{From the archives – March 1972} Tabloid report of Bee Gees’ 1st press conference in Japan
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March 1972 – Bee Gees were in Japan for the first time. Here is a short tabloid report about their first ever press conference in Tokyo.
Because the film “Melody” was such a huge hit in Japan in 1971, the article referred to them as “Bee Gees known for the film Melody.”
The Bee Gees known for the film “Melody” are touring Japan and gave a press conference at Tokyo Hilton on 22nd.
Barry, Robin, and Maurice on their music:
“We were fortunate to succeed. When we write songs, we use the melodies that pop up in our heads. We also use the piano or guitar at times, and the sheet music gets done by other people.”
On the film “Melody”:
All the songs used in the film were already well-known before the film was made. We just gave them approval when they wanted to use the songs in the film. We want to make a song with an influrence from Japanese music in our next album. For that purpose, we want to buy a few Japanese musical instruments while here. It is generally believed that Japanese music is a bit hard to understand to the Western ears, though.”
On Japan:
When asked what they knew about Japan, the trio replied: “Samurai, ninja — you know, the star-shaped swords that cut into your throat! There’s a famous TV series called Samurai. We want to take home a set of samurai gears. Oh, and we’ve also heard that there is a system in Japan where men get washed by women, but we haven’t experienced that yet.” This last one came with a mischievous grin.
They were probably talking about the Japanese TV series “Shintaro the Samurai” which was a huge hit in Australia. Although the Bee Gees recorded a theme to “Travels of Jamie McPheeters” set in the wagon trail days of good old West, Robin admitted in 2005 that they loved samurai films better and called them Easterns as opposed to Westerns.
This is just a very small article clipped from a tabloid back then. I remember getting up early on a March morning 47 years ago to go down to the nearest big train station to pick up various tabloids from the newsstand and got rewarded by this.
Related articles:
Bee Gees arriving and leaving:
The Bee Gees played at Osaka Festival Hall
The Bee Gees played at Budokan
The Bee Gees at Tokyo press conference
{Bee Gees Days}
