#band that tours under its original name even though only 2 members are left

[waugh-bao]

I noticed they changed their Spotify profile pic to just the three of them. I get that Charlie isn’t in the band anymore, but it just feels wrong on so many levels.

And you made a good point about that physical gap between Mick and Keith in the photo and how they would probably end up calling it quits if something happened to Mick or Keith. I honestly think they would continue on without Ronnie if it came to that, sadly. I just have so many feelings about this.

The picture that they use in their description:

Used to be their profile photo, and I wouldn’t be shocked to see that change in the next couple days either.

I don’t even know anymore…

[garne--tt]

x japan iceberg explained;

before i start, i probably didnt explain something right and if u want to correct me or add something, feel free and even dm me about it! + i will add trigger warnings for possible triggering content in this post

1.

formed in 1982 - x was formed in 1982 after toshis and yoshikis previous band disbanded

X --> X JAPAN - they changed their name from X to X JAPAN in 1992 in order to distinguish themselves from the american punk rock band X 

Saw IV - a horror movie from 2007, x japan did a theme song I.V. for the movie, it was their first song released since 1998

new album - an new x japan album that was supposed to be released lots of times over the 10+years but still (to this day) wasnt released

coachella 2018 - x japan performed at coachella 2018, many fans are saying how the sound was bad (usually blaming it on the sound production team?? or whatever its called) and apparently sugizo and yoshiki were seen arguing with the sound production team

we are x - a 2016 documentary about x japan (or rather yoshiki, because apparently it was mainly focusing on him)

psychidelic violence crime of visual shock - a slogan, mainly seen on the blue blood album cover, the term visual kei was derived from the slogan yoshiki, toshi, hide, pata, taiji - the most known lineup, from 1987 to 1992

2. tw// suicide mention

violet uk - one of unfinished yoshikis projects, started in 2002, didnt even debut but was supposed to in 2012

V2 - unit of yoshiki and tetsuya komuro, was active in 1992, they released one single and did one concert

ra:in - patas band, active since 2002, members are - pata, michiaki, die (also former member of spread beaver), ryu

noise/dynamite - toshis and yoshikis first band, formed in 1977 as dynamite, then they changed the name to noise, noise disbanded in 1982

s.k.i.n. - superband (group) of yoshiki, gackt, miyavi and sugizo, their only activity was in 2007 and it was live, they announced more activities but they were stopped

xfreaks - an international xjapan fan forum created in 2006

dope headz - band that had heath and pata as members, active from 2000 to 2003

hide with spread beaver - hides live band, other members were kiyoshi, k.a.z, hiroshi watanabe, satoshi miyawaki, d.i.e, i.n.a

zilch - supergroup formed by hide in 1996, other members were ray mcveigh,paul raven, joey castillo and i.n.a

lynx - one of heaths band, active from 2004-?, the vocalist for this band was issay from der zibet

yokosuka saver tiger - hides former band, he was member from 1981 to 1986 sugizo - luna sea guitarist, he joined x japan in 2008

hides death - hide committed suicide in 1998 (he hanged himself) update: this is what authorities said and what is official

3. tw// suicide

taijis death - in 2011 taiji was flying from japan to saipan, on the flight he got into fight with his manager (or flight attendant?), he was arrested after they landed in saipan and then he hanged himself with bedsheet in his cell

x japan translations - an site that had xjapan translations (like toshis book etc...), the site was active and up until 2018

taijis departure from X - taiji left X in 1992, but we dont know the exact reason why he left

toshi was in cult - toshi was member of cult known as home of heart from the late 90s (1998?)

1997 - the year x japan disbanded

yoshiki and queen elizabeth incident - in 2019 during royal windsor cup yoshikis scarf accidentally landed on queen elizabeth

yoshiki knows everyone - (not everyone ofc) but he met a lot of celebrities, politicians (barrack obama, johnny depp, prince phillip, bts etc,,)

art of life - a 29 minute song released released in 1993, it was was recorded only in english, the theme of the song are yoshikis suicidal tendencies, art of life was meant to be released in the jealousy album (1991)

yoshikis father - yoshikis father committed suicide when yoshiki was 10 years old

taijis cut off joint on finger - taiji when he was kid, showed his hand into a factory machine (his family owned factory) and cut off his first joint on his finger

yoshikis health problems - yoshiki has tons of health problem since he was child (asthma, he was always sick and spent most of the time in hospitals etc,,) and suffers from many of health problems even now

4.

toshis healing music - toshis music he made during the home of heart era

kaori moritani & masaya - kaori moritani is toshis ex wife, they met in around 1993 when they played in rock opera hamlet, they got married in 1997 and divorced in 2010, she introduced him to masaya (and got him, or rather manipulated him, into home of heart) 

masaya -  real name tōru kurabuchi - musician and leader of home of heart

-more about home of heart and the whole situation here: https://bloodydesertrose.tumblr.com/post/96662764536/support-toshi-dont-buy-or-listen-to-any-of-his-songs

debut in usa - x japan was supposed to debut in usa in the 90s (and even changed their name because of it, x-->xjapan)

extasy record - label formed by yoshiki in 1986, the first release under extasy records was x orgasm ep, the label had bands like xjapan, luna sea, glay, zi:kill tokyo yankees and more

yoshiki paid for taijis new teeth - after hides funeral yoshiki noticed that taijis some teeth were missing or chipped, so he handed him around 2 million yen (around 18 497 usd) to get his teeth fixed

l.o.x. - punk rock supergroup, yoshiki was drummer in this band, they also used to be named masami & l.o.x (masami was their vocalist), masami collapsed and fell into coma in 1989 and died in 1992 due to pneumonia in coma, l.o.x released one album with different vocalist (one of them which was toshi and yoshiki went by the alias shiratori rei here on the album) in 1990, l.o.x. released one song in 2002 in memory of masami

standing sex promotional shot & single cover - the promotional shot & single cover basically shows yoshiki nude (with his intimate parts covered of course + this wasnt the only time yoshiki has done something like this) 

rose & blood -indies of x- - an unofficial album with demos and unreleased x songs

unreleased & old songs - there are a lot unreleased songs + unreleased old songs or just old songs that dont get played anymore

5.

rosenfeld - crows in black - blue blood has similar guitar riff (i dont know how to say it) to this song (crows in black / b was firstly recorded on demo in 1986)

former members - x japan has big amount of former members - 11 former members (excluding taiji and hide from this)

terry - a former member of x, he was one of the original members (being a member from 1982 to 1985), terry died in 2002 in car accident

yoshiki got sued by hides brother - yoshiki got sued by headwax (hides company which hides brother owns) for using hides photos, apparently they had a contract but it expired and yoshiki still used hides photos even though the contract expired

x japan condoms - they were released in 1993 with the intent to help increase awareness and prevent the spread of AIDS. the reason why they probably did this is that toshis fan died at the age of 19 due to AIDS (toshi even dedicated a song to him - passion of love and became a active member and sponsor of association of struggle against AIDS)

heath cow story - when heath joined xjapan they celebrated it by drinking and then driving 2 hours to cow farm, then they drove to aquarium but it was already closed

heath leaving x japan - in 2009 there was a rumor that heath would leave x japan, apparently this was caused due to heaths contract problems (?) dementia - taijis former band, he was member from 1984 to 1985 and went under the name ray

pata was roadie for x - before joining x in 1987, he was roadie for x (or the member hally) around the time in 1986 (1985?)

6.

pink spider was a suicide note - this one is a rumor/theory that is circulating around, fans analysed the lyrics and came to conclusion that its suicide note

x stayed at different hotels than other bands - when x was on tour with other bands they were staying at different hotels than other bands, because one time (on tour with other bands and in hotel) hide got into drunk fight with juichi morishige (lead vocalist of ziggy) and sprayed the entire hotel lounge with fire extinguisher

taiji was homeless - taiji was homeless for around 2 years (1996-1998), due to financial issues + he got divorced at this time

heaths myspace account - there was heath myspace account, but it wasnt him, it was someone pretending to be him

weekend pv theory - (i dont know if i should have put this here to be honest) a theory that x members chose what their death would be in weekend pv (yoshiki - suicide, hide - suicide in drunken rage??, taiji - murder, pata - alcohol poisoning, toshi doesnt die in the pv)

7.

hide vocaloid - hides unreleased song co gal got finished via vocaloid (using his voice samples from various songs of his)

yoshiki lead singer - before toshi was chosen to be the lead vocalist for x, yoshiki was the vocalist (there is also a recording of stab me in the back with mostly yoshiki on vocals!)

hide and marilyn manson meet up story - im gonna just attach a screenshot of the story

taiji was murdered - taiji committed suicide in 2011 in his cell on saipan, but there are some things that point to the possibility that he was murdered (his manager insisted on cremating his body and got cremated without autopsy, money got transfered on his account, information missing from the internet?? etc,,) 

juns tape - demo tape recorded in 1986 by at the time X guitarist jun, tape contains instrumental recordings of unreleased songs right now, only way, tune up and one unnamed song.

ill kill you single cover - cover of 1985 X single ill kill you, it contains photos of victims of the vietnam war

feel me tonight - demo tape from 1985/1986, it contains songs feel me tonight and stab me in the back (all of them are under one minute here) sung by their at the time guitarist hally (apparently there aslo should be yoshiki version of it, but i dont know how much we can trust metal archives)

8. tw// eating disorder mention

yoshiki hired someone to kill taiji - this one is a rumor!!!, yoshiki was supposed to get/hire yakuza to kill taiji hide had an eating disorder - this one is unconfirmed!!! hide  suffered from bulimia (yoshiki walked on him purging - and this story was also apparently told by yoshiki???)

[tiesandtea]

From School Bus To Tour Bus

Smash Hits, 31 July – 13 August 1996. Photo originally posted by @fuckyeahneilcodling-blog​ (x).

Ever imagined what it would be like to just leave school and become an international pop star? To travel the world in five-star style and score hit after hit with one of the most celebrated band of the 90s? Well, that's what happened to Suede's Richard Oakes and Neil Codling. One day, they were students; the next, top international celebs...

What would you be doing now if you weren't in Suede? Richard: I dread to think. Neil: I've got a degree to fall back on. I wouldn't advise people to leave in the middle of their exams. Richard: I would advise it, obviously. 

Top Coakes banter. Also their only joint magazine interview to date as far as I know, aside from the one that was filmed for Disc 2 of Mike Christie’s documentary. Full interview under the cut. Transcript source.

It happened like this. In 1993, Brett, Bernard, Mat and Simon shot to fame as a four-piece. Then they lost guitarist Bernard Butler (who would go on to have hits with singer David McAlmont) in an acrimonious split in 1994, having finished their second album. The three remaining members advertised in newspapers for a new guitarist and plucked unknown 17 year-old Richard Oakes straight out of school as a replacement. Then, at the end of 1995, they added keyboardist/ singer Neil Codling (21, and also a student) to the line-up.

Here, Richard and Neil explain their incredible rise to fame...

How did you both end up in Suede? Richard: I auditioned after seeing an ad in the paper and joined just after Bernard left. We were days away from a UK tour, and within 30 seconds of me joining, it was in the newspapers. Neil: I signed up last November. Basically, I knew them through Simon, who's my cousin. They wanted a keyboard player who could sing.

What were you doing before that? Richard: I was in the middle of my A-Levels and dropped out. Neil: You rock'n'roll rebel! Erm, I was leaving university and about to make tea for a television company that makes documentaries about Tutankhamen and African squirrels... that kind of nonsense.

How did your parents and friends react? Richard: Great, it was such a golden opportunity. I'd have been stupid to turn it down and they knew that. Neil: My parents still don't know. They think I'm playing piano in a bar on a ferry that goes backwards to Oostende!

Is being a group what you've always wanted? Richard: Yeah. All any of us ever wanted was to have a career in music. Neil: I quite fancied being a government-sponsored layabout!

How hard has it been adjusting to the life of a pop star? Richard: It took a while to take used to things like interviews. Neil: Yeah, this is my first ever interview - I'm sweating!

Were you Suede fans when you joined? Richard: They weren't my favourites, but I really liked them. I saw them live in 1993 - it was my first ever gig. A year later, I was in the group. Weird! Neil: I change like the wind - I like different things each week.

What would you be doing now if you weren't in Suede? Richard: I dread to think. Neil: I've got a degree to fall back on. I wouldn't advise people to leave in the middle of their exams. Richard: I would advise it, obviously.

Have you got used to being stars yet? Richard: No, it's very new. Neil: I've only done three gigs - the first was a fan club gig in front of 800 people, the last one was 40.000!

Have you been able to write songs for the band? Richard: Well, the writing's shared on the new album. Neil: It's good - we're all in this album, hammer and tongs. I play the hammer and Richard plays the tongs!

How's the cash as band juniors? Neil: It's OK. You get to come back from abroad with loads of foreign change in your pocket. Richard: My wallet was stolen last week. Neil: You left it on the tour bus! Richard: No, it was stolen. It wasn't my fault. There were at least a couple of five peseta pieces in there.

Is there anything about being in a band that you don't like? Neil: Of course there is, but you put up with them because they get you the important bits, like being admired by thousand of screaming girls! Richard: The things that annoy you are things you can't complain about, like getting up early.

Do you like being recognised? Richard: Yeah, in London people tend to stare and wonder 'Is that him?' Whereas Neil can't go on the tube anymore, people just bite bits out of him. It really annoys me when people complain me about that, though. Neil: Unless it's like a stalker with a machete.

What's been your strangest experience? Richard: I woke up and found a dead rat in my bed one morning. Neil: That was awful! Richard: Yeah, and I didn't even know its name. I said, 'Go home, I don't love you!' A one-night stand with a dirty rat...

[uniformbravo]

having a full on existential crisis over an episode of anime i watched tonight

it all started with big time rush

in 2009 a sitcom called big time rush aired for the first time on nickelodeon; it was about a group of four teenaged boys from minnesota who move to hollywood under a famous producer to become his next big boy band sensation. a simple premise, launched into unprecedented success, resulting in four seasons of musical shenanigans, three full music albums, and three big concert tours, including international shows. the band, both fictional and real life, featured four attractive young men by the names of kendall, james, carlos, and logan. they quickly gained a fan base of mostly teenage girls, which resulted in online spaces created for the purpose of sharing their passion, and as is common in such online communities, this certainly involved fanfiction- lots of it.

enter me, a teen in high school who loved to write fanfiction. my big time journey began the day my younger sister decided to put on the show big time rush in the living room, where i sat at the family computer typing away. the noise caught my attention, and i got sucked into the episode. there was a boy wearing a dress on the screen. i became interested.

i watched more of the show. i typed its name into the search bar on the website fanfiction dot net. i had a friend at school who shared my interest in fanfiction, particularly of the slash variety. i introduced her to this new show i had been watching. she shared a fanfic she had enjoyed immensely with me. we dragged each other into the world of big time rush fanfiction reading and writing.

it took over my life; i lived and breathed big time rush. i began posting my own stories to fanfiction dot net. i received positive feedback; i met people. i made friends- two people in particular who became very close friends. we communicated through ffn’s private messaging system, then through email. we talked every day, we wrote stories for and with each other, we exchanged phone numbers. it was one of these friends who introduced me to the website called tumblr, where fellow fans of our beloved big time rush gathered and talked about it- a community.

it was a slow start- this website was new and unfamiliar to me- but eventually i got the hang of things and settled into my niche. i had fun, gained followers, met even more people. tumblr was a place not only for sharing one singular interest, but for accumulating all of your various interests and celebrating them in one place. it was through this aspect that i first learned of the up and coming band known as one direction.

they had released their first smash hit single and everyone was talking about it. i was wary, far too loyal to my beloved big time rush- but eventually i started to feel left out and in an effort to feel included, i decided to take the plunge and see what this “1d” was all about. it was intimidating, though- there was so much information, and no apparent beginner’s guide to tell me where to start. this drove me to making a post calling for a “one direction buddy” to take this role, to introduce me to all the most important aspects of this band. and my call was answered.

enter my wonderful friend cam, a follower of mine at the time. they were into both big time rush and one direction and were eager to provide me with all the information needed to get into 1d. while ultimately this venture didn’t amount to anything, as i lost interest in becoming a fan, my friendship with cam persisted and we grew very close. even as time went on and big time rush faded into the background to be replaced with newer, fresher interests, and our paths as fellow fandom members split, we kept in contact and remained friends. years and years of fandoms, years and years of friendship.

in the midst of the tenth year, cam developed a new interest, in a sport called ice hockey. as is tradition, they shared their passion with me, showing me their favorite team, highlighting their favorite members. we watched a game together. personally, i’ve never been one for sports, but i am quite into anime, which consists of many genres, including the “sports” genre. one in particular that i’ve enjoyed immensely in the past is the volleyball anime, haikyuu!!. this anime devotes a lot of time to explaining and depicting the sport in a way that makes it easy for any viewer to understand the rules and inner workings of volleyball. it’s exciting. it’s the first time i’ve ever even adjacently been invested in a sport. one could even call it a gateway into the world of sports.

all this to say, when i watched that game of ice hockey with cam, the same parts of my brain that loved haikyuu!! lit up and in a classic display of my specific brand of interest, i found myself yearning for the epic highs and lows of ice hockey, but in an animated format. an animated format originating in japan. a japanese animation. an anime. my curiosity burned a hole in my brain that resulted in a combination of the google search bar and the words, “hockey anime”.

to my disappointment, i found nothing- at least, not to the degree i was hoping. there is an upcoming anime, slated to air in the fall 2021 anime season, about a group of girls who form an ice hockey team together- as it is an original project rather than an adaptation, it remains to be seen whether the anime will fall into the category of “sports anime,” or if indeed it will lean much more closely to the “moe” genre. the latter is not what i had in mind during that particular search.

adding the anime called “pride of orange” to my “plan to watch” list on myanimelist dot com, i moved onto the next result: an article about an early 2010’s anime i had never heard of before. while not about the sport i was looking for, it featured a character whose signature weapon was a field hockey stick. it wasn’t even the right sport. it was a weak, insignificant link, but all was not lost.

i happen to have an affinity for watching anime i happen upon completely by random and know little to nothing about; i found the movie “anthem of the heart” purely coincidentally, when i searched the name “jun” as part of some research for one of my original characters and discovered that it was the main character of said movie, which i then watched and ended up enjoying quite a lot. another time, when i was at best buy one day i happened upon a dvd on their dedicated anime shelf for a movie called “hana and alice”, which i had never heard of before. i liked the box art, so i took a picture of it to remember the title and watched it on my own later that week; it became one of my favorite movies.

with these and other similar experiences in mind, i saved the anime in my “plan to watch” list, and, later that same week, began my watch of “sket dance.”

it’s a school comedy anime, one of my favorite genres, so it’s no surprise that after overcoming the initial skepticism i carry into every new show i watch it quickly became my new fixation. not an obsession, but something i was pleasantly surprised to find consistently enjoyable. the characters are fun, the humor is tight and fresh, and the stories are unexpectedly touching at the right moments. everything i like to see.

which brings us to tonight. the culmination of this ten plus year string of events and occurrences. getting into big time rush. joining tumblr. meeting cam. watching anime. searching for hockey anime.

i put down my apple(TM) pencil. i set my ipad aside. i downsized the ebook window i’d been referencing. i stretched; i was hungry and tired. i’d been rereading passages of various animorphs books all day. i needed a break. i needed to sit back with some food and an episode of my latest comfort watch, sket dance. it’d be nice to set the dramatic, tragic world of animorphs aside for something lighthearted and fun in its place.

well.

i sat down with my bowl of strawberries and played the episode. it finished. i watched another. this one broke the formula a bit, played with the art style. i was into it. the preview for the next episode was mysteriously blank, and short, stating only the title. it was intriguing. i’m down for the show to get a bit more serious for an episode, i thought. i’m down for some potential backstory for one of the main three. i’m ready.

i was not ready.

bruh.

b r u h .

next two episodes proceeded to take me out back and beat me to within an inch of my life, slowly at first and then all at once. barely made it out alive. questioning everything. how can a show, so silly and goofy, do that, to me. how could i let my guard down like that. how could i be so tricked, and deceived, and blindsided like this. i don’t know who to trust. i don’t know if i can trust again. whiplash so damaging, permanent. i thought i wanted answers. i thought i wanted to know backstory. i didn’t want this. i never wanted this. emptiness

how did it come to this, these twelve years of my life. had i known back then, would i have posted that fanfiction? would i have joined tumblr? would i have sook out a “one direction buddy”? a hollow husk of a person, i am left with only my thoughts to ponder this small history of mine. the things i could have done differently. the things others could have done differently. all these butterfly effect moments, adding up to what? culminating in what? it’s 2:26 am and i’m writing an essay on how shook i am over that episode instead of going to sleep. but i can’t just say nothing, you know? i need to put something out there, reach deep enough within myself to find the thing that’s still there, broken and huddled and tiny as it is. i need to feel some semblance of the self again. the me from before i watched this episode. the innocent version of myself, blissful in ignorance. it’s too late now.

that episode…………..was fucked up. that was seriously fucked up. im not okay bro they really just came in left field and slapped that in my face expecting me to get up and walk away just fine afterwards like No that isn’t how this Works y’all need to bundle some therapy sessions with ur episodes pullin that shit come ON

exhaustion is taking over the shock, i am simply tired now. i will fall asleep and when i wake up sket dance will be a happy fun show again with NO fucked up backstories ever Or Else. i’m fucking serious right now i’m gonna count to 3 and that shit better be retconned when i turn around,

screams

thank you

[canonicallysoulmates]

Hi. Hope you're doing well. Can I ask you to give me a run down on the whole Louis and Harry situation? I listened to their music on and off but never followed their personal lives (other than the highly publicized thing with TS). But the situation, from what I gathered, seems... Interesting. What are the theories here? Hope it's not too much trouble. Thanks.

