He said this was the Legendary Night - Paul McCartney at Budokan

Background

Budokan, the hall for Japanese martial arts in Tokyo, has special meaning for beatlemaniacs in Japan. It was the place of the first and the last concert of the Beatles in Japan, in 1966. Some Japanese old men criticized, "The foreigner pop stars use the holy place of Japanese traditional sports", however the administrator of Budokan admitted the Beatles to play in the hall. (Actually, at that time Budokan was the largest hall in Japan, and it was suitable for accommodating a big audience)

In 1975, Paul McCartney was scheduled to play there but the Japanese Ministry of Justice banned his entry to Japan. In 1980, Paul entered Japanese Customs for his concert at Budokan but he was arrested for cannabis possession. In 1990, 1993, 2002 and 2013 he played his music in Japan but not at Budokan. He finally released his plan to play at Budokan in 2014, however, he canceled all his concerts in Japan and Korea because of his sudden viral inflammation.

Such history makes this day so special - Paul sings his songs for the first time in 49 years after many incidents.

The Iconic Venue

Wating for the Show to begin

Yes, it is special even before starting. My music lover friend who has been to Budokan over decades said, "This is my first experience to see such big crowd surrounding Budokan four hours before the concert." The crowd is waiting for Paul to come.

The place around Budokan is also like the place of "the reunion party". Many beatlemaniac friends of mine from all over Japan gather here. What's more, I meet a Korean beatlemaniac friend. I enjoyed renewing my friendship. It also makes today more special.


After waiting in a long line, at last I enter Budokan.

All of the audience members find a small device and a explanation sheet on their own seats. The sheet says "Turn on and have this wrist band. This is a surprise for Paul McCartney-san. Thank you for your cooperation from Kyodo Tokyo (promoter) and The Beatles Club (fanclub)" What is this?

Sitting in the stands of Budokan, we are waiting for the show to begin.

Concert

Paul appears on stage.

The first song is, surprisingly, "Can't Buy Me Love". It is different from the other concerts of this present tour. This fact makes us feel impressed. We guess that Paul also might think this gig is special.

Not only the song selection but also other factors make this concert feel exceptional. Obviously Paul is surprised at our eagerness and passion. I realize that from his reactions - his talking on stage, guitar playing and singing. It's different from other concerts. In other concerts, he used many Japanese messages on stage with prepared scenario, but maybe he now talks with his unprepared messages and he concentrates on his music performance.

Our presumption is that "Paul feels this concert is special" turns out to be true when he says "Sekai-hatsu! (The first in the world)" and plays "Another Girl". Yes, it's the first performance! Big surprises from him!

After that, when Paul plays the piano for "Let it Be", suddenly all audience's wrist band light.

Paul seems to be surprised by this. It could be seen on his face. Our turn now.

Our wristbands become more colorful and audience becomes more excited.

Our wristbands show the Japanese flag and the Union Jack.

(photo by Mr. I. Yamano)



In response to us, Paul and his band members are gaining steam.

On the last track, the wristbands change their color every second and Paul, and his band and audience are reaching the high point of this gig.

Paul's face at the last moment of his playing.

The show ends. Paul says "This was the Legendary Night!"

After the show

With my beatlemaniac friends, we talk over this "Legendary Night" till midnight

Newspapers.

My impsession

This show reminds me of a scene in the movie "13 days", which described the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. When the US tried to impose a naval blockade against Cuba, the Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara said; "This, all this, is language, a new vocabulary the likes of which the world has never seen. This is President Kennedy communicating with Secretary Khruschev."

Like that, Paul McCartney and Budokan audience were communicating together with no words but "new vocabularies" - music, airs of excitement and illuminating wristbands. It made the show unique.

In my opinion, all arts are also communications. Among them, This "Paul McCartney at Budokan" is the best art, aka communication.

Paul's action on the following day of the Budokan night is the symbol of our communication. He revisited Budokan. He must have been impacted from the Legendary night.

(quote from Paul's official Twitter)



It also reminds me of this lyrics of the Beatles song "The End", written by McCartney; And in the end, the Love You take is equal to the Love You make.

Paul McCartney in Japan, 2013

Preparation

Paul McCartney's concerts were a rare opportunity for Japanese fans. Paul has only held his or his band's concert in Japan 5 times in the 51years since The Beatles debut to this year, 2013. Therefore, I prepared something special for his concerts in November, 2013.

