy’ by Aneka; ‘Hong Kong Garden’ by Souxsie & The Banshees. All songs toying with Far Eastern themes in their own way, some more crass or arguably racist than others, appropriating musical riffs from the region. It is ironic, then, that the only post-Punk song by someone from the British-Chinese community – and, indeed, a very early commentary on cultural appropriation - was banned by the BBC and disappeared into obscurity.

John Yee’s family hailed from Hong Kong and he lived in Manchester’s China Town, where his parents ran a supermarket catering to the community’s specialist culinary needs. A complete outlier at the time, he was the only British-Chinese person involved with the burgeoning Mancunian post-punk music scene, the Yee Men building a reputation for ferocious performances at the raucous Electric Circus venue.

This brought the band to the attention of Invented Records founder, Max Scratch, who swiftly signed them and released a single, ‘Lost in Consumption’. A furious diatribe against the way Britain ‘ate’ Johnny’s culture and reduced it to cliché, it was carried along by an ear-battering guitar riff and merciless drums.

The song famously included the couplet ‘You want another fucking spring roll? I’ll stick it up your fucking hole’. This brought it to the attention of the DJ, Dave Lee-Travis, who complained that he shouldn’t be verbally abused for, in his words, ‘enjoying a great meal from the local chinky’.

This led to the record being banned by the BBC and the single flopped, perhaps confirming Johnny’s assertions about the British public.

What happened to Johnny Yee afterwards is lost in the mists of rock myth-making, and probably the subject of another post in the near future...