98.12.28 男達の別れ

Artist	Fishmans
Type	Live album
Released	September 29, 1999
Recorded	December 28, 1998 @Akasaka Blitz
Genre	Dream pop • Neo-psychedelia • Dub
Length	130:19
Label	Polydor
Producer	ZAK

98.12.28 男達の別れ (romanized: 98.12.28 Otokotachi no Wakare, English: December 28, 1998: Farewell of Men), otherwise simply known as 98.12.28, is Fishmans' third live album and first full concert physical release. The recording was released on September 29, 1999, nearly an entire year after the performance.

98.12.28 contains Fishmans' entire final concert, performed on December 28, 1998 at Akasaka Blitz at the end of the 男達の別れ tour. While initially intended to be a farewell to the band's bassist Yuzuru Kashiwabara, who'd previously planned to leave the band shortly after the concert, events soon worsened after the performance. Less than three months after the concert, frontman and writer Shinji Sato would pass away from heart failure in the afternoon hours of March 15, 1999. This would retroactively make this concert his final musical creation. Six months later, and nine months after the concert's performance, 98.12.28 was released on CD in September 1999.

The material on the album is not precisely how it would have sounded in person, as some of the sounds are edited and mixed in-studio for greater detail similar to their previous live albums, but a great majority of the music present on this album was performed as-is. It's assumed that the concert's unedited audio is present on the 2005 release of 男達の別れ 98.12.28 @赤坂Blitz on DVD, which contains a complete video equivalent (and limited 5.1 mix) of the concert.

The album is largely regarded by Western fans, devoted and new, as their best release. The concert contains many singles and highlights from across their career, ranging from their first single to their most recent one. It also contains a complete performance of the band's sixth album, Long Season, this particular performance lasting 6 minutes longer than its album equivalent. Rating aggregate website RateYourMusic.com currently has 98.12.28 listed as the greatest live album of all time.

Track listing

Disc 1

1. "Oh Slime" (7:52)
2. "ナイトクルージング" (6:25)
3. "なんてったの" (6:26)
4. "Thank You" (2:58)
5. "幸せ者" (4:05)
6. "頼りない天使" (4:53)
7. "ひこうき" (9:11)
8. "In The Flight" (6:49)
9. "Walking in the Rhythm" (7:44)
10. "Smilin' Days, Summer Holiday" (4:57)
11. "Melody" (5:50)

Disc 2

1. "ゆらめき In The Air" (16:00)
2. "いかれたBaby" (5:38)
3. "Long Season" (41:31)

Artwork/Packaging

Scans are from original CD release POCH-1855/6.

Booklet page 1.

Booklet page 2.

Booklet page 3.

Booklet page 4.

Booklet page 5.

Booklet page 6.

Booklet page 7.

Booklet page 8.

Booklet page 9.

Booklet page 10.

Insert front. Image is stitched together from two scans.

Insert back. Image is stitched together from two scans.

Back of booklet.

Inlay front, or back of CD.

Inlay back.

Disc 1.

Disc 2.

Personnel

Band Members

• Shinji Satoh (vocals, guitar, writer, music, lyrics)
• Yuzuru Kashiwabara (bass, chorus)
• Kin-Ichi Motegi (drums, sampler, chorus)

Other musicians

• Honzi (violin, keyboards, chorus)
• Michio "Darts" Sekiguchi (guitars, chorus)

Other personnel

• ZAK (recording, mixer)
• 午前中 (stage producer)
• Hiroto Sasaki (stage director)
• Shige Sasaki (stage director)
• Ichizo Nishikawa (sound engineer)
• Katsuhiko Kamimura (monitor engineer)
• Yoji Joko (instrument technician)
• Tomoyuki Abe (instrument technician)
• Kenji Fujii (instrument technician)
• Makoto Nagahama (instrument technician)
• Kazuhiro Hirayama (lighting designer)
• Masato Kihara (concert promoter)
• Yuka Koizumi (mastering)
• Mariko Miyashita (mobile recording crew)
• Yujiro Saito (mobile recording crew)
• Michinori Sato (mobile recording crew)
• Kouta Kiryu (mobile recording crew)
• Takahisa Ishida (mobile recording crew)
• Toshiya Sano (A&R)
• Masaki Morimoto (A&R)
• Naoto Yoshida (promotional planner)
• Kyoko Teradate (marketing promotion)
• Akiko Ueta (artist manager)
• Moog Yamamoto (art direction, design)
• Mariko Yamamoto (art direction, design)
• Phonic (art direction, design)
• Gen Inaba (photography)
• Kensuke Kawamura (video cameraman)
• Hiroyuki Howa (video cameraman)
• Takuro Iwagami (video cameraman)
• Kazuhiko Tanaka (video cameraman)
• Chiaki Momose (video cameraman)
• Yoshiaki Uchiyama (video cameraman)
• Yumi Haga (visual coordination)
• Ichiro Asatsuma (executive producer)
• Yoshiyuki Okuda (executive producer)
• Ikuzo Orita (executive producer)
• Susumu Machida (supervisor)
• Akira Watanabe (supervisor)

Special Thanks

• Space Shower TV
• Hiroki Shinohara
• Katsuo Funatsu
• GOIS
• Tetsushi Suehiro
• Mikio Kaibe
• Masami Miyamoto

Issues

• 1999 - POCH-1855/6 (CD, Polydor, Japan)
• 2009 - UMCC-9016/7 (Limited CD, Universal/Milestone Crowds/Polydor, Japan)
• 2012 - UPCY-9234 (Limited CD, Universal/Polydor, Japan)

Trivia

• Album artwork photo is theorized to have been taken towards the end of Long Season's performance during the concert.
• This is the longest album Fishmans would ever release.
• As it appears on this concert, Walking in the Rhythm appears to sample a song by Brian Eno/David Byrne titled "Mea Culpa" from their 1981 album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.
• During an MC after the performance of ひこうき, Sato remarks that he doesn't know where he or the band will be in ten years' time, and he doesn't know where their fans will be either, saying that he's noticed concert attendance dwindling. He continues that after this performance, they plan on "trying to start over from the beginning". It's unclear exactly what he meant by this, but it's theorized that with their next album, Sato wanted to make music more like their earlier years, meaning a more reggae-like sound.
• Fishmans also performed the previous day, December 27, at the same venue. A bootleg recording of this concert was eventually found and distributed as 98.12.27 男達の別れ.
• It's known that after this performance, Yuzuru Kashiwabara intended on leaving the band, which is what he did until Sato's death, when he re-joined as a support musician.
• After the concert concluded, "Strawberry Fields Forever" by The Beatles played over the speaker system while the attendees left the concert hall.