[1974 October] 42 years ago today – The Bee Gees in Japan
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Let us take a moment off celebrating "In The Now" and go down the memory lane. Forty-two years ago today, October 19, 1974, the Bee Gees played at Nakano Sun Plaza Hall in Tokyo, kicking off the Japanese leg of the "Mr. Natural" tour.
This ad was from a music magazine, probably Music Life, for the tour. The photos of the brothers used here were taken during their first Tokyo concert of the 1973 tour, that is, September 1, 1973. So this actually shows Barry on his 27th birthday, with his golden mane.
Another interesting thing about this small ad was that it actually states the date not of any of their scheduled concerts, but of the date of their arrival in Tokyo, October 17, 1974.
They had been in Japan for three consecutive years. This was the third and the last year. They were not to set foot in Japan for another 15 years, although none of us knew it at that time.
The hits had stopped coming for a time, and the Bee Gees were in the middle of what they later referred to as "pop wilderness." So, unlike the previous two tours, the press coverage of the 1974 tour was quite small:
three-pages in color on Monthly Audio, two b&w interview in FM FAN (you can read it here), cover story on Monthly Onkyo, and other bits and pieces with or without photos. That’s all.
Among these, Monthly Onkyo merits special mention. They were on the cover of the October issue because their second appearance in Tokyo that year, October 28, 1974, was a special gig for members of Onkyo only. I remember I went to the Onkyo office in downtown Tokyo, with something like a letter of recommendation from a member of Onkyo to purchase the tickets for that particular concert.
When we asked Barry about the rehearsal, he said that it was just a sound check and invited us all to just walk in. Yes, it was that casual back then. We were young, but so were the Bee Gees. Those were good times. "The key to life is remembering…" ("Meaning of the Word," Barry Gibb)
{BGD – October 2016}
