Izakaya (Highland HL429/430)
Nakano-Sun Plaza, Tokyo, Japan – November 28th, 1978
Disc 1 (53:47): Eleventh Earl Of Mar, In The Cage, Burning Rope, Ripples, Deep In The Motherlode, One For The Vine
Disc 2 (68:38): Squonk, Say It’s Alright Joe, The Lady Lies, Phil talking Japanese Romeo & Juliet, The Cinema Show, Afterglow, Follow You Follow Me, Dance On A Volcano / Los Endos, I Know What I Like
Rare are Genesis shows in Japan. They toured Japan only twice. Their first was in 1978 in support of …And Then There Were Three, and they returned in 1987 during the Invisible Touch tour. Even the Turn It On Again tour in 2007 bypassed the far east.
Rarer still are silver Genesis titles from Japan. All Genesis titles from this tour on Ayanami, Sirene and Amity are pressed in the CDR format. The only two silvers from 1978 are Live In Tokyo 1978 (Zeus Z-906001/2) with the December 2nd show and Izakaya on Highland. (An ironic situation since all twelve shows in the two tours was taped from the audience). There is a small cut in “Squonk” at 6:15 but is otherwise complete.
November 28th was the second show on the tour and exists in a superlative audience recording. “Squonk” is missing the ending but it is otherwise complete with all the introductions (Phil speaking in Japanese). Another commercial release can be found on the CDR G Men ’78 (Ayanami 047).
The set list is the same employed on most of this tour starting with “Eleventh Earl Of Mar.” The audience are generally very quiet but do erupt when the music starts at the chance of seeing Genesis live for the first time. Tony Banks gives quite a workout in “In The Cage” which fast becomes a Japanese favorite.
“Burning Rope” is the first new song played and Phil Collins pours a lot of emotion in to lines such as “Don’t live to-day for tomorrow like you were immortal.” After “Ripples” the second new song “Deep In The Motherlode” is played. On the Duke tour they would chose this song as the show opener.
“Squonk,” “Say It’s Alright” and “The Lady Lies” form the dramatic pinnacle of the show. All three are given very dramatic performances. “The Cinema Show” features interesting keyboard sounds from Banks and the instrumental section segues into “Afterglow.” The majestic Wind & Wuthering ballad is followed by the …And Then There Were Three pop ballad “Follow You Follow Me.” It was their biggest hit to date. The show closes with the “Dance On A Volcano” and “Los Endos” segue with “I Know What I Like” the only encore.
Highland utilized the talents of D-Structure for the artwork. The photo of the band member’s heads cropped onto NASA space suits is a sly commentary on their visit to Japan. The inside has casual photos of the band with cartoon bubbles coming out of the band’s mouths. A napping Phil Collins is dreaming “Where is Japan?” Mick Rutherford asks “what is IZAKAYA, Tony?” And Banks replies: “IZAKAYA means ‘BAR’ in Japan!” Overall it is a nice production by Highland worth having.