Hi, anon!

Sorry, it's taken me so long to reply to you but I wanted to find and provide some links with more information on the things I will be mentioning.

Now I'm going to do my best to give a quick rundown of Louis and Harry's history touching upon some of the bigger theories but Larry is a lot, it's multiple theories and years of history and multiple things seemingly happening at once like doing the research for this I fell down this hole all over again because there's just so much so this turned bigger than I was planning but let's get into this...

For those that don't know Louis and Harry are singer-songwriters that started their careers as members of the group One Direction. From pretty early on in the conception of the band fans noticed the close relationship between Louis and Harry and it wasn't too long before tumblr gave them a couple name: Larry Stylinson. 

Now, all 5 boys were close and got along well but Larry was magical to look at:

And what at first was a tumblr/fandom thing kept growing to the point it left fandom in a way I'd never seen before and have yet to see again with a lot of focus being put on Larries (people who believe in larry) themselves with articles being written about the theories and those who believe in them in an often mocking way; Larries were turned into villains, mocked and painted as silly little fangirls by the fandom and the media, and to this day we are still looked upon that way by those in and outside the fandom (and even by those who were once larries but that's a convo for another day).

Point is Larry grew and theories are aplenty, so let's look at some of them…

Theory #1: Louis and Harry are/were romantically involved and made to hide their relationship by management.

As I said, there's a lot of theories surrounding these two but this is I'd say the original one, the biggest one, and the one a lot of other theories come back to; I don't know when speculation about the boys' sexuality and their relationship started but it has been going on for years to the point, as I said, that it left the fandom.

The theory is self-explanatory: Harry and Louis have been together since their X Factor days but made to hide their relationship by their management for years, and all the girlfriends they have had publicly have been beards including Miss TS herself. (As a bonus fact, that made a lot of people in this fandom dislike her, and some think it’s because of Larry or because she was dating Harry, no it’s because she shaded him multiple times.)

You probably noticed that I said "are/were", the reason for that is that there are some larries (are you still a larrie if you think they've broken up?) that believe Louis and Harry were together but have since broken up. That's not the case with all larries since there are also plenty who believe they are still together, and some who even think they got married in 2013, I'll talk about that a little bit more later on, for now, let's go back to the early years and some of the things that made people believe in this love story:

This is not in chronological order by the way.

Other than the heart eyes, soft touches, and overall fondness displayed towards each other by both boys there was…

That time in a radio interview when the boys were asked about girlfriends or boyfriends and Harry said Louis’ boyfriend and management were heard saying to take that bit out. Now there is some debate about whether Harry said Louis’ boyfriend or we're all each other's boyfriends so I suggest taking a close listen. 

Harry saying his first real crush was Louis and that it was mutual. 

The autograph signing where a fan asked Harry if he and Louis were dating and he said yes. 

The AIMH tweet:

Louis being asked if he does romantic things for his partner and answering he once cooked a chicken stuffed with mozzarella wrapped in parma ham (a dish he mentions often) but he's also said in the past he's only cooked one proper meal and his first cooking experience was with Harry. 

You can also check these timelines from the early years for more examples and cute gifs and photos: Larry 2010 timeline, September - October 2011 timeline. 

Those are just some of the reasons people believe in Larry, it's not even the tip of the iceberg; I'll be talking about the tattoos and song lyrics in just a minute but before we move on to the next theory I do want to add what happened with Larry in the public eye.

Those familiar with my blog know about separate narratives well Larry didn't get a separate narrative they got an "enemies" narrative. When the rumors got too big about them they got shoved farther into the closet, they rarely interacted, they weren't seen together and rumors were spread through managements favorite gossip newspapers that they were feuding and hated each other. 

And to this day some fans and solo stans claim this to be true even though Louis has complimented Harry on his solo music, said he’s proud of Harry work in the movie Dunkirk, said in an interview that Harry messaged him congrats when he released his single:

and Harry follows a bunch Larry accs and Louis fan accs on twitter.  

Theory #2: Complementary tattoos.

Also, called matching tattoos by some but they're actually more complimentary not matching but anyways this is another reason why some believe in Larry, it technically falls under fact but for this answer, I'm going to present it as a theory simply because neither of the boys has outright confirmed that their tattoos are meant to complement each other.

Harry and Louis have several complimentary tattoos there's the famous rose(Harry) and dagger(Louis):

The Ship(Harry)and Compass(Louis):

The Oops(Louis) and Hi(Harry) (this one has a more personal significance as there’s a theory that those were the first words the boys said to each other):

The Rope(Louis) and Anchor(Harry):

Masterpost of Louis and Harry’s tattoos.

Theory #3. RBB and SBB

This one is harder to explain, and as far as I know, it's still a fandom mystery.

It all starts when at some point during the boys' Where We Are tour a fan throws a rainbow teddy bear on stage. Someone kept the bear, put some tape on it to make it into bondage bear and the bear got a twitter account. Yes, the stuffed bear got a twitter account, I know it sounds insane but it's a thing that actually happened. At first, it's just silly fun with the bear appearing on tour and tweeting, at some point the bear gets named Rainbow Bondage Bear or RBB by the fans, then the bears twitter acc gets suspended and he is not seen again.

The boys start a new tour, their last tour, the On the Road Again Tour.

The boys are back on the road and so is RBB! Once again, at first, everything is silly fun with the bear appearing on stage when one day out of the blue….a second bear! A small one. This second bear gets labeled Sugar Baby Bear or SBB. The bears are always together, the costumes get more elaborate, the boys don't acknowledge them, and the fans have no clue who is behind it all.

Then things get weird…er, the bears start posing with props including books like a biography of someone coming to terms with their sexuality.

And remember how I said some fans theorize Harry and Louis got married back in 2013? Well, on September 24th the bears appear as always on stage, this time dressed in wedding outfits in front of a signed picture of a man named Larry. On the 29th Harry tweets:

The theory is that Harry and Louis got married on September 28th, 2013. 

The number 28 does seem to have a lot of significance for the boys with Louis even having it tattooed on his body. 

And there was that recent "Louis Styles" moment from Roman Kemp who is from my understanding friends with Harry. And after that happened Christian Saad who Louis follows tweeted (and later deleted):

And liked:

Make of that what you will.  

Back to the bears...after that things get even weirder, the bears get security, they get another twitter account, they keep posing with props, things get more and more elaborate and none of the boys acknowledge it. At one point the boys are set to appear on Kimmel and a really mocking potato bit is done which offends fans, that same night RBB and SBB post a picture looking as angry as two stuffed bears can be next to a box of mashed potatoes.

When the boys are finally asked about the bears all of them immediately look at Louis - and I just have to say Niall's reaction will never not make me laugh - and when he says nothing Harry says he believes it was the crew, and the boys act like they have no idea what is being talked about.

The theory is that Harry and Louis were behind RBB and SBB and were using the bears as a way to communicate with fans. 

RBB & SBB masterpost

Theory #4: Song Lyrics.

Okay, last theory we will be discussing on this ask. I hope you’re still with me on this way longer than intended post.

As I said in the beginning, both boys are songwriters and it is theorized that both have written songs about each other and their relationship. There are parallels in their lyrics and Music Videos* (*Walls and Lights Up also have similar themes song-wise.) 

Among the songs that are said to be about each other is Habit from Louis first album Walls, which contains the lyric:

“come so far from princess park”

And Sweet Creature from Harry’s first album:

“And, oh, we started Two hearts in one home”

The lyrics I highlighted are significant because Harry and Louis lived together in Princess Park Manor.

And if you take a close look at the lyrics both songs also have similar themes, with both being about a relationship that has its struggles but they’re both still deeply in love with the person. 

Now Harry was actually asked in an interview if Sweet Creature was about Louis and after stumbling a bit he eventually answered that he didn’t want to tell anyone that they’re wrong on what they’re feeling about a song even if they’re not necessarily right but he thinks if you really listen to the lyrics you can work out whether it’s about that or not and he leans towards no. 

It’s pretty funny to hear him stumble around for an answer that could have been answered with a simple yes or no. 

A funny comparison that was often done is that in another interview Harry was asked about another one of his songs, ‘Two Ghost’ and if it was about TS because it was rumored on the media that it was; he tries to dodge the question at first but when the radio host introduces the song as the one about TS Harry screams out and shouts ‘NO!’.  

Something to note is that Harry’s stumbled through answer on whether or not Sweet Creature is about Louis is presented in the media as Harry flat out squashing those rumors, while Harry’s scream of ‘no’ during his Two Ghost question is ignored with the media focusing instead on him saying that it’s self-explanatory, with some acting like its confirmation and some even writing articles about all the TS hints in the lyrics. 

-

And there you have it anon a not so quick rundown of Harry and Louis that doesn't even cover the tip of the iceberg and some of the bigger theories surrounding them. I hope you found this informative and that is answered your question! 

One last Larry gif for the road (this one’s one of my favs) 💙💚

[itmeansvictory]

❝ She did not need much, wanted very little. A kind word, sincerity, fresh air, clean water, a garden, kisses, books to read, sheltering arms, a cozy bed, and to love and be loved in return. ❞

BRIE LARSON? No, that’s actually VICTOIRE WEASLEY. Only TWENTY SIX years old, this HUFFLEPUFF alumni works as an CURSE-BREAKER and is sided with THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX. SHE identifies as CIS FEMALE and is a HALFBLOOD ( ONE EIGTH VEELA ) who is known to be OVERPROTECTIVE, STUBBORN, and SELF-DEPRECATING but also CONSCIENTIOUS, NURTURING, and PRAGMATIC. { r, 27, mst, she/her/hers }

GENERAL

FULL NAME: Victoire Apolline Weasley NICKNAME(S): Vic, V, Tori, Tor AGE/DATE OF BIRTH: 26, 05/02/1997 OCCUPATION: Independently Contracted Curse-Breaker GENDER: Cis Female PRONOUNS: She/Her HOMETOWN: Tinworth, Cornwall, England CURRENT RESIDENCE: London, England POSITIVE TRAITS: Conscientious, Nurturing, Pragmatic, Loyal NEGATIVE TRAITS: Stubborn, Self-Deprecating, Overprotective, Moody

BIOGRAPHY

victoire apolline weasley - though you may know her as a number of monikers: blonde weasley, curse-breaking milf, mom friend™, whatever. she’s the eldest weasley cousin, part-veela, a mother, and yes she is a natural blonde. these are often the defining characteristics she is known by, but there’s a lot more than meets the eye.

born on may 2nd, 1997, almost two years after the fateful tri-wizard tournament where voldemort was defeated “once and for all”, she is the first child born to bill weasley and beauxbatons champion fleur delacour. the first of her generation; hers was a charmed childhood, only made more exciting by the arrival of two siblings and many cousins. seeing as she was older than most of them by a handful of years, victoire became somewhat of a “babysitter” for the family. she spent most of her formative years running after younger weasley-potters, patching up scrapes and kissing bruises as well as diffusing tense situations. from an early age she just naturally took on the role of “mom” among her social groups, the nurturing tendencies carry on even to her hogwarts years where her friends often teased her for being so overprotective of them and “babying” them.

at hogwarts she was sorted into hufflepuff - the first of her family to not be a gryffindor much to the changrin of several of her family members. while the hat had debated between the two houses, it was ultimately the pragmatic and sensible nature of the girl that lead her to being placed among the badgers. this turned out to be best suited to her traits. victoire’s easy going youth lead to her being soft and gentle but also incredibly empathetic and warm. aside from being the aforementioned “mom friend”, she was basically the poster child for hufflepuff - being dutiful, hard-working, trustworthy, loyal and fair. the one “weasley trait” that followed her was a deep love for quidditch, being a beater for the house team for a few years. but her true loves had been herbology, history of magic and charms; the girl spending most of her days studying old textbooks, hanging around the greenhouse, or learning new charms to advance her abilities.

due to a studious nature, she was usually in the favor of her professors and hadn’t found herself in detention like many of her family members might have. it was for this reason she was chosen as a prefect during her latter years, and head girl her seventh. she was responsible and organized in comparison to most of her peers, and actually took pride in being a role model. a side effect of being the oldest in her family - there were always eyes on her and victoire wanted to live up to their expectations.

following school, it was of little surprise when she announced she would be a curse-breaker in training under her father’s tutelage. she possessed much of her father’s qualities - she was an academic achiever as well as laid back in nature, while still managing to be serious when necessary. as a child she was a daddy’s girl and had a very keen interest in bill’s occupation. she used to pretend she was a curse-breaker, "disabling” curses and jinxes on teddy bears and various odd objects throughout the house. so when it came time to take her NEWT level classes, she made sure to structure her schedule around what classes would help her become a successful curse-breaker. it was a thrilling and adventure-filled career path, but her time with gringott’s would only last a few years before she opted to be an “independently contracted curse-breaker” - a choice made in order to continue the work she loved while being a single parent with full custody of her child.

before she began her apprenticeship, victoire spent the summer holiday after her seventh year in france with relatives. despite her claims she would come back “still very much the same victoire” the girl had returned from holiday a very different woman - a married one, actually. hardly one to make rash decisions, it was a shock to hear that after just four weeks of courtship victoire had married a beauxbatons alum she’d met while touring the french riviera. much of the family was opposed to the union, but victoire swore that she was happy and it was meant to be - and for a while that was true.

it turned into a tumultuous affair and would last all of four years before the ill-suited pair would inevitably call it quits - an embarrassing fact considering how adamant she had been that their love was “real” and that it would “work out just fine”. it turned out over time that the two were not exactly suitable and wanted very different things. for one, he wanted to live in france while victoire wanted to stay near her family in england. the only complication left after the marriage was a child that neither had originally planned for - a little girl named amélie whom victoire has full custody of. now her trips to france - via portkey every other weekend - are begrudgingly made in order to allow their daughter time to stay with her father, with whom she has remained (or has tried to remain) amicable and civil despite how poorly the relationship ended.

these days victoire is hardly around. contracted with many independent buyers and sellers of magical antiques and the like, the woman travels across the wizarding world in order to acquire such objects and to reverse whatever hexes have been placed on them as security measures. it’s become harder to balance this job with raising a child, and as such has made her home base in the UK in order to receive the support from her family. she was away on such trips when things began to escalate back home and has since taken on less jobs and has been spending more time in london and close to her relatives during what feels like the return of dark times.

joining the reinstated order of phoenix, victoire is at war with the impending fight. the young woman isn’t too eager to be part of another wizarding war. a little bit of a pacifist, victoire just wants to see a happy future again. having a young child, and seeing the aftereffects of her uncle’s death on his family, makes her worried to put herself in a position where she will no longer be able to take care of amelie. but she also knows that it is up to the order to put an end to the death eaters once and for all - choosing to ultimate put herself in harms way in order to make sure her daughter gets to grow in a safe and happy world like she herself did.

tbh i’ll probably be editing this as i go along.

MISC

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Demisexual ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: Heteromantic LANGUAGES: English, French, Gobbledegook, Some German, Spanish and Chinese FAMILY: Bill Weasley (father), Fleur Weasley née Delacour (mother), Dominique Weasley (sister), Louis Weasley (brother), Amélie Weasley-Dufour (daughter), Bastien Dufour (ex-husband) PETS: Barn Owl named Athena, Kneazle named Pyewacket ZODIAC SIGN: Taurus MBTI: ISFJ AESTHETIC: black coffee forgotten and cooled to room temperature; books and files piled up on every surface; scuffed up doc marten’s, cracked brown leather jackets, vintage band tees; makeup-less face and messy buns; chipped black nail polish; teeth marks running along her wand; reading glasses sitting on the button of her nose, a finger shaped smudge on the right lens; world map with assorted pins and thread connecting cities across the globe; bleached shells, creased postcards, and faded photographs in a trinket box long forgotten in the far corner of the closet; freckles that only come out with the sun, sideways smirks and a mischievous twinkle in dark chocolate eyes; the cry of seagulls and the salty sea breeze; pressed flowers in leather bound notebooks lying e v e r y w h e r e, blue ink stains on hands; trinkets and odd little souvenirs from various countries and cities on every desk; finger paintings and crayon drawings with ‘i love mummy’ in the corners; bottomless bag with everything a mom ever needs; nights spent alone and welcoming the solitude

WANTED CONNECTIONS

THE SCHOOL FRIENDS (2) - a couple fellow hogwarts alums who would have attended at the same time as victoire, they have remained close friends since leaving school and regularly meet up for drinks and to catch up and reminisce. they are hufflepuffs and have their own trio kind of like harry/ron/hermione. bonus points if one is a death eater, 1/2 taken

THE RIVAL - a fellow curse-breaker or someone from victoire’s youth who she has never seen eye to eye with. perhaps its because of opposing ideals, a dislike for the weasley-potter family or whatever petty reason - these two just don’t get along and are constantly butting heads. bonus points for being rivals in the curse-breaking field, open

THE EX - self explanatory; victoire’s ex-husband and the father of her daughter. this is not meant to be a romantic connection. they weren’t very well suited for each other and instead insist upon being civil and amiable for the sake of their daughter. is french/a beauxbatons alumni and would be newly arrived in britain should you take up this role, npc

tbh i’m really bad at these; just hmu and we can brainstorm afheahpfieaihfeiafpieafea

[mistress-of-the-obvious]

Thoughts On Hikaru Quitting Spacecraft and Idle Speculation

Hikaru quitting Spacecraft was surprising and also not. Her message months back stating there was “more behind the scenes” could have meant anything.

It could have meant that she was happy, working on a single, and to please wait. It could have meant she was unhappy and planning to leave Spacecraft when her contract was expiring…that could also have meant she was working on a single since we didn’t know when that is. I just sort of shrugged.

Since that message I have been very unhappy when I’ve seen Hikaru and Wakana. Hikaru’s message was deliberately vague and the idea the she was miserable counting down the days to the end of her contract was heartbreaking. The fact that she was clearly getting email, snail mail, and messages sent to her directly asking what was going on because Spacecraft, her own representative company, refused to explain even a tiny bit and thus refuse to do their job upset me. She was clearly upset enough to write a message about and yet Spacecraft never addressed it. I don’t doubt Wakana is getting similar mail.

In more strangeness, Yuuka Nanri is still listed on Spacecraft’s official site. There is going to be a big anniversary event for Flying Dog with FictionJunction Yuuka. This is pretty big news as she’s been inactive since 2016. Nowhere on the site. She has her own little site that while it has its own domain name has the same design as some of the other sites hosted by Spacecraft. Last news: 2016. Her blog has an update from September saying she’ll be at the Flying Dog event. I suspect her to disappear from Spacecraft’s roster either before the event or sometime after.

In the case of Yuuka, I didn’t think much of it before the event as she went inactive when she became married and had a lot of health problems going back to 2013 slowing her career. It’s pretty typical for Japanese society to expect women after they get married to have children and thus be full time mothers. That is changing though, especially as not all married Japanese women want to or do become mothers.

So when I first saw Yuuka some months back, it was “Wait a minute…oh she’s retired and they’re keeping her on there because she’s still technically under contract. If Spacecraft were to terminate her contract before it was up, they would owe her money.” Now, there’s this event…and they aren’t promoting her.

Going back to Keiko’s trademark claim, I have some new information where the results are rather curious.

I found this great youtube channel called TheJapanChannelDcom. It’s by an Australian man with a Japanese wife, children, and has been living in the Nagano region for over a decade at least. While enjoying the channel, I found a video that indirectly dealt with Keiko’s trademark claim.

There was a video dealing the then potential breakup of the huge group SMAP (you can see the video here: https://youtu.be/gPBgFZYu9iw). SMAP was a boy band. The now former members are in their 40s and in everything. Movies, tv shows, and at the time still active in their music group. Their talent agency was Johnny and Associates sometimes referred to as Johnny’s. The group broke up in December of 2016 and it was all over Japanese news.

The big rumor at the time was that four of the five members wanted to quit Johnny’s, but still continue in some fashion together. Fans were worried for three reasons: 1) the trademark was owned by Johnny’s. 2) Johnny’s could make their lives very difficult, as they are a very powerful talent agency. 3) There is a stigma of shame surrounding leaving a talent agency, mostly if you have been with one for a long time. This is the perception that the agency built the talent up and that the talent owes it to the company to stay.

What happened was one member stayed with the agency, one went on to something else, and three went to another agency called CULEN. It seems it’s theirs as right now CULEN is just listed as them. They also have a website called atarashiichizu. At this time they are promoting their individual works and have not released anything together, but it’s only been almost two years.

