Tour Diaries #4 AND #5 - Flash Gordon / Hot Space (1981-1982, Japan)

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Thursday, February 19, 1981

Roger leaves Japan for Los Angeles. Brian heads to Miami to join his wife, who is 6 months pregnant, and their 3-year-old son, and they go to Disney World for vacation.


Friday, February 20, 1981

Freddie stays in Japan. On this day alone, he buys twenty-five kimono, seven woodblock prints, red lacquer boxes, and other traditional crafts, spending over ten million yen (today, that’s $93,000 USD). Freddie’s knowledge of Japanese art had developed a fair bit by this point, and during interviews he’d throw around words and names like imari, kutani, Utamaro, Moronobu fluently.


Freddie sets off to board his Pan American flight 800 at 6:45 pm to New York, but returns to the gate 30 minutes later. The flight was on the DC10 aircraft, which Freddie claims has a history of crashes. He decides to wait around at the airport for another flight 12 hours later on a different aircraft.


Miscellaneous notes:

- The stage equipment brought over for the tour included a giant lighting rig made up of seven panels of 48 lights, operating machines, a PA system, audio equipment and more, requiring 15 trucks. The crew does practice runs of setting up the stage at the indoor practice facility of the Yakult Swallows baseball team. Each panel of lights is operated by a crew member who rides it. However, the crew finds that the Budokan doesn’t have the proper setup in the ceiling to support this system. Ultimately, the crew has to manually install seating on each of the light panels, and they only finish up right before the soundcheck of the opening day’s show.



[This picture shows off the panels of lights, as well as the Ultra Arc spotlights by Phoebus Manufacturing. Freddie has a “Guest” pass clipped to his pants.]





[This rehearsal pic gives a closer look at the lights, as well as the lights in the drum riser.]





- Disco music-loving John goes to the disco everyday. He hits it off with the director of the record company when they get to talking about the funk/disco group Chic. When the director mentions that the guitars and bass of Another One Bites the Dust sound similar to Chic’s Good Times, John responds, “I hear that a lot.” Incidentally, John is a fan of Chic’s drummer, Tony Thompson.


- Roger brings several books with him, just as he did during the previous tours, including Japanese author Shusaku Endo’s Chinmoku. [The English title is Silence, and was made into a film by Martin Scorcese recently.]


- [During an interview session with Music Life, while the Music Life staff members were chatting with each other, the word akuma (“devil”) comes up. John then interjects in Japanese, “Watashi wa akuma desu” (‘I am the devil’) as he strikes a pose. Everyone in the room is left in stunned silence.]


[Music Life cover from April 1981, and an out take from that photo shoot.]

 


- Brian buys two cameras on this trip, including a stereoscopic one.


- The whole group is fond of sake, particularly when they eat Japanese food like tempura and shabu shabu.


- John declares one day, “I want to go eat at a place that regular guys go to after work!” So the staff takes him to an ordinary yakitori place in Shinjuku, and John seems content with his yakitori and hot sake. He also expresses interest in instant noodles, and while he does not like kitsune udon, he enjoys regular instant ramen.


- The health-oriented Brian enjoys soba noodles and traditional Japanese food. However, this proves to be an austere lifestyle for the meat-craving young Japanese staff members assigned to Brian. On the last day, though, Brian takes the staff to a hamburger restaurant.


- Brian started collecting traditional Japanese hakata dolls during previous tours, but he has to order them by phone during this tour because they are a specialty of Fukuoka.


- The Japanese staff and representatives of the record company perceive an aura from Freddie that makes him difficult to approach. While Freddie responds if he is spoken to, he doesn’t initiate interactions himself, and doesn’t make things easy for the people attending to him. He lets the other Queen members take care of promotions and such, and takes a self-centred approach, like a superstar. That said, Queen is successful all over the world at this point, so he truly is a superstar.


