There is a strong possibility of a Made In Japan special edition later in 2011. Despite the 3CD version some years ago (good grief, it was 1993), which featured hasty but exciting remixes of most of the three shows (and the later less than perfect anniversary 2CD remaster in the reversed out sleeve), the demand for an edition which contains every song from every show in the correct running order has continued. Indeed some bootleggers in Japan have even assembled their own version recently (the cheeky b*sta*rds even used our Darker Than Blue logo on the cover – needless to say it was nothing to do with us). Check out the bootleg picture sent to us by Jeff Breis – who spotted this for sale at $200!
So the concept is for three double CDs (the running time of the shows means it can’t be done any other way and still retain the set lists), in a box set of some sort (as well as a parallel vinyl version of some sort). Alongside the discs will be lots of memorabilia, a booklet and other goodies.
It is also hoped that a bonus disc with all the surviving 8mm film clips will be added, subject to clearance.
We’re still in the early stages here, but we will bring you more details as and when.
More Made In Japan links on this site:
MIJ tribute sleeves
strange 8 track
old MIJ badge
order the 2CD remaster or 3CD special edition at
see the full Made In Japan discography at
Made In Japan DPAS Discography
darker than blue 
September 2, 2013 at 3:52 pm |
Regarding the re-realization of Made in Japan, my suggestion is to do 3 cds with the concerts and a bonus CD with all the encores from those plus the video footage recently issued on some dvd compilation; for the booklet some new interviews at all 5 musicians with their old comments about the event …
September 3, 2013 at 10:37 am |
I figured three double CDs in full running order, in mini gatefold sleeves, with no between song edits and even leave the between set and encore audience din on! But that’s just me.
January 6, 2013 at 5:30 am |
Is there any information about the hints that Glen Hughes has made regarding a reunion between him and David Coverdale in the coming year?
March 29, 2012 at 12:19 am |
Everytime I enter a CD-shop my first walk is to the Deep Purple section, just to see if there is a Made In Japan CD. This week I was at Barnes & Nobles in Elmsford NY and found the first US Warner Bros CD pressing for a ridiculous $8,99. Brand New! It has the ugly, almost orange cover, but I am impatient to compare with my original EMI version.
The 25th Anniversary was nice, but did loose much of the original stage-banter and announcements. The 3-CD Live in Japan makes you hungry to hear the full show in the decent original bass-heavy sound-quality.
And I saw the remark about the 10.000th version of Highway Star. I can’t wait to hear the 20.001st, 20.002nd and 20.000rd versions of Smoke On The Water on the 6cd box.
March 30, 2012 at 2:59 pm |
Just a thought, but wouldn’t the first pressing have one of those long format card boxes? The Americans went with these first off but then phased them out after protests from packaging eco-warriors. They had promise being nice and big, but you had to destroy them to get into the actual CD case inside! Or is it just me that remembers them…?
December 16, 2011 at 1:50 pm |
Hello Simon, I was thinking about this the other day and e-mailed Ann who pointed me to this blog entry. I was asking about the very same thing you blogged here, complete versions of the shows in a box set with some other goodies like faux tickets stubs, tour program etc…. Has there been any progress in this area and do you think we will see this happen in 2012?. I loved the 1993 set if only because it gave us more songs from the shows so hope you can pull off releasing all the shows complete. regards.
December 16, 2011 at 9:17 pm |
The “Live in Japan Complete” 6CD bootleg is actually made up of audience recordings of those shows which are of variable quality and is not a cut and paste of official sources.
January 4, 2013 at 1:30 pm
Thanks John, you’re right – strange thing to do but avoids piracy accusations I suppose!
February 15, 2013 at 1:41 pm |
Hi Simon, just to join the team : any progress with complete MIJ box set ? Or we will never see it in this life….
February 21, 2013 at 6:49 pm
There is something going on, but with the tricky negotiations of how EMI’s assets are divided up ongoing, I’m not sure how or when this might surface.
October 26, 2011 at 7:12 pm |
Release everything- is it out yet?
October 25, 2011 at 5:21 am |
I’m surprised no one mentioned this… Why aren’t Gillan’s vocals up just a tad in the mix, like maybe 10%? He always seemed just a little bit low in the mix. I actually loved the 3 disc set that came out in the 90’s..That was a neat peice to have….Some real photos from the actual show would be nice too. Blackmore’s guitar sound is just AMAZING on those shows..Ian Paices drum sound too…crazy good.
October 25, 2011 at 9:39 am |
From what I recall, the band all sort of had a chance to tinker over the mix. IG didn’t want the album issued originally, so maybe asked to be dropped a little in the mix? Glad someone likes the 3CD set, still gets a lot of stick, more so now people have forgotten the ridiculous budget it had to be done in. We have found some pics from the tour, and contact has been made with the guy who took the Japanese LP cover shoot. Apparently all his black and white stuff was thrown away (!) but he has some alternate colour shots. Hope we can do a deal.