So what does this have to do with Keiko? Typically a talent agency will decide they want a music group or singer and hire them. They trademark the name and choose the songwriters the singer/group will work with. They also work to have a contract signed with a record company. I might be wrong on a few details, but that’s the general picture. The only thing different with Spacecraft was Yuki Kajiura and whether she owned any of that trademark. The fact that after Yuki left, the name Kalafina continued suggested it was owned by Spacecraft.

Would Keiko not know any of this? Highly doubtful. Not only was speculation regarding SMAP all over the news in late 2016, there were also negotiations with Yuki Kajiura and Spacecraft prior to her leaving that affected the group. Knowing how active Keiko was in her advocating for both herself and Wakana and Hikaru (we see this in the 10th anniversary film), she would have kept tabs on it. This on top of the fact that she was signed with Spacecraft with Ayaka Ito for Itokubo. She seems like she has a good idea how the Japanese entertainment industry works.

Even if she didn’t know, the company she hired to represent her would be able to find out if anyone registered that trademark. As someone who has dealt with civil court paper work here in the US regarding my mom and my uncle, I can tell you lawyers and law firms don’t make much money filing these paper work claims. Most of the fee goes to dealing with the bureaucracy. I doubt Japan is much different. In fact, Japan’s bureaucracy seems worse. They would tell her not to waste her time and theirs…unless there was some other point.

What that point was, I don’t know. What we do know is that after she formally told Spacecraft she was leaving, a few days later she filed that claim. Unlike Kaori’s long blog post when she left or Hikaru’s handwritten letter, Spacecraft posted Keiko’s mere one paragraph statement for her. Then there was the letter released for Harmony 4 where people thought it sounded like they were blaming Keiko. While I wouldn’t quite go that far, it was cold in the English translation.

Japan is interesting in that there’s this spectator sport regarding apologies. When a celebrity screws up, like in the case of a member of SMAP a few years back, whom was caught being drunk in public at night, said celebrity will publically apologize on television. People will watch and discuss this apology: how good it was or wasn’t, whether the person bowed deeply enough, whether they meant it or not, etc. Celebrities will be sent on apology tours on various shows.

With this in mind Spacecraft was at best completely tone death at worst they’re arrogant. Since new management took over they have lost 12 people. Most this year. It’s not just people associated with Yuki Kajiura but also long established voice actors.

Based on the little bit I know, what happened with Yuki Kajiura and Spacecraft is that the new management wanted to add restrictions to her. The previous administration let her do what she wanted for the most part.

With Keiko I suspect something similar. Again complete speculation on my part. What we know is the official line is that Keiko didn’t see a Kalafina without Yuki Kajiura as the songwriter. We know this isn’t quite the case as there was that interview where Yuki revealed she was taking a step back allowing them to use other songwriters, she would likely contribute a few songs, and be more of a manager and mentor.

One thing I found surprising was with the tabloid news articles, which were highly accurate, was the statement that if Keiko had stayed they would have headed to the recording studio early this year. Of course, the three of them were touring all last year, so where would they have the time to vet songwriters and find out how well the interaction is…unless Spacecraft wanted to manage them as a standard pop group where they were the sole deciders. If they were being controlling with Yuki Kajiura, why wouldn’t they do that with Keiko, Hikaru, and Wakana?

I suspect this in part with how Hikaru opened her letter, “I, Hikaru, left Spacecraft on good terms (paraphrasing)…” Why would she say that unless someone left not on good terms recently? Again that’s speculation, but we do have some albeit small bit of evidence Yuki and/or Keiko didn’t exactly leave on the greatest terms. She certainly wanted to squash any rumors before they started.

Interestingly, I also suspect that Wakana has more freedom with Spacecraft being solo since there is less money and expectations.

As far as more idle speculation on my part:

Yuki stated recently she has 18 new songs done for a project and is still at the studio recording more. I suspect Keiko to pop up in some of those songs. It might even be a Keiko centric project.

The reason why Hikaru has a Twitter and was interested in having an Instagram, is in part because she’s floating going solo. She maybe in some FictionJunction concerts here and there, but she’s more interested in going solo. Yuki stated she was considering going solo for some time. Also based on her massive support, about 6,000 followers within around 24 hours, not only fans but Yuki, FMB members, Atsuko from Angela, and a director from Animelo concert series, tells me she’s in good position. It also tells me that industry professionals have an idea what was going on with Spacecraft and didn’t like it.

I find it interesting that while there has been an announcement for Wakana’s new single, there has been nothing about an album. Based on her tour setlist she already has enough original songs for an EP. I’m curious what record company she’s on. Is this a new contract or is she piggybacking on Kalafina’s? That might be the reason why Spacecraft refused to fold the group. They are still listed on Spacecraft’s site as though they’re active. It will be interesting to see if the next Harmony magazine contains the name Kalafina on it or if it turns into Wakana’s fanclub. Simply put, I wouldn’t be surprised if Wakana’s contract ends sometime next year and she chooses not to renew.

If Wakana leaves, I do not see a full reformation of Kalafina. While this can be done under a different name, the three of them do not have the finances to form a special group like the three former members of SMAP (which even they have not yet released something together yet). Instead, I anticipate things like the three of them performing an old Kalafina song or two during a FictionJunction concert or a song released by Yuki Kajiura here and there that is essentially a Kalafina song (Wakana, Keiko, Hikaru and Yuriko and/or Remi as assist).

Be on the look out if Keiko tries to go after that trademark claim after Spacecraft drops using Kalafina. I’m not sure if she will or how long a trademark needs to be inactive in Japan to file a claim, but it will give us a good idea if she filed this last one for mysterious unknown purposes or not.

I suppose that’s enough silly idle speculation on my part. Much of this stuff we will never know and frankly don’t have a right to know since all of this is very personal.

[mokkoriness]

ROCK & READ 060 - Show Interview

Alice Nine.

Alice Nine is back. Taking the occasion of their 10th Anniversary Outdoor live at Conifer Forest they went independent, and are currently doing underground activities as “A9”, but it has been exactly 1 year since then, and the time has finally come. On May 19th, the same day where the five of them first stood on stage together back in 2004, they announced that with the 11th Anniversary Live at Toyosu PIT on August 23rd, they will be resuming activities as “Alice Nine”. Going independent, the 1 year of blank space, the comeback…… Show, who has become quite strong saying “I can no longer say ‘This might sound absurd, but’”, confesses about everything for the first time in a magazine.

It’s been about 2 years since you last appeared in this magazine. Strangely enough, last time was around the time you had changed record labels, and the band was welcoming a turning point. And the time, there is yet another turning point……

Show: That’s right. Although if we keep on having turning points like this, it seems like we would be viewed as people who tend to feel unsatisfied with their current position (laughs). However, we just might be the kind of people who cannot think that the situation would get better if we just stayed quiet and endured it. We start things ourselves, or rather, we get uneasy if we don’t move forward after properly thinking it over, like “It will definitely get better if we do this”, or rather, our fear of compromise is really strong. I think the five of us are perhaps like this. This is something that Saga said, but because we’re not a band that came together with the reason of “because we want to do this kind of music”, but a band that come together saying “The five of us can do something interesting, right?”, we don’t think that we’re okay as long as we can do a certain type of music, and if we don’t actually feel like we are proactively moving, like “How should the five of us move forward?”, then…… As a result of that, we have wandered from 3 record labels. Well, among those there was one where it was like “Before we knew it, we changed labels” (laughs)

You start looking for change when you feel that you are in a position where it’s hard to actually feel that you are moving forward. I think that is something everyone feels, even just the slightest.

Show: That’s certainly true. So in that way, it’s still the same feeling as what we talked about two years ago, but this time we actually made a decision.

And right in the middle of the time between the previous interview and this interview, you were welcoming your 10th year anniversary. However after that, you parted from your company that you had been accustomed to for a long time and then went quiet for some time…… I think that for those receiving this news, many must have felt “What’s going on here?”. What was the actual reason for arriving at the decision to part from your company and go independent?

Show: First of all, when we changed to the previous label, we had this thought “We want to be in a state where we can have a vision of the future too”. And at that time in particular, we wanted to get out of the situation where it was a competition to see how much you could get the same people to buy as many copies of the same product. From the sense of danger we got, like “at this rate both the fans and us will get worn out, and things will end with all of us exhausted”, we wanted to change, and so we left. At that point in time, as a way of changing our situation while working together with our management company at that time, we suggested changing record labels. So what we decided on last time was to stay in the management company while exploring for the best way we could do things. However we tried doing that for 2 years, and then we were made aware that the fundamental problem was not that. We also had this major given, that us ourselves would mature and have something brand new that would transcend being Visual-kei, or rather, that we had to be a band where people would come to us for good music and good performances. So with that we had to aim even higher, or rather, in order for us to have a vision that would allow us to keep on doing this for the next 10 years, we thought that we had to return to a starting point where we walk with out own feet and bear all the risks. Although it might be us choosing the tougher road on purpose, we made the decision saying that it’s perhaps necessary.

Does that mean that when you looked out at the next 10 years, you felt that you couldn’t live as a band being protected by the framework that is a specific management company or record label?

Show: That’s right.

To put it another way, did you also think that in this music industry that is still stagnating, if you weren’t a band that could walk on its own, there would be no way to continue for the next 10 years?

Show: Yes. On top of that, it’s because that the members were more aware of the fact that we want to do this together that we were able to reach that decision. Last year, we did a tour with 34 stops that wasn’t just limited to Japan, but included Asia too. It was Alice Nine’s longest tour ever. While on that tour, I had felt that the members were starting to seek each other more and more.

And because you felt that, you were able to step forward. But it really is a big decision. Although it’s a weird way of putting it, I think that in saying you want this band to continue on for the next 10 years also means that you intend on having the band continue even after that. If you had feelings of wanting to choose a different life path, rather than 10 years down the track, now is the time where you have more paths to choose from.

Show: That’s right (laughs). For us, Nao is the one who thinks the most realistically (laughs). For him to make that decision kind of moved me. To be honest with you, around our 5th year, we had once talked about wanting to leave the company. But at that time there were opinions like “Aren’t we just blaming the company for our own lack of skill?” and “But it’s not supposed to be like this, right?”. At that time, we only thought about it because of our own biased opinions. But in the end, the 5 of us arrived at the conclusion that we were just finding fault with the things around us, and that we were “in this state in our 5th year” was due to our own incompetence. So when we worked even harder, the company had booked Budokan for us and really supported us in many ways. I am really grateful for that, and at that time since the members had clashed with each other once, the half-hearted feeling that we used to do things with left, and we become more like a rock band. I think that it was that kind of important experience. However, even with our opinions that were divided into two, after doing the 10th anniversary live, we arrived at the conclusion that if we want to do this for another 10 years years, then we have no choice but to walk on our own even though there is probably nothing but risk for us. I myself was surprised, but I was also glad…… Honestly, this time, it’s not like my first thought was “I want to quit this company”. Speaking for myself. But after speaking together about it, that remark just came out, and I understood that now this might be the time to do it……

Meaning that it wasn’t the feeling of “I want to leave this company”, but the feeling that you wanted to do something about your situation was stronger?

Show: That’s right. It’s not like we were unsatisfied with the environment in the company. It’s weird to say, but they had a really good welfare program (laughs), and they had this kind of parental affection for us where they wanted us band members to live a decent life. That is a really good part about the company. But it’s because they have that warmth…… I recall that Kurt Cobain said something like “It’s better to burn out than fade away”. I am not directing this at the other bands in the company and I don’t want to be misunderstood, but I thought that in our case, if we surrendered ourselves to that warm environment, we would probably just continue on fading away. That if we were going to fade away, we might as well burn out even if it means going away…… Of course, I think that we have kept the band on going while fixing our current situation, but if you don’t have the readiness to disappear after burning out, then that actually means you won’t be able to find the significance in continuing. So when the opinion “Shouldn’t we quit the company now?” came out, I myself was taken aback.

I think that if you stayed in a well-prepared environment and as long as you don’t forget how to be strict on yourselves, then it wouldn’t be a “coddled” environment. So does that mean that you were wanted a more decisive change and you wanted to decide on that yourselves?

Show: Yes. Since we are supposed to be adults (laughs), and that walking with our own feet is not a bad decision.

But at the same time, this doesn’t mean that you will stay independent forever, or that you won’t join another management company, right?

Show: That’s right.

I would like to clear up these doubts one by one. So even on the band’s official website the band name is stylised as “A9”, What is the reason behind this?

Show: Alice Nine was originally stylised as アリス九號. and started sort of like a session band. So as a way of returning to the beginner’s spirit, we had it as a temporary thing saying “Let’s have a name like a codename”. So when I put it as “A9”, Saga was like “It’s great, just like U2!” (laughs). I thought that that was something a fan would say (laughs). So rather than saying we changed our band name, it was more like we were just stylising it like this in the mean time. But I thought that when we stood on the stage as 5 to do a live, we had to go back to the name “Alice Nine”, but not in the way as if it was our way to be courteous to the fans waiting for us. At those lives, we wanted to clearly do it under the banner of “Alice Nine”. Since parting from the company, in terms of the contract, although we were able to do activities from Spring, we were adjusting some things, and we we decided to play in front of everyone with that name at the August live. I think of this as the day we restarted rather than the day we made a comeback.

Alice Nine remained as Alice Nine. Until the 5 of you officially stood on stage together to restart, you used the codename-like stylisation “A9” during this sort of incubation period. That’s basically how it was, right?

Show: Thank you for explaining it neatly (laughs). I apologise that it’s so confusing.

Although this is a digression, from a long time ago, whenever I did interviews with Alice Nine or went to a live, I would write it in my schedule as “A9”. Although I didn’t think of it as something like U2 (laughs)

Show: Hahaha! But since we have change d the stylisation many times, we did think that people would be like “Again?!” (laughs). We also wanted to cherish this name as much as we could. But Alice Nine is Alice Nine. If there are fans who write our name as “A9” or if there are those who continue to use アリス九號., I am glad either way. I think that in the end, if it is a place where positive feelings are born in the people who are involved in us through the music we make, then we are fulfilling our role. So to me, I am not particularly fussed about how you write our band name or how you call us. However, we stopped our activities once as Alice Nine at our 10 year anniversary, and for the sake of making a proper restart in front of the people who have waited for us even in these times, the 5 members came to the consensus that we want to stand on the stage as Alice Nine.

Until the details of that live was made public, it was a state where there was not much news apart from that you planned on releasing an EP titled “Ginga no Oto”. But as one would expect, when the new official site went up, you surely got lots of comments from the fans.

Show: It made me think that social media is really convenient. You can hear their voices directly, and also from the other side of the world. However, as we were starting up a new project like crowdfunding, we did also received some voices of concern. But each and every one of those things is something we thought of for the sake of going forward and for the sake of establishing a good relationship with everyone. I believe that if we explain things to them properly they will definitely be able to understand us…… In any case, I was glad that we received many different responses.

About that crowdfunding. I would like for people to refer to the official site for the general outline, but how did you arrive at this thought to release your music in this way?

Show: The motivation of it started from last year’s Asia tour…… Even before that we toured around Asia with MUCC, and a few years ago when there was like a Japanese Culture boom in Europe, I didn’t want to be part of that just as any old band, and I wanted to go there but we couldn’t. Then from around the time we went overseas two years ago, I started to think that the fans there who still said that they liked Japanese bands even though that transient boom had passed are no different from the fans in Japan. Even though it was difficult for them to get information, they did their very best to gather information, and it seems like they were jealous of the Japanese fans who were in an environment to be able to directly support the band. Some fans even said it’s sad that they want to support us but have no way to. Of course, I am more than happy if they just listen to our music. But as it’s not realistic to do things like have in-store events around the world (laughs), we thought it would be nice if we could deliver something to the people who seriously want to support us. We thought that if we were to strictly limit it to digital download, then it could be sent to fans overseas and it we would be able to make it completely even with the fans in Japan. So we thought to have them invest in a way. We thought that if we used the money we got from them only towards the making of the piece of work then there wouldn’t be any weird misunderstandings. Certainly when it comes to money, I think that there will always be a part of it where it is thought of as suspicious, but as an artist we have our pride, and we can do this without any feelings of guilt. I thought that was the most important thing. So in that way, the first order of business was that I wanted to make a system where we could all feel that the people who want Alice Nine all throughout the world are equal.

I see.

Show: Another thing is that at any rate, the reason we left our management company was because we wanted to do things in a new environment in order to move forward, so I thought that it wouldn’t be very persuasive if we didn’t try to create our own new system. I really like games, and in Europe and North America, crowdfunding is a really normal thing to do in order to get start-up funds for a game. It’s such a normal thing to do now that no one gossips about it. But on the other hand, you don’t really see a crowdfunding system done worldwide for Japanese music. If I had to say which, I think that Japanese people don’t really like this way of doing things, but I thought that if we could succeed at this, then perhaps something can change. For example, when we were still playing club shows, we had many seniors and bands from the same era that despite having lots of ability, they couldn’t put out any CDs because they didn’t have the money to. So thinking about it now, I have this feeling that it would be better if this way of doing things came a little more widespread. I thought that even if we couldn’t gather then funds to cover all the costs, even just having a little bit made the difference.

You can’t even release a CD if you are not part of a large record label or company. So you wanted to break up that entire scheme? But a particular trait of Japanese people is that they can’s be straightforward when it comes to money, or rather, they feel they have to consider how people will view them. Amidst that, there would surely be some people who think “Huh? Are you guys having financial troubles?” (laughs)

Show: Yes (laughs). People will see it like “They’ve started to collect money from people”. Well, little by little we are starting to communicate with the people who have invested in us…… We are starting to do that kind of thing, but I think that you will see the real worth of the piece of work when it arrives. I think that the most important thing is that when it arrives, the fans can objectively and rationally see it and also see what’s left over. So that’s why all we can do now is do our best.

So first, you get people who unconditionally believe in Alice Nine and who expect good things to invest. So in other words, that is the foundation that the system is based on. But in terms of results, didn’t you greatly surpass your goal?

Show: I didn’t think we would be able to gather that much. But honestly, just because we surpassed our goal, it doesn’t mean that we can be wasteful, right? (laughs). I don’t think that there are actually any bands who make an EP with this kind of budget. But we have to be responsible about, so I would like to give back to the fans while carefully discussing with the members.

I think that no one will complain if that after making the EP there is a surplus, you were to use that surplus into the making of the next work. Or at the very least, as long as it doesn’t end up in someone’s purse (laughs)

Show: That definitely won’t happen!

If one looks at the official website where the actual amount collected is displayed, I think that people can clearly see how sincere you are. So about the music. At this point in time (the interview was done mid-May) I have listened to demos of 2 songs “Phoenix” and “Ryuuseigun”, but how are the other songs coming along?

Show: We are in the middle of making them with flying colours (laughs). We are right in the middle of the most interesting part. First of all, “Phoenix” is the first song that we will out out in making our restart. For this EP it will be the lead track, so we recorded the song with the intention of it having a music video to go with it.

As it will only be sold at live venues, I think that I should surely look forward to the entire work, but if I am to talk about the 2 songs that I have heard, in any case, they are songs with a powerful impression……

Show: That’s a relief (laughs). I’m glad you said that. For the last few years we have been making music together with the producers, but now we’ve gone back to self-producing, if people were to say to us there’s less power…… Well, I guess you wouldn’t say that kind of thing in an interview anyway (laughs)

No, if I plainly felt that way I surely would have said it (laughs). But it actually is really strong and positive. Surely you must have learned many things from doing work with different types of producers like Okano Hajime and Hiraide Satoru, and I think that this surely must have been a challenge for you to, on top of that, see what your “raw” selves could do. In addition, at least from what I heard in the 2 songs, I thought that you weren’t pursuing something unexpected, but something that is right at the core of the band. Is it okay to interpret it this way?

Show: That’s right. As expected, we think of this as returning to our roots, so right now we think that because it is something inside of us that we have used and worn down, it’s also something that shines. Rather than surrendering to the pursuit of something completely new and putting it out saying “We made something good, right?”, we should take on the challenge of seeing what we can put out that is one step above the sort of thing we have done up until now. Also, previously, we used to make songs where someone would make a demo and then people would copy that demo or rearrange things, but now, all 5 of us are initiating things ourselves. We aren’t depending on someone, but we are approaching this with the feeling of making songs as a band. In terms of production, there is real merit in doing this, or rather, there is a good response.

So it means that for example, even if the credits were to say that a specific person wrote the song, all the members’ own ideas are definitely in the song?

Show: Yes. It’s as if we were writing the songs the same way I did back in high school.

Meaning you became more childish (laughs)?

Show: Maybe, in a certain way (laughs). First we talk about the structure of the song on the sofa at Hiroto’s place, then we elaborate from there, like “Let’s do this with the drums”…… Somehow, doing it that way where we start making songs after a meeting was really new for us. Up until now, we did it in this kind of way where there would be the director of the record label or the staff from the management company, and then 5 of us would be lined up in the meeting room, and we would listen to the demos in order, like “Tora #1”, and then someone would say “Who thinks this is a good song?” (laughs)

Is that basically the mood of what band different bands call the song selection meeting?

