Paul McCartney In Japan – March 1990
Paul McCartney’s ambition to play in Japan after The Beatles had twice been thwarted. The first time was in 1975. Wings had planned to visit Japan but were denied entry due to McCartney’s previous convictions for growing marijuana on his Scottish farm. By way of an “apology”, the band performed this version of Bluebird, which was filmed in a hotel room in Melbourne, Australia.
Is that a normal cigarette that Denny Laine is smoking in the background?
The next time that he tried to enter Japan was on the 16th of January 1990. After being found in possession of 219 grams of marijuana, McCartney was detained for nine days and then sent back home. The incident effectively sealed the fate of the final line-up of Wings.
The Return
McCartney finally returned to Japan in March 1990, as part of his world tour. He was set to perform at The Tokyo Dome – a impressive venue that had only been built two years previously.
Although he had planned to play on seven nights, the schedule was reduced to six concerts – to take account of vocal challenges in the previous leg of the tour.
Press Conference
The band arrived on the 28th of February and on the following day, McCartney took part in a press conference at Tokyo’s MZA Ariake Theatre. They entertained the journalists with a performance of the Carl Perkins number Matchbox:
The Concerts
The first Tokyo Dome concert was on the 3rd of March 1990.
After Jet, McCartney announced to his 60,000 fans, “How you doin’? Ok, I don’t speak much Japanese, so I’m going to talk in English – it’s great to be back.“
The setlist had undergone some changes since the last (US) leg of the tour. Maybe I’m Amazed, Ebony and Ivory, and Twenty Flight Rock were dropped and the old Wings song, Let ‘Em In, was brought in.
McCartney decided to play a strange amalgam of two early Beatles songs, P.S. I Love You and Love Me Do, dubbed “P.S. Love Me Do”, which made its first appearance on the fourth show on the 9th of
March.
P.S. Love Me Do
Fans are quite divided about P.S. Love Me Do. What do you think?
Masago Primary School
On the 9th of March, Paul and Linda McCartney visited the Masago Primary School in Tokyo. As they entered the grounds, they were serenaded by the school’s wind band and offered a garland of Japanese flowers, which they wore as a necklace.
The McCartneys then took part in a tree-planting ceremony; Paul McCartney told the tree to “Grow well” and signed a plaque that was displayed next to the tree. The schoolchildren then gave a short concert of song and dance. McCartney addressed the children at the end of the event:
Thank you very much, children. It’s a great pleasure for us to have come here today. Thank you
for your song and dance. And we hope you will help us to stop pollution on this planet, so you can
all grow up in a nice clean world.
Their visit to the school can be watched here:
A Very Funny Interview
As well as visiting the school, McCartney managed to squeeze in two separate interviews before
the concert on the 9th of March. On Ohayo Nice Day (“Good Morning Have a Nice Day”). The
interviewer, a young Japanese woman, was either star-struck, or pretending to be overcome with
excitement as she approached McCartney in his car, “I’m going to interview you today!” which
prompted the response, “You’d better control yourself, then.”
It can be watched here:
Read More In My New Book
More information about the March 1990 tour of Japan can found in my new book, Paul McCartney The World Tour 1989-90, available in hardback or paperback – click on the link here:
Paul McCartney The World Tour 1989-90 – Paul McCartney After The Beatles: A Musical Appreciation
