...The Japanese behind the 1982 approach were from Shiseido, and for a while I thought the name equated with 'Shazam' or 'Hey Presto'. Such was the allure of what they seemed to be offering, and thus the apparent transformation in my fortune. Indeed from the start of my journey for them, their name literally appeared as if by magic, everywhere. It was before they had started to market their products in England, and although vaguely familiar with the brand, I had little knowledge of the sheer scale and size the business involved, really no idea just what I was letting myself in for...Being not in a situation where I could really afford to say no, even had I wanted to, I was grateful for the opportunity and intrigued at the prospect...
...The trip itself was to involve a ten-day stay in Tokyo, during which time I would complete the pictures and they would shoot the commercials...A journalist who had featured me in several magazines including one owned by Shiseido and who knew of their proposal, on running into me in the street beforehand, advised to accept whatever payment was offered as a fee, and negotiate only over expenses. To do otherwise would, she explained, be considered offensive. Later she was to demand an agent's fee and find my rejection of this also offensive. Shiseido for whom this woman had worked on a free-lance basis apparently decided not to employ her on the project. She felt since she'd been responsible for much of my press in Japan, that she should be involved, and deserved payment, if not from them, then from me...As I understood it, she was opportunistic now claiming, after I had signed with them, that I should pay her instead...In Tokyo I was to feel the wrath of her rejection...
...The arrival at Tokyo airport had glamour, standing in the immigration queue behind Freddie Mercury. Travelling by limousine into the city, wherever I looked, were buildings with the word Shiseido written large over them, 'Shazam', for sure...The hotel we stayed in, the Imperial...had a large, airy, somewhat minimalist reception area. One was bowed to constantly before going through doors, into and out of elevators, even during journeys up and down...The clause in the contract my attention was specifically drawn to before leaving London, was the one stating I must obey the laws of Japan. This referred to drugs, and it was under-lined that on no account was I to consume any whilst they were responsible for me, i.e. the whole time in Japan. A Paul Mcartney clause, being shortly after his problems there. On the film set the first morning, I received a gift from a stranger, which when opened contained a package of neatly rolled joints. Having been met in the hotel reception by an interpreter as well as by the trio of executives from the company in what was to be a daily routine, and escorted by limo to the shoot, I thought it best to quietly hand them to her for disposal...
...For lunch on that first day, with car and driver sent for, a private room in a restaurant has been booked, and we set off with my three executive escorts plus, Aimi O, the interpreter. After what in reality was probably not so far, but in Tokyo's ever grid-locked static traffic seemed an endless drive, we arrived to be shown into, of all places, Denny's, a sort of fish-based equivalent of a MacDonald's chain I was familiar with seeing and ignoring in California. Here apparently it had a certain class. Trying not to show disappointment, aware that this had been out of consideration for what was thought would be my taste, I requested for following days to eat the same as the rest of the crew, brought in bento boxes, instead.
...Getting back with only a couple of hours to go before the opening, I was ushered into a room with a large u-shaped table at whose top end I sat with my interpreter, the only woman present, around it, twenty or so men in suits...My voice got more and more out of control, as hers stayed calm, until I found myself saying angrily I didn't think she was conveying to them just how furious I was. At the moment of almost losing it, in frustration and exhaustion, I registered all these implacably calm faces looking back at me were wearing badges declaring, 'We love Duggie'...
With the start of the campaign came the start of reaction. Arriving back in the hotel, suddenly the lift-girls' calm was replaced by shock and excitement. It seemed whenever I stepped out of my room, wherever I went it caused consternation. Out in the street people would stop and stare, mouth-open in amazement, come up with requests for autographs or to have their picture taken with me, even literally jump up and down with speechless excitement...In a nightclub, girls started kissing and pulling me so I had to be aggressive to get out of their clutches, and again had to leave...
...This was to last a few years so that anywhere I was, someone Japanese would spot me and react with excitement...Then slowly it vanished, such the fleeting fashion of fame and contemporary celebrity, becoming only an infrequent occurrence after...Through it all though, perhaps I had already been consumed and my day there was over. Having heard from my more sophisticated Japanese friends that I should never have done the project, that it was too 'mainstream', and would destroy my 'avant-garde' credibility. It seemed maybe they were right. That I had let them turn me temporarily into some kind of 'Pop' icon took me away from the arena of the 'serious' I had apparently previously occupied. There was to be no follow up exhibit from Shiseido, nor any other source, a mere trickle of media only after, the fickleness of fortune coming with its price.