Show: Yes. It was more procedural. It didn’t feel harmonious at all, it sort of felt like we had entered into a competition. So that’s why now we have returned to our roots in the way we write songs too. I think that there is this real feeling that our blood is running even stronger in each and every song. I think that this way of doing things is good, even if it might be the long way. But for me, don’t I also do another thing? I make lots and lots of songs that I think is good and pass it along saying “Here, do this”, so in that way it’s really easy for me (laughs).

So about that other thing. You’re talking about DIAWOLF, that both you and Tora are a part of, right? So you will be releasing music for that in July, but where did the idea for that come from? Is it you trying to do things that you can’t do in Alice Nine?

Show: As a given, we decided to do this as the 5 of us, without depending on one person. So first of all, even if for example, someone else were to just copy something that I had made, it might be okay to do that for Alice Nine, but if we are to make things as the 5 of us, then I would have to cut down on the things that only I myself want to do. And going back to what we first talked about, when I thought about wanting to do this for another 10 years, I realised that I was still severely lacking in ability. It was something that I had to do…… Or rather, to do something more than what Alice Nine is good at, I thought that I had to get more harsh experiences and I myself had to grow more.

You chose on purpose to force your own hand?

Show: It sounds like something a masochist would say (laughs). But that’s right. If you were to do this in Visual Kei…… Everyone is nice. So that’s why I thought to do it again from the point where we play at a live event and get scoffed at.

In a way, it’s like you are trying to march through from the other side of the wall. But thinking about it, that you did this with Tora is also like returning to another starting point, to the time before Alice Nine. It was the two of you who initially formed the band too.

Show: Oh, that’s certainly true. We used to play together. Originally, Tora…… When I first joined a band 12 years ago, it was a band where having told it was a SlipKnot cover band, I kind of got half-tricked into being in the band. They said to me “All you have to do is scream”, so all I did was scream (laugh). Apparently, Tora who saw me doing that in front of about 3 fans thought I was cool (laughs). So the first time was with Tora after he invited me to join, saying “Let’s make it a heavy band”. From then on, for some reason, the things we were doing started getting closer to pop (laughs). That was the first band. So even though Alice Nine itself is going back to the starting point, when I myself tried going back to my starting point I had gone all the way back, and the things I wanted to back then are now being done in DIAWOLF.

You’re not trying to be SlipKnot again (laughs).

Show: Of course not (laughs). Rather, I’m doing what I want now. Also I think that if I don’t update myself a little more, people won’t listen to us.

“Diawolf” is a large wolf that is an endangered species. What is the meaning behind using that name?

Show: The biggest motivation for that name is that when I die, I don’t want to think “I wish I had done that”. Actually at first when I was wondering whether I should do this or not, there was this concept of “Looking for a place to die”. Don’t wounded wolves go and search for a place to die? With that meaning…… Although the among the people who see us as Alice Nine there’s probably not even one person who thinks of us as wolves (laughs). But that kind of mismatch is also interesting.

You might just be in sheep’s clothing though.

Show: Right (laughs)

However, did you not have at least a little bit of hesitation in proceeding with these two things at the same time? I think that you might have even heard some noise like “Why are you doing something else even though this is such an important time for Alice Nine?”.

Show: That’s right. There is that risk too. But of course, this is something I decided on after first discussing with the members. If I were to do both Alice Nine and DIAWOLF as if my life depended on it, then it would naturally show. Right now, it really feels like I am living really too intimately with music, and somehow……it feels like I am starved for music. Even with the things I want to do in Alice Nine, I have a vision that goes on until about the end of next year. But even so it’s not enough, or rather, things can’t keep up. Mostly, I do things so that when I wake up in the morning, I do everything that needs to be done in that day and then I have my own private time…… But how should I put this. I want to do more music, but I’m in a state where there is nothing to do. Right now we are making songs for the “Ginga no Oto” EP, but if I were to keep on making songs, and were to start distributing songs like “Okay, this one will be for the next EP”, that would still be fine, but as were are moving forward as 5 people, we have to act as one. To me, I definitely cannot think of myself as neglecting Alice Nine to do DIAWOLF, but on the other hand, it’s for me myself to be hungrier for Alice Nine. So I can do DIAWOLF at my own pace while getting support from Tora……

So to speak, you think of being active as DIAWOLF as a way of reinvigorating Alice Nine even more and becoming even bigger?

Show: Yes. I hope everyone can think of it this way too.

Hiroto also held a solo live the other day, but is that him also do the same sort of thing?

Show: Right. I think that if each of us don’t get bigger, then band also won’t get bigger.

When you came to think of it in that way, what did you think that was necessary in order for you yourself to become bigger and to grow more?

Show: What I need at any rate is more ability. As expected, what I thought after becoming a professional…… Until I was 20, I didn’t even think once about becoming a professional musician. Although I did enroll in a vocational school in order to become an engineer, I didn’t think that I would be the one to stand on stage. But in this world, when you stand on the stage like this and move forward, as one would expect, you see that there are people who have done music as if their lives depended on it from when they were kids, and that you have to do music properly and not lose out to those people either. Thinking that, I found that I am severely lacking in ability. So I thought that I have to be an even more harsher situation than them.

When you use the phrase “ability”, do you mean the things involved with being a person who stands on stage?

Show: That’s right. To talk about it about singing only, things like I want to be able sing in high notes but to also be able to bend it in a weird way, that kind of specific thing. But for example, there are also things that up until now, I have left entirely up to the members. Like operating things at the same time. When I actually tried doing it myself, I found out that it’s actually quite tough. There are still many things that I can do, and I think that by actually doing it, I should be able to mature. But those things are really fun too.

One thing I am curious about is that when bands decide that the band itself would be doing band operations too, doing such things would take more of their strength and they would be unable to focus on music. However, just from talking to you today, it doesn’t seem to be the case for you.

Show: Yes. Because although we have left the management company, there are people who help us. We are in a situation where it is not possible for us to neglect music because we are being completely swamped with these tasks. So please don’t worry (laughs)

With the releases during the Universal period, you were proactively giving your opinion on the “band presentation”, like artwork and videos. Is it okay to okay for us to see the way Alice Nine presents itself now is based on your ideas?

Show: That’s right. It really is the case with artwork too, but the way we are dividing up the tasks came about in a really natural way, and I’m entirely in charge of artwork. Because we have this kind of thing too, we can think that if we were to do these thing individually, we’ll surely be able to improve. Even Hiroto said to me that he really understands the troubles I have once he tried singing (laughs). So that’s why I do artwork, Saga thinks about the flow of the live and the performances, Hiroto does all of the merchandise, Nao does all the synchronising work. Tora does publicity. Publicity at bars (laughs). Like “I’m in this band, you know?” (laughs). He takes a step back and looks at the overall balance. That’s why he says to me “You should make more songs for DIAWOLF”.

I see. So the presentation of the official site and such is also your idea?

Show: Oh, yes.

So the “Phoenix” music video has been out for quite some time, but why are you the only one to wear a mask? It’s not like you are doubling back to SlipKnot, right (laughs)?

Show: Hahaha! That desire might be lying deep inside of me (laughs). Well…… Since we’re restarting, a part of it was where we sort of wanted to get the people who were a little bored of Alice Nine content to at least take a look, so we wanted to do something interesting. And also…… it doesn’t really matter right now, it’s also like a antithesis to the fact that people always thought of us “Your faces are the selling point, right?”, so it’s like “Since we’re that kind of band, it’s funny that I’m wearing a mask, right?” (laughs)

It might have also been funny if it wasn’t you but someone disguised as you.

Show: Like when you took off the mask it was actually Esper Ito (laughs). We did think that it would also be funny if we did that and it became a hot topic online (laughs)

There is no need to make it like a trending topic (laughs). The outfits also have a “Japanese” taste and the Japanesque words in the lyrics also stand out. I think that this is one of the elements that the band originally had, but is that also a part where you returned to your roots?

Show: We did pay attention to that…… What we paid attention to the most was the kind of Japanese culture that foreigners think of. Even in the “Phoenix” music video, using projection mapping there is always some footage playing in the background, but at first it was more difficult to understand, or rather, it was the kind of Japanesque in a way that Japanese people think is cool. It was quite psychedelic and avant-garde. It really was cool in that way, but it was also in the dimension where foreigners wouldn’t be able to tell whether it was Japanesque or not. That’s not what we wanted…… There are some words that I can never forget. When we first went to Indonesia to do a live, everyone really had this wild enthusiasm, but they said to us “We kept on requesting to local promoters that we wanted to see Japanese bands, but since Japanese artists would not really come here, everyone has been taken away by artists from other countries who will come here with even less effort required on the promoter’s part”. And saying “That’s why us lovers of Japanese culture are sad. Please proactively show the appeals of Japanese culture”. So in that way, I think that perhaps we should be putting effort into getting foreigners to think “Japan is amazing”. As a Japanese person. But the theme I had for this video was “Japanese culture that is a little misunderstood in New York”, or rather, this is the new definition I have of “Where Japan meets the West”. I think of New York and Paris as the forefront of art and fashion, so there was also another hidden concept of wanting people there to think “This kind of feeling of Japan is interesting”. Although if I actually tried saying this to someone in New York they might laugh as me (laughs)

Hearing you say that has cemented my belief even more now, but whether it be having that as a concept or doing something like crowdfunding, your activities overseas certainly has had an influence on you.

Show: That’s right.

It because it was the chance for you to actually feel that people wanted to see you this much. It also gave you a hint on with what scope of vision you should have for future activities.

Show: Yes. We never actually felt that people wanted to see us, and a big part of it was that when you actually go there and feeling it with your own skin, you can’t just not feel it anymore.

In a way, your field of vision of the world had also restarted.

Show: That’s right. And the speed at which they see things on YouTube and social media is pretty much the same. Of course, while keeping that field of vision, we will also plant our feet even firmer on the ground so that we don’t make the people who also come to see us live feel sad…… But I think that our line of sight should always be staring into the distance.

In the interviews with you in this magazine, you have remarked things like “I want to be needed by someone” or “Rather than wanting to be loved, I want to love”, but I get the feeling that actually being able to feel the passion of the people who want to see you so much but you don’t know about or the love of the people who have been supporting you for many years, and being able to feel the fact that you both want each other is a source of power for the band, and I think the same thing applies within the band itself too. Or rather, it’s a relationship where you both need each other.

Show: That’s right. I think that’s what it is like.

Also, this is the important part. The live on August 23rd at Toyosu PIT, which will be the point where you make a new start. It’s kind of nice that the place you will restart at is a place you’ve never played at before.

Show: Yes. It will have been exactly 1 year since our 10th anniversary live at Conifer Forest, so in that way too we will focus our mind’s on that. At any rate, that day last year was something else. After the rehearsals were over it had stopped raining, so we were like “It’s great that we can do this like every other show”, and the moment the opening backing track played the rain came pouring down (laughs). We really are unlucky.

It’s great that this time you’ll be playing at a venue with a roof (laughs). What kind of live do you want to it to be?

Show: I’m not quite sure just how correctly I understand the members’ feelings, but through doing our individual activities before we restart in August…… I feel like we are jealous of each other (laughs). Of course, just as you had said, we are in a state where we want each other. For example, I went to see Hiroto’s live the other day, and he was playing on stage with amazing members, like TOKIE and Sasabuchi. He’s the type to be adored by others. When I saw that, a part of me was like “Damn” (laughs). He also had a part where he played Alice Nine songs and I thought “I want to sing them” (laughs). It’s like I want to do this live as soon as possible, or more like, just hurry up and let me do this live. Even us members are getting impatient about it. I think that of course, even some of the fans must be like “Solo lives and DIAWOLF are fine, but hurry up and play as 5!” (laughs). We’re going to explode that impatience and going to make it sublime…… I also have this kind of conceit where I feel like I have to work harder so that Japanese artists will be accepted overseas. Although it’s a bit presumptuous to group things as “band of our generation”, before I knew it, the movements of the bands that had experienced the Visual Kei movement during the ir teenage years have slowed down a bit, and we feel this sense of danger that the Visual Kei scene as a whole is winding down. Although there are many wonderful seniors, this conceit inside of me that says we should, rather than looking at it as if it’s unrelated to us, be more active in bringing more excitement into the scene is getting stronger. So amidst that, that ViViD and THE KIDDIE disbanded is a real shock to me. Both of them are like our younger brothers, and to be honest, I also had this feeling like “You’re disbanding before us?”. As one would expect, it’s saddening.

I can sympathise with you. Since these seniors have pretty much built up something unshakeable, those below them have pioneered their own unique territory. So if you think about it that way, do you mean to say that you feel as if your generation has yet to leave a legacy behind?

Show: That’s right. So I can no longer say “this might sound absurd, but”. If we don’t leave anything behind, that would actually be rude to the seniors that we’ve been influenced by, and I also feel that it’s unfair to our juniors. Even though of the younger bands, there are many good bands.

You have to give new proof of your existence. That must be what you mean.

Show: Yes. And in order to do that the live in August is going to be very important, and in terms of how I feel, it’s not just a one-off live but “the first day of the tour”. I want to do many lives, and of course I want to go to Asia too……

At any rate, you already have a plan in your head for the next 2 years, right?

Show: Yes. That’s why I’m like “Just hurry up and let me do this!” (laughs). I have many ideas saved up, like “I want to try expressing it like this” or “I want to try using this as a motif in the artwork”.

Meaning that you have enough for the next 2 years. By the way, what do you think Alice Nine will be like in 2 years?

Show: At any rate, we want to make people wildly enthusiastic about us. I can only say abstract things right now. But to be more specific, for example, I want to play at Budokan again. If we can’t play there again, then I want to do at it with so much vigor and determination to the point that we can’t even burn out.

Although I hope in two years time, we don’t have to have the “I burned out” conversation (laughs).

Show: Hahaha! But if I were to burn out and still be able to feature on the front cover, that would be amazing (laughs)

I can really feel your strength, as you can even joke about this. If this were two years ago, I think you would have prefaced any strong remarks with “Although it might sound absurd”. That must mean you won’t say such things any more. I feel like the difference is even in the small things.

Show: I might become even more aggressive1 in two years time (laughs)

Well, you are also a wolf after all.

Show: Hahaha. Definitely.

1Show used the words “肉食”, which literally means “meat eater”

[firmanep]

28/28 Vision: Retrace

28/28 vision, life’s been hit me with precision. I’ve seen both ways, mourn and defeat at the bottom in one side, glory and prosper in the other. I choose to live on and keep 27 years back on my head. At 28 I begin to realize that everyone walk their own path, with their own pace. All of sudden, the meaning of success, settle, stand-on-your-feet, etc dissolve into thin air.

Nor, this doesn’t mean those words and its meaning is nothing but perception. Yet it’s a word of progress, everything in life is on process not an unchanged or fix terms. To make it clearer, I simply put it on my case. I wouldn’t say that I’m a success or failure person if I see this on my own perspective not others. What I trying to do is put those terms not in binary opposition. But in a life line terms. Life line is a sum of all variable in life. They are time, space, body, mind, money, social, career, relationship, sex, etc. So let’s put it in practice, I using “age” as metric. In example, at 27 YO I get a job promotion, start a mortgage, not in a relationship, feeling numb, stretching my financial belt, 58.000 hours listening music, etc.

Looking back farther than a year, I see myself rolling in a rollercoaster adventurous life. At 5 my parents enroll me to primary school in assume I “a slight smarter” than my counterparts. So I’m 1-2 year younger than my primary school friend age average. Yet instead accelerated in academics, my passion in football is stronger. So, it swiped the whole 6 years in primary. I won several trophy, even my profile been written on local newspaper as “bintang cilik”.

My career in football stop when I get into junior HS. Some shit happened at that time, my sister passed, family breakup, I move to my granny house, join a motorcycle gang, and drunk for the first time. That’s all more than enough to put a stamp in my face as “a broken home little shit”. But fortunately I found another passion, music. I start collecting cassette since at class 5 primary school. For local act i listened to Sheila on 7 generation band. Then I start a band, which then I ditched by because my “musical taste”.

Fuck, thanks to MTV After School Rock, so I bit move from locals and see global. At JHS I listened to hipmetal acts like Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park for a brief of time. Till I really struck on Warped Tour bands like Blink 182, Sum 41, New Found Glory, etc. Because of the rarity of the cassette, I start digging music at 2nd hand cassette dweller. From which I got more recommendation, so I begin listen to more “edgy” bands like MXPX, NOFX, No Use For a Name, and local indie bands like Nudist Island and Buckskin Bugle. So almost all my “pocket money” at JHS went off to buy cassette. Oh wait! I get my first and second girlfriends on JHS. LMAO.

So, half of my JHS I spent as a member of “packed gang” (in motorcycle gang and in a band), and the last half I spent by myself, walking around finding cassette. My last year in JHS been so frustrating, I don’t have much friends because they left me/or in opposite, so i don’t see any reason to took a same school with them. Then I get into HS, speaking spatially, it’s really far from my JHS. But it’s a “throwing stone” away from my granny house. Surprisingly it’s really easy to make friends then.

Though, talking about “cultural taste”, they’re a level under my JHS friends. But I see a genuine quality in them. Like most of HS kiddos allover Bandung, we’re maniacally love occupy a Warung and make it our base camp. I can say that “nongkrong” is in par with curriculum. Everyday, after school we ambush that Warung, then we called “TeronX”(wtf!). Playing cards, or in my case I watching people playing cards then getting drunk. While in the other time I still digging music, it’s easier then because the CD & MP3 era came. And I start come to indie gigs twice a week, and I make friends from a fuckin pit! there. Local bands growth fast then, gigs and indie music start to intervere the mainstream. Their music starts play at MTV and Radio.

In HS, i live in 2 social spheres, at school and at gigs. They feed my certain personal dimension. School friends give me a kind of family-ish feeling, we eat together, we talking about life and girl together, we’re wasted together (6 hours before final exam we’re still wasted as fuck!). While gigs friends gave me a cultural experience and influence. It constructs my cultural taste, ie: I decide to being an Emo Kid as fuck. I listened to Emo bands, I dress like Emo bands, I scream at every Alone At Last shows, heartbreak like Emo kid, I writing devastated poems like Emo kid, and I start an Emo band. Yet, the most important is the 2 social spheres successfully distracting me from home, which I no longer knew with.

After finish HS I decided to take a moment to think about my future, so I not in hurry get into college. Like most of school-bonded HS alumni I pretty often still come to school. Thanks to our occupied Warung, so I always know where I should take shelter. 2 life changing things happened then. First, I met my first long last girlfriend. Second, I join a look-kinda-gonnabe-rockstar band. Not at once the two different interest got head-to-head!. Yet they’re still got along hand by hand. The girl is a freshman in my HS. So we’re separated generation. I met her at the first time when I have a meeting with my band near school. It’s a cliché that I have bigger guts as fuckin alumni to come to her, greeting and ask her phone number. Since then, a full week I spend my time with her and ask her to be my GF, and voila she accepted me. Soon I knew the reason she want to be my GF is because of the spreading news about me and my band. Our band is like HS hero then. Again, it’s a fuckin cliché. But, in fact even a cheesy reason could lead into a 7 years relationship. Strange huh!.

The band is another story. Lovely Lolita, we’re named it after a single of local shoegaze band The Milo, although our music is not a dot like them. So it all starts when I invited to featuring with one of my HS band at one single, which then listed into an indie compilation. Me and one of its guitar player thought we’re should making Emo project together. So we’re looking for another player, then we’re met a drummer who still a HS kiddos in my HS then. Then our band started with only 3 players. I took a role as Vocal and Bass then. We’re recorded a single demo and spread it on MySpace. Surprisingly, the acceptance is huge. So we’re playing from gigs to gigs. Our music evolving as our influences richen. So we’re thinking to have a bass player and I just focus on vocal. Then we’re being 4 player Metalcore/Post-Hardcore band. We’re record 3 more songs plus 1 song at the brink of our breakup. Our fans base growing bigger, we’re lined up in a big league gigs, and one of major Radio enlisted us as one of must watch indie band. So, it was a really fuckin 4 years of awesome time.

I took on college a year after I graduate from HS. I get a diploma program in state university in Bandung. I took Broadcasting major. It’s clear then I get on that major because of my “serious passion” in music industry. I thought, if I work in broadcasting company it’ll easier to “spot lighting” my band. But it’s not going well academically. My grade is average. It’s because soon I realize that I actually not into Broadcasting. At 20 I started to blown by books and thoughts. So that’s when the pseudo-criticize dimension of me started. One of my lecturer said that I suppose to took Political Science major. That’s be my battery to get off. Luckily my mom accepted it and get me into PolSci related Bachelor program in one of mediocre university. Although then financially we’re kind of broke. But that’s my mom, she push herself and eagerly sacrifice her life just to ensure her son not fail.

