| Luna Sea | |
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Luna Sea in 2010 Clockwise from top left: Inoran, J, Shinya, Sugizo, Ryuichi |
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| Background information | |
| Also known as | Lunacy |
| Origin | Kanagawa, Japan |
| Genres | Progressive rock, alternative rock, pop rock, hard rock, punk rock, heavy metal |
| Years active | 1989–2000, 2007 and 2008 (reunion shows), 2010–present |
| Labels | Extasy, MCA Victor, Universal, HPQ/Avex |
| Associated acts | Tourbillon, Fake?, X Japan, S.K.I.N. |
| Website | www.lunasea.co.jp |
| Members | |
| Ryuichi Sugizo Inoran J Shinya |
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Luna Sea (stylized as LUNA SEA) is a rock band from Kanagawa, Japan, formed in 1989. The band was initially founded by bassist J and rhythm guitarist Inoran, when they were in high school. They soon recruited lead guitarist and violinist Sugizo, drummer Shinya and vocalist Ryuichi, a lineup that has remained the same. Originally called Lunacy, the band changed their name to Luna Sea upon their first album release.
Luna Sea, due to early use of make-up and costumes and their widespread popularity, is considered one of the biggest influential bands in the visual kei movement. Throughout the mid '90s they used significantly less make-up, and after a one-year break in 1998, came back with a more mainstream alternative rock style and toned down their on-stage attire. When they disbanded in 2000, they left a big influence on the Japanese rock scene. In 2003, HMV Japan ranked Luna Sea at number 90 on their list of the 100 most important Japanese pop acts.[1]
Luna Sea achieved their breakthrough success with a sold-out tour in 1991, which helped them get a contract with MCA Victor, and with the release of their second album Image, which reached number nine on the charts.[2] After switching to Universal in 1998, the band released their best-selling studio album, Shine, with an estimated 902,310 copies sold in one year in Japan alone, although this is less than their compilation album Singles which managed to sell over one million in Japan. Throughout their career, Luna Sea released seven studio albums, one live album, seven VHS/DVD releases, and fourteen singles, and sold over nine million records in Japan alone.
On August 25, 2010, it was announced that Luna Sea would hold an urgent press conference on August 31 in Hong Kong, where they once announced the end of their activities in 2000.[3] During the press conference the band confirmed a reunion and announced their first concert tour in ten years, new songs and added that there will be even more news with time. The world tour, named 20th Anniversary World Tour Reboot -to the New Moon- began on November 27 in Germany, and continued with performances in the United States, Hong Kong, Taiwan and ended on December 31 in Japan, the last of a two-day performance in Kobe.[4][5]
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The band was formed in January 1989[1] by Jun "J" Onose and Kiyonobu "Inoran" Inoue when they were still in high school, under the name Lunacy. They soon recruited Yasuhiro "Sugizo" Sugihara and Shinya Yamada from the band Pinoccio to be guitarist and drummer, respectively. On May 6, they recruited Ryuichi Kawamura (then called "Rayla") from the band Slaughter to be lead vocalist.
Lunacy debuted on stage at the 100-seat capacity Machida Playhouse on May 29. They released their first self-titled demo tape, which included the songs "Kill Me", "Sexual", and "Nightmare", on August 9, all 100 copies sold out.[6] The band's second demo "Shade", which was released four months later, included "Shade", "Search for Reason", and "Suspicious", again all 1,000 copies sold out.[6] On December 17, the band played their first official one-man live concert at Machida Playhouse with all 150 tickets being sold out.
In 1990, Lunacy played a handful of concerts with other popular bands such as Wood Pecker, Dools, Billy & the Sluts, Jolly Pickles, and Tokyo Yankees. They released their third demo, "Lastly", in June and played an additional live at Machida Playhouse.[6]
Lunacy was discovered by the late hide (then lead guitarist of X Japan), and then signed by X Japan co-founder Yoshiki to his independent label Extasy Records. In 1991 the band changed their name from Lunacy to Luna Sea, just upon the release of their first album, the self-titled Luna Sea.[6] After signing with Sweet Child management, Luna Sea held larger live performances throughout the year with their first tour, "Under the New Moon Episode I-III". Around this time the band played a lot of shows with the metal band Aion. This led to the two bands becoming good friends, with Luna Sea even providing backing vocals for Aion's album Aionism. The band's popularity started booming when they played at the Nippon Budokan for the "Exstasy Summit" concert, along with other former and current Extasy bands including X Japan, Virus, Gilles de Rais, and Tokyo Yankees. At the end of the year, Luna Sea announced they had signed with MCA Records.
After the official fanclub "Slave" was set up in January, Luna Sea released their first official MCA Victor-labeled album Image on May 21. It became the No.9 best selling album on the Oricon chart. Luna Sea then held the concert "Luna Sea Concert Tour 1992 Image or Real" for 7 nights, where one of the events was taped and released in as a home video. Correspondent to their increasing popularity, the concert "After The Image Tour" would be held during October. Luna Sea closed the year with another Extasy Summit concert at the Nippon Budokan.
During the band's short break, Inoran, J, and Sugizo helped collaborate on the album Dance 2 Noise 4. The song "Revive ~ Walts for Reminiscence of Mind" was contributed by Sugizo. Inoran and J teames up with hide to form a temporary unit called M*A*S*S and created the song "Frozen Bug", which was later remixed and put on Hide's first solo album, Hide Your Face. On February 24, the band's first single "Believe" was released, reaching No.11 on the chart with a total sale of almost 150,000 copies.[2]
The band started working on their second album and started touring for it on April 16, with the "Luna Sea Concert Tour 1993 Search for My Eden", throughout the country. Their second album, Eden was released on April 21 and reached No.5 on the charts. The band then released their next single, "In My Dream (With Shiver)" on July 21, reaching No.9 on the chart.[2] The "Luna Sea Concert Tour 1993 Search for My Eden Encore" was then held throughout August, with the final performance on August 30 being taped and released on VHS. Luna Sea then released the Sin After Sin video which included performances from smaller venues during the year.