October 18, 2011 at 2:26 pm |
Will this release come in this year, or only in 2012 (kind of 40th anniversary edition)?
August 28, 2011 at 4:13 pm |
FYI in regard the super-8mm film. The roll of film in the camera at the gig would have been 50 feet long. It depends on which speed the camera would have filmed at (18 frames per second or 24), but the entire roll would run for around 3 minutes.
July 27, 2011 at 2:17 am |
My preference, for what it’s worth, is a vinyl box-set with all the trimmings. PLUS a digital transcript in lossless format, without any breaks between tracks from the same show. Possibly on USB stick included in the box. They are cheaply produced now, and this things going to cost a fortune anyway. I, like many others, listen to digital music most frequently but love vinyl for the collection. And make sure it sounds damn good.
July 12, 2011 at 4:40 am |
It’s about time they released all 3 shows complete and unedited. I also think they should include the super 8 video footage that surfaced just last year synced up with the audio from the matching shows. Include it on a bonus DVD with a complete history of how this Legendary album came to be. I would pay for that.
August 9, 2011 at 10:20 am |
I think it’s safe for us to now say negotiations have been ongoing to achieve at least all the half hour of b/w 8mm footage, both in a raw format so people know there is nothing more, and also some synched up. I think all the interested parties are singing from the same hymn sheet! More details to follow.
May 18, 2011 at 2:12 pm |
Really I have enough… ten thousand Highway Star versions here and there… when the only good one (speaking about live context) is the one I heard that 1973 January…the sonic quality of the triple CD mentioned was really terrible, almost no bass can be heard in the first concert!!
May 18, 2011 at 8:29 pm |
That’s the beauty of free choice, we don’t have to buy it if we don’t want. Now, as I only have about 50 versions of Highway Star, maybe you could copy me the other 9,950 to keep me going?!
May 13, 2011 at 7:51 pm |
Please god, make the restoring engineers who took care of Live In Paris 1975 do the remaster for complete Live in Japan. Thank you god.
May 14, 2011 at 8:34 am |
Well he is still around, and he is my favourite studio guy, so I’ll see!
August 9, 2011 at 10:54 pm
Another vote for no compression/noise reduction/over-loud mastering – is Nick Watson still involved in doing Purple stuff? – mastering wise, his work was excellent, and highly regarded in the audiophile circles.
August 11, 2011 at 2:37 pm
I agree 100%. However the decision doesn’t rest with me. I really moaned about the insensitive new work on CTTB but it still came out. What a mess. That was why I took my name off the packaging, as a small and unnoticed protest!
We always use Nick when we have stuff to do ourselves, have done for 15 years or more.
May 8, 2011 at 9:31 pm |
As regards the mixing/mastering no compression of any sort.
Any up to date news on this especially a vinyl issue?
May 3, 2011 at 12:46 pm |
This is an iconic live recording, so why not a vinyl box set, all-analogue pressing (no digital conversion of the original tapes!), heavyweight virgin vinyl, no compression or smiley-face EQ…
Surely an album that should be listened to on vinyl, and loud?!
April 24, 2011 at 6:32 pm |
Can’t wait for this to appear. The original vinyl album was intoduction to DP all those year’s ago! Sadly my 3 disc version got a strange water mark attack on the discs at won’t play now… discs either side of it were fine. Weird. My big concern about this new idea is just how much will it cost? Six CDs and a DVD could push up the penny quota for something that’s getting on a bit… Best start saving I guess.
April 18, 2011 at 11:08 pm |
I have mixed many, many records for WBros reissues here in Los Angeles. Though I believe the tapes are not here, it is certainly something I could do well, or better, as I know the material/sound as well as anyone.
When matching an existing previous issue (Aretha Franklin, Live at the Fillmore) you cannot always do exactly what was done before – levels and sonic changes happen almost instantaneously and vary from moment to moment – even done a minute later in 1972, it would vary from the one you have known and lived with for many decades. On the positive side, you COULD imagine some things could be better.
Or when mixing new/unreleased material (Black Sabbath, Live at Hammersmith Odeon) you can be freer to do what sounds best, unrestrained by previous work. As most of this MIJ has been done/released already, there’s little chance they will pay to remix yet again. Even remastering may not happen – and mastering (brightness, compression, apparent balance of instruments) may also not happen. It’s miraculous that a reissue happens once, and multiple times is nearly impossible – the financial returns are rarely justified.
Bonus material – such as any video footage and new packaging, really makes another issue possible.