I start my second Uni almost 21. In contrary with what happened in primary, there my age are 2-3 years above average. So I always think it’s a setback. I try not to waste it since this is my second chance. Then I accelerating everything, my time overly consumed by reading books, writing paper, seminars, and other academic things. It’s obvious I left almost other thing behind. That’s moment I no longer dealt with music and band stuff. The path that seems like been written, the other player focus chasing their own project. So that left me with 1 thing, my girlfriend whom struggling enter a new life phase, college. At that point of life we’re destined to get along, our life line walk side by side. Struggling to graduate from school and find a decent job. We’re also financially not sufficient, so we take any after school job. I work for my Uncle as tour guide to pay my semester. From 21 to 24 my old social life melt into thin air, instead I make new friends with people in academic and activism circle. Which then I realize has huge contribution to shape my thought and mental.

Entering new social sphere shocked me mentally that time. I really change into someone I don’t even know. A skeptical and over-thought pseudo-academic person. You know, that asshole kind of person who ultra assuming their thought being original and super right. At that time I don’t feel comfortable hanging out with my music circle friends. So I totally left them. As a replacement, I’m diving deep into books and activism. Which I believe they are my “true” passion and moronically my life path. I really mean it that time, my writing published at prominent activism web site, presenting my thought at seminars and discussion, being part of mass demonstration, etc. With that load of activity I still finish college just in 3,5 years. And rightaway I don’t thinking about get a “formal” job anymore, so I decide to get a Master degree at the best state Uni in Indonesia. With my saving from part time job as tour guide I pay the administration. My mom doesn’t know that I already accepted at Master degree. Till when the school calendar is coming I tell mom that I going to Jogja for 2 years. My mom shocked. Not only by the fact that I choose to extend my school year, but also by the fact that I’m going to live away from home for a quite long time. So I say sayonara. I leave mom in confusion.

The Master year been super well for me, I got almost Suma Cumlaude at my first semester. My paper presented at Bangkok and Rangoon. Though, unfortunately I don’t get there to present them by myself. The problem is classic. I broke. My saving run out fast. Thanks to unplanned budgeting and excessive drunk habit. Plus I only got a little amount of money from writing project. So in the brink of the second semester I don’t have any money on my pocket. So that was my first experience being financially broke.

Somehow although with my academic achievements I don’t get any of scholarship. Even I mail my Rector then to ask tuition fee postponed, and no answer. So with that condition, at that time I don’t see any reason to stay in Jogja. So I back to Bandung with head facing down like the losing army march back from devastating battlefield. I already knew what I’m going to face, thousand mock. And that come from my own family. But I knew, I was wrong been took some huge decision spontaneously without any plan ahead. So I swallow the pills.

It’s been quite a time to stand on my feet once more. This is the second time I fail at college, the different is this time I fail not by my academic issue, but a god damn run out of cash. My heart break and I fall so deep haunted by my failure. But whatever it takes I should rerun my life. Fortunately one of my friend recommend me to his boss. He just built a research institution, so he hire people to work with him. And I got the job which is suits me. Not only the job, but also the office location, it’s in Bandung. So I work like a year there, until some shit happened again. The company declare bankruptcy!. For brief of time I still can live by some cash I save. But it doesn’t take long till I got broke, once more. So in such devastated time I randomly throw my CV to any open vacancy. I visit every job fair, I sent bunch of mail. What I get is nothing. It’s understandable now why it is happened. I am 26 then. While I wait for job interview, I took any work that I able to do. In example, I’ve been working as part time primary school teacher in my mom office. I teach Social. Then I begin to accept my condition. Yet I know I can do better. So I still connected with activist and academic circle. From the same circle, I met with the second girl I declare as a “serious” relationship. Actually she is not from that circle, but more like friend of my friend. We’re accidentally met at one café when I have a meeting about an event we’re going to run.

Friend of mine greets me with her, who eventually is one of that café share holder. I don’t know, but somehow we’re so easily connected. Our conversation last till the café close. And that is the start. From then we’re regularly meet and somehow our relationship up a level to “a relationship”. We’re thru a great days together. It is possible that our life line slightly different. She just graduate from college that time and I am a jobseeker cum part timer guy. That’s preconditioned us to can spend a lot of time together. But then I got the job in Jakarta and she work in Bandung. Even though we’re still regularly meet when she back her home in Jakarta, but our relationship start to tumble. It’s partly because I’m in adaptation phase with Jakarta and she just starting work in Jakarta. So our communication start dismissed. We’re lost in translation. And at 6 month of our relationship we’re decide to breaking up.

I get a quite decent and suit job in media industry. Since the break up I decide to focus on how to struggling in Jakarta, build my career Monday to Friday and have some reboot in Saturday and Sunday. At the same time I begin to fix my relationship with my family, one of the reason I start a worker life. But it’s not until the 6th month I work then I rethink about what am I wanted to achieve in Jakarta. So I start to redirect my life. And I thought I should save some cash to prepare my future. Yet I still don’t know what am I going to do with that cash. Then I remember one of line in an Indian clan movie, if I not mistaken it is Appache. At the closing, the main actor had a convo with his counterparts. They’re talking about land property ownership.

The whole movie highlighted the conflict between Indians and the invader to claim a land. One of the line got stuck in my head ever since, the chief Appache tell a young brave warrior that “ain’t a men without a land”. Thus when it comes to saving, I always thought that I should save my cash in property not a mere virtual digit in Bank Account. So I tell my mom and she support my idea. Then I went to developer and bank, they accepted my mortgage proposal. At 27 I mark a monumental decision to pay credit to bank for long years. So I start my 28 with years of credit on my back but property on my feet.

Now I’m 28. What does it means by being a 28?. That question keep buzzing me days before I turn a year older till now when I officially 28. Honestly I still don’t know the answer. But I just knew that it is the time that I should continue step my feet to the next phase of life. I should be more stabile, mentally and materially. So when the time to settle comes, I’ll be ready or at least prepared. How to do that?. Simply by fix a once broken thing back then and set timeline goals. So I set it up. Now I got my 2 year plan. If that realize, and it should, it would be another monumental life decision. I wish. May the lord open.*** Bandung 26 January 2018 Ps: Sorry if my grammar sucks. It’s unedited and I don’t give a fuck, tho!

[222daysoflight]

A Journey Through Kitee, Finland: Birthplace of Nightwish

So as some of you know and I’ve made a few random posts about, last December I visited Kitee, Finland, the birthplace of Nightwish and (arguably) of symphonic metal. I’ve been wanting to make a full post about it for a long time, but I really want to do it justice. It’s a long story, so I’ve put it under a cut, but I feel like there’s some good info in there.

I’m going to try to give it what it deserves, but the long and short of it is: Kitee’s the most magical place I’ve ever visited. And that’s not something I say lightly, or with anything but sincerity. I’ve been to a fair amount of places, but Kitee feels like nowhere else I’ve ever been.

I can see how it created something like Nightwish.

So, bits of background: Nightwish has been my favourite band since I was about 10. It was the first thing I remember ever autonomously liking, and I’ve pretty much always liked them with the intensity I do now, but I was very embarrassed about it and kept it a secret until I was about 16. Why that is is a different matter entirely, but my point in explaining this is to hammer home (as if the whole “Nightwish blog” didn’t do that already) is that Nightwish is something massively important and personal to me, and has been for more than half my life. Going to Kitee was like a pilgrimage.

Anyway, more practical things: I was in Europe in December. I had no intention of flying back to the States for Christmas, and I wanted to go somewhere. Ergo, Finland. Now, several years ago, in the early days of this blog, I was talking to someone who had gone to Kitee, and they had mentioned a name to me: Plamen Dimov. I found him on facebook and sent him a message asking if he would recommend some places to see in Kitee. He replied for me to text him the time my train would get into town, and he’d come pick me up.

So one cold December morning after Christmas, I got on a train from Joensuu, where I was staying, to Kitee, about a half hour south. I texted Plamen, got off the train, waited for everyone else to get into their cars and leave, and then approached the only car that remained.

It was the right car, fortunately, so I got in and introduced myself properly to Plamen Dimov. Essentially, his claim to fame is that he is the music teacher in the Kitee high school who originally taught Tarja, Tuomas, Emppu, Jukka, and Sami. He was instrumental in their earlier stuff, though since they’ve gotten bigger, he’s taken more of a step back. But (as I’ll talk about later) he’s still very close to Tuomas and the Holopainen family, and has, of course, taken on the role of tour guide to people who have somehow found his name and are juuuust obsessed enough to come to town.

He’s also a big, loud, intimidating Bulgarian man.That should definitely be noted. We realised afterwards that we hadn’t taken a picture together, and I regret that.

First stop after the train station was Plamen’s house, because he had lost the keys to the museum where all the Nightwish stuff was. On the way, he told me about how as kids around my age, the entire original lineup of Nightwish used to sleep at his house so that they could stay up together and finish the demo that would become Angels Fall First. 

It was there, he said, that they actually came up with the name Nightwish for the band, basing it off the song of the same name. I was thrilled to learn this, since I had been wondering about that for years and the internet was not forthcoming. Plamen eventually found his keys, and we left again.

Stop 2 was actually the local convenience store, because I’m not very smart and had not bought a return ticket to Joensuu, and apparently they sell out. When the lady checked, the last train with tickets available was the 6pm train. Plamen said it really wouldn’t take us that long and he had afternoon appointments. I said it was fine, I would just wander around for a while, and then we would meet up again and he would take me to the train. This ended up being a lovely bit of luck, but I didn’t know that yet.

Kitee is a tiny town. The municipality (also called Kitee) it’s in has a population of about 10 000, but the town itself is essentially just one street with shops on either side, clusteres of houses on little side streets, and then farms and lakes and forests. Your classic small town, at first glance.

And Plamen knew everybody. Before we even made it to the museum, he had already stopped three times to chat with random people. He’s large and sort of scary looking, but also very, very friendly and charismatic. He also seemed to take great joy in interrupting his Finnish conversation to go “and this my visiting Canadian!” while pointing at me. This didn’t really ease how intimidated I was by him, but y’know, that’s just my personality.

Eventually though we did make it to the museum, which was an old barn converted for the purpose. We went in, and it had apparently originally been a museum about logging in the area, but Nightwish stuff was slowly starting to creep its way down the stairs to probably take over the building. 

The upstairs area, as it were, was already cramped with artefacts in cases (for the ones that really couldn’t be left out in an uninsulated barn), and sort of roughly organised in another area (for the things that could get a bit cold or wet). And it was small, don’t get me wrong-- this isn’t a high-budget operation, and Kitee is a tiny town to have anything that big-- but it was fascinating what was in there. All of the editions of all of the albums. The original lyric sheet for “Eva”. The original artwork for the cover of Century Child. The certifications for when the albums had gone silver, gold, platinum. There was even a poster, inexplicably, from the Nightwish show that I had been to in Toronto two years prior. 

Frankly, even despite its mediocre organisation and small size, it was a little bit overwhelming. It was like everything that had been so important in my life all in one room.

(I blame my poor photography skills on glare)

Plamen let me look around for a bit, then asked me what my favourite Nightwish album was. My answer for that is actually about four pages long, but I just said Once, because that’s the conclusion of those four pages.

On the way out he had me sign a guestbook, which was pretty fun to leaf through. It wasn’t signed very often, but the places that people had come from were pretty amazing: Mexico, Brazil, Japan, all over Europe. I put in my own name and a nice word in for Montreal, and then we left.

Next stop was the Kitee high school, which I thought was strange, but it turns out that Finnish high schools have recording studios in their basements (don’t tell me if not all Finnish high schools do, I want to believe), and that all of the Nightwish albums until Dark Passion Play were recorded in said high school basement. I think it’s technically called “Caverock” or something, but it’s totally just a recording studio below a school.

Now, this is the only recording studio I’ve ever actually been into, but from my inexperienced perspective (and you can tell me yes or no from the pictures) but that place is swanky. There were a few rooms that you sort of snaked through, but eventually you made it to the back, where there was what I would call a Nightwish shrine.

This thing is huge, and filled with signatures. It was sort of like the guestbook, but it had all of the members of Nightwish, their families, their crew, everybody who was important or had visited the town where it all began. Plamen gave me a marker and I dutifully added my name, country of origin, and date to the shrine. Not gonna lie, I felt a little bit proud with my name there alongside everyone else’s.

Then Plamen opened up a little storage closet, pushed aside some cleaning supplies, and pulled out a microphone. I know I already posted this once, but I just feel like it bears repeating.

P: Here, it’s the microphone Tarja used to record Once. Want to hold it? Me: Oh god no, I’m going to break it. P: You’re not going to break it, it’s already broken Me: No no, I’m going to break it more P: ... Just take it

And so I held the microphone used to record Once, my favourite Nightwish album, the one that Rolling Stone said was really good or something. It was just a broken microphone, but I think you can tell be the look on my face. I was absolutely smitten.

So when we were looking at the shrine wall, Plamen had pointed out the signature of John Finburg. He’s Nightwish’s North American tour manager, and if you’re from North America and have seen Nightwish or various others before, he runs the ticket ordering service Enter the Vault. And, much like his ticket ordering service, John Finburg is terrible. Horribly misogynistic and racist. I don’t want to get too much into it here (or why people use him), but my point is that he’s a scummy human being and I hate him with a passion.

I don’t know why, but as we were walking back to the car, I mentioned this to Plamen. He turned back to me and looked sort of angry, and I was afraid I had said something bad, but I was wrong. I will never forget what he said next:

“John Finburg is a giant piece of shit. The way he treats women-- I told him, if you lay a hand on any one of the girls, I will kill you.”

Needless to say, Plamen and I got along swimmingly after that.

We got back into the car and drove for a while after that.The above picture is the very far edge of the Meadows of Heaven, which is apparently an actual place and not just a metaphor in a song (which I had always assumed). I wish I had a better picture, but they were on the left and Plamen’s head was in the way, but essentially it’s just this huuuuge open meadow, dark pine trees behind it, lake just barely visible in the distance. It was covered in snow because of the time of year, and Plamen said it was absolutely beautiful in summer, filled with wildflowers and the like.I don’t know, I thought it was pretty with the snow on it.

All the while Plamen chatted, giving interesting tidbits about Finland, which I found fascinating but isn’t worth relaying here. But, once we had bonded  over our mutual hatred of John Finburg (or something), he also started to talk about other Nightwish things, especially Tuomas. About how he had once had to pull a girl off Tuomas and then talk her down. About that girl who had tried to get Tuomas to sign a marriage certificate. And how Tuomas had had to set up security around his house, because of people figuring out where he lived then going there (???). I asked if my belief was correct, that Tuomas is just a quiet Finnish man who would just like to write music in peace. The answer to that is yes.

Oh, and also, Plamen loves Floor. Obviously he had a special connection with Tarja, and he liked Anette, but he was on my page that Floor is a perfect fit for the band.

“Before with the other two, they were always a band and a soloist, a band and a soloist,” he said. “Now, with Floor, they’re just a band.”

Eventually, we stopped and got out of the car at the above house. Plamen explained that it was the Holopai’s house, Tuomas’ parents, and that they weren’t home at the time otherwise they would probably love to come out and meet me (Tuomas’ uncle/godfather lives in the red house to the side, hence the footprints). So I was like okay, cool, Tuomas grew up really really far from everything. We were about 10km from the Russian border, in pretty much the middle of nowhere.

Then Plamen lead me down a little path that went to the edge of the lake, looking out over the quiet, frozen emptiness.

“Over there, on that island,” he said,

“was where the idea for Nightwish was born.”

I took the picture, the sun (kindly) cooperating with me, and then I just... stood there. I stood there and stared for a long time. Plamen silently smoked a cigarette behind me, letting me be all weird and caught up in the mythos of it all. Do I really believe that Nightwish started there? I’m not sure. But it’s a nice story, and that’s what Nightwish is all about, right?

After a while, Plamen came back to stand by me again. Some dogs had started barking in the distance, and Plamen asked me if I knew what that meant. I said no.

“Wolves,” he said simply.

It was a few more senconds, and then there was the distinctive howl of a wolf, silencing all the dogs. It was one of the oddest things I had ever experienced. Absolutely eerie.

We stopped a few other places, but nowhere particularly worth noting in this already very long post. As I said, my train didn’t arrive for several more hours, and Plamen had some afternoon commitments, so we drove to the supermarket parking lot and he dropped me off. I said I was okay to just wander around a few hours, that I was used to the cold. He told me that if anything came up, I was supposed to go into the pizzeria and say “puhelin Plamen” (which means “telephone Plamen,” but like it’s being said by a child who doesn’t understand grammar). I agreed, and he drove off.

So then I had several hours to kill in a town that only had one road. I went into the supermarket to get some food, because it was around lunch time. For some reason, this supermarket had a music section, and so I waltzed on in and looked at some of the titles. Normal stuff, mostly-- all the Nightwish CDs-- and all organised in alphabetical order, like normal.

Except when I got to the letter “T”, I found this:

I don’t know why I found this little thing so strange, but I did. That CD should not have been classed under “T”, it should be under “H” for Holopainen. And yet it most definitely was not. I didn’t take a picture in the store, but I did stand there for a long while, thinking to myself how weird it was. Tuomas was so normal in that town, it would have been unusual to put his own album under his last name.

I didn’t own Life and Times of Scrooge, so I bought it along with my weird bagel things* and some hummus, and then set back out into the day, not really knowing what I was going to do.

It wasn’t a cold day at all, compared to some of those I’ve experienced in Montreal. Still, it was hovering around -4 C, and I didn’t have my proper winter gear with me, so it was a bit chilly. Plus, the minute I left the store, it started to snow as well, which was not helped by the fact that none of my clothes were waterproof. But it wasn’t wholly unpleasant, as far as days go, especially given December in Finland. Plus I was eager to explore.

As mentioned, Kitee “downtown” is just one street, so I decided it best to go out into the “outskirts” a bit. Being a proper wannabe goth (tm), the first place this lead me to was a series of graveyards. For a town of so few, Kitee has A LOT of graveyards, and you can make of that what you will with regards to Nightwish. 

Next order of business was weird abandoned mill thing. Look, I have no idea, I had time to kill, and have a terrible sense of self preservation. I went through some of the outbuildings, with most everything being too dark to photograph and I just... I don’t know what this place was, really. One of the places seemed like a house, abandoned and with its door gaping open, with snow blowing in. Like nobody cared.

However, when I reached the far edge of the mill-area, I realised that there was, in fact, an occupied building on the property, and that there were lights on in it. I was fairly certain that I wasn’t supposed to be there. If I got caught I doubted I’d be able to explain myself, and I was too far from the pizzeria for me to emergency call Plamen for Finnish help.

So I bolted into the woods.

This was, perhaps, a mistake.

Now you see, the entirety of Kitee is surrounded by forest on the edge of a lake, so I knew that is I kept the lake in my sights I would be able to find my way back into the town. This is an excellent theory. However, as I mentioned, I didn’t have proper snow gear, and while my boots were okay and I had tucked my socks correctly, there was probably 8 inches of the snow on the ground in the forest, beautiful and pristine and utterly impossible to walk through.

But I had committed, and I didn’t really want to turn back and risk having anyone ask me questions. So I set off again, this time slogging through the woods.

I was never lost, per se, but I didn’t really know where I was going. I always kept the lake at my side, and knew I would get there eventually. At one point I ended up alongside a freeway before going back into the woods. It would snow, then stop, then snow again. Things were starting to melt onto me.

But I didn’t really care. As I walked along-- sometimes finding paths, sometimes through the woods-- it was the weirdest feeling. Like I was just suuuper aware of my surroundings, of the silence, of everything, and it was all... pleasant. Like when you’re warm and cozy in bed with the knowledge you don’t have to be anywhere for a little bit. I don’t like to bandy about words like magical, but that’s the closest I can come to describing it.

There would sometimes be weird little bits of life left behind in the woods, like this chimney with nothing else still visible around it. Sometimes there would be things like the freeway or a house. But for the most part, it was just trees, and snow, and views like the picture above this one, of a vast, frozen lake.

It may sound boring, the way I’ve described it. Snow and trees and ruined structures. But that’s not how I felt, and I think the most telling thing was that I didn’t listen to anything. Ever since I got my first iPod nearing on ten years ago, I’ve had headphones in constantly. I probably listen to about 5 hours of music a day, on average. It’s a compulsion, and has to do with some mental health issues that I won’t get into, but suffice it to say that I usually get very stressed if I’m out and not listening to music.

But walking through those woods, for pretty much the first time since I was 12, I didn’t feel the need to listen to music. Not Nightwish, not anything. Actually, at one point I put my headphones in, then took them out again, because it felt so wrong. 

It sounds sort of silly, all typed out. “Kitee cured my anxiety,” or whatever. But it felt real at the time, and I swear to god, there something weird about that place. Maybe it was all in my head, but hey, so is the music, in the end.

I did eventually make it back to town, crossing through a metal pipe under the freeway (?) and eventually seeing the main stretch. It was pretty dark at that point, too, so I was pretty glad when I saw the entrance to town and the glow of the ABC minimart/gas station in the distance.

(don’t forget to rake your tits)

Plamen had suggested that if I got too cold I could go into the minimart to wait for him, and I felt like that was just what I needed. I went, got a coffee, and sat at a table in a far corner. There was wifi, so I made this post, and checked some stuff, but mostly I just wrote all of this down, everything that had happened, but mostly about how fucking weird I felt.

