Glay (band)

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Glay
(from left) Jiro, Teru, Takuro and Hisashi
Origin Flag of Japan Hakodate, Hokkaidō, Japan
Years active 1988 – present
Genres Rock
Pop
Labels lover soul
Capitol Records
Toshiba-EMI
Members Jiro
Teru
Takuro
Hisashi

Glay (グレイ?) is a rock/pop band from Hakodate, Hokkaidō, Japan formed by guitarist Takuro and vocalist Teru during high school in 1988. Glay primarily composes songs in the rock and pop genres, but they have also composed songs using elements of different styles such as reggae and gospel. Although virtually unknown outside Asia, they are one of the most successful bands in Japan.

Contents

[edit] Name

Officially, the name "Glay" is a deliberate misspelling of the word "gray" and represents the style of music they wanted to play; a mixture between rock (black) and pop (white).

"We know it's not how you spell the color in English, but it's our way of being different." - Glay (Time Magazine, March 9, 1998)

It is thought by some English speakers that the misspelling of the band's name may actually have been due to a genuine error, and the official reason was only decided in retrospect. In support of this, they point out the R and L is a very common mistake amongst Japanese speakers of English and on English signs in Japan, and there is no differing pronunciation between them in words containing these letters.

[edit] Members

[edit] Main members

  • Takuro: real name Takuro Kubo : guitar (leader and primary songwriter)
  • Teru: real name Teruhiko Kobashi : vocals
  • Jiro: real name Yoshihito Wayama : bass
  • Hisashi: real name Hisashi Tonomura : guitar

All members were born in Hakodate, Hokkaidō except Hisashi, who was born in Hirosaki, Aomori. When he was in elementary school, he moved to Hakodate.

[edit] Past and current support members

  • Yuta : real name Yuta Saitou : Keyboard (2004 – present)
  • Toshi : real name Toshimitsu Nagai : drums (1995 – present)
  • Sakuma : real name Masahide Sakuma : guitar, keyboard, producer (mid-1994 – present)
  • Shige : real name Shigeo "sk55" Komori : keyboard (1998 – 2004)
  • D.I.E. : real name Daijiro Nozawa : keyboard (1995 – 1998)
  • Nobumasa : drums (1994)
  • Akira : drums (1993 – 1994)

[edit] History

Glay promoting the whiteband campaign
Glay promoting the whiteband campaign

During Glay's early years in high school, members (particularly drummers) were constantly joining and leaving the band. Upon the unexpected resignation of their vocalist, drummer Teru made a tape of his singing to give to Takuro and was immediately recruited as the new vocalist. On the search for another guitarist, Hisashi was asked to join but turned down the offer, as he was already part of a locally well-known heavy punk/rock band called Ari, which better suited his taste in music. When Ari disbanded, Hisashi accepted Takuro's offer and became the lead guitarist of Glay.

By the time of Takuro and Teru's graduation, Glay had become quite popular in their hometown of Hakodate and were playing in full live houses. Following Hisashi's high school graduation in 1990, the three of them moved to Tokyo to try and further expand their musical career. However things did not seem to improve for them in Tokyo. Their gigs only attracted a few people, and sometimes none at all. When their bassist quit, Takuro had heard that Jiro, who was also from Hakodate and had played with the indie band Pierrot (different from the now disbanded Japanese rock band Pierrot, that enjoyed mainstream popularity), had moved to Tokyo and invited him to join Glay. He too declined the offer, insisting that he was already heading in the right direction for himself. It wasn't until Takuro asked him to play at just one show to fill in for their missing bassist that he decided to go. Following that show Jiro continued to receive invitations to play with Glay, and in 1991 he had become Glay's official bass player, finalizing the official four member lineup.

They promoted the band by handing out flyers on the street and giving out demo tapes. Eventually they became more and more well known on the Tokyo live house circuit, and began drawing larger crowds. During one of these shows in October 1993, Yoshiki, then drummer and pianist for X Japan, saw their show and offered them a contract to his label Extasy Records. In 1994, their debut single "Rain" was produced.

From the time of their debut Glay steadily became more widely recognized by people all over the country. Their 4th single "Freeze My Love" made it onto the Oricon, debuting at #19. Two months later their first album "Speed Pop" debuted at #8. Their first #1 hit was in 1996 with their second album "Beat Out!" which was marked as a major turning point in Glay's career. From then on they became increasingly popular at an extremely rapid rate, and in August 1997 they released the hit single "However" becoming their most well-known song to date. In the same year they released the album "Review - Best of Glay", which sold more than 4 million copies, becoming the all-time best selling album in Japan at the time (at present, it is at #3 spot). The next two years to follow were arguably Glay's most active years, in which they were constantly touring Japan in sold out stadiums and continuously producing one #1 hit after the other in a short time span.

