On July 8 th. 1974 Shirley Bassey performed at Kosei-Nenkin Kaikan Hall in Tokyo. The concert was recorded for televison and probably only broadcast in Japan. Here we have 4 songs from that concert: Goldfinger, Sing, Diamonds Are Forever, Day By Day, Yesterday When I was Young (her biggest hit ever in Japan) and part of Something. The concert was released on a double-LP but only in Japan. Probably because it came just a year after the release of “Live at Carnegie Hall”, which featured a very similar track listing to “Live in Japan”. I remember the LP’s were very good quality but very difficult to find and very expensive. Fortunately this concert has been re-released on CD last year by BGO and who knows maybe someday it will be released on DVD too.
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CLICK HERE for a previous post about the Japan Live-CD 1974
About the dress Shirley is wearing for this performance: A twinkling stage gown by Douglas Darnell, the black silk chiffon ground encrusted with black sequins, with exceptionally low-cut back [now without butterfly adornment] and sweetheart neckline, the bias cut skirt with flowing train lined in silver silk tissue;
The album cover illustrated shows the black sequin gown in its original incarnation as ‘The Butterfly’. Dame Shirley wore it for numerous stage appearances and it can also be seen in the BBC footage of Live At The Talk Of The Town, 1972. Dame Shirley told us that her fans were particularly fond of this dress when it had the crystal butterfly in place and used to call out asking “Where’s the butterfly” if she went on stage in another gown, to which she responded: “It’s flown away”.
Sold at the Christies gown auction in 2003: final price £3,500.
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In 1977 another concert was recorded in Japan and released as a double album. Unfortunately this one has not been released (yet?) on CD.
The 1977 Live in Japan album
Dame Shirley Bassey Blog 
I remember, like it was yesterday the concert of Dame Shirley in The Hague, Netherlands in september 1974 where she wore that “Buttefly gown” again.
She joked to the Hall; “The butterfly is back again, and I aske God that he doesn’t fly away, because I get terrible troubles “.
The two live albums from Japan, 1974 and 1977, I have in my collection and the quality is sublime! The 1977 album contains a fantastic recording of the song “Born to lose”. “Live in Japan 1974”, I bought here in Holland as a special import album, but the lp from 1977 I ordered directly from Japan, and that was something special at that time. I can still enjoy this exceptional concert recordings.
Thank you Pieter to show this again.👍🏽
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The Japanese concerts were great and thanks Pieter for showing the video clip. As you say hopefully one day it may be released on a good quality DVD; such a waste that so much material like this has not been made available. Terry.
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Thank you Pieter. Enjoyed everything. Enjoyed learning about the beautiful gowns. The guest on the program were excellent, and DSB is simply Awesome and stunning. I need to reach out to that makeup artist…LOL! Thanks for sending us where we can purchase the CD.
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