I listening to old men play slot machines and teenagers fuck around two tables over from me. I watched as cars drove by in the dark. Life went on while I was having a very small existential crisis with some mediocre coffee in a gas station.

As such, I managed to accidentally miss the time that I was supposed to meet Plamen back in the supermarket parking lot, and had to run to get back there. I was only a few minutes late, but he was extremely worried about me, even though I had plenty of time before my train.

Anyway, his son Nikolai had for some reason tagged along to drive me back to the station, but honestly I was very glad for the company. Things seemed more normal with them there, and we talked and laughed about languages, and Canada and Finland, and metal and circus. They told me to come back again anytime, but especially in the summer, as that was when things got really beautiful. I thanked Plamen and said goodbye to Nikolai, and got out to wait for my now-late train.

The lake wasn’t frozen over back up in Joensuu. I don’t know why. The next day I was back to listening to music again, exploring Joensuu and the woods there, but it wasn’t quite the same. Nothing was quite the same, and part of me doubts that I’ll ever find anything else that is.

There’s something weird about Kitee, and it’s not just Nightwish. And I really, really like it.

*if ANYONE knows what the weird bagel things are, I will love you forever. They’re more like rings of dough, so the hole in the centre is huge, and they’re a lot sweeter than normal bagels. I think I ate about 4 a day when I was in Joensuu, but I cannot for the life of me remember what they are called.

[rhondanicole]

Color U Peach & Black: Prince’s ‘Sign O’ the Times’ Turns 30 (Part 2, Disc 2)

Prince’s critically-acclaimed Sign O’ the Times first graced our eardrums on March 31, 1987, and has been rocking us thusly ever since. The album’s first disc (or, if you’re truly ol’ skool, sides one and two of the first record) starts off with one of Prince’s most politically jarring tunes of the decade (possibly beating out Dirty Mind’s anti-war anthem “Party Up” and Controversy’s Cold War post-punk gem, “Ronnie Talk 2 Russia”) and closes with perhaps one of his most openly vulnerable love songs to date. It’s only right--and Princely--for the second disc to kick into high gear with an ode to the beautiful ones, “U Got the Look.”

Disc Two

With a vocal assist from ‘80s pop phenom Sheena Easton (who had earned herself quite a following earlier in the decade with gorgeous tunes like “Morning Train,” “For Your Eyes Only,” and “Almost Over You;” and whose good girl image got a purple makeover when Prince [as Alexander Nevermind] penned the salaciously marvelous and controversial “Sugar Walls” for her 1984 release, A Private Heaven), Camille makes another appearance sharing leads on this Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper. Taking us through the splendid story of boy meeting girl in “the World Series of love,” “U Got the Look” finds our darling Prince/Camille being awakened by a pretty thing as she walks in, and the chase ensues. (Was he asleep in the club though?) Crucial.

As the ugly lights click on and Prince and his object of affection fade into the next track, Camille sticks around for the album’s second single, “If I Was Your Girlfriend.” As Camille pleads to be loved with the kind of intimacy women often reserve for and share with their closest girlfriends, the song’s slinky, hypnotic groove more than hints at its lyrical preoccupation with gender fluidity and traditional, heteronormative roles. R&B trio TLC released a well-received version of the song on their multi-platinum album, 1994′s Crazy Sexy Cool, but for many a die hard Prince fan the song didn’t quite work precisely because the whole point of it was how the male/masculine narrative questioned long-held notions and concepts of gender and identity. 

Track three on disc two, “Strange Relationship,” was originally recorded in the early ‘80s and initially intended for the ambitious but ultimately shelved Dream Factory album. A Wendy and Lisa-produced Middle Eastern-inspired iteration of the song, complete with sitar and finger cymbals, made it onto Dream Factory and can certainly be found in die hard fans’ collections, but the final version for SOTT falls comfortably into the funk/soul vibe of the album. “Strange Relationship” is the aural poster child for dysfunctional partnerships everywhere: “Baby, I just can’t stand 2 see u happy/more than that, I hate 2 see u sad/honey if u left me I just might do something rash...” Had it been released for the first time in 2017, the song surely would’ve triggered a rash of think pieces. #HurtBae

“I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man” is a slice of delicious pop rock, also originally recorded in the early ‘80s and re-worked for SOTT. In the song, Prince spins a yarn about a lovelorn woman whose raggedy ass man “left her with a baby and another one on the way,” and who is looking for a new man and wonders if he may be up to the task. Prince assures her that, while he “may be qualified for a one-night stand,” he could really never fill the space left by the one who got away. Prince admits he feels for the woman, but guarantees she wouldn’t be satisfied with the kind of hit and run situation that would probably come of their coupling.

As with any Prince album, where there is sex, there is God. For SOTT, the spiritual pivot happens towards the end of the second set, with “The Cross.” A simple melody that finds Prince crooning, “don’t die without knowing the cross,” the song’s somber acoustic instrumentation carries throughout as he tells of “ghettos 2 the left of us, flowers 2 the right” and a “sweet song of salvation a pregnant mother sings,” and promises “there’ll be bread for all of us if we can just bear the cross.” The tune climaxes as crescendoes with a gritty electric guitar pick up, classic rock drums, and a chorus of Prince’s stacked vocals before it falls softly once again at its end. In later years, once he got free and changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol, he’d substitute “The Christ” for the original lyric when performing the song live, serving notice to the audience that he no longer had to hide his faith behind clever word play. 

By far the most kinetic song on the album, “It’s Gonna Be a Beautiful Night” was recorded live at Le Zénith in Paris with the original and expanded Revolution during the Parade tour, and overdubbed later for an even fuller sound. As Prince leads “6,000 wonderful Parisians” in the familiar “ow wee oh/ohhhh” chant while Eric Leeds and Atlanta Bliss kick off the song with the now-iconic opening horn riff (which Leeds, who composed and arranged the horn line, brilliantly transferred to a t-shirt not long after Prince’s death last year), you feel the excitement rushing through the crowd all those years ago. Sheila E.’s infamous “trans-Mississippi rap” and one of the greatest band brags of all time, Prince singing “can’t nobody fuck with us,” round out the nearly 10-minute work out.

Closing out disc 2 and the Sign O’ the Times experience is “Adore,” a sensual ballad that anyone coming of age and/or grown in the late 1980s most definitely included on their slow jams mixtape (which, of course, was an actual cassette tape). Although never released as an official single from the album, the song made its way to urban A/C Quiet Storm radio programs across the country and stands as one of Prince’s finest love songs. A perfect complement to disc one’s “Forever in My Life,” “Adore” seals the deal, promising that “until the end of time, I’ll be there 4 u.” Assuring his beloved that the angels “know u r my fix” and that he “ain’t fuckin’ just for kicks,” the song finds Prince putting in some serious work on the organ. Buoyed by stunning vocal arrangements, Eric Leeds’ sublime sax, and lyrics that simply melt one’s heart, “Adore” may reign as the star of the entire show. And in the wake of Prince’s untimely passing, the words “4 all time I am with u, u r with me” seem to take on new meaning.

Dream Factory, Camille, Crystal Ball

One of the more curious pieces of trivia surrounding the album that would become Sign O’ the Times are the albums that never came to be, but whose songs make up a significant portion of SOTT’s track listing. “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker,” “Strange Relationship,” “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man,” “Starfish and Coffee,” “Slow Love,” “Sign o’ the Times,” and “The Cross” were all originally intended for Dream Factory; the album would have been the first time Prince involved all of The Revolution members in the writing and composing process. 

The Camille album, which was to be released under the pseudonym, is said to have been pieced together not long after Prince disbanded The Revolution. Still, the album would have potentially included songs from Dream Factory that eventually wound up on SOTT. 

Crystal Ball was the original name for SOTT, and began as a three-album release that was eventually slimmed down to the two-album/two-disc set that became Sign O’ the Times. That, of course, was not the end of Crystal Ball, however. In 1998, just a little over a year after the 3-disc Emancipation release, The Artist gifted fans with a 5-disk compilation set entitled Crystal Ball whose first 3 discs contained the title track (initially meant for Dream Factory), “Dream Factory,” and a slew of previously unreleased tracks from Dream Factory (”Movie Star,” “Last Heart”) and Camille (”Good Love”); remixes and alternate versions of songs from Come (”So Dark”), tracks that didn’t make the final cut of The Gold Experience (”Rippopgodazippa,” “Acknowledge Me”), and numerous other non-album singles recorded between the mid-1980s and late ‘90s; and “Crucial,” which was intended for SOTT but swapped for “Adore.” The set’s remaining discs were the all-acoustic The Truth and the NPG Orchestra’s Kamasutra, which was billed as a ballet written for Mayte.

--Rhonda Nicole

[pegastarstudios]

What the fuck is a tally hall

Tally Hall is an American indie rock band formed in December 2002 and based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The band has a relatively significant cult following, and is known for upbeat melodies and whimsical lyrics; the band members once described their musical style as “wonky rock” and “fabloo rock”.[1]

Tally Hall has five members, distinguished by the color of their neckties: vocalist and guitarist Rob Cantor (yellow), vocalist and bassist Zubin Sedghi (blue), vocalist and guitarist Joe Hawley (red), drummer Ross Federman (gray), and vocalist and keyboardist Andrew Horowitz (green).

Once under the Atlantic Records recording label, Tally Hall was, again, signed to indie label Quack!Media,[2] who previously helped finance and nationally distribute their debut studio album, Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum. They released their second album, Good & Evil, on June 21, 2011.[3] Pre-orders were given a digital download from Quack to compensate for the time it took for the physical copy to be delivered.

Early years

Often recognized by their trademark colored ties, Cantor (yellow-vocals/guitar), Sedghi (blue-vocals/bass), Federman (gray-percussion), Hawley (red-vocals/guitar), and Horowitz (green-vocals/keys) make up Tally Hall, which got its start in 2002. Horowitz, the only member not originally from Michigan, began writing songs when he was eight years old, and eventually headed to the University of Michigan to study composition. There he met Cantor, who had both attended high school with Sedghi and joined Hawley’s film production group. When Tally Hall’s original drummer left the band, they recruited Federman, who had gone to high school with Hawley.

The name “Tally Hall” comes from its use as the name of an indoor shopping plaza on Orchard Lake Road in Farmington Hills, Michigan. Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum, the arcade whose name shares the title of their debut album, remains there, though the shopping center has changed names.

In 2005, the band released their debut studio album, Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum.

The band has received national media attention, performing their song “Good Day” on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on August 2, 2006, as well as appearing in MTV’s segment You Hear It First in September 2006.[4] The band appeared at the 2007 South by Southwest Music Festival. On August 3, 2008, Tally Hall was a performer on the BMI stage at Lollapalooza.

Tally Hall was invited back by The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on September 16, 2008, to help promote the launch of Tally Hall’s Internet Show. They performed “Welcome to Tally Hall” in newly donned black vests over top of their traditional colored ties, white shirts, and black pants.[5]

The band worked on several projects after the completion of Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum, including covering the song “Smile Like You Mean It” by The Killers for the sixth The O.C. soundtrack: Music from the OC: Mix 6.

The band re-released Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum on April 1, 2008, with their new record label, Atlantic Records after some re-recording and re-mixing.

Tours and Good & Evil

On September 9, 2009, Hidden in the Sand (HITS), a prominent Tally Hall fan site, broke the news that Tally Hall was going to release a collaborative song, featuring Nellie McKay, which would be released as a free download from mp3.walmart.com when customers of Walmart purchased a book called The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo.[6] The book had been made available for purchase earlier that day. The same day, HITS reported the title of the song, “Light & Night”, along with a short audio clip of it in another update.[7]

In their 2010 March tour with Jukebox the Ghost and Skybox, it was reported that Joe Hawley had unexpectedly backed out of the tour. Hawley was replaced with Casey Shea, who wore a black tie. On March 25, 2011, the band announced that all five original band members were still together.[8]

The band was managed by The Hornblow Group, who also manages They Might Be Giants, OK Go, and Oppenheimer, until 2010, when Tally Hall changed management to Stiletto Entertainment, who manages Barry Manilow, in addition to several other solo performance acts.[9][10]

With the release of Good & Evil, Tally Hall returned to their original label, Quack!Media.[2]

Post-Good & Evil

After the release of Good & Evil, the band became inactive, and all of its members went on to more or less independent endeavors.

Horowitz, under the moniker “edu”, released a solo album called sketches in 2012. He also was involved in production and piano on John Legend’s Love in the Future.[11]

Hawley returned to school, but released an album, Hawaii: Part II, as part of his musical side project ミラクルミュージカル (Miracle Musical). He collaborated with Tally Hall members Sedghi, Federman, and Cantor on the album. Hawley later released Hawaii: Part II: Part ii, a compilation of outtakes and demos of the original album.

Cantor released his solo album, Not a Trampoline, on April 14, 2014.[12] In addition, he has made several viral videos on YouTube, including “SHIA LABEOUF” and “29 Celebrity Impressions, 1 Original Song - Rob Cantor”.

Federman has made occasional appearances as producer, percussionist, and DJ with the pseudonym “Mr. F”, although his main focus has been school. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a 4.0 science GPA, and is attending Yale University for grad school. Sedghi, aside from appearing in Hawaii: Part II, has simply stayed in school.[13]

In mid-2016, Joe Hawley announced his new hip-hop album “Joe Hawley Joe Hawley”, which was released October of that year.

Videos

In addition to music, the band has also created numerous movies. These movies include both music videos and humorous skits. The best known of these videos is the music video for “Banana Man”, which resulted in significant publicity among online users visiting the website Albino Blacksheep, along with “The Bidding”, another popular title by the group.

Corresponding with their single “Good Day”, released on February 26, 2008, the band released a music video for the song on YouTube.

In August 2008, the band performed a three-song live video set for LiveDaily Sessions, including the songs “Good Day”, “Be Born”, and “Greener”,[14] which premiered on August 28, 2008. They have appeared on Fearless Music several times, playing songs such as “Be Born”, “Ruler of Everything”, “Misery Fell”, “Good Day”, and “Banana Man”. These recordings can be found on YouTube.

In July 2014, band member Rob Cantor released a video in which he seemed to perform his song “Perfect” by singing spot-on impressions of 29 celebrities. In the video, Cantor is accompanied by another band member, Andrew Horowitz, on piano and backing vocals. The video received more than 7,000,000 hits in 10 days. Shortly thereafter, Cantor revealed the video to be an elaborate hoax.[15]

Tally Hall’s Internet Show

Taking on an even larger role within the band’s video portfolio was the ten part bi-weekly variety-show series Tally Hall’s Internet Show (T.H.I.S.), which debuted on September 15, 2008. Each episode ran 10 minutes long and was posted on their website. The content primarily included comedy sketches and music videos.

With the release of Tally Hall’s Internet Show in September 2008, it became clear that many music videos would be released within the Internet Show. “Good Day” was the first music video to be seen in episode one. Other music videos include “Welcome to Tally Hall”, “Two Wuv”, “The Whole World and You”, “Greener”, “Ruler of Everything”, and “Hidden in the Sand”.

Episode List

Good Day (September 15, 2008) – 9:24

Death Request (September 29, 2008) – 11:35

Taken for a Ride (October 13, 2008) – 9:17

Welcome to Tally Hall (October 27, 2008) – 11:37

Who Cares (November 10, 2008) – 9:24

Mary-Kate And Ashley (November 24, 2008) – 10:31

15 Seconds of Bora (December 8, 2008) – 9:08

The Whole World and You (December 22, 2008) – 11:06

Potato Vs. Spoon (January 5, 2009) – 8:32

Good Night (January 19, 2009) – 10:53

Band members

Current members

Rob Cantor (Yellow tie) – Guitar and vocals

Ross Federman (Grey tie) – Drums (2004–present)

Joe Hawley (Red tie) – Guitar and vocals

Andrew Horowitz (Green tie) – Keyboards and vocals

Zubin Sedghi (Blue tie) – Bass and vocals

Additional touring members

Casey Shea (Black Tie) – Guitar and Vocals (March 2010 Tour)

Bora Karaca (Orange Tie) - Keyboard, accordion, whistles, acoustic guitar (Good & Evil Tour, Summer 2011)

Past members

Steve Gallagher (Grey tie) – Drums (2002–2004)

Discography

Studio albums

Complete Demos (2004) (Independent)

Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum (2005) (Quack!Media) (Re-released in 2008 on Atlantic Records)

Good & Evil (2011) (Quack!Media)

Singles

“Good Day – Single” (2008) (Atlantic Records)

“Light & Night” (featuring Nellie McKay) (2009) (N/A)

“You & Me” (2011) (Quack!Media)

“&” (2011) (Quack!Media)

EPs

Partyboobytrap (2003) (Independent)

Welcome To Tally Hall (2004) (Independent)

The Pingry EP (2005) (Independent)

Compilations/Soundtracks

Music from the OC: Mix 6 (2006)

The Sims 2: Apartment Life (2008)

Admittedly Incomplete Demos (2015) (Independent)

In other media

Tally Hall’s “Banana Man” was featured on The Real World: Key West. The song “The Whole World and You” can be heard in a commercial for Crayola’s 3D Sidewalk Chalk.[16] In addition, the song “Mucka Blucka” was used in the 4th season premiere of The Good Wife.

Hope this helps

[club-tropicana]

Thanks, can you copy and paste some things from the link? Sorry for asking in advance btw, sometimes an security certificate warning pops up on my tablet and scares me away, I once went to a site multiple times despite this and my tablet froze on the Internet and I had to refresh the app and close out the site. so I'm kinda vigilant about going on certain websites, apologies again in advance. x ~ Jacqi

It’s alright! I can paste all of them here, but I’ll put it under a read more because it’s long.

1.His full name was Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou.

2. He was born on June 25, 1963.

3. George Michael was born in East Finchley, London.  His father, Kyriacos Panayiotou, a Greek Cypriot restaurateur, moved to England in the 1950s and changed his name to Jack Panos. Michael’s mother, Lesley Angold (née Harrison; 1937–1997), was an English dancer; his maternal grandmother was Jewish.

4. Michael spent the majority of his childhood in Kingsbury, London, in the home his parents bought soon after his birth; he attended Kingsbury High School.

5. While in his early teens, the family moved to Radlett, Hertfordshire. There, Michael attended Bushey Meads School in the neighbouring town of Bushey, where he befriended his future Wham! partner Andrew Ridgeley.

6. The two had the same career ambition of being musicians.[10] Michael would busk on the London Underground, performing songs such as “’39” by Queen.

7. His involvement in the music business began with his working as a DJ, playing at clubs and local schools around Bushey, Stanmore, and Watford. This was followed by the formation of a short-lived ska band called the Executive, with Ridgeley, Ridgeley’s brother Paul, Andrew Leaver, and David Mortimer (later known as David Austin

8. George Michael formed the duo Wham! with Andrew Ridgeley in 1981. The band’s first album Fantastic reached No. 1 in the UK in 1983 and produced a series of top 10 singles including “Young Guns”, “Wham Rap!” and “Club Tropicana”.

9. Their second album, Make It Big, reached No. 1 on the charts in the US. Singles from that album included “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” (No. 1 in the UK and US), “Freedom”, “Everything She Wants”, and “Careless Whisper” which reached No. 1 in nearly 25 countries, including the UK and US, and was Michael’s first solo effort as a single.

10. George Michael sang on the original Band Aid recording of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” (which became the UK Christmas number one) and donated the profits from “Last Christmas/Everything She Wants” to charity.

11. He also contributed background vocals to David Cassidy’s 1985 hit “The Last Kiss”, as well as Elton John’s 1985 successes “Nikita” and “Wrap Her Up”.

12. Michael cited Cassidy as a major career influence and interviewed Cassidy for David Litchfield’s Ritz Newspaper.

13. Wham!’s tour of China in April 1985, the first visit to China by a Western popular music act, generated worldwide media coverage, much of it centred on Michael.

14. Before Wham!’s appearance in China, many kinds of music in the country were forbidden. The audience included members of the Chinese government, and Chinese television presenter, Kan Lijun.  The tour was documented by film director Lindsay Anderson and producer Martin Lewis in their film Foreign Skies: Wham! In China.

15, With the success of Michael’s solo singles, “Careless Whisper” (1984) and “A Different Corner” (1986), rumours of an impending break up of Wham! intensified.

16. The duo officially separated in 1986, after releasing a farewell single, “The Edge of Heaven” and a singles compilation, The Final, plus a sell-out concert at Wembley Stadium that included the world premiere of the China film.

17. The Wham! partnership ended officially with the commercially successful single “The Edge of Heaven”, which reached No. 1 on the UK chart in June 1986.

18. The beginning of his solo career, during early 1987, was a duet with Aretha Franklin. “I Knew You Were Waiting” was a one-off project that helped Michael achieve an ambition by singing with one of his favourite artists, and it scored number one on both the UK Singles Chart and the US Billboard Hot 100 upon its release

19. For Michael, it became his third consecutive solo number one in the UK from three releases, after 1984’s “Careless Whisper” (though the single was actually from the Wham! album Make It Big) and 1986’s “A Different Corner”.