On July 31st, 1999 Glay held a concert called "Glay Expo 1999 Survival" at Makuhari Messe, gathering a total audience of 200,000 people making it the largest single concert to ever be held in Japan. There was a huge amount of publicity leading up to this concert, including having their faces printed on the sides of Japan Airlines jumbo jets. In 2001 and 2004 two more Glay Expos were held. Glay Expo 2001 was divided into four separate performances at three different locations (Tokyo, Ishikari, and Fukuoka), and accumulated a total audience of over 280,000. Glay Expo 2004 celebrated their 10th anniversary, and was held in the parking lot of Universal Studios Japan selling out the 100,000 tickets in under 15 minutes.

Throughout the years Glay has appeared on countless numbers of TV programs, and appeared on the front covers of every famous band/music magazine in Japan at least once (and some more than fifteen times), such as Gigs, What's In?, BPass, Ongaku to Hito, PatiPati, Newsmaker, etc. Kadokawa Shoten has also produced two special edition Glay only books, and every member of Glay (excluding Teru) has written a book of their own (Jiro has made two). Besides appearing in magazines and on TV, Teru, Hisashi and Jiro each have their own personal weekly radio shows (aired on bayFM, FMFuji, and FM802, respectively).

[edit] Music style

On the cover of Newsmaker magazine
On the cover of Newsmaker magazine

In addition to recording most of their albums and singles in Japan, Glay frequently travels overseas to places such as Los Angeles, New York and London to produce their music. In 2001 they released the New York produced album "One Love" which shocked long time Glay fans, as the sound of "One Love" was completely different from that found on earlier albums. The style change was warmly welcomed by fans, and Glay went on to hold a very successful "One Love" concert tour. The following year, "Unity Roots & Family, Away" (UR&FA) was released which was something entirely different from "One Love" and all their previous works. "UR&FA" presented Glay fans with a strong gospel sound in many of its tracks.

"People like my family members, lovers, friends, staff, acquaintance relationships, and the people I have around me greatly influence my work, and I wanted to make one album about that. My keyword was "roots". And, after that I had "unity". …I wanted to do this theme one time. We did a gospel sound in order to represent these people the closest." (Takuro)

Following the release of "UR&FA", in February 2003 Glay released two compilation albums composed mostly of B-side tracks from their singles that hadn't yet been put onto an album. It was not until 2004 that they released a brand new album entitled "The Frustrated". This album was a huge success, and spawned a documentary DVD about the "making of", a special fanclub members only concert tour, the theme of Glay Expo 2004, and a fall concert tour that travelled across the country. In 2005, Glay took their new sound to yet another level, and produced a collaboration single with the vocal/dance group Exile which was one of the most successful singles of the year.

[edit] Discography

See Glay discography

[edit] Statistics 1994-2006

Note: Once music is the main product of a musical group, these statistics consider only music, not lyrics.

  • Total of released songs: 161
  • Songs composed by Takuro: 132
  • Songs composed by Hisashi: 10
  • Songs composed by Jiro: 10
  • Songs composed by Teru: 5
  • Songs composed by partnership between members: 2
  • Songs composed by partnership between Takuro and Yoshiki: 1 ("Rain")
  • Songs composed by producer Masahide Sakuma: 1 ("Introduction", from the album "Speed Pop")

These statistics include "Scream" (performed by Glay x Exile) and "Answer" (performed by Glay feat. Kyosuke Himuro), both composed by Takuro.

These statistics do not include:

  • Different/re-recorded versions of the same song
  • Remixes
  • Live versions of songs with a studio version released
  • The song "Misery", composed by Hide and covered by Glay
  • Songs from the "Mirai Nikki" sound track
  • "Ge Sheng You Wei Xiao", a song with Chinese lyrics performed in Beijing and never released
  • Songs from side projects like Nevermind

Note: One of the songs composed by Takuro and included in these statistics is "Dosanko Shiisa", performed by Galay, which is a fusion of the comedy group Garage Sale and Glay. At Glay, Takuro used the stage name Hana Cupid. "Dosanko Shiisaa" is included in these statistics because it was release don Glay's "rare collective vol. 2".

