UNESCO hoped that the event would be the first of seven annual concerts that would take place at some of the world's architectural treasures - the sites it had in mind included the Pyramids, China's Forbidden City and the Taj Mahal - but nothing came of the idea.
Bob Dylan performed on all 3 nights. Olof Björner lists the following -
May 18 Rehearsal for The Great Music Experience
========================================
Todaiji Temple, Nara, Japan
1. Ring Them Bells
Bob Dylan (guitar & vocal) backed by Phil Palmer (guitar),
"Wix" Vickens (keyboards), Pino Paladino (bass), Jim Keltner
(drums) and The Tokyo New Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by
Michael Kamen.
Broadcast in the TV program THE GREAT MUSIC EXPERIENCE COUNTDOWN,
May 22, 1994 in over 50 countries all over the world.
Stereo TV broadcast, 1 minute.
May 20 The Great Music Experience, first day
=====================================
Todaiji Temple, Nara, Japan
1. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
2. I Shall Be Released
3. Ring Them Bells
4. I Shall Be Released
1-3 Bob Dylan (guitar & vocal) backed by Phil Palmer (guitar),
"Wix" Vickens (keyboards), Pino Paladino (bass), Jim Keltner
(drums) and The Tokyo New Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by
Michael Kamen.
4 Bob Dylan (guitar & backup vocal) in the grand finale with all
participating artists, among them Joni Mitchell, Jon Bon Jovi,
Richie Sambora, Ry Cooder, Roger Taylor and the members of INXS
and X Japan.
Stereo audience recording, 25 minutes.
May 21 The Great Music Experience, second day
======================================
Todaiji Temple, Nara, Japan
1. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
2. I Shall Be Released
3. Ring Them Bells
4. I Shall Be Released
1-3 Bob Dylan (guitar & vocal) backed by Phil Palmer (guitar),
"Wix" Vickens (keyboards), Pino Paladino (bass), Jim Keltner
(drums) and The Tokyo New Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by
Michael Kamen.
4 Bob Dylan (guitar & backup vocal) in the grand finale with all
participating artists, among them Joni Mitchell, Jon Bon Jovi,
Richie Sambora, Ry Cooder, Roger Taylor and the members of INXS
and X Japan.
4 broadcast in the radio and TV program THE GREAT MUSIC EXPERIENCE
COUNTDOWN, May 22, 1994 in over 50 countries all over the world.
4 stereo FM and TV broadcast.
Stereo audience recording, 25 minutes.
May 22 The Great Music Experience, second day
======================================
Todaiji Temple, Nara, Japan
1. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
2. I Shall Be Released
3. Ring Them Bells
4. I Shall Be Released
1-3 Bob Dylan (guitar & vocal) backed by Phil Palmer (guitar),
"Wix" Vickens (keyboards), Pino Paladino (bass), Jim Keltner
(drums) and The Tokyo New Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by
Michael Kamen.
4 Bob Dylan (guitar & backup vocal) in the grand finale with all
participating artists, among them Joni Mitchell, Jon Bon Jovi,
Richie Sambora, Ry Cooder, Roger Taylor and the members of INXS
and X Japan.
1-3 broadcast in the radio and TV program THE GREAT MUSIC
EXPERIENCE COUNTDOWN, May 22, 1994 in over 50 countries all over
the world.
4 broadcast in the radio and TV program THE GREAT MUSIC
EXPERIENCE COUNTDOWN, May 29, 1994 on BBC in the UK.
1 released in Scandinavia on CD single Columbia COL 660942 2,
December 15, 1994.
Stereo FM and TV broadcast, 25 minutes.
Producer Tony Hollingsworth had suggested that the first night was a 'dress rehearsal', so I had assumed that it wasn't professionally recorded, as no footage was used -
"The first of the three live shows was performed for an invited audience. It was, in a sense, a dress rehearsal for the following two nights, the last of which would be broadcast. As it turned out, a dress rehearsal was very much needed. The production moved far too slowly – lasting four hours against the scheduled broadcast slot on the third night of three hours.
“The change-over between artists was very slow and much of the production work was slow, partly because of language problems, with the people directing being English and the crews Japanese. But the songs also were too long: I’d asked everyone to do four minutes, but they would do six minutes. That’s what musicians do. They are hopeless at cutting it short.
“Although I pushed people like mad, it was clear to me it wasn’t going to work.” After a hard night and day’s work, the second night was faster, but still 30 minutes too long.
But Hollingsworth had a trick up his sleeve. He was having the second night filmed anyway as a back-up for the third night. It was a trick he’d learned in producing The Wall in Berlin, when the power had failed during the broadcast performance and he was able to use footage from the dress rehearsal. So, at Todai-ji, he had booked an overnight edit at the on-site production facilities in case the second evening was not fast enough. He edited the last five-eighths of the second-night show down to the required size, cutting out the walk-ons and walk-offs and, where it was possible, editing the songs by taking out the middle.
Then came the third and final evening. “We started broadcasting live and continued to do so for the first three-eighths of the show.” He had told only three people what he was going to do – head of TV production Sandy Phone, head of transmission Dick Allott and head of radio distribution Steven Saltzman: “I’ve edited the back end of the show and at a certain point we’re going to use my tape instead of the live event to ensure we end on time.” He told no one else – “the crew and the artists would not have liked it.”
“We went into the transmission truck and put the tape in, and at the appropriate time – during the applause between songs – we told the transmissions editor to fade the tape between the two. We were no longer broadcasting live. Dick and I felt so happy we’d pulled it up. We could relax.”
However, I have some additional information from another source:
"All three nights were indeed recorded. It was necessary to use 3 recording trucks to achieve enough inputs on the mixing consoles. I had 3 consoles in my truck alone and the master fader for the live feed. over 200 microphones were on stage! to record the material there were 3 48trk Sony recorders in sync. Although the first night was a kind of rehearsal in preparation for the satellite live all three were recorded. Rough mixes were made at the time for production to DAT."
This was further supported by another source:
"My memory may be hazy...I thought we recorded all three...they were all recorded to sony digital 48 track...As far as I know they were never mixed or worked on."
Of course, 'A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall' was released as a bonus track on a version of the CD single for 'Dignity' on 1994, but aside from the broadcast tracks, none of the other nights performances have surfaced as soundboard recordings in their entirety - so none of the first night and the first three tracks from the second. I have no idea what happened to the DAT masters - I assume they were handed over to Sony / Jeff Rosen after the shows. However, I did discover that the London-based production company still retains both audio and video of the entire unedited production from all three nights, plus rehearsals, in their archive.
The 'Dignity' CD single from 1994.
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