Queen 1979 Japan Tour Diary
Wednesday, April 11th
At 3:16 PM, Freddie Mercury arrived at Narita International Airport from New York aboard Pan Am flight 801 with Paul Prenter. Because they arrived earlier than scheduled, only a few dozen fans were there to greet them, and there wasn't the usual commotion as they headed to their hotel. Mr. Itami, who served as Freddie's personal bodyguard, found Freddie "somewhat refined, with an unapproachable presence" compared to his previous visit in 1976.Meanwhile, Brian dand Roger arrived at Narita at 4:54 PM on JAL flight 422. As soon as they appeared at the gate, they were swarmed by fans and members of the press, but without the chaos of the previous two visits and they were able to check into their hotel without any problems. Thirteen stage crew members were also on the flight, and they traveled to their accommodations by bus.
Thursday, April 12th
At 4:10 PM, John Deacon arrived at Narita as well. That evening, the crew went to the Budoukan and began to setup. A massive lighting fixture, nicknamed "the pizza oven", was brought over for this tour, but they had trouble adjusting the height of the poles on either end that were needed to suspend it. In the end, they had to partially disassemble and reassemble the basic stage structure. The setup was supposed to be finished by 10 PM, but it was actually completed around dawn.Friday, April 13th, at the Nippon Budoukan
The first day of their third Japanese tour in three years was finally here! Soundcheck began at 3 PM. As it was the first day, the band meticulously checked the beginning of each song on the setlist. The soundcheck was not finished even as the scheduled concert start time approached, and the doors ended up opening 30 minutes late, at 7 PM.As We Will Rock You played on tape, Roger emerged from behind the drumkit, Brian appeared from the right, and John from the left, all taking up their usual positions. Then Freddie appeared, lad in a black vinyl suit, and the concert began with the fast version of We Will Rock You. One of the biggest evolutions evident from their first 1979 Japanese concert date was how much Freddie's Japanese had improved. He greeted the audience with a surprisingly fluent "watashitachi ha, mata nihon ni korete, taihen ureshii desu!" ["We're so happy to be back in Japan!"], thrilling the packed venue, which was filled to capacity right to the top of the second floor.
After the performance, the members were invited by Mr. Susumu and Ms. Misa Watanabe of Watanabe Productions to experience a traditional Japanese restaurant for the first time. They were delighted to witness the dance of real geisha.
Saturday, April 14th, at the Nippon Budoukan
For the second encore this evening, Freddie was carried onstage on the shoulders of a man dressed up as Superman. The band then launched into We Will Rock You, eliciting cheers from the audience. Incidentally, the man dressed as Superman was one of Freddie's personal bodyguards, known as "Big Paul". He usually stood alert in the wings, ready for emergencies.Sunday, April 15th
Freddie had the whole day off, so he went shopping at the Oriental Bazaar in Harajuku. Unfortunately, since it was a Sunday, he was quickly surrounded by fans. At first, Freddie was signing autographs for about 80 people, but the number of fans surrounding him kept exponentially increasing. In the end, he had to abandon his plans to shop and beat a hasty retreat.Monday, April 16th
This was an interview day. During this tour, the four band members opted not to give interviews together, rather choosing to divide and conquer. On this day, they were interviewed by Seventeen, Ongaku Senka, Music Life, and others. The press was managed by Paul Prenter and Pete Brown, both of whom appeared as characters in the movie Bohemian Rhapsody. They skillfully handled the already complicated scheduling of interviews. Incidentally, the two disliked being called "managers", although their jobs were clearly as important as such. This had apparently been a policy since Queen had moved to become independent from Trident Records—Queen saw only themselves as their own managers, and Peter and Paul were referred to as "personal assistants".Tuesday, April 17th
Brian and Freddie traveled to Osaka on separate shinkansen. Brian also went sightseeing in Nara, while Freddie went shopping in Kyoto. Roger, who had brought his girlfriend Dominique with him, enjoyed sightseeing and shopping in Tokyo with her.Wednesday, April 18th
John, Roger, and the tour crew arrived in Osaka in the evening. While on the shinkansen, a woman selling goods on board mistook the crew for the band and asked for their autographs on paper napkins. Roger and John found this hilarious. That evening, at the hotel in Osaka, the band members were presented with a commemorative plaque to celebrate their fourth consecutive year as the number one group in Music Life's reader popularity poll. The crew, meanwhile, began setting up in Osaka Festival Hall.Thursday, April 19th, at Osaka Festival Hall
This was the day of the first Osaka show, but the venue was hosting an entrance ceremony for a certain culinary school earlier in the afternoon, and it didn't finish when it was scheduled to at 12:30 PM. This frustrated the crew, who were only able to enter the hall at 1:30 PM to proceed with setting up the PA equipment.During soundcheck on this day, the band rehearsed Te wo Toriatte for the first time. Although Freddie's spoken Japanese had seemed so fluent, singing was another matter, and he struggled to memorized the Japanese lyrics. In the end, he had to resort to using a cheatsheet taped to the side of the piano.