-

  • Studio albums: 9
  • Best of albums: 5
  • Side projects albums with all the Glay members: 1 (Nevermind – I love N.M)
  • Other albums: 3
  • Not included any different editions of the same album

-

  • CD singles: 36 (including "Scream", performed by Glay x Exile, and "Answer", performed by Glay feat. Kyosuke Himuro)
  • Video singles: 1 ("Survival")
  • DVD singles: 1 ("Itsuka")
  • Not included any different editions of the same single

-

  • Total of videos: 22
    • 15 lives
    • 5 video clip collections
    • 2 documentary
    • VHS: 11
    • DVDs: 21
    • DVD-boxes: 1
  • Not included any different versions of the same video

-

Total of video clips (PVs): 62

  • Included different versions of the same video
  • Not included the different angles of "Soul Love" and "Itsuka"

[edit] Ranking

[edit] Top 10 best-selling Glay albums

  1. Review - Best of Glay
  2. Drive - Glay complete Best
  3. Pure Soul
  4. Heavy Gauge
  5. Beloved
  6. Beat out!
  7. One Love
  8. Unity Roots & Family, Away
  9. -Ballad Best Singles- White Road
  10. Speed Pop

[edit] Top 10 best-selling Glay singles

  1. Winter, again
  2. Yuuwaku
  3. Soul Love
  4. However
  5. Be With You
  6. Tomadoi / Special Thanks
  7. Kuchibiru
  8. Kokodewanai, Dokoka e
  9. Beloved
  10. Mermaid

[edit] Trivia

  • Their first compilation album, "Review - Best of Glay", was the best selling album of all time in Japan in 1997. As of 2006, it is ranked at #3.
  • In 1998, Japan's telephone service was temporarily put out of order to allow for the mass number of fans to reserve tickets to their upcoming tour.
  • Their contract transfer from Pony Canyon to Toshiba EMI is the most expensive transfer in Japan's history, at 4 billion yen.
  • The live held in Beijing (a sold-out live of 35,000 audience members) in October 2002 is the most expensive gig in China's history.
  • "Yuuwaku" was the biggest selling single in 1998.
  • Takuro has written/composed songs for Namie Amuro ("Lovebite"), Misia ("fuyu no etranger"), Hikaru Utada ("Time Limit" and "Drama") and Mika Nakashima ("Hitoiro" and "Eyes for the Moon"), among other artists.
  • Hisashi played the guitar parts in the beginning of Hikaru Utada's song "Letters".
  • Takuro and Hisashi appeared in the movie Casshern.
  • Teru is an avid artist, and designs many of the tour goods himself.
  • The song "Zutto Futari de..." was made by Takuro for Teru's sister, who was about to get married. Teru's mother asked the band to do it in exchange for a pie.
  • The compositions of "Highcommunications" and "The Frustrated" (both from "The Frustrated" album) are credited to kombinat-12, which is a partnership between Takuro and Hisashi.
  • Teru is married to Ami Onuki from Jpop group Puffy AmiYumi, and they have one child.
  • Takuro is married to Japanese model Seri Iwahori as of May 2004, and they have one son. They own a house in Los Angeles, California.

[edit] Main Awards

  • 1996
    • "Gold Request Award" for the single "Beloved" at the "29th All Japan Cable Broadcast Awards"
  • 1997
    • Grand Prize winner at the "30th All Japan Cable Broadcast Awards"
    • Grand Prize winner at the "30th Japan Cable Broadcast Awards"
    • Best Album of the year for "Beloved" at the "39th Japan Record Awards"
    • Most Outstanding Piece of Work winner for "However" at the "39th Japan Record Awards"
  • 1998
    • Grand Prize winner at the "35th Golden Arrow Awards"
    • Best Selling Japanese Artist at the World Music Awards
    • Best Rock Album of the Year at the "12th Golden Disk Awards"
    • Best Musical Video of the Year at the "12th Golden Disk Awards"
    • Best Artist of the Year at the "12th Golden Disk Awards"
    • Best Album of the Year for "pure soul" at the "40th Japan Record Awards"
  • 1999
    • Grand Prize winner at the "32nd All Japan Cable Broadcast Awards"
    • Most Requested Artist at the "32nd Japan Cable Broadcast Awards"
    • Grand Prize winner for "Winter, again" at the "41st Japan Record Awards"
  • 2005
    • Special prize for their career at the "Space Shower Music Video Awards"

[edit] Notes

  1. ↑  Japan Times, Article, Japan Times, 2001 (date unsure)
  2. ↑  The Japan Zone Newsletter. The Japan Zone Newsletter. (Interesting Facts)
  3. ↑  The Japan Zone Newsletter. Modern Japan - Famous Japanese - Glay. (Name)
  4. ↑  Glay Official Homepage. HAPPY SWING SPACE SITE. (Article information)
  5. ↑  Time Magazine Article. TIME - The Day the Phones Died. (Trivia and Name)

[edit] External links

 v • d • e 
Glay
Studio albums
Hai to Diamond | Speed Pop | Beat Out! | Beloved | Pure Soul | Heavy Gauge | One Love | Unity Roots and Family, Away | The Frustrated | Love is Beautiful
Greatest Hits/Best Ofs
Review | Glay Drive ~complete best~ | Glay Rare Collectives vol. 1 and 2 | White Road
Television Shows
Glay Global Communication
Members
Hisashi | Jiro | Teru | Takuro
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