Classic RockMetal
Cleopatra Records releases “Tokyo Breakdown 1982” on 6 November, the concert Girlschool played in Tokyo on 21 January of that year. It comes out on CD and, for the first time, on vinyl.
“We had no idea what to expect,” recalls singer and guitarist Kim McAuliffe. “The big thing I remember about the whole Tokyo experience was, we kept getting screamed at, everywhere we went. We literally… the first day, we got to our hotel, checked in, went out, walked around the corner and there was a McDonald’s, even then. And then all these little girls came up screaming, and we were, ‘What the hell’s going on?’” On stage it went the same way: “We went on, and the screaming was so loud, we thought we were the Beatles. It was mad!”
The set is sixteen songs, from “C’mon Let’s Go” to the ZZ Top cover “Tush”, drawn from the two albums the band had at the time, “Demolition” and “Hit and Run”, plus the single “Race With The Devil”. Four tracks — “Midnight Ride”, “Breakdown”, “Nothing To Lose” and “Tush” — are on the CD only. The preview, “The Hunter”, came out today.
The label presents the band as the first all-female British act to play live in Japan. Cleopatra had already issued their 1981 Reading show as “Nothin’ To Lose In Reading”, and announces material from Girlschool’s first American tour, in April 1982, for 2027.
The label’s statement sells the record as marking the forty-fifth anniversary of the concert. From 21 January 1982 to 6 November 2026 there are forty-four years: the forty-fifth falls on 21 January 2027.
Text by Enric Vilaplana