1980-1988
The
history of the band began in 80s when the total interest in hard rock
reached Japan. Brand new and expressive music became favorite among
young people in Japan rather fast. Lots of cover-bands that imitated
overseas artistes appeared at that time. That popular tendency
concerned not only way of singing and playing, but also the whole look
and style of performing on the stage. The Japanese manner to imitation
and compilation borrowed ideas finally resulted in new movement that
later was titled as Jrock. But, in those
times, no one thought about it in that way and two 13year-old boys from
Chiba formed their cover-band and hardly dared dream about becoming
popular one day.
Friends from childhood, Hayashi Yoshiki
and Deyama Toshimitsu being inspired by
music of KISS formed their cover-band
called Dynamite. Yoshiki was the drummer
and the leader of the teenage creative project. Toshi chose the guitar
to play. Next three years line up of the band constantly changed and
style of performing also alerted. In 1980 the first serious change took
place and Dynamite turned to
Noise. Also Toshi became a vocalist. This band made a
rather good success but because all of them finished school, all
members, except Yoshiki, Toshi and Terry
(guitarist), left the band.
But Yoshiki
didn’t give up. By 1982 he changed the name of the band again. Now it’s
called X. With the song I'll
Kill You the band X made
their debut on Yamaha Sponsorship Contest.
This performing became a break-through, so
X was treated seriously. The band
performed much and their popularity was growing. By 1984 line-up of the
band includes 5 members: Yoshiki (piano and drums), Toshi (vocal),
Terry and Tomo (guitars) and
Atsushi (bass). Chiba’s venues were not
big enough for the band, so they decided to move in Tokyo, where they
went on assaulting of musical peak with double
force.
Next year brought lots of
changing. Tomo left the band and he was replaced by
Eddy. Posters announcing
X concerts appeared in Tokyo streets more
and more often. In June single I’ll Kill
You was released. But growing success didn’t bring the
excepted stillness. The band was just torn apart by conflicts. On 4th
of October Eddy, Atsushi and Terry left X.
Hally
(ex-Dementia) became new guitarist,
Savada Taiji
(ex-Prowler) replaced previous bassist but
only for certain time. But again these two members weren’t
X members long and they left the band in
the end of October. But in November Taiji returned to his work with
X. Later guitarist
Jun (ex-Sqwier) joint the
band.
In the end of the year line-up changed again.
This members were in band till April. By spring 1986 the line up of the
band was the following: Yoshiki, Toshi, Jun (guitar) and
Hikaru
(bass).
In July label
EXPLOSION released album collection
Heavy Metal Forсe III that included songs
of most popular indies-bands. Among these songs
X’s Break the
Darkness and X songs were
listed. Suddenly the band drew great attention and it was considered as
a kind of discovery.
At that time Yoshiki decided
to found his own record label Extasy
Records and under this label in the end of April single
Orugasumu was
released..
Though the line-up was still changing.
In November Taiji got back again, but at that time he became an
official member.
In March 2007
X was involved in recording one more
collection Skull Trash Zone Vol. 1
arranged by label Victor Record. That
collection with X’s song
Stab me in the Back in it just assisted
the band with their success. It’s worth saying that for that recording
another guitarist was needed, so by concourse of circumstances,
Pata (Ishizuka
Tomoaki, played in the band
Judy at that time) became the sessional
guitarist. Firstly, he refused to participate in that record, but later
he agreed with the condition that it would be for only one
occasion.
In November 1986 to March 1987
there were several guitarists in the band replacing one another. Among
there were Kerry,
Satoru, Isao.
And only in the end of March in the band finally first constant
guitarist and forth constant member appeared –
hide (Matsumoto
Hideto, ex-Saver Tiger). He
was invited by Yoshiki personally.
On
10th of April the second guitarist got into motorcycle accident and
just before the Meguro Live Station
performing X left without guitarist.
Yoshiki asked Pata to help. Pata agreed to replace injured member for
that concert. After the performing Yoshiki offered Pata to become a
fifth member of X because of Isao’s wish
to leave the band. The reasons for it still remain unknown, but Pata
agreed to join the band, so the performance of April 10th, 1987 may be
considered as the first concert with line up that didn’t change up to
1992.