May 9, 2011 at 2:34 pm |
It’s interesting to note the differences between UK/US/Japan pressings.
I got the original Live in Japan version of MiJ, mainly for the great cover art. It’s also an excellent (Japanese) silent vinyl pressing, BUT the mix, although very clear, is bass-light compared to a UK MiJ, and to use a technical term, lacks balls.
I also got the US Warner ‘Purple Passages’, in the hunt for reasonably-priced good vinyl pressings of Mk1 material. Wow – this is a great pressing, and eg the Shades tracks stand up to my minty 2nd-Parlophone UK Shades. Also Bird Has Flown has a totally dry (no reverb) mix on the long organ coda, compared to the reverby mix on the UK pressing – and is also the best quality vinyl pressing of this track I have heard.
(Slightly off-topic, but can anyone comment on the quality of the first Dutch and German Harvest pressings of Taliesyn and the third album?)
May 12, 2011 at 10:42 am
I’m not sure the mix would be different on the original Japan edition and the European one; more likely it was mastered differently. There is quite a lot of interest in this area of record collecting now, with people debating which pressings (and vinyl masters) are best, though it’s a bit out of my league.
I would imagine Purple Passages is good because a) Tetragrammaton were really cheap on vinyl quality and so probably mastering, b) Warners are likely to have done a much better job. As we now know the UK seem to have used a second-hand source to master Shades from in the UK back in 1968.
April 10, 2011 at 12:16 pm |
Sound wise, the very first CD transfer from EMI is the one I prefer. This is were the instruments, especially guitar and organ, are the clearest.
With today’s technology, they could make it even better, or worse…
Let’s hope !
April 13, 2011 at 6:51 pm |
Thanks for all the feedback, I know EMI are following these comments carefully. Just quickly, to everyone who emailed about that DVD of all three shows, it is NOT TRUE, but just a silly prank on someone’s website, goodness knows why. And Michail Vasilyev, I’ll try and answer more fully shortly, but thanks for the comments.
April 10, 2011 at 8:20 am |
Please consider issuing this as 4 cds – the complete concert on one disc, and all the encores on a 4th disc. Otherwise, one will have to stitch cds in the midde of each concert and so the concert won’t be “complete”. Switching disc for the encores makes sense to me.
March 26, 2011 at 6:39 am |
I agree with someone above who said make this 4 cds – ie put all the encores on one cd. This way the main sets will each be on one cd, so there will be no need to switch cds during the main set (and the main set will be complete). Then for the encores, you switch to the fourth cd and start at the appropriate track….simple!
March 21, 2011 at 11:34 am |
This is my Purple dream coming true! Don’t forget any bit of the music, please! Original running order plus in between tracks chats, all accommodated in 3 double CDs will be great! Put them inside a LP-size box, with big photos and reproductions of the original vinyl. Please use the latest CD technology for encoding and take good care of all, because this will be for sure our final version of MIJ’s shows.
March 18, 2011 at 6:29 pm |
– If possible, I´d appreciate if the edition could have technical description of the gear used, ie:
– The instruments
– The soundboard
– Tape machine
We all read about this magic black box they used for recording the shows in Japan. I often wonder what that box is.
Maybe an interview with Martin Birch, Glover and Paice, who I understand, did the mixing?
March 18, 2011 at 12:36 pm |
I agree with the others. The mixing of the Live In Japan 3CD is not the best (the instruments are not in ballance). The new release might be mixed in the same way as the black issue of Made In Japan remaster, with taking account that the concerts were recorded in the 70´s – so not apply the modern idea of mastering. I hope it will be one of the best releases of all the years.
P.S: Japanese fans, please search in your private archives and if you find some lost stuff of these 3 shows, share it with us and made it possible to release them officially and have a great bonus of material for this really great release of the legendary shows.
March 18, 2011 at 5:44 am |
I was hoping this would happen. I love all three of these shows with all the in between song comments from Ian Gillan. So I am hoping for 6 CD’s and 1 DVD. I enjoyed the 21st anniversary discs, but I did not like how all the shows were cut up and not in their original running order. It would be nice to see a replica of the Japanese tour book and or ticket replicate like the the ones that came with This Time Around. The DVD sounds great even if it’s only a few moments of silent b/w footage.
March 18, 2011 at 2:29 am |
It would be interesting if the 35mm slide rolls that I believe were available in the first Japanese release of 1973 can be found. Someone might have a long lost roll to make replicas!
May 9, 2011 at 8:47 am |
For those who haven’t got a treasured copy of the original DPAS discography… the Japanese edition first pressing had a poster and a free 35mm colour negative of the band on-stage, from which you could make your own prints! The same negative was given in each copy, they just duplicated an original up. I vaguely recall doing people photographic prints off my copy zillions of years ago, it as a bit grainy but a nice souvenir.
