Candies' farewell concert at Korakuen Stadium, April 4, 1978

About the artist

Candies were a vocal trio: Ran Ito, Yoshiko Tanaka and Miki Fujimura, known to fans as Ran, Sue and Miki^[1]. All three came from the School Mates, a large troupe of young performers run by their talent agency, Watanabe Productions, and the group got its name in 1972, when the three became mascot girls on an NHK music show^[2].

They released their first single, "Anata ni Muchū" (roughly, "crazy about you"), on September 1, 1973^[3][4], but hits were slow to come. Ran Ito has said the trio knew their songs were not reaching the top ten, and that their weekly Saturday-night spot on 8 Ji da yo! Zenin Shūgō, a TBS variety show starring the comedy group the Drifters, made a big difference^[4]. "Toshishita no Otokonoko" ("the younger boy"), released on February 21, 1975, became their first top-ten hit^[3][2], and "Haru Ichiban" ("the first spring wind") followed on March 1, 1976^[3]. At the height of their fame, Ito recalls, fans would be waiting outside her house in the morning, and the police were sometimes called^[4].

Why this was the last show

In June 1977, the three told Shin Watanabe, the head of their agency, that they wanted to disband. He refused, and the two sides reached a stalemate^[1]. Then, on July 17, during a concert at the Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall in Tokyo, they announced from the stage that they would break up at the end of September^[5]. The reason they gave, that they wanted to "go back to being ordinary girls" (futsū no onna no ko ni modoritai), is still recalled alongside the announcement today^[1][6].

The breakup was later pushed back to April 4, 1978, and the trio's decision was finally accepted^[5]. In the meantime, their final single, "Hohoemi Gaeshi" (roughly, "a smile in return"), came out on February 25, 1978^[7], and became their first No. 1 on the Oricon chart, Japan's main record chart^[2][6]. Candies had been recording for only about five years^[2].

What is known about the day

The farewell show, billed as "Candies Final Carnival For Freedom," took place on April 4, 1978, at Korakuen Stadium, a baseball ground in Tokyo^[8][2]. Reports put the crowd at 50,000^[1] or 55,000^[2][9]. Fans without tickets gathered outside the stadium, listening to the sound that carried over the stands^[9].

According to the newspaper Nikkan Gendai, the stage had to be put up in a hurry between professional baseball games. There was time for only three hours of rehearsal, yet the concert itself ran about four hours^[2]. Candies performed 50 songs^[8][10], backed by their band MMP (Music Mates Players), and changed costumes several times over the evening^[11]. Their concerts of that era typically opened with covers of Western songs and saved their own hits for the second half; at Korakuen, the first half was a run of disco, soul and funk^[12]. Fans threw paper streamers toward the stage, having removed the cardboard cores beforehand so that no one would be hurt^[11]. One report adds that a helicopter flew overhead to record the event^[6].

The last song was "Tsubasa" ("Wings")^[11]. Ran wrote its lyrics as an answer to "3つのキャンディー" ("Three Candies"), a record that fans had released for the group after the three decided to disband^[11]. The writer Hiroyuki Suzuki recalls that during an instrumental break, the three spoke in unison, saying they had truly been happy. Still holding each other in tears, they sank out of sight as the stage was lowered^[11].

The official track list of the later video release also ends the show with "Tsubasa," followed by a track titled "Epilogue (Tsubasa)"^[13]. After the show, an announcement told the audience that Candies were no longer there^[11].

What the show left behind

A master tape of the entire concert was found in 2008 in a storage facility of the broadcaster TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting System) at Midoriyama^[8]. After seven years of clearing rights and other issues, the full show, all 50 songs, was released on November 4, 2015, in the DVD box set Candies Memories FOR FREEDOM. Twenty-nine of those 50 songs had never been released before^[10]. Earlier, in 2008, the 30th anniversary of the breakup, a fan-organized event had screened the concert footage while members of the original backing band played along live^[11].

MMP was a band of young players with roots in rock and funk. A long interview with Ran Ito credits the band with transforming Candies' concerts in a short time, and describes their sound as that of a rock and funk band fronted by three female singers^[14]. In 2024, nearly half a century after the breakup, a music column described Candies as a rock vocal group that drove live audiences wild, and urged readers to hear them on their live albums^[12]. Two MMP members, including Ichiro Nitta, later left to form the band Spectrum, which debuted in 1979; Spectrum's own music has recently found new listeners after going viral overseas on social media^[15].

The three went their separate ways. In 1983, five years after the breakup, Miki Fujimura sang "Yume Koi Hito." for a Kanebo TV commercial^[2]. Yoshiko Tanaka went on to work as an actress. She died on April 21, 2011, at the age of 55^[16].

Ran Ito also became an actress. In 2019 she released the solo album My Bouquet, and on June 11 that year gave her first concert as a solo singer, at Tokyo Dome City Hall. It was her first concert in 41 years, and the hall stands on the same grounds as Korakuen Stadium, where the farewell concert was held^[17]. In 2023 she returned to Kohaku Uta Gassen, 46 years after her last appearance there with Candies in 1977^[5], and sang a medley of Candies songs^[18]. More than 150 longtime fans threw paper streamers, and one of them told Bunshun Online that it was the first time since April 4, 1978, that fans had thrown them to Ran herself^[18].

The night at Korakuen survives on film, and in the streamers that were still being thrown 45 years later.