L'Arc~en~Ciel's Biography
There's
uncountable band that was formed up in Japanese Music History,
they all have to be patient and try their best getting through
those days to be in the point called "famous" by the
way, just only a few of them that can be really famous and stay
in that point for a long term and it's not that easy to come up
to this point but these four men can do it!!! They started from
no name indies band that has only 2 - 300 audiences in the small
Live House to be this REAL successful band, L'Arc~en~Ciel which
name is in French language means Rainbow Their Live was
broadcast to all around Asia and have million of people as their
audiences, this is such a great success of them!!!
L'Arc~en~Ciel was formed up in February
1991.... it's 10 years already since tetsu, the leader of the
band formed them up, start from unknown indies band to the successful
band in just their hometown Osaka until now, it's the most famous
band in Japan, including lto of other Asian countries!!! Although
everything isn't that smooth, they had to get through lot of problem
but finally, they can prove their ability that noone can deny
their real talent and professinal in musical career. The vocalist,
hyde; bassist, tetsu; guitarist, ken and drummer, yukihiro: they
are the real musician.
Osaka
is the original place of L'Arc~en~Ciel, at that time there's only
tetsu and the guitarist whose name is hiro who wanna form the
band up, hyde is still the guitarist of his ex-band, Kidies Bombs.
It's said that there's something going on in his band so he had
to change his possition to vocal even though he didn't like it
at all ( I think it's the good change though ^^ ) they changed
the name of the band to Jerusarem's Rod. tetsu said when he first
watched this band's performance, what he think is... " it's
gotta be this guy who gonna be my vocalist " so he kept following
to every performances of Jerusarem's Rod as if one of their fan
^^ and then finally he decided to call hyde, " this is tetsu,
I really like your voice and music! no matter what, I really wanna
have you as the vocalist of my band so please think about it...
" and then he invited hyde and pero to try session together
with him and hiro, hyde made a disicion right after this session
that he's gonna join this band, move to Tokyo and tryign to get
more succesful in music career so he told tetsu, " OK, let's
try together then! I'll go back and talk with my friend in Jerusarem's
Rod "
The beginning of 1991, tetsu
start to think about the band's name, he saw the word L'Arc~en~Ciel
from the movie he watched before and he really like it so he went
to the book store, buy French Dictionary just to find the meaning
of this word and then he really like it!! hyde even said, "
I'm sure it's gonna be the very good name, I feel so great with
this name!!! " since there's no objection so L'Arc~en~Ciel
is the name for their band, the member at that time is vocalist,
hyde; bassist, tetsu; guitarist, hiro and drummer, pero. Their
first live was on May, 30th 1991even the owner of the live house
really like them, he said, " hyde's voice is so powerful
and attract everyone so much, and that bass, guitar, drum they
all are so great, I still remember that live untill now, I thought
they gotta be really famous and then they do!! "
June 1992... the guitarist
hiro wanna quit just right before their main recording for their
first debut, since they already made a reservation for the studio
and prepare everything already so they couldn't postpone it, tetsu
decided to call his friend, ken. " ken, can you please come
to be the guitarist for my band? just only you who can do it ne~
" ken deicided to help his friend so he came, he had only
5 days to remember all the songs but he can do it, thew finished
recording in just 3 days but here come the problem! they suppose
to have live but since ken was the student so it's impossible
for his to do both, study and have practise and live performance
as a band so he decide to quit from the university ( at that time,
ken was the last year student in the university, he would graduated
in just half a year but becoz of that call from tetsu, he didn't
graduate eventually ) Of course! his parent gettign mad, don't
even allow him to get in the house or even talk with his but he
didn't care anythign anymore, nothign can stop him if he believe
he didn't do anything wrong. Their 1st singles, Flood of tear
( c/w yasouka ) was released on 25th November 1992 they have more
performance and got a lot more fan, " I was really impressed
when I first heard their song, it's so great!! the sound of every
instrument and the vocal is just perfect! Their song has both
rock and pop style and it's so great, that's why I really can't
forget it! " said one fan. One owner of the live house said
he couldn't believe that hyde is a man when he first saw him coz
he dressed up with his long gown, put on the red lipstick, his
face, his reaction.. there's no wonder if anyone gonna misunderstand
him to be girl, he has a very good looking and his voice is so
powerful, this voice that can capture lot of people heart.