- [The 1981 tour is commemorated in the special April 1981 edition of Music Life, called “Queen The Miracle” well before The Miracle album in 1989. In October 1975, Music Life has “Queen Forever” printed on the cover, before the compilation album was released in 2014. In the 1979 special edition of Music Life commemorating the Jazz / Live Killers tour, on the second page it says “You Are the Champions” more than 40 years before the single with that name would be released with Adam Lambert. By the way, Roger Taylor said in a recent interview that he still has copies of Music Life on his bookshelf. Hmm.]

  

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Sunday, October 24,1982 - Hankyu Nishinomiya Kyujo (Nishinomiya)

Queen performs their first Japanese outdoor concert. Due in part to the promotional activities by the band members themselves, it’s mostly a full house right to the stadium seats. This day is particularly cold, and the audience members are shivering in their seats. Furthermore, strong winds make the lighting rig sway back and forth, and there are even announcements at the venue warning the audience that the show might have to be cancelled. But at about 6:30 pm, around an hour later than scheduled, the concert is able to start. The band’s hot performance heats up the audience, and they are mesmerized by computer-controlled lights that move about. In particular, the moment Freddie sings the line “Can’t we give ourselves…” from Under Pressure, just as Freddie positions himself in front of the strong white lights behind him, is so cool that one can only gasp. On the other hand, Freddie greets the audience in Nishinomiya with “Hello, Osaka!” which fans respond to enthusiastically while thinking to themselves, “Well this ain’t Osaka…”

Despite the strong winds and cold weather of this Nishonimya gig, the fans’ response is terrific, and Brian even calls it the best show of the Japan tour. Incidentally, this show is also filmed, and shown later on to fan club members. [The book also goes on to say that the video Rare Live featured Crazy Little Thing Called Love from this show, but that video footage is from the Tokorozawa show from later on.]

[These pictures show the scaffolding used for the stage lighting.]





Monday, October 25, 1982

The band travels from Osaka to Nagoya on the Hikari #24 bullet train.

[Freddie enjoys a bento meal and Suntory beer on the bullet train. On the box, it says “pub snack.” The woman sitting behind him is the group’s interpreter, and the man beside her is one of the bodyguards. Across the aisle, not visible in the picture, are bodyguard Itami-san and personal assistant Peter “Phoebe” Freestone.]




John and Roger appear remotely by video on Fuji TV’s Yoru No Hitto Sutajio Deluxe show to promote the upcoming show in Tokorozawa.

Tuesday, October 26, 1982 - Nagoya Kokusai Tenjijo

The big surprise for this show is Freddie singing Teo Torriatte acapella before Crazy Little Thing Called Love to close off the main set. The audience responds to this special moment by singing in unison, creating a moving atmosphere in the venue.




[Freddie on the way to the airport in Nagoya to fly to Hokkaido, date unknown.]



Friday, October 29, 1982 - Hokkaido-ritsu Sangyo Kyoushinkaijo (Sapporo)

The car-loving Roger does some racing on go-karts.

[Some shots of the group, including one of Fred Mandel, in and around their hotel and at the airport, all in Sapporo, Hokkaido.]







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Wednesday, November 3, 1982 - Seibu Lions Kyujo (Tokorozawa)

This day is the last day of the Japanese shows, known for the image of Freddie wearing the Seibu Lions baseball team cap. This night’s concert is filmed, and released with the title Queen Live in Japan by Appolon, a subsidiary of Watanabe Productions, and later re-released by Toshiba EMI, but now out of print. Furthermore, the 2004 reissue of the Milton Keynes DVD has a bonus disc with footage from this show.

[Backstage photos from Tokorozawa.]




After this show, Queen announces that they will take a year-long break, leading to rumours of a breakup. True to their word, the band does not become active again until Radio Ga Ga is released on January 27, 1984.


[The audience recording captures a funny moment that the video and soundboard recording don’t:]



[Overheard, right before the laughter: “Kawaiso!” (“I feel bad for him!”)]


[This professional photo of the Tokorozawa show from Getty Images is my favourite. Notice anything?]





Thursday, November 4, 1982

Roger flies to Hong Kong.



Friday, November 5, 1982

Brian and John go to London, and Freddie heads to New York, but goes shopping in Harajuku before going to the airport to buy his bodyguard a present.