Later Yoshiki remembered that time: “It
sounds impossible, but line up of the band changed for more than 30
times”.
 Just for
notice, it’s worth saying about the visual aspect of formed band. Image
of the bandmembers in that time was shocking, first of all. Very
provocative and, obviously, attracting attention, it became the part of
their music that made it complete. The main idea of such look was based
on attracting attention firstly, and only then keeping it by means of
music. Of course, there was something to stare at. Look of Yoshiki was
more than just creative: blond long hair on one side of the head was
made as needles-like iroquois. It was completed by fantastic feminine
like costume. In the beginning of the career leader had unusual make
up: both sides of his face were made up in different ways. This
expressed Yoshiki’s idea of two opposite sides of humane nature. Later,
femininity began to prevail in his image. Taiji’s style imitated glam
at first, then it was replaced by cowboy’s. In early style of Toshi
military elements prevailed. Pata looked like punk with his red-haired
iroquois and shaved out temples. Image of
hide included everything that must have
failed to be gathered together. If one could imagine the creature from
other planet, so it would look like lead-guitarist of
X.
But these images
didn’t remain long. Time changed and look changed either. It’s
difficult to define, but later all this experiments with images would
call “visual kei” and the band X would be
called the founder of new music style.
But not only look of the band was freaky. Also bandmembers’ behavior on
the stage was shocking. X was the first
band that broke all the rules of artists’ behavior during the
performance: no one used to watch musicians to jump around wildly and
break the instruments in the way they did this. Some critics who were
against the band defined it as non-trustworthy and their performances
as insanity. Such an attitude of the public, of course, influenced on
reputation of the band and a bit later problems began: lots of venues
and record labels refused to work with the band. But typhoon called
X couldn’t be stopped because music of new
indies-band already got its fans.
They
tried to find the way out of this difficult situation and Yoshiki went
on risks several times. Later all these attempts seemed to be very
successful.
Later he said about it: “We did the
things that no one did before and even didn’t think that they could be
done.” In August 1987 the band recorded and released video
Xclamation '87 that included three songs.
These records were sold out in Osaka Bourbon
House during one day and profit of that one day counted
200 000 yens. Together with this the band began to appear on TV.
Firstly, unknown band visited non-prestigious and humoristic TV shows
with the discussions of strange things happened with teenagers, street
culture and of madness during rock
performances.
But little by little the
band was getting its fans and admirers. Unusual images and strong, new
music became more and more popular. But record labels still refused to
collaborate with X. After another failed
attempt with another record label Yoshiki decided to release indies
album under his own record label Extasy
Records and on April 14th 1988 Vanishing
Vision was released.
In the middle
of year full-line-up X played an episodic
role in the movie Tokyo POP and they
presented themselves. The movie was out in Europe on July 6th, 1989.
In June the band went on Vanishing
Tour including 24 dates in different cities of Japan.
Later that tour turned into Burn Out Tour.
Dramatic lyrics and wonderful music served well –
X began their triumphant parade over the
country.
After these events, on 1st 1988, the band
signed a good contract with CBS/SONY and
got the “major”
status.
1989-1991
In January 1989 X began to record their
debut album Blue Blood and on March 13th
Blue Blood Tour
started.
Release of the album was on
April 21st and it took the 6th place in sales charts. It was the first
time in Japan when young rock-band managed to achieve such results. It
was a kind of historical break-through.
Perfect
Yoshiki’s music and guitarist’s skills to play masterly their parts in
unison made Blue Blood album a revolution
and till now it’s considered to be a masterpiece of Japanese classical
rock.
After tour finished members started
recording new songs but separately from each other. On June 22th
Yoshiki went to Paris to shoot the video Rose of
Pain and Pata, Toshi, Hide and Taiji visited New York
where a small video-report was recorded. Later, all these materials
were included in video Shigeki! ~ Visual Shock Vol.
2.
