I saw this tour at the Edinburgh Playhouse in October 1982. I was just Sixteen years old at the time and traveled by train from my home town by myself. Booked into a nearby bed and breakfast that overlooked the stage door and watched with excitement the crowds as the band emerged after the gig. Sandii and the sunsets opened. By the time I got in the sunsets were already halfway through their set. Such an exciting time to be alive and a great adventure for me personally. Thank you for reminding me.
mine was 1982 in manchester apollo i was just 15 after dancing to japan on the dance floor he asked me out. he was the spitting image of david, omg i died. he asked me out and said do you want to come and see JAPAN i said i dont have the money, he said i do. love love love first love ever im 55 now and i still love the song and do him. no love story sorry but still in contact. oooooorrrr
I was there also. One of those gigs you don’t forget. I went with a crowd of mates as were all from Edinburgh someone was I’ll so I got their ticket. Also saw Roxy Music there the same year. Another fantastic gig.
@Dawn Haag Duran were big fans (as you probably know), & I can see some of the influence. Heck, Nick Rhodes even looked like David Sylvian w/his haircut & makeup (the way David looks in this video). I can also see the influence of Brian Ferry's singing & way of dress, especially, in songs like this one. Very Roxy. All musicians influence each other, for better or worse. I think better.
And to think Richard Barbieri would go on to become the keyboardist for one of the most influential and critically acclaimed progressive rock bands of the 20th century..Porcupine Tree!
God I freaking love this song.. it's so distinctive and with David's voice.. ahhhh, really sends me to a different time and place, such nostalgia that I can't even explain.
I only recently started listening to Japan. As a bassplayer myself I am absolutely flabbergasted by Mick Karns basslines. His basslines to this song, Swing, Art of Parties and Methods of Dance are almost indescribable.They just seem to float beautifully like the smooth moves and glides he does on this live record. The bass is present but in no way overwhelming and overshadowing the other instruments. I'm convinced there was something special about his playing and its sad to know that he died only 3 years ago from cancer.
Chris Navarette If you dig Karn so much (as your "kills it" implies) why would you criticize someone for discovering (& recognizing) his genius? It's clear +goodash21 means "flabbergasted" in the most awe-inspired way possible, and that he's wonderstruck by Karn's tremendous gifts. To attack the cat because he wasn't present at the band's creation is an affront to the joy of discovery, a joy to be found in every fiber of Japan's being. You sir, should be applauding Karn's continuous capacity to wow, even from the netherworld. And you can begin by apologizing to Japan and its fans (which -- Thank Zeus! -- now includes +goodash21) for so ridiculously disrespecting the magic.
... absolute class. Take a big whiff, you’ll NEVER hear anything like Japan again. They had everything. Karn’s baselines are ridiculously good. So lucky to have been around when they peaked. ‘Polaroids’ is a great album.
My son is 18...his girlfriend same age...I showed them this...collectively they said..."and we have to put up with the shit being churned out now...you were so lucky to be around at this time"...
i swear im so in love with mick karn, the way that he plays the bass and keep his face and eyes serious and graceful at the same time is so intense, for lord.
One of my most treasured musical memories is being there at Hammersmith Odeon in 1983. It was truly wonderful. An unrepeatable experience. I can't say for certain that I was there when this recording was made, as they did several nights at Hammersmith Odeon and "Oil on Canvas" is drawn from all of them. But it was like this. Only better, because I was there, not watching on RU-vid.
I was at that concert. middle of the balcony looking down on the stage. Incredible show. Dressed to the nines and made up perfectly. Such a great vibe, everyone looking superb and really getting into the music, David Sylvian's voice so dreamy and Mick Karn's bass out of this world and to see him do his signature shuiffle blew us all away. Great times. The music was amazing and people looked fantastic
Mick Karn's signature shuffle at 4.32 .... I'm obsessed! RIP Mick. RIP to my dear darling David Brotherton, ex fiance and partner of 7 years from 1980 to 1987, you introduced me to Japan. This track is haunting. Cancer is cruel.
Best eighties band, period. Each and every one of them are such amazing musicians. The image and sound are so powerfully unique. I love the way they caress your soul through your ears.
