THE OMEGA
Page One

Pink Lady's swan song was held on March 31st 1981 at Korokuen Stadium which, ironically enough, was the setting less than three years earlier, for perhaps their greatest triumph ever, that being the '78 Jumping Summer Carnival which attracted somewhere in the neighborhood of 100,000 people. In a way, I guess it was fitting that Mie and Kei's farewell concert would be held here, but, as you'll see in the pics I've put together, Mother Nature didn't cooperate that day. It was cold, cloudy and rainy, hardly ideal conditions for an outdoor concert, but Mie and Kei soldiered on, and their fans still came out to watch and cheer on their heroines one last time in what was a most unique and, at the very end, moving show, not just for the girls, but the crowd as well.

ABOVE: Yep, there was an honest-to-God marching band, cheerleaders (pom-poms and all, you'll see them later), plus entire groups of followers. The atmosphere that day was more like a college football game than a concert.

ABOVE: The stage the girls performed on. During the course of the show, they would move from one corner to the next with the orchestra in the middle as this was truly a concert in the round. And, as you can see, it read: "MIE, KEI, SAYONARA"

ABOVE: The aforementioned cheerleaders and some of PL's more passionate fans, sporting matching jackets and headbands. The crowd itself was just as much a part of the show as Mie and Kei were. It all made for a surreal experience.

ABOVE: More of the surreal experience that was the Farewell Concert. Mie and Kei sang several songs while riding atop a faux locomotive as it wound its way around the stadium, cheerleaders trotting alongside. Far and away it was the damndest thing I've ever seen.

Go to The Omega: Page Two