After returning to Japan they
took part in recording of endless TV programs, talk-shows, radio
programs and in endless photo-shooting. It’s worth saying that
participation of rock-bands in musical talk-shows were unusual for
those times. But after X experience many
TV companies began to invite different popular rock-bands on TV. The
popularity of the band became more and more
overwhelming.
Released on 28th of August single
Kurenai took first place in
Oricon Charts immediately. On September
29th the band went on Rose & Blood
Tour.
On the 1st of December second
single Endless Rain released and achieved
the top of Oricon Charts as
well
Also that year was marked by awarding.
X got awards as Best New Artist of Japan
(Nihon Yuusen Daishou Yuushuu Shinjin
Shou), Best Artist of Japan (Zen Nihon
Yuusen Daishou Yuushuu Shinjin Shou) and also they were
nominated as Single Sales Leader of Oricon’89 (89 Oricon
Nendo Recording Sell Single Shinjin Bumon Dai Ichii). It
was great success for the band started 11 month
before.
Yoshiki’s unusual manner of drums
playing made the band without any possible rivals. And Yoshiki always
plays using all his strength and powers during playing. Once members
joked: “If you want to kill Yoshiki, write more fast songs”. Later
Yoshiki himself said in interview: “I play on strength limit, I can die
anytime, my physical powers are exhausted, but I can’t stop.” It was
said when tour began… But these words were fatal. On November 23th, in
the middle of Rose & Blood Tour,
there must be a performance in Shibuya
Kohkaido, but before it Yoshiki was injured seriously
and the performance was canceled. This happening caused the panic among
the fans but, fortunately, Yoshiki recovered fast and on February 4th
1990 the band continued the tour and even got the prize
Dai Yonkai Nihon Gold Disc Taishou Best Artist
Shou later.
On April 21st
1990 third single Week End was released.
And again it took first place in Oricon.
Japan was at X’s feet. Rose
& Blood Tour ended by two-days lives (May 7th
and 9th) in Nihon Budokan and then by
extra performance in Osakajo Hall, May
17th.
On the first of September video
Celebration ~ Visual Shock Vol. 2.5 was
released. In the end of the year the band went to Los Angeles, where
members recorded new album Jealousy for
seven months. On July 1st 1991 album was out. Coming back to Japan was
convoyed by a huge crowd of fans that just paralyzed the work of
international airport Narita. Such an incident was the first, so,
because of this, government couldn’t arrange everything in right way,
so situation was out of a control and several people were seriously
injured in the crowd.
New tour called
Violence in Jealousy~ Yume no naka ni dake
ikite began on August 6th, and on 23th of August the
band held their first performance in Tokyo
Dome.
 Released
on September 11th single Silent Jealousy,
of course, achieved first Oricon’s
position. On 30th of September the band released video
Visual Shock Vol. 3 Shigeki 2
~Yume no naka ni dake ikite~. Then they released singled
Standing Sex on 25th of October and Say Anything on the 1st of
December.
On October 29th Extasy
Summit '91 festival was held. Yoshiki began to arrange
this festival under his own recording label since 1988. All the bands
that recorded under this label at that moment took part in festival.
But this Summit was different from
previous ones: it was greater and it was held in Nihon
Budokan.
In December
X got the prize as Best Artist of Japan
(Nihon Yuusen Daishou Yuusen Ongaku
Yuushuushou) and also they took part in popular program
NHK Kouhaku Utagasen. This show was
traditionally held in the end of the year and was a kind of summing of
musical events of the year. This program plays an important role for
Japanese and it is honor for every artist to be invited there. So
X became the first rock-band that took
part in it and then the band took part in this program for several
years as a special guest.
The end of 1991
was marked not only by increasing activity of the band but also by solo
career of bandmembers. On December 8th the band held a concert
X with Orchestra in NHK Hall where
symphonic orchestra accompanied the band. Video Say
Anything ~ Visual Shock Vol. 3.5 and collection
X Ballad Collection were released on
December
21st.
1992-1998
In the beginning of the next year X held a
tree-days concert called On The Verge of
Destruction in Tokyo Dome on January 5, 6, 7th. That
concert was the last for the Taiji as the member of
X. On January 31st at press-conference it
was officially announced that bassist left the
band.