pero quit the band at the end of 1992 tetsu
start to looking for the new drummer with the thinkign that he's
not gonna looking for Osaka people anymorw coz they were moving
to Tokyo anyway so it might be a better idea to get Tokyo people
as one of their member. sakura is the onw tetsu interested coz
he used to heard sakura's drum before, he think sakura is already
the great drummer, just didn't stay with any band yet, kinda like
he play drum for any band that want him so tetsu decided to ask
sakura to join the band. Of course! telephone again ( haha he
cn't think of anythign else or may be it's better to talk on the
phone coz he didn't need to meet anyone face to face, I heard
that te-chan is very shy ne~ ^^ ) sakura went to Osaka to see
their real performance after listened from the demo tape tetsu
sent to him, and after they tried to session together, he said,
" it had been a long time since I last felt so happy while
drumming, just only this band that I can drum as I want, let's
count me in then!! So L'Arc~en~Ciel became the perfect band with
the members - hyde, tetsu, ken and sakura on 16th January 1993
tetsu said " As the leader of the band,
the successful is what we waiting for so if there's any chance,
I'll go for it " They came to Tokyo and signed to be the
artist of DANGER CLUE with the thinking If only our first album
can success in Tokyo, everything gonna getting easier and easier.
They all lives at sakura's house at that time, this is sakura's
idea, he said it's a good chance to get to know and understand
each other more that we used to coz we gonna stay together as
a bandmate & friend for a long time from now on.
Their first album as an indies band, DUNE
was released on April, 10th 1993 and it's very success, this album
was the no. 1 on Oricom chart and this album was sold 20,000 CDs
for just 3 months. They had a chance to join the big concert that
has lot of indies band at Shibuya Koukaidou and this is a good
chance coz there's many people ( 2,000 ) so not only they get
to have live in the bigger place but they got a lot more fan from
this live too. " kakkoiiii~ !!! The vocalist is so cute!!
" the fan just keep praising them all the time " This
is so great!!! if only they get to be in the bigger company with
more promotion, I bet they gonna be really really famous "
or " This is the really great show, you gotta have live here
again ne~ " by the way, they still keep saying they aren't
not that good yet but they will try themself so please support
them ( hehe cute? ^^ ) So now, they get to have a lot of fan in
both Osaka and Tokyo.
Since lot of people get to know them already
so their first live tour was arranged up, CLOSE BY DUNE started
from June 14th, they had to performed 10 lives in just 2 weeks
( that's a lot ne~ ^^ ) and that made the selling rank of their
album go up and up, that mean there's a high opotunity for them
to be the major band in the great company, there's lot of company
that want them at that time but tetsu thought what they got is
too fast, it's actually not the right time for them coz if you
wanna be accepted in Tokyo for a long term, you gotta be better
than this... Their first video, TOUCH OF DUNE was released on
October 21st 1993 and just a little bit before summer, the live
tour, FEEL OF DUNE was started, there's lot of fan went to their
live so it's just about the right tiem to be major now...
tetsu used to say that if talk about being
major, I think Sony is the best choice to go with so their next
step is at Ki/oon Sony Record. Their last tour as an indies band
is Nostalgia no Yokan, all the concert ticket was sold out in
just a short time. hyde said, " We will never forge that
live, we were so happy and thought that we will try our best to
make our dream come true but when the live is oner... don't know
where is the tear come from but we all cried a lot, it's overwhelming.