20. The single was also the first Michael had recorded as a solo artist which he had not written himself.

21. The co-writer, Simon Climie, was unknown at the time, although he would have success as a performer with the band Climie Fisher in 1988. Michael and Aretha Franklin won a Grammy Award in 1988 for Best R&B Performance – Duo or Group with Vocal for the song

22. In late 1987, Michael released his debut solo album, Faith. In addition to playing a large number of instruments on the album, he wrote and produced every track on the recording, except for one, which he co-wrote.

23. The first single released from the album was “I Want Your Sex”, in mid-1987. The song was banned by many radio stations in the UK and US, due to its sexually suggestive lyrics.

25. MTV broadcast the video, featuring celebrity make-up artist Kathy Jeung in a basque and suspenders, only during the late night hours.

26. Some radio stations played a toned-down version of the song, “I Want Your Love”, with the word “love” replacing “sex”.

27. When “I Want Your Sex” reached the US charts, American Top 40 host Casey Kasem refused to say the song’s title, referring to it only as “the new single by George Michael.” In the US, the song was also sometimes listed as “I Want Your Sex (from Beverly Hills Cop II)”, since the song was featured on the soundtrack of the movie.  Despite censorship and radio play problems, “I Want Your Sex” reached No. 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and No. 3 in the UK.

28. The second single, “Faith”, was released in October 1987, a few weeks before the album. “Faith” became one of his most popular songs. The song hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US and maintained that position for four consecutive weeks.

29. It also reached No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart.[13] The video provided some definitive images of the 1980s music industry in the process—Michael in shades, leather jacket, cowboy boots, and Levi’s jeans, playing a guitar near a classic-design jukebox.

30. On 30 October, Faith was released in the UK and in several markets worldwide. In the United States, the album had 51 non-consecutive weeks in the top 10 of Billboard 200, including 12 weeks at No. 1. Faith had many successes, with four singles (“Faith”, “Father Figure”, “One More Try”, and “Monkey”) reaching No. 1 in the US.

31. In 1988, Michael embarked on a world tour. In Los Angeles, Michael was joined on stage by Aretha Franklin for “I Knew You Were Waiting”. It was the second highest grossing event of 1988, earning $17.7 million.

32. In February 1989, Faith won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year at the 31st Grammy Awards. At the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards on 6 September in Los Angeles, Michael received the Video Vanguard Award.

33. According to Michael in his film, A Different Story, success did not make him happy and he started to think there was something wrong in being an idol for millions of teenage girls. The whole Faith process (promotion, videos, tour, awards) left him exhausted, lonely and frustrated, and far from his friends and family.

34. “Freedom ’90” was the second of only two of its singles to be supported by a music video (the other being the Michael-less “Praying for Time”). The song alludes to his struggles with his artistic identity, and prophesied his efforts shortly thereafter to end his recording contract with Sony Music

35. As if to prove the song’s sentiment, Michael refused to appear in the video (directed by David Fincher), and instead recruited supermodels Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Tatjana Patitz, and Cindy Crawford to appear in and lip sync in his stead. It also featured the reduction of his sex symbol status.

36. At the 1991 Brit Awards, Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 won the award for Best British Album.

37. George Michael performed at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert on 20 April 1992 at London’s Wembley Stadium.  The concert was a tribute to the life of the late Queen frontman, Freddie Mercury, with the proceeds going to AIDS research.

38. In his last ever radio interview Mercury had praised Michael adding that he loved his track “Faith”.

39. At the age of 19, Michael told Andrew Ridgeley and close friends that he was bisexual. Michael also told one of his two sisters, but he was advised by friends not to tell his parents about his sexuality.

40. In a 1999 interview with The Advocate, Michael told the Editor in Chief, Judy Wieder, that it was “falling in love with a man that ended his conflict over bisexuality”. “I never had a moral problem with being gay”, Michael told Wieder. “I thought I had fallen in love with a woman a couple of times. Then I fell in love with a man, and realized that none of those things had been love.”

41. In 2007, Michael said he had hidden the fact he was gay because of worries over what effect it might have on his mother.

42. George Michael established a relationship with Anselmo Feleppa, a Brazilian dress designer, whom he had met at the 1991 concert Rock in Rio.

42. Six months into their relationship, Feleppa discovered that he had HIV. Michael later said: “It was terrifying news. I thought I could have the disease too. I couldn’t go through it with my family because I didn’t know how to share it with them – they didn’t even know I was gay.”

42. In 1993, Feleppa died of an AIDS-related brain haemorrhage.

43. George Michael’s single “Jesus to a Child” is a tribute to Feleppa (he consistently dedicated it to him before performing it live), as is his 1996 album Older.

44. In 1996, George Michael entered into a long-term relationship with Kenny Goss, a former flight attendant, cheerleader coach and sportswear executive from Dallas. They had homes in Dallas and an £8 million mansion in Highgate, North London.

45. In late November 2005, it was reported that Michael and Goss would register their relationship as a civil partnership in the UK,  but because of negative publicity and his upcoming tour, they postponed it to a later date.

46. On 22 August 2011, the opening night of his Symphonica world tour, George Michael announced that he and Goss had split two years earlier. Goss was present at Michael’s British sentencing for driving under the influence of cannabis on 14 September 2010.

47. Questions of Michael’s sexual orientation persisted in public until 7 April 1998, when he was arrested for “engaging in a lewd act” in a public restroom of the Will Rogers Memorial Park in Beverly Hills, California.

48. On 26 February 2006, Michael was arrested for possession of Class C drugs, an incident that he described as “my own stupid fault, as usual.” He was cautioned by the police and released.

49. During September 2007, on Desert Island Discs, he said that his cannabis use was a problem; he wished he could smoke less of it and was constantly trying to do so.

50. On 5 December 2009, in an interview with The Guardian, Michael explained he had cut back on cannabis and now smoked only ‘seven or eight’ spliffs per day instead of the 25 he used to smoke.

51. In the early hours of Sunday 4 July 2010 Michael was returning from the Gay Pride parade. The singer was spotted on CCTV driving into the front of a Snappy Snaps store in Hampstead, North London and was arrested on suspicion of being unfit to drive.

52. During the time of Margaret Thatcher as the Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom throughout the 1980s, Michael voted Labour.

53. Michael wrote “Shoot the Dog”, a song critical about the friendly relationship between the British and American governments, in particular Tony Blair and George W. Bush, with their involvement in the Iraq War.

54. During 2000, Michael joined Melissa Etheridge, Garth Brooks, Queen Latifah, the Pet Shop Boys, and k.d. lang, to perform in Washington, D.C. as part of ‘Equality Rocks’ – a concert to benefit the Human Rights Campaign.

55. He devoted his 2007 concert in Sofia, Bulgaria, from his “Twenty Five Tour” to the Bulgarian nurses prosecuted in the HIV trial in Libya.

56. On 17 June 2008, Michael said he was thrilled by California’s legalisation of same-sex marriage, calling the move “way overdue”

57. On 1 December 2011, doctors at the hospital in which George Michael had stayed announced that the singer was “steadily improving” and that he had moved out of the intensive care ward. On 21 December 2011, the hospital discharged Michael.

58. On 23 December 2011, Michael made a public speech outside his house in Highgate, London, in which he stated that the staff at the Vienna General Hospital had saved his life and that he would perform a free concert specifically for those staff. While making the speech, he became emotional and breathless.

59. During the speech, he also mentioned that he had undergone a tracheotomy.  He also said that, after waking from the coma, he had a temporary West Country accent.

60. On 25 December 2016, Michael died in his sleep at his home in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, aged 53. No cause of death was immediately determined. His manager has stated that heart failure is the probable cause of death.

[starstruckhexrts-archive-blog]

Timeline

“A light comes out of the darkness. A heart that makes a flower bloom in the wilderness journeys through the sky. Music changes the world.” - Haruka Nanami

~ ? years prior

Childhood events mentioned in present day play out. (Tomo meeting Ryuji, Momotaro finding out he’s a medium, Yume'sadoption by Suzume, Tokiya debuting as HAYATO, etc.)

~ 6 years prior

STARISH attends Saotome Academy alongside Haruka Nanami and they eventually graduate and debut with their song Maji Love 1000%. Haruka begins working as their A&R and composer.

~ 5 years prior

HEAVENS makes their debut under Raging Entertainment.

STARISH are put under the tutelage of Quartet Night and also meet Cecil Aijima. They also begin to have solo work and work on personal singles that are released all throughout Japan.

Cecil joins STARISH as its last and final member. Taking up the ‘A’ in the name.

The UtaPri Award Ceremony commences between HEAVENS and STARISH. The two compete against each other with HEAVENS GATE and Maji Love 2000%. STARISH wins the title and are now beginning to be noticed by people around the world.

MooNs, Kitakore, and THRIVE begin training at Bambi.

~ 4 years prior

Suzume falls ill with terminal cancer and refuses treatment. Towards the end of the year, she begins to have declining health and passes away with Yume beside her. Yume heads off to Japan to further her music career. Cerise is quick to follow, worired about her niece.

Akira debutes as HARUIRO.

Cerise gets a job working at various salons and earns a reputation as a top stylist.

~ 3 years prior

Yume begins working for Gandala Music as one of their composers after a recommendation from her grandfather, turning out that the Daikoku brothers are former students of his.

Cerise lands a job at Shining Agency as a stylist, though she is not taken seriously for some time. She is able to meet Reiji Kotobuki who earns a place as a friend in her book.

STARISH and Quartet Night compete for the role at the Super Star Sports as its live band. Unfortunately things are left at a draw and HEAVENS makes an appearance after their humiliating defeat. The three vow to compete against one another for the chance to sing.

MooNs, THRIVE, and Kitakore make their debuts and begin their work as idols.

~ 2 years prior

B-Project is formed consisting of THRIVE, MooNs, and Kitakore. They gain popularity and Tsubasa Sumisora as their A&R.

Tomohisa is able to work with an idol named Miyama Sakuraba and begins to fancy her.

(Episodes 1-4 of B Pro: Kodou Ambitious play out.)

Ryuji and Yume meet not to long after his amnesia incident and strike up a friendship.

(Episodes 5-7 of B: Pro Kodou Ambitious play out.)

Akira damages his vocal chords and is forced to retire. He flees to Europe, knowing he disappointed his fans deeply and doesn’t want to face the music or their wrath.

STARISH and HEAVENS commence their Cross-Unit CDs and grow to learn more about one another.

Quartet Night decides to debut as a group and disappear for a while to tour around Japan. Cerise and Reiji stay in touch.

Ryuji and Yume begin dating after a private confession. Despite the repercussions, they decide to still do it anyway.

Kazuna hears about his cousin’s disappearance and begins looking into it with Tomo’s resources.

(Episodes 8-12 of B Pro: Kodou Ambitious play out.)

Tomohisa and Miyama begin dating.

The events with Yashamaru commence and B-Project loses a lot of their reputation by quitting from a chance with High Edge Records. As a result, they have to build themselves from the ground up.

Hikaru walks in on Ryuji and Yume one day, prompting them into admitting to the members of B-Pro their relationship, although it was already well known before hand.

B Pro are given solo apartments for their privacy at Ryuji’s asking (and white they know the reason, the president agrees to it for now to give them some time to wind down from each other but also be close, etc). They all start to live together in a rented out apartment building and Yume moves in with Ryuji.

Kazuna locates his cousin and asks him to come back to Japan. Akira agrees.

Tsubasa decides to leave Daikoku Productions and find out more about her father’s connection to Yashamaru. Akira becomes B-Pro’s new A&R.

~ 1 year prior

A currently unnamed idol grows tired of how people are treating themselves and the other idols and speaks out against the publicizing companies. Their reputation tarnished, and they falls from grace and are forced to keep themselves out of the spotlight. 

STARISH, HEAVENS, and Quartet Night compete in the cross competition to determine the SSS’ star band. STARISH comes out on top, but all three bands end up singing together and boosting their popularity.

Hikaru begins to hangout with Ryuji and Yume more and the three become ‘The Three Musketeers’.

Muse and A-RISE sign onto High Edge Records and begin their work as idols with their own A&Rs.

STARISH, HEAVENS, and Quartet Night decide to take breaks and focus on their solo work, and officially STARISH graduates into becoming full-time idols and ‘veterans’ of the industry.

Mikado meets a musician, Lyanna, after spotting her Mamirin strap. After a brief meeting, he is invited to see her concert with her band. Even though he’s not the biggest fan of heavy metal, he goes anyway, and while regretting it, does agree to meet Lyanna later on for a chat.

Mikado meets up with Lyanna again and the two talk music and about their lives. He eventually reveals who he is and invites her to come see a concert for B Pro. She agrees and both look forward to it.

B-Pro visits a small holiday village with their girls and each other as a Christmas present to one another. It’s here that Kento and Tsukiko realize something deeper is going down between them then they originally thought.

Momotaro meets Kotori of Muse, and the two become friends.

Christmas is spent with lovers and relatives.

New Years rolls around and everyone heads off to pay their respects and wishes.

~ Present Day

New Years Day, B Pro stays up to watch the sunrise with their girls and make resolutions about their group. 

B Pro holds a concert and Lyanna attends. She is able to meet up with Mikado, and also meet the other members of B Pro. Exhausted and tired, some heated words are exchanged and Mikado clears things up for Lyanna in comforting her on her internal beating of herself. He suggests she come and sing karaoke with them in the following week – and with a smile, she agrees, and he looks forward to it.

Momotaro and Kotori begin dating.

Mikado and a few others go to Karaoke, and as promised, Lyanna shows up. She’s able to become friends with a good number of them and the group has a fun time, with Mikado prompting that maybe they should do stuff like this more often. While tentative, the group there eventually agrees with Ryuji promising to talk it over with Tomohisa.

Mikado, Ryuji, Yume, and Momotaro attends the opening of Lyanna’s art exhibit and are shown her work. Her father shows up but is told to never return due to his abuse of her. Mikado and Lyanna are then left alone after viewing the whole gallery, and after speaking for most of the night, Mikado sees Lyanna home.

Tatsuhiro meets a girl named Mei, and after a few run-ins, the two exchange numbers and become friends.

A charity event is held by a bunch of idol groups and Lyanna is invited to go with Mikado as her date. Mikado ends up confessing to Lyanna that he wants to be with her and after some humorous comments from everyone else, the two begin seeing each other in secret. Later that night, Mikado decides to take Lyanna to a penthouse suit that is available to B-Pro and the two spend the night talking about their own hobbies and mutual love of dinosaurs. After some talking, the two decide to spend the night and while they could have slept together, they decide now isn’t the right time and instead just enjoy being with ine another.

A valentines day event is held by B-Pro and is collaborated with by STARISH. There is also a maid cafe event that ends up with some amusing results.

Yuta’s twin, Melody, visits and after finding out she likes Goshi, he sets them up on a date, but it doesn’t end well, and so Yuta is hesitant to let them be around one another anymore.

Momotaro and Kotori break up mutually, although this leaves a heavy feeling on the medium.

Tatsuhiro gets sick and Samaru, his Shiba Inu, calls Mei ands he comes over to care for him. Unfortunately, he soon finds out how naive she can be and while she takes care of him, he vows to get her to notice more of her surroundings...

Tomo and Miya break up, although it’s not known why. He’s left to be a quiet former shell of himself, but he manages to pull through and return to being an idol for his band’s sake.

Lyanna lands a job at Gandala Music and afterwards, her and Mikado spend a day out taking photos for her portfolio. They have a fun time out and after some questions about her birthday, he walks her home.

Cerise transfers from Shining Agency to Gandala Music as a Stylist. She had broken up with Reiji over something she did, and apparently the two were engaged.

Cerise meets a girl named Daiyu at a coffee shop and the two talk about their mutual break-ups over idols, and become friends. Cerise shows her the pics of the boys she works with, and while Daiyu becomes “interested”, she’s unsure about everything. She does a makeover for Cerise and it brings back Cerise’s outgoing spirit. As a thank you, she tries to help her win Tomohisa over even though Daiyu really doesn’t want a part of it.

A collaboration between Visage Industries and Gandala Music is held and B-Pro gets to work with Melody and several other models. The boys for the first time get to work with their own girls, and Goshi begins to finally notice Melody for the woman she is and not a “dunce” as he views Yuta. It goes over well and it ends well with the couples growing closer, although Tomohisa and Daiyu are an unexpected one, and not only them, but Kazuna and Cerise...

White Day rolls around and the couples are able to spend some down time together.

Cerise and Kazuna begin dating after he tells her to look at him and him alone. The two begin their “own fairy tale” as they call it.

Tomohisa and Daiyu are revealed to have been betrothed to one another at an early age despite having already fallen in love. The two’s wedding is set fairly soon. He begins calling her Tae-Yeon.

Mikado asks Lyanna to move in with him with Izumi’s blessing. Lyanna agrees and the two now start living together with their two casts Ramses and Freya.

The no love rule is broken and it causes tension between idols and their fans as the idols try to protect their lovers amidst doing their jobs.

[justanotherdumpingground]

Chapter Reviews: March 26-30, 2019

High School Story Class Act Chapter 7:

Man, I'm feeling worried for Ajay. I know that him taking out his anger is unacceptable, but at least he apologized to Skye. Their stories need to have good progress and satisfying conclusions that answer how they overcome their respective turbulent home lives.

Still miffed that the Clint and Graham side romance amounts to nothing of particular substance. As I've said before, it would've been better if Graham's so creepy obsessed that it makes Clint uncomfortable that he tells Natalie that this is how Rory feels like whenever they're around.

The ending of this chapter made me dislike the twin for taking the election too personally. I was like "your campaign for more sports is redundant because it's already the most supported program at school". This isn't even a joke that sports gets a lot of attention at schools. This is evident in the first trilogy. Book 1 focuses on getting ready for the Homecoming game, especially because Brian's rotten behavior and transfer to Hearst left Berry desperate to search a suitable quarterback. Book 2 has Ashley Faris diverting all funding from cheer and band to the basketball team after she appointed her brother as coach. I even saw some people calling Rory out for taking offense at the MC should they support the twin, who is family no matter how annoying they can be. I guess this means the election is dumber than I thought.

Across the Void Chapter 15:

Honestly, this chapter is much better than the previous ones. I get to learn about the lore of the setting for free, especially on The Void, the origin of the Vanguard-Jura conflict, and astradust creating various races in the story. About time the story goes somewhere, though it should've been shown earlier on. Regarding the Void, it seems that they're a bunch of nihilists who want to plunge the galaxy to oblivion while playing the Vanguard and Jura like sniveling fools.

One thing that captures my attention is the possible connection to Endless Summer and maybe even Hero. Barlow mentioned a planet that got destroyed millennia ago that lights blue flames and has pieces entering its wormhole creating various races. What if it reached Earth and played a role in La Huerta's formation? What if some of them entered through the wormhole in Northbridge and created the superhumans in Hero. I hope this will get addressed in Book 2 of Hero.

On another note, why do they make Barlow a love interest? MC already has five, one of them is shared with Eos. Honestly, the story's writers are wasting time, resources, and effort enticing us with more love interests than necessary, excessive amounts of time with Eos and Pax, and catering to insufferable passengers while not focusing on the Vanguard-Jura conflict enough.

Didn't buy the biodroid, though it remains a low priority choice to get for me someday. I also didn't pick the premium option to check the library with Zekei, but after I watched on YouTube that it's about the MC torn away from the people they love almost every time, I actually felt ambivalent because the love interests aren't developed enough, though Kepler comes close.

I'm starting to think Pax's loyalty is put to the test and allow us to determine whether she'll stay loyal to the Jura or sever ties. Either way, I don't care because I find her annoying.

Desire & Decorum Chapter 14:

Duke Richards's journal is just another proof of how deranged he is, which is getting redundant. At least I have proof that he has been manipulating Dominique, which is another step up I need. Might as well replay this book and get the other pieces of evidence to see the full outcome.

Oh, Hamid. I really want to spend time with you, but my diamonds for other books go first. Don't worry. I'll spend diamonds on you so you and my MC can live happily ever after.

*sigh* The sight of the MC's mom's ring thrown into the fire better be the last straw because I've had enough of Duke Richards being continually despicable, as if I don't know that already. A part of me wants him to have some sort of depth that makes him well-developed while still irredeemable. That would've made him memorable and interesting instead of just someone I should hate. Here's hoping the wedding day gets disrupted and the tables turned against him.

America's Most Eligible Chapter 11:

I'm so relieved Eden and Kiana are alive, even though they're injured and had to drop out of the show. Their safety matters first and foremost. To think that something life-threatening like this to occur in a fun show is proof of mismanagement. I still don't know whether it's an accident or someone rigged the go-kart, but either way, it's carelessness on Carson's part.

This chapter is surprisingly calming, and it helps that neither Ivy nor Vince are around to stir trouble. It's just me, Adam, Derek, Mackenzie, and Jen relaxing. My MC had a fine date with Adam and even had a steamy moment with him even though they have maximum relationship points. Anyway, can't wait to see what Iceland has in store for AME.

Passport to Romance Chapter 3:

I'm starting to like Sumire for giving her own spin of the Louvre tour even after the MC missed the one Yvette booked. It was a fun take, and I enjoy watching her incorporate her love and knowledge of art together.