Friday, April 20th, at Osaka Festival Hall
Roger was interviewed by Music Life at a hotel in Osaka. At the show that night, they performed Te wo Toriatte for the first time ever. Brian played the piano while Freddie leaned beside him to sing. It was an intimate image that delighted the fans, but in reality it was born out of necessity so Freddie could see the cheatsheet.The stage setup for this tour consisted of the same equipment that was used in Europe and the US, and transporting all of it was quite a production, requiring eight trucks, two power supply vehicles, and two buses for the crew. As soon as the second Osaka show ended, dismantling began, and the four trucks (painted with images of nude women on bicycles) sped down toe Hokuriku Expressway in the middle of the night towards the next destination.
Saturday, April 21st, at the Kanazawa Ethics Memorial Hall
Freddie took the 9:45 AM train from Osaka to Kanazawa. On the way, he drank orange juice with pulp, which stuck to his lips and teeth. Unaware of this, he continued talking very earnestly, causing the staff around him to struggle to contain their laughter, which was quite difficult.Meanwhile, in other areas of the train, Queen's people approached a Japanese record exec about releasing a live version of Love of My Life as a single in Japan ahead of other countries. It seems these types of business powwows were held frequently on this tour at odd times, including while traveling.
Despite it being April, it was still chilly in Kanazawa, and to make matters worse, a cold rain was falling. A heater had to be hastily brought into the dressing room. Perhaps because of this, Freddie caught a cold, and his voice was such poor condition that he had to sing an octave lower on a lot of parts.
Sunday, April 22nd
In the morning, the group toured Kenroukuen Garden. In the afternoon, they flew from Komatsu Airport back to Tokyo.Monday, April 23rd, at the Nippon Budoukan
Of the five Budoukan performances on the tour, this one was the best. It seemed that Freddie's voice had recovered after a day off.Tuesday, April 24th, at the Nippon Budoukan
In the morning, a young Queen fanboy showed up at the venue with a guitar he had made himself, asking for it to be given to Brian. It was an impressive piece, made with similar materials to Brian's Red Special guitar. When the staff presented the guitar to Brian when he arrived that evening, he was reportedly beaming with joy.Wednesday, April 25th, at the Nippon Budoukan
This was the day of the final Tokyo performance, but unfortunately there was a public transportation strike, and trains were not running. At one point, it seemed that the concert might even have to be cancelled, but the JR Railway's strike lifted at 3 PM, and the private railways lifted theirs at 5 PM, and the concert went ahead as planned. However, Freddie's cold had worsened again, and his voice was not in the condition he wanted, so he seemed irritiable from the start, which resulted in a rough performance overall. During the encore, he tripped and fell in the middle of Sheer Heart Attack, and this accident on top of his already poor condition left him angry. He knocked over one of the stage's amplifiers and beat it with his microphone stand, which bent it. In the end, he hijacked a microphone that was set up for Roger's drums and finished the song.Nippon Television recorded this performance, and it was later edited into a 60-minute version and broadcast on the same station in two parts, with Isao Fukutome as the host. John Deacon was seen singing into the microphone during choruses, something that he rarely did. Additionally, the Japanese lyrics of Te wo Toriatte are being sung confidently and without cheatsheets by this point.
