Me and My Friends #19 - レッチリ大宮
Heyheyheywhatshappening,
In an earlier edition of this newsletter, I dove a little into the chaotic period up to John's last show with the band in 1992. Seeing as May 7th was the 28th (!) anniversary of that infamous night, I thought it was a good time to have another look at it. It's a particularly fascinating moment for me -- probably because we know so little about it, probably because I have an existing interest in Japan. If I could go back to one moment in RHCP history (hi Sam and Ben!), I'd be hard pressed to pick between this night or the band's first gig, and I've made it a goal of mine over recent years to find out as much as I can about both performances. Maybe in another month, I'll send another update. Who knows what we'll uncover by then!
If you haven't read it already, I'd suggest going back and reading through my earlier look into the April-May 1992 period, not just because I'll be referencing that throughout, but because it's a fun read that I put a lot of work into.
Since I last spoke about the tour, a few things have come to light. The first is this photo, from Instagram user kpang75, uploaded just after the news of John's return:
I'm not 100% sure where this photo was taken, but it's most likely in Osaka around May 3 or 4, which means it is -- to date -- the latest photo available of John as a Chili Pepper, until 1998. The only other photos taken of him during that tour were, of course, taken after he had quit the band:
Funnily enough, it looks like he's wearing a Velvet Underground shirt in both sets of pictures. Same jacket too.
Elsewhere, JFeffects conducted an... enlightening interview with Robbie Allen, also known as Robbie Rule, a long-time roadie for the band.
He said the following about the period surrounding John's departure:
He was getting depressed during that tour. Drinking a lot of wine, smoking a lot of high class weed… he wasn’t doing heroin, he was just really depressed with the situation with Anthony. He was getting a little psychotic, seeing things that were not there. When we were in Japan, we still had Australia to go. He came out of an elevator and said to me: “I need to get an airplane home right now. You need to get me out of here, I need to go home and I can’t do this anymore”. I went to the tour manager and said that John wanted to leave. They had a meeting and convinced him to do that show and that would finish the Japan tour and the Japan’s contract. And that last show was just sad, I saw him go on stage and cry for a while. It was just a sad thing. He was just depressed, he didn’t want to be there anymore, he didn’t want to do this anymore. So he went home.
Nothing too exciting, but every little piece adds to the whole, and every eye witness counts (was John crying or was he crying?).
I've also found something that I assumed I would never see. In an interview with Rolling Stone, nestled inside that notorious cover that John was wiped out of, Anthony mentions being on the phone to a journalist in New Zealand when he found out that John was quitting. Turns out, that entire interaction was basically printed into that newspaper, and here it is (you may need to open this in another tab and zoom in a little here):
That just sort of stumbled into my lap, but it's quickly become one of my favourite pieces of RHCP memorabilia.
The really interesting thing that I've managed to uncover over the last year or so is an article from a Japanese-language magazine called ROCKIN'ON, which features a review of the May 7th show. This is a contemporary piece of writing about that fabled night, not something written years later, and is full of the amazing writing that seems to be exclusive to Japanese music magazines. I've had it translated and I'll post a portion of the text below, but first... a mystery.
The problem with this article is that it gives us a completely different setlist to the one we already had. In my other letter, I posted a translated version of a report from that last show from a different magazine (CROSSBEAT), which has a copy of Anthony's handwritten setlist for that night:
In the book this image comes from, the subtitle to that setlist specifically states that it's from the 7th of May show, and the review backs that setlist up by mentioning "Green Heaven":
In that instant, wawa rang out from John’s guitar, and a shiver ran through my body. Today’s opener was “Green Heaven” from their debut album.
But this new magazine says this was the setlist:
Which isn't that different, but it's different enough. The question is - which setlist is correct? This magazine article is from June 1992, and if there's one thing I've learned in my research work... the closer to the source, the more accurate it's going to be.
But there's no reason why the other magazine should be wrong either. It's from a book released in 2011, but the book states that the text is from June 1992 as well. They clearly state they're at the 7th of May show, and even if they've accidentally mis-dated the hand written setlist they provide, the review makes note of "Green Heaven" opening the show. And the reviewer would know, of course, that they were at that last show, considering what happened next... wouldn't they?
To add a little evidence that doesn't really actually solve anything, the new article has a photo of Anthony on stage, and a glimpse of the setlist is visible:
And closer:
Which is the same as the one listed in the article; "Give it Away" first, "Organic Anti-Beat Box Band" next, and so on.
