(Source: Sanspo) Southern All Stars, which will disband and stop all activity next year, started their 30-year anniversary Thank-You Summer Tour on 16th August at Yokohama. They will hold concerts on the 16th, 17th, 23rd and 24th and will mobilize a total of 300,000 people.
Amidst a cheering crowd of 70,000, vocalist Kuwata Keisuke (52) said, "We have returned, please enjoy!" For a duration of 3 hours, Southern All Stars sang and danced, alternately making the audience laugh and cry, showing at the same time how the Southern spirit has not changed throughout these 30 long years.
"Southern will not be able to see you guys for a while, please remember us! If we ever come back with a new single, will we be able to meet up here again?" Kuwata shouted out to a crowd which shrieked in what sounded like a mix of despair and delight. Later on, Kuwata thanked the crowd for their 30-year long support and promised to meet up again.
There were many from the crowd who came from distant places just to support Southern. A housewife from Aomori (49) said that it was because of Southern All Stars that she and her husband clicked with each other and got married eventually. "Southern will never die!!" She intoned fervently.
This is my favourite Southern All Stars song, hope you like it. :-) Felt quite :( about them disbanding ... Anyway this is Manatsu no Kajitsu (about Summer lOve~) :-]
An aerial view of the 70,000 strong crowd.