The band looked for new bassist for
seven month because new member must have met high requirements of the
band so new member was chosen only by the end of
May.
On August 25th X
held a press conference in New York where it was announced about new
bassist heath (Morie
Hiroshi, ex-Media Youth, he
was actually a friend of hide). Beside
that, X announced about changing their
name from X to X
JAPAN.
The reason for it was the
existence of the same-named band in USA and because Yoshiki was
planning to get the international status for his band (and America must
have played the most important role in this process), he had to change
the name of the band for avoiding different law problems. Together with
that Yoshiki decided to change a record label from
CBS/SONY to
MMG (East West
Japan). The reason for it still remains unknown but it
was likely he had his personal preferences.
heath was introduced to the fans on
October 29th at Extasy Summit’92 in
Osakajo Hall and later, on October 30th,
in Nihon
Budokan.
On November 1st,
video Hametsu Ni Mukatte ~ Visual Shock Vol.
4 was released and X JAPAN
again took part in NHK Kouhaku Utagasen on
December 31st. The band performed Kurenai
and Tears. While performing the last song
Yoshiki was playing organ and all invited artists were
singing.
Till July 1993 members of the band
concentrated on their solo works. But also they did not forget that
they’re band: on July 1st Film GIGs 1993 ~ Visual Shock
Kougeki Saikai video was released and on 25th they
released mini-album Art of Life that
included only one 29 minute-song. On October 21st the band released
album-collection X Singles, on 25th new
single Tears was released. On December 30
and 31st the band again gave a concert in Tokyo Dome. Concert
X JAPAN Returns was the first
in the line of New Year concerts that were held next five years till
the disbanding of X JAPAN. On December
31st X JAPAN whose participation in
the NHK Kouhaku Utagasen became a
tradition, performed
Tears.
At that time visual aspects changed. The general style became calmer
and more unified. Wild bright and colorful make-up and iroquois
disappeared and their images became more similar one another. Yoshiki’s
long red-haired curls and his elegant laced-clothes was the real
example of femininity and beauty. Pata and Toshi’s images became
similar with prevailing calm and confident aspects but it doesn’t mean
that their costumes became less creative.
heath’s image imitated glam so he fit the
other band’s new look. hide was the kind
of exception: he still preferred bright colors in his costumes, and his
hair-cuts were complicated and fantastic. His look provided a needed
exotic aspect in this almost perfect gallery of
images.
In 1994 there were a really
active solo works of bandmembers: new singles, albums, videos. Activity
of the band was marked by international tendency: in May (20th, 21st,
22nd) the band took part in big international concert The
Great Music Experience~ AONIYOSHI together with
Bob Dylan, Joni
Mitchell, INXS,
Bon Jovi and Roger
Taylor. That show was supported by
UNESKO and transmitted in 55
countries.
On July 10th single Rusty
Nail was released. As it became a tradition the band
together with its fans celebrated New Year in Tokyo Dome. Concerts on
30th and 31st got the name AOI YORU/KUROI
YORU (Blue Night/White Night). December 30th concert was
live-transmitted, so performing of Rusty
Nail was also transmitted during Music
Station SuperLive TV Show. Later it became usual: Tokyo
Dome New Year transmitting became a special features of
Super Live
Show.
On January 1st
Hametsu ni Mukatte 1992.01.07 Tokyo Dome
live album and PV collection X Clips was
out. On January 27th the band was a co-arranger for racing
F-3000 and design of one car had logotype
of the band. Ralf Schumaher took part in
that racing.
On August 1st new single
Longing ~ Togireta Melody was released and
on October 21st video game Visual Shock
001 based on Sega Saturn Play
Station was out. The subject of this game based on New
Year concerts in 1994. On October 29th Dahlia Tour
1995-1996 began. At those concerts single
Longing ~ Setsubou no Yoru was sold
besides usual goodies as booklets, T-shirts and others. This single was
out only on December 11th.