But nobody see us ne~ we cried when we got in the dressing room
ne~ " ( wa~iiii wanna see >.< )
July 1994...L'Arc~en~Ciel became the major band, before this they
were still called minor that have to work part time job and play
music int he same time but now they can do anythign they want
and use all their time for the music. ken said he really had a
hard time before this coz he quit from the university to play
music, he really have no idea how can he explain with his parent
but up to this point, his band is known all around country, he
believe his mom and dad will can accept him now. ( I bet not just
accept but they are so pround of you ne, ken-chan ^o^ )
The video single, Nemuri ni Yosete was released
on July 1st 1994 and then the 2nd album, Tierra was followed up
on July 14th, this is their first album as the major band. "
Confidence? Of course, we have! If we release album, that mean
every songs is good enough to be single coz we try our best and
make it as good as we can for every single song. " tetsu
said in one interview. And in the same day, their Sense of Time
Tour started. L'Arc~en~Ciel went to Morocko for filming their
new vdo Siesta ~film of dream~ on September 9th, this is their
first time working outside Japan so they all were so excited,
this vdo was released at the end of this year.
Blurry
Eyes, the first single with Sony company was released on October
21th, this song is the theme song for cartoon animation, D.N.A
2 too. December 1st..... the official fanclub,
Ciel was opened officially, they have the first special live tour
for fanclub member at he begining of 1995, it's called Ciel/winter'95
( the member of Ciel is around 50,000 in 1998 but it's up
to 100,000 at he middle of 1999, it's not that easy to be member
too coz they wont' ship international so you gotta be in Japan
or at least have address in Japan and even if you have, you gotta
wait in the waitign list for all processong to be done........
by the way, as for the latest news from LE-CIEL, the new name
of Ciel, they said they are considerign about get the application
from oversea fan too so let's hope and pray ne~ ^^ )
May
21st is the date release of the single video, and She Said and
the first day for IN CLUB '95 Tour ( this tour was placed in 19
different places ) The 2nd single,
Vivid Colors was released on July 6th... tetsu said about their
work that they would let just the song that they really think
it's cool to come out for the fan, they didn't really think too
much about what should it be, it depends on their imagination
of them at that time so they would never know when is the time
for our next song or how is it gonna be. Vivid Colors became the
ending theme of Guru Guru 99 and the c/w from this single, Brilliat
Years was used as the ending theme for Shin dora too.
August 1995 is the time for Campaign in
all around Japan, Randez-Vous Summer 1995 and then follow up with
the 3rd album, Heavenly (
released on September 1st ) that can go up to no. 3 in Oricon
Chart. It's obvious that their music style was changed a lot,
tetsu said, " We'd love to try something new and when we
first listen to our new songs, we have the feeling wanna listen
to it again so if there's anyone feel the same with us, even just
2-3 people, we will be really happy. " Tour Heavenly '95
was stared on September 9th, the concert ticket for all 9 days
was sold out!! September 22th is the first appearance of L'Arc~en~Ciel
in the number one hit music show that everyone dream for, Music
Station. The 3rd singles Natsu no Yuutsu
[time to say goodbye] was released on October 21st and then tour
the other side of heavenly '95 started at the middle of December.
Having
LIVE at Nippon Budoukan is the dream of musician and they can
do it!! " From the thinking " Nomatter what, we gotta
try our best to have a chance to be on Nippon Budoukan "
After 2 years of attemtation as the major band, L'Arc~en~Ciel
had a LIVE at Nippon Budoukan on December 27th 1995. Up to this
point. L'Arc~en~Ciel became the band that noone can look across
anymore, every single and album from them was sold more than 100,000
items. Their lyrics can attracted lot of people coz there is very
beautiful, plenty of hope and dream, offer the good point of view
for everyone and so do their rythm and music that is just perfect.
The beginning of 1996, they released their
1st live vdo heavenly ~films~ and 2 photobook, Heavenly photobook
that contain lot of footage from Heavenly tour and Heavenly X'mas
photobook that contain lot of beautiful picture of them. April 1996...
