On November 5th 1978 we flew to Japan to take part in The Yamaha International Song Festival. Magnet had got us to record a song that was co-writen by Peter Waterman (who at the time was working at Magnet Records) called "The Same Old Way", which we all felt was a very average song, but had little say in the matter.

We went to Japan on a chartered Jumbo Jet which took all of the contestants including Micky Dolenz (The Monkees), Tina Charles and Biddu ( who had appeared on our television show a couple of years earlier) and Jazz Singer Astrid Gilberto (of "Girl form Ipanema" fame). Also on the flight was the composer Albert Hammond who I greatly admired, and David Martin our estranged ex. manager who was in a vocal group called "Original Cast".

The contest was held at The Famous "Budokan" in Tokyo which held about 10,000 people and was built for Sumo Wrestling events. The Beatles had caused some controversy when they performed there in 1966 as the Japanese felt it was too spiritual a building for pop music but by now things were different. The sound system and the orchestra were great as you would expect from the Japanese and the "Budokan" itself was impressive.

On one of the first evenings there was a reception for all of the contestants and their representatives and one of the people there was Dick James, The Beatles Publisher who I had met all those years ago while in Octopus. Before becoming a publisher Dick had been a singer and was famous for singing "The Robin Hood Theme" for the fifties television series. I had consumed a few drinks (as you do) and thought it would be a good idea to go up to Dick James and ask him to sing a chorus of Robin Hood. I did, and amazingly he obliged.

Tina Charles won the Grand Prize at The Festival and we got an award for "best song"? There was also a strange award ceremony after the show where some contestants got cameras and Micky Dolenz was awarded a motor bike. These may have been enticements to get certain artists to the contest, we never did find out. Guys n' Dolls got a prize of a cardboard chinese lantern each. We were not amused.

We stayed on for a further two weeks promoting our song which had been released in Japan. It was a very boring two weeks, as every day we did about four interviews and the occasional local TV show. Every interview seemed endless due to us having an interpreter and the first two questions were always the same. 1. Do you think you are like ABBA? (the biggest act in the world at that time) and 2. Can you explain the meaning of the lyrics to your song? The Japanese were always looking for deep meaningful lyrics to songs, but I defy anyone to find anything deep and meaningful in:

"Baby now I've Found You Gonna Put my arms around you,
In the Same old way, In the Same old Way, Hey, hey, hey.

(click on photo to enlarge, plus more photos)

1978. Continued