Both publications feature photos of the band on stage, taken on what was most likely the same night:
If I can somehow date these photos, it might solve this whole thing. We'll see. The photographer's name is Yutaka Nishimura -- I shall search high and low for their contact details.
So... which setlist is correct?
- The (new) ROCKIN'ON article, which came out just after the show, and which has a photo of the setlist on stage, and which seems, from a surface level, completely reliable, or;
- The (old) CROSSBEAT article, which also uses contemporary writing, backs it up with a review that specifically mentions one song not played at the other show, then backs that up with an actual copy of Anthony's handwritten setlist, which matches their review.
Maybe I can't see the forest for the trees here, and the answer is staring me right in the face. But if I had to guess, I'd say the ROCKIN'ON article is correct, and the CROSSBEAT article has accidentally put the wrong date on a review. But I suppose I need to go on more than a hunch.
Here's the article. I've added a few links and interjections to help with context, and I've stripped some of the more complicated passages out; the writing gets wonderfully philosophical and introspective, but a little too much so in some cases. The translation I had done of the article is world-class (thanks Caitlin!), but if any Japanese-speaking readers want to get in touch to give it another shot, please let me know.
The day after the Omiya performance, RHCP cancelled Kyoto and Shibuya. It hadn’t been announced yet that guitarist John Frusciante, absolutely devastated both mentally and physically, would return to the US.
The remaining members hastily summoned a replacement guitarist from the US and departed from Narita on the 8th in the hopes of making it to an onsite rehearsal in time for the shows in Australia. Come to think of it, the last time John had come to Japan, he alone had seemed like he was dying and kept staring off into the distance and trembling throughout the interview.
This is correct; John supposedly got very sick on the 1990 tour, one of the reasons why he was wary of going back.
At the time I’d thought it was a common cold, but now it really did not seem that was all it was. Nevertheless with Public Enemy’s traffic accident; Red Hot’s man-made calamity and Bomb the Bass’s tendonitis from drumming too hard, we didn’t know whether it was because we’d only chosen dangerous guys, whether it was because we were supporting Rocking On, or both; but at any rate there was nothing to do except to beg the forgiveness of those who had entered us into this.
What I think the reviewer is getting at here is a worry that foreign bands kept running into bad luck in Japan; Public Enemy must have had a car accident, and Bomb the Bass is this guy, apparently (never heard of him!)... they seemed to think they were cursed.
Considering the next time the RHCP went to Japan, the show (which ended up being Dave's last) ended in a typhoon... maybe they had a point!
However, the very thing about the Omiya show that could be seen as fortunate was that even in the band’s worst moment there was, regardless, something beautiful. It was the magnificent power sound that expressed at this moment the change in them, bringing them to “Blood Sugar Sex Magik” from “Mother’s Milk.”
Chef's kiss.
That day, Anthony didn’t get his dick out. Likely because of John, they could only go for 70 minutes, and though perhaps there just wasn’t time, perhaps it was for the best that they didn’t get their dicks out. Because even if nobody, not even Anthony, whipped it out, there was no need to whip it out as long as they could achieve communication. That was what had changed in them. Instead, more of the audience was shirtless than ever before, and the response to Flea’s intro on “Nobody Weird Like Me” was insane. Chad was exactly like John Bonham. Only one thing, albeit minor, was the strange sense that the damage from guitarist John’s departure, when considered from their perspective, could linger considerably from then on.
Seemingly the journalist was expecting the band members to either expose themselves to the crowd, or do the socks routine. I'd guess it was the latter. And that's an amazingly prescient observation about John leaving.
I just want to highlight this amazing sentence again:
there was no need to whip it out as long as they could achieve communication
😍
This next part of the review was written by another person:
I saw the invincible carnivorous beast!
When the RCHP Omiya show was over, I had the unexpected feeling close to when Iron Maiden first performed in Japan in the early 1980s. Preposterous exhilaration and catharsis. My blood reversed direction and circulated through my body at abnormal speed. All that came out of my mouth was a few words: THIS IS METAL!
That's it for the article. There are other sections, but I might need to get it translated again before I send it out.
But that's not all. Our good friend nat_mushiwaka tracked down a couple of other people on Twitter who also saw the concert, here and here:
I was right in front of John...it looked like he was screaming, and he played a guitar with a half-open mouth dripping drooling and staring at one point.
Looking back, John Frusciante had been playing the guitar on the spot so that he could squeeze in there. Only Chad Smith was cheerful.
And Chad was Chad.
See you next month.