As singer of the Bay City Rollers, the tartan-clad teen-pop sensations that conquered the world in the 1970s, Les McKeown forged a special bond with Japan that endures today.
"If you have that image of The Beatles coming down the steps on the plane, it was just like that," McKeown, sitting across the table in a London pub with his Japanese wife, Peko, says of his first visit to the country.
"I have old pictures of us doing exactly that. We'd get on the plane in our costume, change into a tracksuit, and change back into our gear before landing, make sure our hair was looking good and get off looking like we'd just got off the stage!