Tour Kidd Me Deadly '96 was started, both hyde and tetsu said
they were so glad that they have lot of girl fan but as for this
tiur, they notice that they have more boy fan, that means their
music can attract more fan, regardless of sex. That give them
a lot more confidence for their work.
The 4th single, Kaze ni Kienaide was released
on July 8th.. not only it can go up to no.4 in Oricon Chart, this
song was chose to be the theme song for Moueru Asia Taiyo on Fuji
TV and Music Park from Nippon TV too. Summer Tour BIG CITY NIGHTS
AROUND '96 started at the end of the same month, L'Arc~en~Ciel
get to be in Budoukan stage again in this live too. August 1996...
the official document book, Artist Fact [IS] which is provide
lot of personal information about L'Arc~en~Ciel was released (
this book is the must have item for L'Arc~en~Ciel fans
) The 5th single, flower was released on October, this song can
go uo to no.5 on Oricon Chart and was took as the theme for Pro
Yakyu News too. Next single, Lies and Truth was released on November
21st, this song was the no. 6 in Oricon Chart and theme song for
Towe Count Down... L'Arc~en~Ciel
released lot of work in 1996 but that's not all, they even come
up with their 4th album, True at the end of this year too. This
album is the most successful album of them in these 5 years coz
just the first week, it can go up to no.2 in the Chart and go
up to no. 1 in the 6th week, this album can stay in the Chart
for 9 weeks, this is the first album of them that can make it
up to 1,000,000 sell ranking. At the end of this year, they start
L'Arc~en~Ciel CONCERT TOUR '96 - '97 "Carnival of True" and this
is one of those success live of L'Arc~en~Ciel
The
brilliant future in music career of them didn't seem to be as
everyone thought due to the drummer, sakura was arrested coz drugs
procession, every activities of L'Arc~en~Ciel had been canceled
started from february 24th, even the Single, the Fourth Avenue
cafe that was planed to release on March 21st. This is the most
stressful time and nightmare of L'Arc~en~Ciel. " I'm so sorry,
I did the very stupid thing that shouldn't be forgiven. I'm not
deserve to be in the band anymore, it's all my false. I've just
wish for L'Arc~en~Ciel the best, I hope they will keep on trying
and be the very successful band later on " this is the words
from sakura when he quit the band, hyde seemed to be effected
the most coz he was very close friend with sakura, he said "
I'm trying to put all my concentrate to the model so I don't have
to think about any other thing else, there's the night that I
hardly put myself to sleep but then I dreamt about him and cried..
it's the very hard time " L'Arc~en~Ciel had only 3 official
members left in April 1997.
tetsu
said they try their best to keep on going after that event. After
sakura decided to quit, what I have to do is trying to find the
new drummer who will be part of the band and walk together with
us. He didn't have too much tiem to lookign for the new drummer,
not only the qualify drummer, they need to have the drummer that
can get along with L'Arc~en~Ciel, either their music or themselves.
tetsu heard about yukihiro, the ex-drummer of Zi:kill and DIE
IN CRIES for quite a while and after he get to hear his drum,
he was very sure that this is the drummer they want. tetsu thought,
" His drumming has the style that noone can be the same,
it's very unique and I'm sure it will get along with ours perfectly
" and due to they didn't have any official drummer to go
to London with htem yet so he decided to give it a chance, he
contacted yukihiro to be their support drummer durign that time
and yukihiro agree with the reason that he didn't do drum with
any band yet so it's worth to try. All of them went to London
for their new video clip and song on Man 1997.
Finally, new single niji was released
on October 17th 1997 this song has the same meaning of L'Arc~en~Ciel
that is rainbow, this sogn can go uo to no.3 in Oricon
Chart just for the first week. In Music Station, hyde said "
There's lot of thing that we had to get through, that thing make
everyone worry but then we come back, as if the beautiful rainbow
that appear in the sky after the darkness rain " the
ex-drummer quited the band officially on November 4th...
