This story about how Beatles fan, Hiroto Yui snuck some photos of the Beatles performing in Tokyo in 1966 appeared in the Tokyo Beatles fan club magazine's 2nd issue ever, Autumn 1991. It is a very long article, so I am not typing out everything.
Outside the Budokan was full of riot police. There were too many policemen and I went in line with one of my friends under such circumstances and went inside the Budokan. I was not in school uniform because it was a hot and moist season, but I still had a school bag as I was a senior high school student. I concealed two cameras in the bag. To pass the guards' inspection at the entrance, I separated lenses from bodies, put them in the bottom of the bag, and then covered them with textbooks. I was surprised again to see many guards inside the Budokan. I felt anxious about taking photographs although I had succeeded in smuggling cameras into the Budokan. I was in the photo club as an extra-curricular activity in school and used to develop film myself. This was why I wanted to take photographs so earnestly.
A guard in the 40 or 50 just behind me patted me on the shoulder and asked me, "Hey are you students?" I answered, "yes we are..." He continued, "to tell the truth, my son is crazy about the Beatles. Are they so nice?" I said, "Yeah, of course, they are excellent!" and we became frank with each other. I told him, "Oh Mister, I have cameras and telephoto lenses here but I haven't loaded these cameras with film yet." and I asked him if we could use these cameras as telescopes showing him new rolls of film in order to try and make him believe that I had not actually loaded them! He said, "Okay, as long as you only use them as telescopes" We almost cried out and held a camera each pretending we were only using them as telescopes.
When the Beatles were introduced the audience erupted and screamed for all thirty five minutes of the concert, which made it almost inaudible. I might not have been listening properly because I was memorised then, but it was awfully noisy at any rate. You can hear this Budokan concert clearly on television or video, but it was different. I actually hardly heard only when the hall was a bit quiet on "Yesterday".
Both of us went on releasing the shutter secretly, exchanging cameras now and then. Though the guard behind us said nothing, a young guard in the distance, who looked like a student, suddenly came to us swiftly and grabbed me on the shoulder roaring at me, "What're ya doing?"He opened my camera to pull a film out and took my camera along saying "I will keep this." But I put my other camera out of sight quickly, and this film survived. We had taken about ten shots in all, but to my great regret, I mistakenly opened the camera after I brought it back home. I shut it soon saying "Damn it!" but it was too late, wasn't it? Only two shot survived. One of them is the photo you have now. Look, here is a stamp on the back which reads "21 July 1966," This means this print was made three weeks after the concert. I don't want to sing my own praises, but this is my favorite because they seem in their best poses; Ringo is behind the microphone stand, John is playing a guitar bowlegged style, Paul is playing a bass guitar stretching a bit, and George is playing a guitar behind himself forward. I think this photograph shows the Beatles' typical stage performance. To tell the truth, I have one more photograph which I have not shown to public yet and I want to make it shown at some time. I am older than most of you but it's still too early to die, so if there is such a chance after another 25 years to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' Japan tour, I will show it for you then.
if you zoom the photo and look a bit above John's and George's heads, you can see someoneone taking photos!
ReplyDeletehehe Hiroto Yui was not the only one there doing what he was doing:)