The Beatles’ long journey to Tokyo ended with their arrival at Haneda Airport at 3.40am on this morning. In the evening they played the first of five concerts at the Nippon Budokan Hall.
The group and their entourage stayed at the Tokyo Hilton, where they occupied the Presidential Suite. Security at the hotel was so tight that they were unable to make unscheduled excursions around the city. They did, however, give a press conference from the hotel.
We were there for about twelve hours. I’ve never been back, but I’d like to some day. We went on to Tokyo. When we came off the plane, we were put in little 1940s-type cars along with policeman dressed in metal helmets, like Second World War American soldiers’ helmets. We were driven in convoy into town and taken to the Tokyo Hilton where we were put in our upstairs suite – and that was it. We were only allowed out of the room when it was time for the concert.To get our own back on the people who weren’t letting us out, we used to get them to bring tradesmen up to our suite. They would bring big boxes and trunks full of golden kimonos, jade, incense-holders and little carved objects, which we would buy: ‘We’ll show them!’ We wanted to go shopping.
Over the three nights they spent at the Tokyo Hilton, The Beatles collaborated on a painting which became known as Images Of A Woman. All four members of the group painted parts of the 30″x40″ paper, working by the light of a lamp in the centre. When the painting was complete the lamp was removed, and The Beatles signed the empty space next to their contributions.
The paper and paints were provided by the Japanese promoter, Tats Nagashima, who suggested that the completed painting be auctioned for charity. It was bought by a cinema manager and local fan club president Tetsusaburo Shimoyama.
Images Of A Woman is believed to be the only instance of a painting by all four Beatles. It was sold again in Osaka for ¥15 million, and in 2002 appeared on the eBay auction website. In September 2012 it was put up for sale again through Philip Weiss Auctions and sold for $155,250 including the buyer’s premium.
The Nippon Budokan was considered a national shrine to Japan’s war dead, and many saw it as sacrilegious that a rock ‘n’ roll group were allowed to perform there. Death threats were reported, and 30,000 uniformed police officers lined the route from the airport and hotel to the venue. In later years it became one of Japan’s main music venues.
Everywhere we were going, there was a demonstration about one thing or another. In America the race riots were going on when Beatlemania had come to town. In Japan there were student riots, plus people were demonstrating because the Budokan, where we were playing, was supposed to be a special spiritual hall reserved for martial arts. So in the Budokan only violence and spirituality were approved of, not pop music.
Anthology
The evening’s concert had support from Yuya Uchida and Isao Bitoh. The Beatles performed before 10,000 fans, with a set containing 11 songs: ‘Rock And Roll Music’, ‘She’s A Woman’, ‘If I Needed Someone’, ‘Day Tripper’, ‘Baby’s In Black’, ‘I Feel Fine’, ‘Yesterday’, ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’, ‘Nowhere Man’, ‘Paperback Writer’ and ‘I’m Down’.
They had the seating exactly arranged in all the cars. Amazing efficiency, that we’d never seen the like of in Britain. When we went to the gig they had the fans organised with police patrols on each corner, so there weren’t any fans haphazardly waving along the streets. They had been gathered up and herded into a place where they were allowed to wave, so we’d go along the street and there’d be a little ‘eeeeek!’ and then we’d go a few more hundred yards and there’d be another ‘eeeeek!’At the Budokan we were shown the old Samurai warriors’ costumes, which we marvelled at dutifully in a touristy kind of way: ‘Very good! Very old!’
We were more amazed to see the women leaping up out of the seats for the promoter, because we’d never seen that in the West. The subservience of the women was amazing. They’d say, ‘Oh God, I’m sorry – was I in your seat?’ I remember us getting back to Britain and saying to our wives and girlfriends, ‘I wouldn’t want you to do that, but maybe it’s a direction worth considering?’ Promptly rejected.
We got into our yellow shirts and natty bottle green suits. The thing about suits was that they always made us feel part of a team. When we arrived we were in our civvies, but once we put those on we were The Beatles! – the four-headed monster. It was good for me that we all wore the same, in that I really felt part of a unit.
Peeping from behind the stage to watch the place fill up, we saw police walk in from either side and fill the whole of the front row, upstairs and downstairs. After them, the crowd was allowed to come in. They were very well behaved compared to what we’d seen of Western crowds, but they seemed to enjoy it.
There was a funny local group on stage before us. This was in the days when the Japanese didn’t really know how to do rock’n’roll, although they’ve now got the hang of it pretty well. They sang a song that went, ‘Hello Beatles! Welcome Beatles!’ – something pretty naff in rock’n’roll terms, but it was very nice of them to do it. Our show went down quite well.