L'Arc~en~Ciel came back officially on December 13th with L'Arc~en~Ciel
1997 REINCARNATION LIVE at TOKYO DOME, this live has 56,000 people
as an audiences and witness for their enomous return. The concert
ticket sold out in just 4 minutes, it's the biggest record in
Japanese music history, this is prove that after all those things,
all the fan didn't love them less than they used to. L'Arc~en~Ciel
reincarnated again with more powerful, professional, preparation,
etc... They said it's not that easy to come back to this point
again after all those days but the live at Tokyo Dome can tell
them that everyoen still welcoming them very well, they were so
happy, don't need to worry about them anymore, they will try their
best and stay with us.
yukihiro
officially became member of
L'Arc~en~Ciel on January 1st 1998 and at the end of this month,
the 8th single winter fall was released, this is the first
single from L'Arc~en~Ciel that can go up to no.1 in Oricon Chart,
this song was chose to be theme song for Japanese drama, Chicaco
Hope 2 too. HEART, the 5th album from L'Arc~en~Ciel was released
on February 25th, not only no. 1 on Oricon Chart for this album,
the sell ranking of this album is 1,000,000 in just first week.
Since then, noone can stop their famous anymore, L'Arc~en~Ciel
became the most popular band - there's the topic about them in
every entertainment source either newspaper, magazine, TV show,
variety, etc.. L'Arc~en~Ciel seemed to be the most busiest band
at that time but they still keep on releasign their work frequency.
They released the new single DIVE TO BLUE on March 25th
and as usual, this song was the no.1 in Oricon Chart but that's
nto enough, it was chose to be theme for the comercial vdo of
NTT ( popular band of mobile phone ) and L'Arc~en~Ciel themselves
was the presentor for this commercial vdo too ( the fans tried
to hunt those poster and advertisement to be one of their treasure
too ^^ ) The live footage & pv collection A
PIECE OF REINCARNATION released on April 22nd, this vdo can
be no.1 in Oricon Video Chart for 2 weeks.
L'Arc~en~Ciel
tour '98 HEART ni hi wo tsukero started from May 1st, this tour
was seperate to 2 part ( May 1st - July 21st & September 3rd
- October 6th ) this is the longest tour of L'Arc~en~Ciel with
56 live performances in 43 different city ( they had live even
in the small cities, cool ? ^^ ) May 13th... L'Arc~en~Ciel get
to have a very honour chance to write the 12th track for the soundtrack
album of Godzilla ( American movie ) this song is Shinshoku ~lose
control~ And then L'Arc~en~Ciel shocked Japanese music again by
releasing 3 singles in the same time and all of them can be in
the Chart for a long time too, all of them have more than 1,000,000
sell ranking in just a short time! They are HONEY, lose control
and Kasou, HONEY is the hotest song in Japan 1998 ( hyde isn't
only write both lyrics and song, he even play guitar for this
song too ) After the tour was over, they release their new 2 singles
snow drop and forbidden lover ( so diligent, I bet they was very
tired >.< ) and as usual, both of them was on the no.1 in
Oricon Chart and have the high ranking. Live Video HEART ni h
wo tsukeroi released on december 23rd... It's said that this year
is the golden year of L'Arc~en~Ciel, every single song from them
is the hot hit in Japan, they was invited to lot of show, they
had a chance to work for Godzilla, got lot of award and so on...
The beginning of 1999, even all member said
they wanna have the vacation, they still come up with releasing
photobook LIVE at the end of January and just 1 month after that,
LIFE was released ( since last year, there's a hundred item of
L'Arc goods released ) April 21st, they released new single, HEAVEN'S
DRIVE ( this song was composed by hyde both word and song, he
even play the guitar too --> same as HONEY ^^ ) don't need
to talk about how success this song is. The next single is pieces,
love ballad song that has such a beautiful lyrics and music, no
wonder if they gonna get more fan from this song, this song can
attractted lot of people's heart either old or new fan... L'Arc~en~Ciel
shocked everyone again by releasing 2 album in the same time and
in 7 different Asian countries with ark and ray ( these 2 word
is the concept of the most popular topic at that time, the world
in the new millenium ) These 2 album contain all their single
in 1998 - 1999 in the total of 9 songs and add more 13 new songs,
every member take a part in all the songs. Driver's High was released
on August 11th, this song is the theme song for the famous animation
GTO too! CHRONICLE, the pv collection was released in the same
day too.