It’s worth saying that
in 1995 heath began his solo career as
well.
On December 30th and 31st the band
played a concert X JAPAN in Tokyo Dome for 2
days. But the shocking news was not in that. In Autumn
Yoshiki changed his image rapidly: he cut his hair short and on
November 26th at one TV show he appeared with other, more masculine
image.The following to cut his hair was lead-guitarist. But, anyway,
hide still preferred bright colors and
creative look. Then Toshi changed his hair-cut.
On
February 26th single Dahlia was out and it
included two versions of the song.
March
1996 was really difficult for the band: on 13th Dahlia
Tour was stopped because of Yoshiki’s illness. He was
hospitalized during the concert in Nagoya. The fans were announced that
Yoshiki stretched his back muscles out and the band hardly finished the
concert. Next day recording for Music
Station on 15th of March was canceled. On 15th they
announced that the band wouldn’t participate in POP
JAM on 18th and Nagoya concert was postponed to 30th,
but later it was canceled as well. On March 19th at press-conference
the band announced that tour would be stopped for uncertain period of
time and that all the money paid for five concerts (they were totally
sold out) would be returned. Later there was a statement about
Yoshiki’s health: strangulation of intervertebral disk hernia, the
result of old traumas.
Fans got in panic. To calm
down the fans the band released album-collection B.O.X
(Best of X) CD + VHS on March 12th. It had proper needed
effect and already in July, 8th, single Forever
Love was out as it was agreed. On August 26th single
Crucify my Love was released that reached
only second position in Oricon Charts –
it’s the first time of band’s history.
Long-expected album Dahlia was out on
November 4th that became a smash immediately. Later information about
renewing Dahlia Tour was reported: on 30th
and 31st of December final concerts were held. They were the first
lives where Yoshiki were wearing neck corsage, later he constantly put
it on while drumming.
On January 1st, first part of
video Dahlia the Video ~ Visual Shock Vol.
5 was out, on 5th Of March – second part. It seemed that
things were getting better but on April 20th Toshi suddenly announced
that he decided to leave the band. Both members and fans were just lost
and the future of X JAPAN was in question.
Toshi was co-founder of the band and remained to be its member for
almost twenty years including seventeen years of being vocalist, so
replacement him was impossible.
 This uncertainty
lasted till autumn. On September 22nd at official press-conference
Yoshiki announced about X JAPAN
disbanding. Toshi was absent at that event. Later he reported that he
hadn’t been informed about conference. That just ruined all the hopes
of making members up.
On December 31st 1997 the
band gathered together one more time to hold final concert for their
fans. No one hided their tears: neither band nor hundreds of people at
The Last Live in Tokyo Dome. During the
concert the last new song was presented - The Last
Song.
But in
spring 1998 ex-members and fans of X JAPAN
got in real sorrow: on second of May ex-lead-guitarist
hide died. According to the official
version he committed a suicide but whether it was maliciously or
accidentally nobody knows. hide didn’t
live any messages what made his leaving away a mystery. Japan was
shocked, the sorrow and despair remains really deep till
now.
Author’s
comment:
It seems to be the end of a
story about Jrock legend called X JAPAN.
One may tell about further career of ex-members, about meaning and
place of this music in culture and people’s hearts, but it’ll be
another story, won’t it? I want to say other thing. Great History,
Great Achievements, Great Music, Great Love - that is X
JAPAN. Many people all over the world become fans of
this band after it disbanded. Once you hear this music you just can’t
be indifferent. It affects people’s hearts, bearing love and hope that
one day X JAPAN members will gather again
to play for their fans, to play in memory of hide. For a long decade
this hope became stronger and stronger and finally turned into Great
Hope. And true great things make miracles. Do you want to believe in
miracle? Do you want to see how final dot in this story is becoming an
ellipsis? So open a new chapter in X JAPAN
history.
2007-…
In February 2007 Yoshiki and Toshi made up finally. Toshi visited
Yoshiki in Los Angeles where they met for the first time during this
decade. They will work together on their project – the song in memory
of hide. And may be not only song
but…
Reunion of X
JAPAN…
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