March 15, 2011 at 7:26 pm |
HOOWWWWLLL- Don’t forget to mix the drums up! “everything louder than everything else”- is it out yet?
March 12, 2011 at 10:57 am |
Why do you describe the anniversary-remaster as “less than perfect”? I thought everyone was more than happy with it, at least when it was released?
March 17, 2011 at 10:22 am |
There were a few concerns at the time over the way it was edited, see a couple of the comments below.
March 11, 2011 at 4:21 pm |
Hi Simon. Just how much 8mm footage is thought to have survived? All I’ve seen is the 90 seconds worth on the History… DVD. Mike
March 17, 2011 at 10:29 am |
The extent is still being investigated. I got an NTSC VHS about twenty years ago which runs just under ten minutes. Currently a friend in Japan has located the actual 8mm reels themselves, and is preparing a viewing copy. Obviously being based in Tokyo he has other things going on right now.
Then there is the source of the clips on the DVD which came from a copy at the Japanese label. As film buffs will know, domestic 8mm reels were quite short, so it’s a case of maybe making up a couple of songs, but also having the raw footage, so you can chose which you want to see. It is thought DP did a TV show in Japan of some sort, but sadly this appears not to survive.
March 11, 2011 at 2:28 pm |
Nice to do have quad mix of say the MIJ tracks in DTS like stormbringer.
March 11, 2011 at 12:30 pm |
Good news. But the 3-disc set was very badly mixed. There is no basssound, and the treble is very high. Paice´s cymbals/hi-hat are extremely up-front in the mix.
So new mixes, please!
March 11, 2011 at 12:47 am |
Hi all at DPAS,
My only wish is to please mix this properly. The 3CD set of all the Japanese gigs is great to have but I was disappointed with the mixing overall. Obviously the mix was done in a hurry, but there are even places where the GUITAR IS TOO SOFT IN THE MIX. This simply is not acceptable for a live Deep Purple recording. Especially not one of this significance and magnitude. Please make sure that the mix is not compressed too much as is the norm for retail CD releases of today; mix and master with the era in mind.
To have the 8mm footage that was taken at the gig would be fantastic. To have the lot would be brilliant. Many thanks, Brent Dehn
March 10, 2011 at 10:24 pm |
Finally, this is great news. Like everyone else my main hope is that the sound for all 3 nights is as good as the black version that came out with the guitar and organ the right way round but without the merging of the tracks! This is the album that changed my ‘musical life’ in 1973 and got me in to purple for all these years so I can not wait for it to come out, happy days.
March 10, 2011 at 10:00 pm |
This is a MUST DO !!! I already have both CD sets as mentioned but it would be much much better all round to hear the sets ‘as they happened’ in proper chronological order. The double remastered MIJ was awful and it would be a great opportunity to put this right.
March 10, 2011 at 9:35 pm |
It’s a great initiative BUT it should have been done right from scratch in 1993.
All is already available for the real collectors by now.
Much WORSE is the situation for the final MK III concerts. They are by not completely released and that’s a real shame. Difficult to believe to be honest. Release these as a priority for all the MK III fans.
March 10, 2011 at 9:10 pm |
My suggestion is 4 CDs, if possible. Three with the main shows each and a fourth CD with the encores. Regards
March 10, 2011 at 9:00 pm |
I think I´ll need a special shelf for MIJ now :-)
March 17, 2011 at 10:42 am |
If EMI’s box set gets any bigger, maybe they’ll be able to squeeze one in! Actually I discovered to my horror that I don’t have the very first CD transfer (the one with the gold cover) in our collection, so will get up to the second-hand shop asap.
March 10, 2011 at 7:27 pm |
Well, you make a suggestion and it is actually being picked up! I’d be delighted if it really happened to say the least. And I’d be in favour of adding the original “Made in Japan” to the set. Stupid as it may seem, I can’t imagine the full shows without this “sampler”, as it were, which will always be a landmark. Now, let’s talk about a full set of the “Made in Europe” shows….
March 10, 2011 at 6:53 pm |
AWESOME! This I was expecting, but thought it was a too long time coming. Simon, do consider some issues, when it comes to the mix:
On the anniversary edition, the applause of a previous song in mixed over Ian´s introduction to the next song, which is not the case on the original MIJ.
And please make all your efforts to include the DVD with the complete footage!
Thanks
March 10, 2011 at 3:34 pm |
It’s just too good to be true… I hesitate to make demands but I do hope we get ALL the surviving footage – hopefully synched up to the appropriate soundtracks.
Excellent news.
March 10, 2011 at 11:44 am |
I got my money ready, start pressing those babies!