Miscellaneous notes:

- Known as the Hot Space Tour around the world, in Japan it’s marketed as “10th Anniversary PARCO QUEEN JAPAN TOUR ‘82.”


- Freddie goes shopping one day, and comes back with three taxis full of his purchases.


- The Brian May Fanclub sends Brian and his son Jimmy matching hanten (traditional Japanese winter coats). Brian contacts the record company, and arranges for a phone call so that he can thank them personally.


- While touring North America before the Japan leg of the tour, Freddie loses 10kg. He says he’ll gain weight after the Japan leg.


- [John enjoys recording the TV in his hotel room. He says he enjoys the commercials more than the shows, and ends up bringing home several tapes.]


- [John and Roger continue to enjoy yakitori (grilled chicken skewers), while Freddie has gyoza dumplings for the first time and loves it.]


- [John spends 4 hours at an audio fair. He’s particularly interested in Digital Audio Denmark (DAD) and buys audio equipment totalling over 2 million yen ($19,000 USD / 16,000 Euro).]

- [Brian 1982 TV interview about stereo photos:]



[The uploader of that video sent Brian some photos, and he sent her a hand-written letter back in appreciation.]





- [The newsletter from the official Japanese branch of the fan club published a list of bootlegs.]




- [Excerpt from Viva Rock magazine (December 1982 issue):

Interviewer asks John what he thinks about Hot Space, noting the negative reception it has received so far.

John: Personally, I don’t like Hot Space at all.

Viva Rock: So why did you release it?

John: (John is hesitant to answer, several “err.. ahh…” are uttered before he gathers up the resolve to respond.) It’s the group’s album, and the group’s work, so.. uhh.... also, because I didn’t tell the other members how I felt.

Viva Rock: Roger has also said that he doesn’t like it, so that means half of the group doesn’t like the album, doesn’t it?

John: Brian doesn’t like it, either.]

- Brian, in the February 1984 edition of Music Life, looking back at this tour: “After the Seibu stadium show in Tokorozawa, I felt like we were all really tired of being around each other. Actually, we had decided before the end of that tour that we’d take a break from each other.”

[The End.]

If you made it all the way through, thanks for reading! Tour Diaries 1, 2, and 3 are in the 1970s section of the Live Discussion forum. That leaves one last Tour Diary for the 1985 Japan tour, which I'm looking to combine with some material from 1984 and 1986.

While touring requires much energy and can lead to this anyway, this was likely an early sign that Freddie's fate was already sealed. Weight loss is a very common symptom for acute HIV infection. Great post once again.

Excellent stuff! Thanks for these diaries.
It's interesting that Brian wrote a letter only in 1986, four years after the event.

Thanks!
Actually, I was thinking about the 10 kg / 22 lbs. weight loss. I think that would be fairly noticeable on someone Freddie's size.

Going left to right, here's Freddie in April 1982 at the beginning of the world tour in Stockholm, followed by July in New York, September in Oakland, and October in Fukuoka. I'd be surprised if he really did lose that much weight, if I were to go by these pics. I'm not sure how much he weighed on average in 1982, but in 1979, he told a Japanese magazine he weighed 54.5 kg / 120 lbs.

Wow! Thanks for this detailed comment.

Very interesting! Thanks

Amazing as always, What a joy to read all the adevntures they had in Japan

Sunday, October 24,1982 - Hankyu Nishinomiya Kyujo (Nishinomiya)
Incidentally, this show is also filmed, and shown later on to fan club members. [The book also goes on to say that the video Rare Live featured Crazy Little Thing Called Love from this show, but that video footage is from the Tokorozawa show from later on.]

Is this a myth or there's another proshot of the Japan tour?

My guess is it's this video bootleg. The back cover is hard to make out, but it says "Queen Bicycle Race Tour in Paris 1979."



According to the Japanese site I found this on, it's a 60-minute video of the Paris show from February 27, 1979.

Translation of the description from the website: "It's a video recording of Live Killers, but it's an inferior product. However, you can see valuable footage of the four members lined up at the front of the stage for Dreamers Ball."

I can only find information about this on that one site, though.