Thursday, April 26th
This was a travel day. The group arrived in Kobe via shinkansen that evening.Friday, April 27th, at Kobe Central Gymnasium
With the exception of Osaka and Nagoya, all the venues on this tour were gymnasiums. Since they weren't actual concert halls, the band had to use what were essentially locker rooms as green rooms or dressing rooms. Depending on the venue, they might also be right next to the toilets, which meant dealing with a potential smell. The venue in Kobe was a well-used 15 year-old gym, so to get it ready, toilets were cleaned, carpet was laid, and sofas and tables (with tablecloths!) were setup to create a proper atmosphere for the band. This was all done out of the desire for Queen to give the best performance they possibly could. You can imagine the hard work the staff put into this. After the show that day, the crew didn't stay in Kobe, instead heading to Nagoya via bus ahead of the band.Saturday, April 28th, at Nagoya International Exhibition Hall
Queen departed Shin-Kobe Station via shinkansen in he morning and arrived in Nagoya by noon. Because it was a Saturday, hundreds of fans were lying in wait, making it difficult for them to disembark.The venue is located in a desolate area near Nagoya Port, about a 40-minute drive from Nagoya Station. With a max capacity of 20,000 people, it was the largest venue of the tour, and even the band was surprised by its size. Freddie's voice, which had been a concern, had almost completely recovered, and he delivered a fantastic performance.
Sunday, April 29th
When the staff stepped out of the hotel lobby in the morning, it was bustling with a large crowd of women. The staff braced themselves, but they were relieved to find out that some of the women were attending a wedding while most of the rest were fans of Shinji Harada, who had been staying at the same hotel. Queen then flew from Nagoya to Fukuoka.Freddie gave an interview to Music Life at the hotel in Fukuoka, with Mary Austin present. It was well-established overseas that he disliked giving interviews, but apparently Music Life was a different matter, and the interview began at 8 PM and ran for nearly two hours.
Monday, April 30th, at the Kyushu Electric Power Gymnasium
During Brighton Rock Brian always played an improvised solo, but starting around Kobe, he began playing the Japanese folksong Sakura in an unconventional way. He had performed it during his previous visit to Japan, but this time he experimented with various versions, such as adding distortion and echo to make it sound like dueting Japanese koto.Tuesday, May 1st, at the Kyushu Electric Power Gymnasium
During his time in Fukuoka, Brian inexplicably bought three tatami mats. However, he because displeased when he realized they were too large to be taken back to England with him, so he arranged for them to be delivered separately later.After the show, the crew didn't stay in Fukuoka overnight, instead departing for Yamaguchi via bus.
Wednesday, May 2nd, and the Yamaguchi Prefectural Gymnasium
The venue (which is now known as the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media), has a capacity of approximately 1,000 people, making it the smallest venue on this tour. Originally, a venue couldn't be found for the third day in Fukuoka, so this gym was chosen. This was the first performance of a foreign act at the venue since The Carpenters visited in 1976, and when it was announced, the locals thought it was a film concert rather than a real one. Because Iwakuni Air Base was nearby, many of the attendees were affiliated with the US military, which almost made it feel like an overseas concert.Thursday, May 3rd
There was a bit of a snafu at breakfast, as the hotel in Yamaguchi didn't have room service, and while they have coffee, they didn't even have any bread! The staff managed to procure an 8-slice bag of bread that had be bought for the hotel employees, which they toasted, presenting two slices to each band member.The group traveled back to Fukuoka by luxury bus and then flew back to Tokyo. When Brian noticed that Bicycle Race and Don't Stop Me Now were on the in-flight entertainment channel, he cheered and gave a fist pump, saying "YES!" He then urged the other members to listen as well.
