"MIE LIVE"
To my knowledge, which, I’ll admit is rather limited, this was the only live album Mie put out after the breakup of Pink Lady. This album, with the remarkably clever title of ‘Mie Live’ came out in early 1982, just about a year after the split, and I thought it was a fabulous solo effort from Ms. Nemoto which began with some American songs (Side A of the vinyl release), including the Ben E. King classic, “Stand By Me”, Blondie’s “Call Me” which Mie sang in near flawless English and Vikki Carr’s “It Must Be Him” which, by the by, Mie covered with Pink Lady during the Las Vegas show. Now we come to Side B which was called Shocking Pink Lady, and it was here that Mie went through the chart toppers and favorite songs that made PL insanely famous a mere half decade earlier, pretty much everything from “Pepper Keibu”, “Wanted”, “UFO” and “Southpaw” through “Kiss in the Dark” (sung in English), “Agiri Giri” and “Strangers When We Kiss” from the U.S. Album. While it was great to hear Mie cover all the old favorites, it sounded, well….odd that she was performing with a trio of backup singers called Foxy instead of her old partner, Kei, still, it made for quite a terrific listening experience, and one I thoroughly enjoyed. Despite being a year removed from the split, I could hear the passion in Mie’s voice as she ran through the PL catalogue, and little has changed with her today as she does regular dinner shows where she performs the old classics that made her and Kei legendary as Japanese pop stars. If you can find ‘Mie Live’ (though it’s not on any music streaming services, I’ve checked), by all means, add it to your library as it’s a great album.