First, I did my best to take time off in order to attend all six concerts in Japan. The first and second concerts were held in Osaka Dome, which is located near my office. However, the other venues are a long way from my office. Fukuoka Dome is 500km West of my office, and Tokyo Dome is 500km East of my work place. It is almost the same distance as from London to Edinburgh, or New York to Niagra Falls. Therefore, I had to take days off. It isn't easy to take days off during the working week for Japanese businessmen. Fortunately, I could take enough day off to see Paul's concerts with my co-workers and clients understanding and smiling.

Then, 38 fanatical friends of mine and I, made red T-shirts which you can see below. They express our delight at Paul's first visit to Japan in 11 years.





The "McCartney weeks", as I like to call them, from the first concert on 11/11/2013 to the last one on 21/11/2013, have come and gone. I have written down my personal impression and experiences from these weeks.




General Impressions

Paul is so young and energetic. He sung his songs, in the same key as he did 50-years ago, with no water and very little rest. He depends not only on his talent, but also his good health. I recognize that good health is an important base for good work.

If his condition was not so great, his concerts would still be fantastic, because the songs he composed were fantastic.

He has a tremendous numbers of fans. Some of them are very good friends of mine. His concerts were a rare and precious opportunity to see them. My group of friends included people who hadn't seen each other since Paul's last concert in Japan, in 2002. What's more, Paul gave me a new opportunity to meet new friends at these concerts. Paul's music makes me happy, not only by how good it sounds but also because I can socialise with many amazing people. I think this is great.

I really appreciate Paul's consideration. He made many speeches in Japanese. One of his first speeches in Japanese was, "I will manage to speak in Japanese on this stage, but actually I'm good at English". In addition to this, he spoke in different Japanese dialects according to the area where the venue was located. Sometimes he spoke English, but at that time, Japanese subtitles appeared on big screens on stage. I have never known any other foreign musician to make such an effort. We enjoyed his showmanship and appreciated his consideration, along with his music. I think that he is taken for granted and should be more popular worldwide.




Special Memories

November 12th: 2nd concert in Osaka

I went to this concert with my six-year-old son. He lives with me, and since I frequently play Paul's CDs and DVDs, he has become a fan of Paul. When I asked him, "Do you wanna go to Paul's concert?", he quickly replied, "Yes! Yes!". Therefore, I got two tickets for that night. However, I had thought that the concert would be too long for him. After all, it wasn't for children. I had thought my son would get tired or bored and say, "I wanna go home."

However, my son enjoyed Paul's songs from the first to the last (so he could get a good nights sleep for going school the following day, I had to go with him before the encore). He jumped up when Paul began to sing his brand new single, "NEW". He also enjoyed, "All Together Now", because of his memories of when he first saw the animated movie, "Yellow Submarine". My son was astonished at the flames and fireworks on stage for the 007 theme song, "Live and Let Die". On his way home, he said, "I enjoyed the concert! I love Paul!!", repeatedly. Because of his comments and smile, I was on cloud nine.








November 15th: 3rd concert in Fukuoka

I got a close to look at the Tour Trucks.



Shaking hands with Paul's bronze hand made my day on my first visit to Fukuoka in 1993.



Paul shouted, "saiko!", again and again on stage that day. 'Saiko', does not mean 'psycho'. It has similar pronunciation, but means, terrific/fantastic.




November 18th: 4th concert in Tokyo

Tokyo is located closer to Fukushima than the other concert venues. Even now, 140,000 people who once lived in Fukushima had to evacuate and cannot go back to their homes after the big earthquake and nuclear plant accident in 2011. Paul gave a message to people from Fukushima and sung, "Yesterday".



Subtutile: "I dedicate the next song to Fukushima people…"

A friend of mine who lived close to Fukushima (the roof of his house was broken by the earthquake) said he was moved by Paul's message.




November 19th: 5th concert in Tokyo

I purchased a Sound Check ticket for this day. I was able to see Paul's rehearsal and was guaranteed front rows seats in the same venue as the main concert. The price was 80,000yen (800 dollars / 480 pounds / 560 euro). It was expensive for me, but I think it was worth the price.

The rehearsal was the same quality as the main concert. Paul and his band played some different songs to the main concert. The set list of the rehearsal changed every day, and many songs played on that day were old rock n' roll and blues songs. He seemed to be relaxed while singing and playing songs that he had listened to in his teenage years.

