As requested by many, more from the very good “Alive The Live” IAC Music CD series only available in Japan (disc manufactured in Taiwan by King Records) – here’s in exclusive “FOREIGNER – Live in Tokyo １９８５“.
In 1985, Foreigner embarked on a nine-month world tour as one of the biggest bands on the planet. Their fifth album, ‘Agent Provocateur’, had gone triple platinum in the U.S. while its lead single, I Want to Know What Love Is, had been embraced as a classic rock anthem around the world.
At the top of their game, the group strode onstage for the Super Rock ’85 Japan festival in Tokyo. From hard rock classics such as ‘Head Games’, ‘Luanne’, or ‘Urgent’ to the ubiquitous ‘I Want to Know What Love Is’, the band were no longer foreigners in a strange land as Japan welcomed them home.
King Street presents this vintage, classic performance with a fully restored and professionally remastered audio (A+ quality) complemented by background notes and timeline photos. As bonus tracks, we find selected highlights from their appearance in the Memorial Stadium in Champaign, IL, one month later.
Foreigner emerged in 1976 when ex-Johnny Hallyday counterpart Mick Jones met lan McDonald (ex-King Crimson) at a session in New York. The pair recruited one more Englishman and three Americans (hence the band’s name). The Gramm/Jones writing chemistry clicked immediately, with the driving Cold As Ice becoming the first of their hit collaborations.
Their self-titled debut album was released in 1977 and went on to cross the quadruple-platinum sales mark. During its two-year run on the national charts, the hits kept coming, beginning with Feels Like The First Time and continuing with Cold As Ice and Long Way From Home.
The next year the band road-tested a verse and chorus of Hot Blooded in front of a few hundred thousand close friends at the Cal Jam II Festival. Their enthusiastic response assured its place on the next album, Double Vision, which was released in 1978 and surpassed its predecessor with more than five million albums sold in the US alone. It remained in the Top Ten for six months and became the #1 selling rock & roll album of the year. Two gold-selling singles were released from Double Vision-Hot Blooded and the album title track.
Foreigner released their third album, Head Games, in 1979. Again, it was a multi-platinum success, producing the hit singles. Dirty White Boy and Head Games. The album also marked the band’s first personnel change, when Rick Wills (ex-Peter Frampton and Roxy Music, among many others) became Foreigner’s new bassist.
With the help of producer Mutt Lange and synth-meister Thomas Dolby, the group entered their second “fertile” period with ‘4’, which found the band streamlined to the quartet of Jones, Gramm, Elliot, and Wills.
The album was highlighted by Jukebox Here and the churning, futuristic hyper-funk of Urgent – which included the critically acclaimed soaring sax solo of Junior Walker.
1984 marked the release of their next album of new material, Agent Provocateur which debuted one of Foreigner’s gargantuan ballads. Mick Jones went through a period of earnest soul-searching about his life and relationships that resulted in the words & music to #1 Want to Know What Love Is.
In 1985, Foreigner embarked on a nine-month world tour. As they passed through Japanese border control in August 1985, they were one of the biggest bands on the planet. Their fifth album, Agent Provocateur, had gone triple platinum in the U.S., while its lead single, I Want to Know What Love Is, had been embraced as a classic rock anthem around the world.
At the top of their game, the group sold-out Tokyo’s Odaiba Kouen Hiroba on 10 August 1985, for the Super Rock 65 Japan festival. Their set kicked off with Long Way From Home, but Foreigner proved they could make themselves at home anywhere, delivering a confident performance stuffed with hard-rock classics, among them Head Games, Waiting for a Girl Like You and the I Want to Know What Love Is.
By the time JukeBox Hero brought the show to a close, the audience had received Foreigner as hometown heroes. The band’s appearance in Champaign, IL from September 1985 features stupendous takes on Hot Blooded, Urgent and that life-affirming, supreme power ballad I Want To Know What Love Is.
Wrapping up two years of virtual non-stop activity, they took a break in 1986 during which Mick Jones co-produced Van Halen’s smash, 5150 album and served as executive producer of the reformed Bad Company’s ‘Fame and Fortune’ project.
Excellent “Alive The Live” release.
ＩＡＣ ＭＵＳＩＣ ＪＡＰＡＮ / IACD～11355
King Street / KINGCD 4585
ライヴ・イン・ジャパン１９８５ (Live)
01 – Long, Long Way From Home
02 – Head Games
03 – Waiting For A Girl Like You
04 – Luanne
05 – That Was Yesterday
06 – I Want To Know What Love Is
07 – Reaction To Action
08 – Urgent
09 – Dirty White Boy
10 – Hot Blooded
11 – JukeBox Hero
BONUS TRACKS:
12 – Hot Blooded
13 – Urgent
14 – I Want To Know What Love Is
Recorded at Odaiba Kouen Hiroba, Tokyo, Japan 10th August 1985
Tracks 12 to 14 recorded at Memorial Stadium, Champaign, IL 22nd September 1985
Vocals – Lou Gramm
Guitar, Vocals – Mick Jones
Bass, Vocals – Rick Wills
Drums – Dennis Elliott
Saxophone, Flute, Keyboards, Guitar, Backing Vocals – Mark Rivera
Keyboards, Synthesizer, Guitar, Backing Vocals – Bob Mayo
FOREIGNER – Live in Tokyo １９８５ [Alive The Live series Japan release only] (2024), MP3+FLAC
Leave a Reply