The Shadows
"Live In Japan And Pops In Japan"
EMI TOCP–6603
Released February 1991
Shazam! / Dance On! / Nivram / Apache / Exodus / Foot Tapper / A Little Bitty Tear / Putting On The Style / Slaughter On 10th Avenue / Don't Make My Baby Blue / The Rise And Fall Of Flingel Bunt / Somewhere / Little 'B' / FBI / Omoide No Nagisa / Kimi To Itsumademo / Londonderry Air / The Tokaido Line / Alentejo / Evening Glow / The Wild Roses / Gin-iro No Michi / Naughty Nippon Nights / A Thing Of Beauty / Let Me Take You There / Holy Cow
This is the CD overseas collectors in particular had been waiting for, since it made available in digital form two vinyl sets originally produced only in Japan itself: The Shadows Live In Japan (1969) and The Shadows In Japan (1967). The former is of interest since it represents one of the few examples of a Shadows' concert marketed legitimately. This is not the place to examine the minutiae, but the point can be made briefly here that this particular concert was poor, at times desperately poor, both in recording and performance terms. The other set, from November 1967, came out a month ahead of the UK Album From Hank, Bruce, Brian And John with which it has some tracks in common. See CD Guide 2005 p. 33 for details. But four tracks (marked in bold above) did not come out in the UK and became much sought after: they are presented here in fine sound.
Presentation is strictly deluxe. The front cover shot occupies the first page of a 20–page booklet with a further colour pic (back cover) and five small-scale b/w pics of the group; there is extensive text in Japanese (group history, track-analysis).
The front cover shot occupies the first page of a 16–page booklet with colour and (small-scale) b/w pics, and text dated 1990, in Japanese, by Makoto Yagi. This provides an account of The Shadows; UK chart-placings of the major Singles (from APACHE to RIDERS IN THE SKY) together with Albums (extending from The Shadows to Life In The Jungle / Live At Abbey Road); and analysis of the fifteen tracks on the CD.
