The News

New Band.

Posted Jun 18, 2009. Filed under . Leave a comment?

Hey everyone I just found out about this great new band called ダウト. Here is some in for on them

ダウト (formerly D=OUT) is a fairly new Japanese visual kei band. They formed in December 2006.

Gackt becomes GACKT to celebrate 10^th anniversary

Posted Jun 16, 2009. Filed under . Leave a comment?

Chiba—Popular singer Gackt, who celebrated the 10^th year of his solo career on June 4, kicked off his arena tour at Chiba’s Makuhari Messe this week. At the concert, he announced the “enlargement” of his name, from “Gackt” to an all-capital “GACKT,” explaining, “To commemorate 10 years as an artist, I’ve gone all big letters.”

The singer belted out a total of 19 tunes to over 5,000 fans, including his newest single, “Ko-akuma Heaven,” the attention-grabbing cover of which features the star decked out as an “Age-jo” (cabaret hostess). The tour will take Gackt to four cities and eight concerts, playing to a total of 100,000 fans.

Japan Today

X Japan, Koda Kumi In Concert

Posted Jun 1, 2009. Filed under . Leave a comment?

What do J-pop and J-rock have in common? The answer seems to be wedding dresses…Rock band X Japan finally gave their Taiwanese fans what they’d been waiting for on Saturday night, playing their long overdue first concert on the island. The Taipei show was rescheduled twice, last August and again in

February due to the health problems of drummer and band leader Yoshiki. He showed his appreciation to the legions of faithful X fans by wearing a wedding dress on stage, something he hasn’t done since 1991. The band then launched into their anthem “X,” with the 20,000 fans joining them in the X Jump that has been said to cause a mini earth tremor. The ¥350-million show also featured a drum performance from Yoshiki on a moving platform 20m high, and a 12m-high YoshiKitty, an inflatable collaboration with the iconic Hello Kitty character. Once again, the late guitarist Hide appeared throughout the show on the 1200-inch wide screen. Newly added guitarist Sugizo performed overseas with the band for the first time.

Yesterday, Yoshiki announced that the band have received an offer to perform on the opening night of next year’s World Expo in Shanghai. The expo will be the biggest ever, with 230 countries and regions expected to participate and the target for the number of visitors set at 70 million (the current record is the 64 million who attended the 1970 Osaka World Expo). Plans are also progressing for a show at the 80,000-seat Olympic “Bird’s Nest” stadium in Beijing, which is said to be awaiting the final stamp of approval. Yoshiki also said that he expects shows in France and the U.S. to be finalized this month.

J-pop diva Koda Kumi (26) pulled out all the stops for 15,000 fans at her concert last night at the National Yoyogi Gymnasium in Tokyo. She went through nine costume changes that had a combined cost of ¥80 million. As well as her usual sexy outfits, she wore a white wedding dress and a towering “illumination dress.” In homage to enka singer Kobayashi Sachiko, who wears a hugely extravagant dress every New Year’s Eve for the “Kohaku Uta Gassen” show, it was 12 meters high and featured 10,000 lights. Amongst the 24-song set, Koda performed songs from her upcoming maxi single “3 Splash,” due for release on July 8. She was joined on stage for one night only by U.S. hip hop group the Black Eyed Peas. Koda and vocalist Fergie collaborated last summer on the single “That Aint Cool.”

japanzone

Yoshiki’s Biography to be released on 25^th

Posted May 18, 2009. Filed under . Leave a comment?

A non-fiction book based on X Japan’s leader, Yoshiki’s life, will be released on 25^th May 2009 with a going price of 2310 yen. It is based on almost 100 + hours of interviews, spread out over the course of a decade starting in January 1999 with Yoshiki. These interviews were conducted by Komatsu Narumi, a famous non-fiction writer who had also previously authored biographies of Hidetoshi Nakata and Ichiro Suzuki, both famous sports stars.

This book promises to reveal much information about Yoshiki, including his real name and birthdate which had been hidden from the media since his debut in 1989, Yoshiki’s growing-up years, how Toshi and him became friends, his thoughts during X Japan’s disbandment and HIDE’s (accidental) suicide.

sanspo
translations credits to myfirstgossipblog