GRAND CROSS TOUR 1999 started from July
17th, thsi tour considered as the biggest tour of L'Arc~en~Ciel,
it took place in 6 big cities in Japan, they had 12 live performances
with 650,000 audiences. The most important one is the last live
on August 8th that broadcast in 7 countries in Asia!! L'Arc~en~Ciel
isn't famous in just Japan anymore, they got lot of oversea fan
now!!
September
1999... fan in Thailand, Hong Kong and Taiwan was so excited with
the Asia promotion trip of hyde and tetsu ( ken and yuki went
to Thailand for B PASS photo shoot too ^-^x ) This is the officially
first step to the oversea market of L'Arc~en~Ciel and of course,
there's lot of fan in those countried wait for their visiting
and welcome them, hyde and tetsu said they didn't expect that
they gonna have this much of oversea fan and this make them so
happy. They still keep on working so just a little bit after their
Asian trip, the next single LOVE FLIES was released ( October
27th ) this song has more English lyrics coz they said they wanna
make it more easier for oversea fan to understand their song.
At the beginnign of December, they released GRAND CROSS CONCLUSION,
the live vdo of Grand Cross Tour ( the last one on August 8th,
including short footage clip from other stage in snow drop ) and
the last hit for 1999 is RESET>>>LIVE 000 the special
thing for this live is it was in 2 different year & milennium!!
this live was in December 31th 1999 - January 1st 2000 everyone
countdown to year 2000 together
( isn't it cool? ^^ )
Year 2000... L'Arc~en~Ciel still keep on
releasing quality work for the fan, such as Double maxi single
NEO UNIVERSE / finale, STAY AWAY and at the middle of the year,
their new album REAL was released, this album include 4 above
single, get out from the shell ( theme song for TOYOTA CM that
was on air in lot of Asian Countries at the beginning of this
year ) and other new song that make them the REAL... The new tour
concert was started again at the end of the year, the first one
is REALIVE
CLUB CIRCUIT 2000 ( 8 - 27 October ) this tour was arranged to
be in the small place like club that can contain only up to 3,000
audiences because they wanna getting close with their fan more
that they used to. The 2nd tour is REALIVE DOME TOUR 2000 that
started from November 4th, thsi live was in the big cities such
as Fukuoka, Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo. The December 5th live was
broadcast on net for people all around the world to watch for
free at their special site L'Arc Yahoo and the December 6th live
was broadcast on Sky PerfecTV Japan and was seperated to 5 special
channel ( 4 for each member and one for L'Arc~en~Ciel ) but for
this one, you gotta pay ¥ 2000 to Sky PerfecTV for the service.
L'Arc~en~Ciel open the new milennium 2001
by let all fan in 8 Asian countries to vote for the new song that
will be in their new single collection album through net at their
special website, after collecting every sound for 3 months, L'Arc~en~Cile
Clicked Singles Best 13 that contain their great 13 songs from
all their single was released on March 14th in 8 countries and
it's really successed. Noone can tell if this is the highest of
them yet but since they didn't stop keep on going and now, L'Arc~en~Ciel
Clicked Singles best 13 was going to release in U.S.A. on May
22nd, everyone was so excited to know how is it gonna be, are
they gonna success in U.S.A. like they did in Japan and other
Asian Countries?
Four
personalities combine to form one entity that is L'Arc~en~Ciel
strong yet subtle with an avant streak down the middle. But, their
world is a profoundly gentle one. To be toushed by one of their
sweet phrases, lingering like a fragance around you, you become
a part of their world forever...