It's like David Bowie and Nick Rhodes became one person ... Spectacular low-key Space Punk / New Romantic ... This live performance is commendably close to the studio recording considering the relative complexity of what they're doing ...
Mick Karn is king of fretless bass, checkout Christian by China Crisis, his playing on that 80s classic is other worldly. Edit:- some time later I did get to realise that it wasn’t Mick that did Christian but Andy Pask.
I was lucky enough to be at the first night of their last tour at Portsmouth Guildhall, amazing show totally rammed and seeing Mick Karn sliding about onstage like that was mindbending, those Wal basses are not light. Such a shame they imploded so soon after and R.I.P Mick Karn taken too soon.
David was really the most handsome and elegant man on earth throughout 80's... We were brought up listening Duran Duran , Spandau Ballet and Human League but this band was something different....
The difference was the 3 other bands ( minus HL mark 1) their music was played in tearooms in the 80s , i never heard Japan being played there lol , they were considered arty/experimental , sons of pioneers is still the best atmospheric track , almost ambient
I actually kind of envy you in having the feeling of discovering them. I saw them live many times, and they were as good as you are probably imagining them to be.
Anne-Sophie NASSER have you checked the keyboard players other later group out called porcupine tree? You get some similar soundscapes and difficult time signatures with them, and the drummer is a beast on the skins.
Everything about this is still amazing. One of the best songs ever written. I love the extended studio version but this is on another level. Mick's stage shuffle and Masami Tsuchiya's solo are icing on the cake. RIP Mick, gone too soon.
Back in the early 80’s you would see all these UK imports at record stores and wonder what they sounded like. They were more expensive and whe you were like 19 years old, money was right and you were lucky to have enough to buy one or 2 albums. Most of the record stores I went to were not that helpful and really didn’t know much about these UK groups and more specialized in classic rock. So thanks to MTV and college radio stations bc they were the only ones exposing this music when it was new. Then in the late 80’s, it all blew up and went mainstream. Also, not everyone had cable tv, so around 82, I would go over this one friends house about 3-4 times a week to watch MTV. Those were the best time to be a young person and so much was happening and new.
_"a flawless fretless master"_ Er, you do realise that most of the bass playing on Oil On Canvas is studio overdubbed, yes? Wanna know why? Because Mick had a habit of being too busy floating around the stage, hardly ever looking at his fretboard, leading to many, many off-tone notes.
@@Teeb2023 is that right? So those many wise critics who consider him one of the greatest bassists of his era are just fools, then? And your source for all your hatred is...?
@@matthewlewis2072 Kindly point out where there is hatred in what I wrote? ...and yes, it is quite commonly known among Japan fans of that time, of which I was one, and I also thought his bass playing was excellent. I still think he created some of the most inventive riffs thus far, but he was never technically proficient, as he himself has admitted to in the past, and I'm in a fairly good position to at least have an informed opinion on this, as I have been playing fretless bass for almost forty years. Still don't believe me? How about this tweet from Steve Jansen, where posted a photo of Tsuchiya during one of the Oil on Canvas overdub sessions? : twitter.com/istevejansen/status/1281569723201839106 ...or how about this little snippet, again, from Jansen : _"Billed as a live recording, Jansen later admitted that only the drums were actually recorded live, the rest being recorded in a studio."_ To add to that, I have seen and heard them live myself, the last time being the Glasgow Apollo on 25th October '82, and as a then-fledgling bass player who aspired to be as great as I had perceived him to be back then, it was quite painful to see him "sacrifice" accuracy in his playing for the sake of his visual performance, in sliding all over the stage instead of making sure he hits the right notes.
"Why is everything so cut and dry?" They won't accept us, my angel girl, the girl "about town, I'd like to know." "A taste of country air" sounds nice, we can take a drive and escape from this "foreign town with a foreign mind." Come with me, beautiful girl. 💓❤️J.R.K
'81....This band changed and channeled my entire life and musical journey from the age of 12, so very grateful I am, and blessed to have heard this fantastic art form.
So hard for some (or most?) of my generation to get into the music from nowadays. So I stick to my musical heroes from the seventies, eighties and nineties, including Japan, which I saw live in 1978 and 3 times Sylvian and band in the late eighties in Holland.