So, I picked the premium option to find the Mona Lisa painting and flirted with the security guard. That was a really dumb move on everyone's part, including the MC's. I think taking a picture of Mona Lisa should've been pushed to a later chapter and have everyone involved to ask when it will be ready for display again. Might as well throw Elliot under the bus for suggesting that we trespass in the first place.

Wow! All the love interests look stunning in their formal outfits! It's making me hard to determine who my MC will pursue, even though his vlog is named Sexcapades (don't judge).

I'm starting to dislike Yvette for talking trash about the love interests, even though she warmed up to me earlier this chapter for approving of a fresh tour of the Louvre. I get that she wants her magazine to improve, but I also think a balance between work and friends is needed. During the dinner, I threw Elliot and Marisa under the bus and defended Ahmed and Sumire from her. I actually think Marisa's okay, however.

Open Heart Chapter 7:

I cringed when that kissass with Percy Mendoza's model tried to smooch Aurora into paying for her lunch. Talking about the downsides of popularity. I think her aunt rigged the list in her favor while handing out the "most interesting" cases. In other words, Harper Emery could be up to no good.

Okay, telling Bryce to flirt with Ines and Zaid is pretty fun to watch. It's like he thinks he has a suave way to get around people, and acts like he succeeds. Anyway, glad that he succeeded in buying the MC time to follow Ethan.

For Remy, I told him the truth about his condition that will deprive him from his ability to move his limbs. I'm willing to risk a patient's short-term anger over withholding important information on his condition. Not to mention the latter is unethical. It was touching to see him accept his condition and resolve to live his life to the fullest.

So Patient X is Naveen Banerji? No wonder he resigned. And Ethan telling the MC to not tell this to anyone else just comes across as suspicious. Were they trying to preserve Edenbrook's reputation while one of their top doctors was dying of an illness?

The Elementalists Chapter 3:

I'm worried for Atlas and their search for the girl Dean Goeffe was watching over. It makes me wonder whether they'll resort to extreme measures to take down Kane or something. I grabbed the letter, and it seems that Dean Goeffe served as the girl's caretaker in secret. I think she knows who she is instead of merely stumbling upon her.

I didn't get the enlargement spell when I first played this chapter, so I saved up diamonds and restarted the book just so I could get it. I hope it will come in handy, even when the MC and Atlas's magick goes on and off, probably because of a disturbance in the force or something.

For once, Beckett's presence is kept to a minimum. A welcoming thing, actually. As for the ward Kane sent to the MC, I'm starting to admire him for being as interesting as Redfield. He might be the kind of person whose sense of right and wrong is different from other people's. I'd love to know more about him. Here's hoping he's a genuinely complex character.

Ride or Die Chapter 11:

Well, Logan manipulating the MC in the first place only to fall for her doesn't change my stance on him. I continue to reject him for the mess he caused. Regarding Mona, who apparently didn't know about Logan's actions before, her comment on suggesting to kidnap the MC put me off. That makes her come across as cold-blooded in some ways that it makes me less secure.

Why am I at Riya's house? She pushed MC into pursuing Logan in the first place, then complained that she's feeling lonely as a result. At least she gave the MC a place to stay for now, and Jason told the MC that her dad misses her.

Anyone thinks Toby could be a Brotherhood agent? I mean, good for him that he didn't participate in Colt's foolish plan, but how did he reach Riya's house? Did he have some sort of tracker? Or did he search the area one by one? Whatever that is, Colt's package could be a super dangerous bomb capable of super destructive damage. It's really rash of him.

Regarding the Brotherhood, I think it being the greater evil is never expanded on. Even though the narrative mentions it as worse the MPC, it just comes across as bland and forgettable. It doesn't help that the only Brotherhood member MC encounters is a baseball hat guy Teppei met.

[paul-clarkson]

Music - Nick Lowe: Lowe Constellation

Nick Lowe is an English songwriter, producer, bassist, and vocalist. His musical career started in the late 60s and in the first half of the 70s he saw some success as a member of the beloved pub rock band Brinsley Schwarz. Over the years, Lowe has evolved into a silver haired introspective crooner. He has a devoted fan base and continues to tour and record (he is, in fact, on tour as I write this). In this essay and its accompanying music mix, I am focusing specifically on the decade between 1976 and 1985, an astonishingly productive and artistically vibrant period in Lowe’s career. I will also bring attention to the array of talent that Lowe tapped into consistently, a constellation of talent that made possible his accomplishments during this decade.

I am not exaggerating when I say that Nick Lowe was astonishingly productive during this decade. Between 1976 and 1985, Lowe released six albums under his own name, contributed significantly to three Dave Edmunds albums and the Rockpile album, produced two albums for Carlene Carter, one for Paul Carrack, as well as five Elvis Costello albums. He also produced recordings (singles or albums) for 12 other artists during this decade.

As a producer, Lowe has what I think is an undeserved reputation for just bashing recordings out quickly (“Basher” is his nickname). To my ears, his production is often keenly tuned to the specifics of the song and the artist. Listen to Elvis Costello & The Attractions’ “Radio Radio”, where Lowe pushes the guitar back in the mix and brings a surgical focus to the extraordinary performances of keyboardist Steve Nieve, bassist Bruce Thomas, and drummer Pete Thomas. Contrast that with a song like Dr. Feelgood’s “That’s It, I Quit”, where Lowe brings you into the bar with the band (I can smell the spilled beer), or Lowe’s own “Cruel to Be Kind”, a glowing example of pristine guitar pop (“pure pop for now people”). Another example of focused production is The Pretenders’ “Stop Your Sobbing”, which puts the spotlight on Chrissie Hynde’s distinctive voice. Far from being a “basher”, Nick Lowe’s production work showed careful attention to the artists and material he was working with.

Lowe’s own recordings during this decade were made with three different bands. The first, Rockpile, worked together between 1976 and 1981. Rockpile were Dave Edmunds (guitar, vocals), Nick Lowe (bass, vocals), Billy Bremner (guitar, vocals), and Terry Williams (drums). Edmunds is, like Lowe, a multi-talented musician; guitarist, singer, songwriter, and producer. As a member of the band Love Sculpture, he had a #5 single in the UK (“Sabre Dance”). In 1970 his solo recording of “I Hear You Knocking” was a #1 single in the UK and a #4 single in the US. As a successful artist in his own right, Edmunds had very much a co-equal role in Rockpile. Like Lowe, Edmunds has a deep affinity with American rock, R&B, and rockabilly. This is reflected in the work they did together.

Rockpile released only one album under their own name (Seconds of Pleasure, 1980) because until 1980 Lowe and Edmunds had contracts with different record labels. However, the Dave Edmunds albums Tracks on Wax 4 and Repeat When Necessary, and Nick Lowe’s album Labour of Lust were all essentially Rockpile albums. Repeat When Necessary and Labour of Lust were even recorded and released concurrently. Rockpile were also the band on Mickey Jupp’s album Juppanese and Carlene Carter’s album Musical Shapes. Reportedly, tensions between Lowe and Edmunds were responsible for Rockpile’s break-up in 1981. In the liner notes for a Seconds of Pleasure reissue, Lowe stated "We got together for fun and when the fun had all been had we packed it in.” Billy Bremner and Terry Williams both appear on Nick Lowe records through the 80s, but Lowe and Edmunds wouldn’t work together again until 1988.

Paul Carrack is a keyboardist and vocalist, best known for his “blue-eyed soul” singing voice. He saw early success in his career as a member of Ace, whose 1975 single “How Long” hit #20 in the UK and #3 in the US. In 1981 he joined Squeeze where he sang one of the band’s most enduring hits, “Tempted”. Carrack left Squeeze in 1982, having joined Nick Lowe’s band Noise to Go. Like Dave Edmunds, Carrack was a peer and partner to Lowe. The other members of Noise to Go were Martin Belmont (guitar), James Eller (bass) and Bobby Irwin (drums). Like Rockpile, Noise to Go served as the “house band” for a number of Nick Lowe-produced recordings: Carlene Carter’s Blue Nun, Carrack’s Suburban Voodoo, and Lowe’s Nick the Knife and The Abominable Showman.

“Tempted” is the one song I’ve included in my mix that has no direct involvement from Nick Lowe. However, Elvis Costello’s production and Paul Carrack’s vocals bring it firmly into my Lowe Constellation. Squeeze’s Glenn Tilbrook also sang on Costello’s “From a Whisper To a Scream”. Interestingly, the original plan for Squeeze’s East Side Story was to make it a double album, with sides produced by Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, and (supposedly) Paul McCartney. In reality, Dave Edmunds produced one track on the album, with Elvis Costello (with Roger Bechirian) producing most of the rest of the record. The 1997 reissue of East Side Story includes “Lookin’ For a Love”, an outtake produced by Nick Lowe.

Nick Lowe was married to Carlene Carter in 1979. They partnered in songwriting and recording. Lowe produced two Carlene Carter albums, and Carter added vocals to several Lowe solo recordings. Their union also brought Nick Lowe into the Royal Family of American music, the Cash Carter family. Johnny Cash recorded Lowe’s “Without Love” in 1980 with Lowe producing and members of Rockpile and The Attractions playing on the recording. In 1994 Cash would record a powerful song that Lowe wrote specifically for him, “The Beast in Me”.  

Late in 1982 James Eller left Noise to Go. Nick Lowe picked up the bass and the group continued as a four-piece band with a new name: Cowboy Outfit. In English slang, a “cowboy outfit” is an organization that does shoddy work and exhibits dubious business practices. Cowboy Outfit, active until 1985, would record two albums, Nick Lowe and His Cowboy Outfit and The Rose of England. They also played on the tracks Lowe produced for John Hiatt’s album Riding With the King. Hiatt and Lowe would work together again as members of the “supergroup” Little Village in the early 90s.

I believe that the first time I became aware of Nick Lowe was when I noticed that he had written “(What’s So Funny About) Peace, Love and Understanding?”, the last song on the US version of Elvis Costello’s Armed Forces album. Soon after I figured out that Lowe had not only written this song, but he had produced Armed Forces… and all the other (at that time) Elvis Costello records I loved. It is difficult for me to imagine how Elvis Costello’s career would have evolved without Nick Lowe’s involvement.

Even though they had been working together since 1976, Costello and Lowe did not record a song together until 1984’s “Baby It’s You.” In his liner notes for the Rykodisc reissue of Goodbye Cruel World, Costello provided some background for this recording. “As Nick and his Cowboy Outfit were to join us on the US leg of our ‘Goodbye Cruel World’ tour Columbia Records suggested that we cut something ‘extra’ for a joint twelve-inch promo record featuring each of our latest single releases. Despite all our studio work together this was our first duet on record. Unfortunately the record company deemed the track ‘too good’, fearing that it would draw airplay from the ‘real’ singles.” Because of the label’s reservations, this track would remain obscure until it was released on a Costello compilation in 1987.

In 1985 the professional relationship between Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe would come full circle when Costello produced the track “L.A.F.S.” on Lowe’s album Nick Lowe and His Cowboy Outfit.

Looking back on this remarkable decade in Nick Lowe’s career, what stands out to me, besides the number and quality of the records he was involved in, is just how successful he was at developing (often enduring) relationships with top-tier artists, many of them legends: Dave Edmunds, Elvis Costello, Paul Carrack, Carlene Carter, Billy Bremner, Terry Williams, Martin Belmont, James Eller, and Bobby Irwin. A truly amazing constellation of talent.

You can listen to music mixes here:

Part 1 - https://www.mixcloud.com/clrksn/lowe-constellation-part-1-1976-1979/

Part 2 - https://www.mixcloud.com/clrksn/lowe-constellation-part-2-1980-1985/

Part 1: 1976-1979

01 “So It Goes” - Nick Lowe

        Nick Lowe’s first single as a solo artist, released in 1976.

        The first single released by Stiff Records, catalog number BUY 1.

        Musicians: Steve Goulding (drums), Nick Lowe (vocals, bass, guitar).

        Written and produced by Nick Lowe.

02 “New Rose” - The Damned

        The Damned’s first single, released in 1976 (Stiff Records BUY 6).

        The first single by a British punk rock group.

        Musicians: Dave Vanian (vocals), Brian James (guitar), Captain Sensible (bass), Rat Scabies (drums).

        Written by Brian James.

        Produced by Nick Lowe.

03 “Don’t Ask Me Questions” - Graham Parker & The Rumour

        Released on the album Howlin’ Wind in 1976.

        The debut album by Graham Parker & The Rumour.

Musicians: Graham Parker (guitar, vocals), Bob Andrews (keyboards), Brinsley Schwarz (guitar), Martin Belmont (guitar), Andrew Bodnar (bass), Steve Goulding (drums).

        Written by Graham Parker.

        Produced by Nick Lowe.

04 “Less Than Zero” - Elvis Costello

        Elvis Costello’s first single, released in 1977 (Stiff Records BUY 11).

        Musicians: Elvis Costello (guitar, vocals), John McFee (guitar), Johnny Ciambotti (bass), Mickey Shine (drums), Stan Shaw (organ)

        Written by Elvis Costello.

        Produced by Nick Lowe.

05 “Whole Wide World” - Wreckless Eric

        Wreckless Eric’s first single, released in 1977 (Stiff Records BUY 16).

        Musicians: Wreckless Eric (guitar, vocals), Nick Lowe (guitar, bass), Steve Goulding (drums).

        Written by Wreckless Eric.

        Produced by Nick Lowe.

06 “That’s It, I Quit” - Dr. Feelgood

        Released in 1977 on the album Be Seeing You (United Artists Records UAS 30123).

        Musicians: John B. Sparks (bass, vocals), The Big Figure (drums, vocals), John Mayo (guitar), Lee Brilleaux (vocals, guitar)

        Written and produced by Nick Lowe.

07 “I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass” - Nick Lowe

        Released in 1978 (Radar Records ADA 1).

        Reached number 7 on the UK singles chart.

        Musicians: Uncredited.

        Written by Andrew Bodnar, Nick Lowe, and Steve Goulding.

        Produced by Nick Lowe.

08 “You’ll Never Get Me Up in One of Those” - Mickey Jupp

        Released in 1978 on the album Juppanese (Stiff Records SEEZ 10).

        Musicians: Mickey Jupp (vocals, piano), Rockpile.

        Written by Mickey Jupp.

        Produced by Nick Lowe.        

09 “Radio Radio” - Elvis Costello & The Attractions

        Released in 1978 (Radar Records ADA 24).

        Musicians: Elvis Costello (guitar, vocals) and The Attractions (Steve Nieve (keyboards), Bruce Thomas (bass), Pete Thomas(drums)).

        Written by Elvis Costello.

        Produced by Nick Lowe.

10 “Television” - Dave Edmunds

        Released in 1978 on the album Tracks on Wax 4 (Swan Song SSK 59407).

        Musicians: Rockpile.

        Written by Nick Lowe.

        Produced by Dave Edmunds.        

11 “Cruel to be Kind” - Nick Lowe

        Released in 1978 (Radar Records ADA 43).

        Reached number 12 on the UK and US singles charts.

        Musicians: Rockpile.

        Written by Ian Gomm and Nick Lowe.

        Produced by Nick Lowe.

12 “Girls Talk” - Dave Edmunds

        Released in 1979 on the album Repeat When Necessary (Swan Song SSK 59409).

        Musicians: Rockpile.

        Written by Elvis Costello.

        Produced by Dave Edmunds.

13 “Stop Your Sobbing” - The Pretenders

        The Pretenders’ first single (Real Records ARE 6).

        Musicians: Crissie Hunde (guitar, vocals), James Honeyman-Scott (guitar), Pete Farndon (bass), Martin Chambers (drums).

        Written by Ray Davies.

        Produced by Nick Lowe.

14 “(What’s So Funny About) Peace, Love and Understanding” - Elvis Costello & The Attractions

        Released in 1979 on the US version of Armed Forces (Columbia 35709).

        Musicians: Elvis Costello & The Attractions

        Written and produced by Nick Lowe.

15 “Without Love” - Nick Lowe

        Released in 1979 on the album Labour of Lust (Radar Records RAD 21).

        Musicians: Rockpile.

        Written and produced by Nick Lowe.

Part 2: 1980-1985

01 “Without Love” - Johnny Cash

        Released in 1980 on the album Rockabilly Blues (Columbia JC 36779).

        Musicians: Pete Thomas (drums), Nick Lowe (bass), Bob Wootton (guitar), Dave Edmunds (guitar), Martin Belmont (guitar).

        Written and produced by Nick Lowe.

02 “Too Bad About Sandy” - Carlene Carter

        Released in 1980 on the album Musical Shapes (Warner Bros. Records BSK 3465).

        Musicians: Carlene Carter (guitar, vocals), Rockpile.

        Written by Carlene Carter.

        Produced by Nick Lowe.

03 “Riot Act” - Elvis Costello & The Attractions

        Released in 1980 on the album Get Happy!! (F-Beat XXLP 1).

        Musicians: Elvis Costello & The Attractions.

        Written by Elvis Costello.

        Produced by Nick Lowe.

04 “When I Write the Book” - Rockpile

        Released in 1980 on the album Seconds of Pleasure (F-Beat XXLP 7)

        Musicians: Rockpile.

        Written by Nick Lowe and Rockpile.

        Produced by Nick Lowe and Rockpile.

05 “Crying In the Rain” - Nick Lowe & Dave Edmunds

        Released in 1980 on the EP Nick Lowe & Dave Edmunds Sing The Everly Brothers.

        The EP was included with US copies of Seconds of Pleasure.

        Musicians: Nick Lowe (guitar, vocals), Dave Edmunds (guitar, vocals).

        Written by Howard Greenfield and Carole King.

        Produced by Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds. 

06 “Do Me Lover” - Carlene Carter         Released in 1981 on the album Blue Nun (F-Beat XXLP 12).

        Musicians: Carlene Carter (vocals), Noise to Go, Billy Bremner (guitar), Huw Gower (guitar).

        Written by Carlene Carter, James Eller, and Nick Lowe.

        Produced by Nick Lowe.

07 “From a Whisper To a Scream” - Elvis Costello & The Attractions

        Released in 1981 (F-Beat XX 14).

        Musicians: Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Martin Belmont (guitar), Glenn Tilbrook (vocals).

        Written by Elvis Costello.

        Produced by Nick Lowe.

08 “Tempted” - Squeeze

        Released in 1981 on the album East Side Story (A&M Records AMLH 64854).

        Musicians: John Bentley (bass), Gilson Lavis (drums), Chris Difford (guitar, vocals), Glenn Tilbrook (guitar, vocals), Paul Carrack (keyboards, vocals), Elvis Costello (vocals).

        Written by Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford.

        Produced by Elvis Costello and Roger Bechirian.

09 “Raining Raining” - Nick Lowe

        Released in 1982 on the album Nick The Knife (F-Beat XXLP 14).

        Musicians: Noise to Go.

        Written and produced by Nick Lowe.

10 “I’m In Love” - Paul Carrack

        Released in 1982 on the album Suburban Voodoo (Epic ARE 38161).

        Musicians: Noise to Go.

        Written by Nick Lowe and Carlene Carter.

        Produced by Nick Lowe.

11 “Ragin’ Eyes” - Nick Lowe

        Released in 1983 on the album The Abominable Showman (F-Beat Records XXLP 18)

        Musicians: Noise to Go.

        Written by Nick Lowe.

        Produced by Nick Lowe and Roger Bechirian.

12 “Time Wounds All Heels” - Nick Lowe

        Released in 1983 on the album The Abominable Showman (F-Beat Records XXLP 18)

        Musicians: Noise to Go, Carlene Carter (vocals), Simon Climie (vocals).

        Written by Nick Lowe, Carlene Carter, and Simon Climie.

        Produced by Nick Lowe and Roger Bechirian.

13 “Riding With The King” - John Hiatt

        Released in 1983 on the album Riding With The King (Geffen Records GHS 4017).

        Musicians: John Hiatt (guitar, vocals), Cowboy Outfit.

        Written by John Hiatt.

        Produced by Nick Lowe.

14 “Baby It’s You” - Elvis Costello & Nick Lowe

        Released in 1984 on the single “The Only Flame in Town” (Columbia 44 05081).

        Musicians: Elvis Costello (guitar, vocals), Nick Lowe (bass, vocals)

        Written by Burt Bacharach, Mack David, and Barney Williams (Luther Dixon).

        Produced by Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe.

15 “L.A.F.S.” - Nick Lowe and His Cowboy Outfit

        Released in 1985 on the album Nick Lowe and His Cowboy Outfit (F-Beat ZL 70338)

        Musicians: Cowboy Outfit, Jeff Blythe (saxophone), Paul Speare (saxophone), Jim Paterson (trombone), Dave Plews (trumpet).

        Written by Nick Lowe.

        Produced by Elvis Costello and Colin Fairley.

16 “The Rose of England” - Nick Lowe and His Cowboy Outfit

        Released in 1985 on the album The Rose of England (F-Beat ZL 70765).

        Musicians: Cowboy Outfit.

        Written by Nick Lowe.

        Produced by Nick Lowe and Colin Fairley.

(Photo: Star from the Lizard Constellation, NASA)