On this day, he was late for the Sound Check because of heavy traffic. He said, "Sorry, it's Kennedy traffic". His way from the hotel to the venue was affected by cars being controlled because of the new-appointed U.S. ambassador of Japan, Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of the slain president. He gave all of us guitar picks as a token of apology. It was a special token given only on this day, a small one, but nonetheless a big souvenir for me and other fans.








My seat was in the midst of the 55,000 seats of the gigantic Tokyo dome! I was in the 4th row!




I had a great experience and cannot explain it in words.

I saw a halolike light when Paul was alone on stage and sung "Blackbird", which was explained by Paul as a song of support for the civil-rights movement for black Americans in the 60s.






November 21th: the last concert in Tokyo

In the morning, my wife made these sandwiches even though she isn't Paul's biggest fan. Her lovely idea and concern made me even happier.



(below is Paul's brand new album , "NEW".)

The promotion company for this concert gave red bar-shaped lights to all 55,000 audience members. This present included a piece of paper that said: "This is a surprise present for Paul. When he begins to sing "Yesterday", pick it up and wave it. Never use it before this. Thank you for co-operating."



Paul was obviously surprised at this scene.

The last song "The End", made me sad and moved me. I decided to stamp the scene forever in my mind. When he stop playing the guitar,his guitar was pulled to his body. It was the last of his playing. When he went downstairs off to the side of the stage, his hands were raised up to his breast. I wish it was not the last scene of Paul for me.



I drunk with many fanatical friends after every concert. In particular, the last one was the most impressive event. I saw close friends, friends I hadn't seen in a long time, and foreign fans. When a Korean fan and I talked together we both said, "Between the Korean government and the Japanese one, the relationship isn't good these days. However, we can both enjoy talking about the same musician peacefully". I felt the great power of his music!








I'm grateful to Paul, the members of the band, the stage crew, promoters, my co-workers and clients. In particular, all my fanatical friends, fans who I met for the first time, and my family. These "McCartney weeks" were a special memory in my life.

Some places in Kyoto Paul McCartney visited

With two friends of mine, who are big fans of Paul McCartney, I visited Kyoto which was the capital of Japan from 794 to 1867. It is one of the most popular sightseeing places for both Japanese people and foreigners.

The first place we visited was Kinkakuji Temple, established in the 14th century. It burned down in 1950 and was reconstructed. Paul visited this temple in November 2002. The master priest admitted that Paul, his wife and his band members to the temple after it had closed time. The temple rules dictated that only state guests (King, Queen, President, Prime Minister etc.) were to be treated like that, but Paul was an exception to the rule.

We had Japanese tea and sweets which were made with pure gold like Kinkakuji.

The second place we visited was the Old Imperial Palace. It is a big park - all the buildings are closed. Why did Paul visit such a place? Maybe it is a good place for strolling.

The third place we saw on our tour was an old Japanese style inn Yoshikawa. It is where
Paul stayed. However, we didn't stay there because the rate is expensive, instead we had the cheapest tempra dinner set(100 dollars). It was the best tempra I have ever had.

After dinner, I asked the serving lady "We are big fans of Paul McCartney, so could you show us the room Paul stayed in?" She said, "Of course, come this way" and smiled gently.

This was his room! We saw it from ouyside the inn. The serving lady said, "If nobody was staying in this room, you could see inside, but unfortunately a guest is staying there now."

The inn had a beautiful garden. The book "Each One Believing" about Paul's 2002 tour contained a picture of Paul relaxing  in this garden.

After we took many pictures,  the serving lady showed us the photo book of the celebrity guests who were celebrities, Leonard DiCaprio,Cameron Diaz, Daniel Radcliff etc. We focused on the first page and the second page. A picture of Paul was on the first page. On the second page was Olivia Harrison, George Harrison's wife! The serving lady said, "Paul-san recommended this inn to her." We were surprised and glad that there is a good relationship between Paul and Olivia. (If you are a beatlemania, you may know the complex relationship between Paul and George.)

As I wrote above, this inn Yoshikawa provides high-level hospitality and is a high-class hotel. In addition, this inn has another value - staff are not exclusive but open-minded. All Japanese people know some high-class Japanese inns are exclusive. For example, no first-time guest are admitted (you need to be introduced by a regular), and they look  down on average people. However, Yoshikawa's staff treated us the same as other upper class guests. We were impressed by their services and thought that such an attitude attracted Paul and had him introduce this inn to other celebrities.