For the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ 1966 Tokyo concerts, Genesis Publications announces a book of rare photos of the trip. Taken by Japanese photographer Shimpei Asai, these pictures have never before been published outside Japan.
June 29, 2016 – In 1966, 50 years ago, The Beatles embarked on their last tour: they played concerts in seven cities over the course of four months, beginning in London, and ending in San Francisco. Millions of fans in England, Germany, Japan, the Philippines and America flocked to see the band.
On the 29th June 1966, The Beatles arrived in Tokyo, to play five shows to a sell-out crowd at the legendary Nippon Budokan. The venue had been previously reserved for traditional Japanese entertainment, and famous for its sumo wrestling. It was built to commemorate the lives of Japan’s lost soldiers, and was a hallowed centre of Japanese culture.
As the first rock act to perform at the Budokan, The Beatles faced controversy and protest as well as causing excitement: many objected to a concert at the traditional venue. Following the success of The Beatles’ Tokyo concerts however, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Led Zepplin and others also visited the Budokan, which is now an internationally recognised music venue.
A few days after taking to the stage to play their first concert in Tokyo, The Beatles are said to have sent a telegram to EMI with their new LP title: Revolver. This album would come to mark a shift of focus away from touring, and towards more complex recording work – an important time of change for the band so many had grown to know and love.
This fleeting stay in Tokyo, with its controversy, Beatlemania, and creativity, is captured in a new book of photographs taken by Japanese photographer Shimpei Asai, and published by Genesis Publications, entitled Hello Goodbye: The Beatles in Tokyo, 1966.
Asai is the only Japanese photographer to have been given official access to The Beatles in Tokyo, and his photos have remained unknown to most outside Japan. They offer an intimate portrait of The Beatles in their first trip to the country, capturing their time on and off stage: performing, painting, and experimenting with traditional Japanese instruments.
Hello, Goodbye: The Beatles in Tokyo, 1966 is an opportunity to gain a new insight into an intriguing moment in The Beatles’ history. A limited edition, beautifully bound and printed, it is being published in the same year that Genesis reaches its 100th edition. Hello, Goodbye is a celebration of both the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ visit to Tokyo, and Genesis’ long career publishing collectors’ music, photography and art books.
Hello, Goodbye: The Beatles in Tokyo, 1966 will ship from November 2016, and will prove an essential edition for any collector or Beatles fan.
To register your interest, visit www.hello-goodbye-book.com for more details.
Please contact Elizabeth Freund at Beautiful Day Media, elizabeth@beautifuldaymedia.com, to request high res versions of the photos available for use.
The post Genesis Publications Reveal Hello, Goodbye: The Beatles in Tokyo, 1966 appeared first on Beatles music radio.
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