Tokyo • Monday, November 18, 2013

About

This was the first of three shows at the Tokyo Dome.

From For Whom The Bell Tells, December 4, 2013:

Saturday 16th November:
Travel to Tokyo

Not too much to report today. We have an early morning start to travel to Tokyo. The airport is peppered with passengers in McCartney t-shirts excited by our presence and hopeful that they might see the man they saw last night. But Paul will actually travel later in the day. I go over the papers with Simon (our translator and Japanese expert) in the airport lounge. Great reviews and lots was made of Paul’s localised choice of phrases and remarks.

I experienced another first in the evening. Some of us had gone out for dinner in Tokyo and just after 8:30pm there was an earthquake! The locals were totally comfortable with this and just carried on as normal but we were all pretty freaked out!

Sunday 17th November:
Day off in Tokyo

Monday 18th November:
Tokyo show 1

Nikkan Sports newspaper has a massive picture of Paul holding a Japanese flag on the front of their paper today. The headline when translated reads ‘Paul is turning Japanese’. Japan has really taken Paul to heart. He has impressed the nation with his effort to speak their language and by getting involved with the sumo.

Masa can’t stop smiling. ‘You don’t understand what a big deal this is’, he keeps telling me but I’m pretty sure I do! What he means is that entertainment very rarely makes headline news in Japan. He also explains there is a big US artist in town this week playing tonight who will get no coverage as all of Tokyo’s media are at the Dome.

The Tokyo Dome is another unbelievably massive venue and when I arrive in the morning fans are already forming orderly lines, waiting for the venue to open the doors.

It’s a busy day today that, like so many of these days, goes by in a flash. Paul arrives at the venue just after 4:20PM and is straight into soundcheck.

After soundcheck Paul met evacuees from Fukushima that he had specially invited to the show.

The ten he met were all forced to leave their homes and as yet have not been able to return. The group included a couple in their 50s, a 30-year-old man and his 20-year-old niece from Namiemachi, a town from the evacuation zone established after the nuclear accident. The party also included two girls and a teacher from the Iwaki Municipal Middle School, a school that has been taking in pupils who have had to leave areas with high radiation levels. The two girls belong to a media society at the school, which still continues to broadcast messages from people who have been evacuated from the disaster zone. Another member of the party is a 40-year-old man who has been giving voluntary concerts of Beatles songs to encourage other evacuees, despite being a victim of the disaster himself. The last two were a couple in their 30s whose shop and house were destroyed by the tsunami but are starting to rebuild their lives, despite the husband losing his father as well, they also brought their very cute one year old daughter to meet Paul too.

Paul chatted with the group and listened to their stories. After meeting with Paul the assembled group told me, “We’ve been through a terrible darkness and I can’t believe we’ve had this chance to meet Paul. It was really encouraging for all of us to meet him. He seemed such a kind man and was really concerned about Fukushima.”

The show itself is another brilliant evening of rock n’ roll. Paul has learnt even more Japanese now and one word he’s be using that the fans have been picking up on is ‘最高!’ (Saikoh! Pronounced psycho-r!) – it means fantastic!

Later that evening we talk about it with Paul and he laughs that he’s going to bring the word back with him to England and start using it in every day use.

Stuart Bell

Last updated on February 7, 2021

Tokyo Dome

This was the 15th concert played at Tokyo Dome.

A total of 25 concerts have been played there • 1990 • Mar 1st • Mar 2nd • Mar 3rd • Mar 5th • Mar 7th • Mar 9th • Mar 11th • Mar 13th • 1993 • Nov 12th • Nov 14th • Nov 15th • 2002 • Nov 11th • Nov 13th • Nov 14th • 2013 • Nov 18th • Nov 19th • Nov 21st • 2015 • Apr 23rd • Apr 25th • Apr 27th • 2017 • Apr 27th • Apr 29th • Apr 30th • 2018 • Oct 31st • Nov 1st

Setlist for the soundcheck

Setlist for the concert