The Tokyo Beatles
Beatlemania, Japanese style
Amanda Uren
1964
Nowhere in the world does youth seem to dominate a nation as they do in Japan. - Robert Morse
In 1963, the Beatles exploded onto the British music scene and rapidly conquered Western Europe and America. Japanese youth was not immune to Beatlemania either. Yet in the absence of their idols (the real Beatles did not tour Japan until 1966), a tribute band called the Tokyo Beatles began to play throughout Tokyo's clubs.In the summer of 1964 photographer Michael Rougier and correspondent Robert Morse visited Japan prior to the Tokyo Olympics. There they found a vibrant musical subculture centered around the Tokyo Beatles. The band had a dedicated fan following, who to some extent emulated western Beatles fans in their fervor. The band was comprised of popular, talented musicians singing Beatles songs in a mixture of English and Japanese. They had adopted the Beatles' "mop top" hairstyle and although they all dressed alike, as did the Beatles at that time, their wardrobes were more avant-garde.The Tokyo Beatles released one album, also called Please, Please Me after the first Beatles album. They quietly disbanded sometime in the mid-sixties.