Friday, May 4th
In the morning, Queen enjoyed some last-minute shopping, and in the afternoon they flew to Sapporo. The beer provided during the tour was mainly cans of Budweiser, so for dinner that evening, they enjoyed draft Sapporo beer in mugs at the Sapporo Beer Garden.Saturday, May 5th, at the Makomanai Ice Arena
The concert in Sapporo was not originally planned, but it was added at Freddie's request. During the first two songs of the concert, the emergency lights were turned off for dramatic effect, which plunged the venue into darkness. This led to complaints from the police and fire department, causing a major dispute. This was because at a Rainbow concert in Sapporo the previous January (at a different venue than the one Queen was in), enthusiastic fans bumrushed the stage, causing a crush that resulted in one fatality. Therefore the authorities were on high alert regarding concerts by foreign artists. Things came to a head, with Queen's tour manager furiously shouting "NO SHOW!" at one point, halting the concert temporarily. But ultimately there was no such chaos at Queen's show, and the members were in high spirits, as they were wrapping up another tour in Japan. During the encore, Freddie even jumped into the audience, causing a memorable moment.After the show, there was a wrap party at a Genghis Khan restaurant. John was absent. Since the tour was ending the next day, everyone was rowdier than usual. By the time Freddie and Roger had left, everyone was completely plastered. Even Brian, who is usually quite introverted and quiet, was inexplicably riled up that night and didn't want to go back to the hotel, wandering around with beer in hand. He forced his way onto the crew's bus and even after it arrived back at the hotel, he didn't want to go back to his room, instead disappearing into the night streets of Sapporo.
Sunday, May 6th, at Makomanai Ice Arena
This was the final show of the Japan tour. During Don't Stop Me Now, the stage was transformed into a festive celebration when the crew, dressed in various costumes, stormed it and danced wildly. The band seemed in high spirits too, and for the first encore, they played Jailhouse Rock before Sheer Heart Attack. While this was a familiar Queen encore number, it hadn't been played on the 1979 Japanese tour until now. At the end, paper streamers set up by the Japanese crew were dropped from the lighting rig, celebrating a fitting end to the tour's final show.Also, immediately backstage after the show, the band and crew concluded the tour with a traditional Japanese 3-3-7 clap.
Monday, May 7th
The band flew from Sapporo back to Tokyo one last time. From Narita Airport Freddie departed for Hong Kong, Roger and Brian to Hawaii, and John for London, thus concluding their 27-day stay in Japan.Anecdotes:
This tour had an unusual schedule with a four-day gap between the Budoukan performance on the 14th and the Osaka performance on the 19th. In fact, a show in Koriyama, Fukushima prefecture was scheduled for this period, but the board of education requested a cancellation of the event, stating that a rock concert in Fukushima was unacceptable, and it never materialized.Additionally, the tour's visuals (specifically the image of a nude woman straddling a bicycle) is credited with being the reason why there wasn't a show in Kyoto. Whether that was actually the reason or not is unclear, but it must've been disappointing for the band, as they all loved Kyoto (especially Freddie).
Freddie, who loved shopping, purchased 3 million yen worth of artwork, including prints and ceramics, on April 15th, his first day off. Ultimately his purchases exceeded 10 million yen, and he even secured a special room in the hotels to secure his collection. As it turned out, the airlines refuse to accept expensive items like vases as checked baggage, so staff members had to carry them back in carry-ons.
John Deacon loved disco, and his particular favorite place to go was Byblos in Akasaka, Tokyo, which he also frequented on his prior 1976 trip to Japan.
Brian brought his wife Chrissy and their one-year-old son, Jimmy. In Sapporo, Brian and Chrissy got into a fight which escalated to the point where she stormed out of the hotel.
A song that was popular with the band at the time was Hideki Saijo's "Young Man (Y.M.C.A)", which was a big hit at the time. They apparently were amused by the choreography. Incidentally, Hideki Saijo had also covered Don't Stop Me Now around this time, and Queen's staff managed to catch a glimpse of it on TV.
Brian brought a cassette recorder with him in order to practice his Japanese. John followed suit and learned how to say "I am 27 years old".
All four of them happened to buy lucky cat figurines and paper lanterns as souvenirs. Furthermore, even though they went to the shinkansen dining car separately, they all ordered curry rice.