The concert, and their first on the following day, was video taped by Nippon Television. The two shows were edited together and broadcast during The Beatles Recital, From Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, which was screened on NTV Channel 4 on 1 July from 9pm.
The audience was very subdued. If you look at the footage from the shows you’ll see a cop on every row. They’d all get excited in their seats as we were playing, but they couldn’t express it.
Also on this day...
- 2016: Paul McCartney live: Rock Werchter
- 2012: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: Hard Rock Live, Hollywood
- 2010: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: Theatre at Westbury, Jericho
- 2000: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: Taste of Minnesota 2000, Saint Paul
- 1990: Paul McCartney live: Knebworth Festival
- 1968: Paul McCartney records Thingumybob by Black Dyke Mills Band
- 1965: The Beatles live: Palais des Expositions, Nice, France
- 1964: The Beatles live: Festival Hall, Brisbane, Australia
- 1963: The Beatles live: ABC Cinema, Great Yarmouth
- 1962: The Beatles live: Heswall Jazz Club, Wirral
- 1961: The Beatles live: Top Ten Club, Hamburg
- 1960: The Silver Beetles live: The Institute, Neston, Wirral
Want more? Visit the Beatles history section.
I was there for one of the five concerts. My Dad waited too long to get tickets and my sister and I ended up with seats behind them! So all we saw was the backs of their mopey heads.
George did turn around from time to time and wave- I thought that very nice of him.
I was there at that concert in 1966! I was a high school student at the time, attending Nile C. Kinnick High School (commonly known as “Yo-Hi” to students) in Yokohama Japan. I distinctly remember two things: traveling with two Japanese girlfriends on the bullet train from Yokohama, to Tokyo, at midnight. in order to get tickets, we slept out in front of the Budokan
And the second thing I distinctly remember, were the Japanese girls…screaming at the top of their lungs during the concert. They went to absolutely crazy! At the time, I was oblivious to the many policeman present at the concert. But, again in retrospect, I think it was due to the the Vietnam war that was going on at that time, that there were Japanese military personnel even in the train stations much of the time I was there. The Japanese people did not like the fact that the United States had set up shop with US military bases in their country.
That’s very interesting. Are you visible on any of the videos and photos? Where were you seated?
This was way before the time when roadies and sound technicians had jobs to do. Watching the group struggle on stage with the loose microphones is almost sad to see. Even if nobody came to help them one would expect the performers themselves to know how to tighten a mike by now. I´m sure they didn´t have sound guys in Hamburg or at the early Merseyside gigs.
But it´s a good show with nice bluesy fills on She´s a woman. George is waving happily to the fans several times.
I feel fine is again a bit of a mess with John and the others not agreeing on what to sing, so what comes out together is “I´m in love with me and I feel fine” as well as She´s in love with her and I feel fine”!
Also a bit peculiar thatthe music for most if not all of the video clips I have found run a semi-tone low, as in Rock and roll music being played in A flat rather than A major.
If that’s the case, this is a good observation, because it explains the slow tempos through the set.
Jonas, it depends on the clip..for the segments edited for TV , yes it is slowed down a half step..but the raw footage of the afternoon concert is run at correct speed and correct key..and yes, it must’ve been unnerving for Paul to keep having to adjust his mike every 10 seconds.
They have different amps for the different shows. The first shows they have the AC100 tube amps, and later shows hey have the newer transistor amps
George ‘If I needed f***ing someone’ 8.03 LOL
They were getting fed up weren’t they. Just two or three years on and the gear would’ve been much much better.
I’m sure that they were just over the touring thing and according to Ringo, they never intended to quit going on tour altogether. Even when The Rolling Stones briefly retired from touring, their American tour of 1969 was relatively successful and had better sound systems by then not to mention that crowds were willing to listen to their music.
Even if The Beatles routinely had decent foldback systems from that time, performed two hour-long concerts per date (effectively two different sets), decent security and fans weren’t screaming at deafening levels to the point of causing their musicianship to suffer or they couldn’t hear themselves onstage, I think that they would’ve quit touring anyway; besides, there was no way that they could have realistically performed “Revolution 9”, “Mr. Kite!”, “Within You Without You”, “A Day in the Life”, “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “I am the Walrus”, “Flying” or “Tomorrow Never Knows” with just John and George’s guitars, Paul’s bass and Ringo’s drums, let alone without a fifth musician to play keyboards, e.g. Billy Preston.
George’s childhood friend Tony Bramwell was actually The Beatles’ tour manager while Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans were their roadies and Brian Epstein was their manager. Bob Bonis was their American tour manager and he also served in that capacity for The Rolling Stones.