So, over the last few days, Mariko Goto seems to have gotten herself into a bit of bother. I had heard tidbits- about her throwing a camera into a crowd member and apologizing on twitter about it- then a couple of days ago she left a mysterious tweet about 'quitting the office' and her twitter account pulled down (as Inseu noticed).
An article explaining what (most likely) has happened was translated quite well by a JPS user (Tadanga- kudos pal)
Goto Mariko, the live performance of the 10th may be the cause of her sending a "I quit" tweet.
Mariko, a musician who has gathered popularity thanks to her extreme live performances, has submitted, on the 22nd, a tweet stating "at the office, I just quit". What could have happened to Goto?
Her latest tweet history may explain what lead her to this decision.
On the 10th, Goto was a guest performer at a late night event held at club in Tokyo, Shibuya.
Right after her act, early morning on the 11th, she tweeted that "From now on, I want to be told if there's gonna be an official photographer at an event. Even if I understand that a report of the event is necessary, this guy climbed on stage even though I clearly told him not to and I kept telling him to get off, he kept snapping away and ignored me."
She continues with obvious rage in another tweet: "Our own staff and Asobisytem (the event organizers) staff did absolutely nothing to stop him. What were they thinking? They just stood there looking stupid. Can they even be called a staff?"
And she went on with a series of other angry tweets:
- It is the organizers' fault for not informing me in advance of the presence of a photographer
- It is the photographer's fault for coming up on stage although I kept telling him to get off
- It is my fault for not being able to control myself that I grabbed his camera and threw it away
- It is the photographer's fault for coming back on stage after collecting the camera I had just thrown away (!)
- It is the staff's fault for not intervening when all of this was happening
This is how she explains what happened at the event. And she mentions the spectators who got hit be the camera she threw from the stage :
"I would like to go and face them properly, no matter where they are now and apologize. I am sorry!"
She has also directly apologized to all the people commenting on her tweet feed.
On the evening of the same day, Goto goes on to explain her state of mind during this incident:
"I wore a skirt for the live and since I was jumping around a lot, I wondered what kind of photos would come out of this.
But it was the job of the people around me to protect me, right? I am a woman, right? The manager told me that the photographer had not taken any improper shots but I am sure they were plenty of them and I told him so a million times.
She goes on to express her dissatisfaction with the staff's job performance: "I've had it up to here with management and the production company.
I want to keep making music, I really want to keep making music, I want to play the guitar, I want to perform at the Budoukan, I am for real.
I really want to avoid these kind of incidents and I want to keep performing in even bigger venues everywhere."
There are a lot of such tweets telling of her many conversations with management and staff, as well as apologies to her fans "I'm sorry about all this"
Finally, she announced that, in April, a decision would be taken concerning staff and allowing photographers during her lives.
On the 12th, she tweeted: "I'm really sorry about this. Tomorrow, I'm going to talk to them"
On the 13th, after a sit down with her production company was set up, she tweeted: "At the office, I just quit"
We were unable to get a confirmation of this from the production company since we were told that the person in charge was absent at the moment.
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So, it seems like she may have been dropped from/
rage-quit Sony Music... for doing what isn't really that big of a deal (at least to me). However, her tour dates are still valid. One of them dates is a shared concert with Seiko Oomori. I've joked that Oomori should ask her to join PINK records- imagine Mariko with full creative control.... This joke seems feasible now...
Anyone heard anything else about this situation other than what I've already posted? I think it's pretty interesting news and also shows how being on a major can be a blessing and a curse. It also brings back memories of Hata's drunken escapades and the 'scandal' that caused.