Luna Sea held various live tours since late the previous year until February titled "Luna Sea Concert Tour '93-'94 The Garden of Sinners". On February 12, they were supposed to play the tour's final concert, but had to delay for an hour due to a massive blizzard nearby. This was the third time the band experienced a delay because of bad weather, thus some media joked that Luna Sea were "the natural disaster". In any event, Luna Sea released their next single, "Rosier" which reached No.3 on the chart and sold almost 100,000 copies in its first week of release.[2] After a handful of live performances, the band released their fourth single, "True Blue" which topped the chart with more than 140,000 sales during its first week.[2]
Responding to the popularity, Luna Sea released their third album, Mother on October 26. The album peaked on the 2nd place, and until now sold more than 700,000 copies, being their third best selling album. The release of Mother led the band into a more progressive rock approach with songs like "Genesis of Mind ~Yume no Kanata he~", "Face to Face" and "Mother". The promotional video for "Rosier" was awarded "The Best Music Video" from Nippon Award Taisho (Japan's music awards) on December 31.
In January, Luna Sea went to Ireland to film the promotional video for "Mother". The single was then released the following month, reaching No.2 on the chart.[2] Throughout March and May, the band held the concert tour "Mother of Love, Mother of Hate" to promote the album. On May 24, their first promotional video collection release was out with the title, Eclipse I. On November 13, was released their next number one single "Desire", and until the end of charting sold more than 550,000 copies.[2] By now, their popularity had reached the point to which they would headline the Tokyo Dome, Japan's largest indoor live venue titled "Lunatic Tokyo". More than 55,000 tickets were sold out prior to the event.
The next single "End of Sorrow" was released on March 25, and peaked at 1st place on the charts.[2] The same thing would happen to their fourth album Style released on April 22,[6] which until now sold more 700,000 copies, like previous one. On July 15, the single "In Silence", which reached the second place, and the Lunatic Tokyo 1995.12.23 Tokyo Dome VHS were released. Luna Sea held their next tour "Unending Style" later that year, with an encore live being held on December 23 titled "Unending Style Tour Final Christmas Stadium ~Mafuyu no Yagai~" at the outdoor Yokohama Stadium. Luna Sea made an announcement during the concert that the band would have a temporary year break in 1997 for each member to pursue solo careers.[1]
Luna Sea returned with the releases of the singles "Storm", which is their best-selling single with a total sale of more than 720,000 copies, and "Shine", both of which went to No.1 on the chart.[2] In July, it was followed by an additional single "I for You", which was the ending theme song of the popular Japanese drama "Kamisama mō Sukoshi dake" (神様 もう少しだけ) (Precious Time) starring Takeshi Kaneshiro and Kyoko Fukada. Their fifth and best selling studio album, Shine, was then released, topped the charts and eventually to be certified a million seller. The song "Breathe" from this album was also used in the Japanese release of Walt Disney's animated movie Mulan. They started making frequent appearances on popular music television shows including Heyx3, CDTV, Music Station, as well as the yearly event Kōhaku Uta Gassen, which features popular artists and songs of the year. The band appeared at the Music Station's Super Live 1998 on Christmas following their concert in Yokohama Stadium titled "Manatsu no Yagai" (真夏の野外 , On the fields of midsummer time).
Luna Sea's popularity had reached overseas to neighboring countries in Asia, leading to their first Asian tour in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Shanghai.[6] To celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the band, Luna Sea released their first live compilation album Never Sold Out and planned a large concert titled "Luna Sea 10th Anniversary Gig ∞". Unfortunately a storm destroyed the elaborate stage, however the debris was used as a backdrop and the show was attended by approximately 100,000 people.[1]
After releasing nothing for nearly two years, Luna Sea came back with the new single "Gravity", which topped the charts.[2] Some of their songs were used in the movie including "My Lover", which was used in the movie Another Heaven. The song "Sweetest Coma Again" was also used in the Japanese release of the James Bond movie, The World Is Not Enough. Following the release of the single "Tonight", Luna Sea in July released their sixth studio album, Lunacy, peaking at third place, and selling around 300,000 copies in total, was a failure compared to previous albums. They held two concerts titled "Luna Sea Concert Tour 2000 The Brand New Chaos". During the latter concert, the band made the announcement they were "dropping the curtains" at the end of the year to pursue solo careers.[6] They then released their last single "Love Song" and the compilation album Period -the Best Selection-, which includes re-recordings of "Precious...", "Déjàvu", "Wish" and "Believe". Luna Sea held their two-day farewell concerts at the Tokyo Dome on December 26–27.[1]
Luna Sea reunited for the "God Bless You ~One Night Dejavu~" concert on December 24, 2007.[7] The concert was broadcast live on Japan's NHK BS Hi-vision Satellite channel, with a few songs abridged from the track list. The full-length DVD version of the concert was released on March 26, 2008.[8] The band said they would only perform occasional live shows because they thought the reunion shouldn't be permanent. Luna Sea reunited again to perform at the "hide memorial summit" on May 4, 2008. During their respective oversea tours in Hong Kong, both Inoran and Ryuichi teased in their interviews regarding the potential reunion of the band. Luna Sea celebrated their 20th year anniversary on May 29, 2009. According to the band's official website, they have since started selling music worldwide via iTunes.
May 29, 2010 was the 21st anniversary of Luna Sea's formation and also the day of a full moon.[9] Paralleling their official website renewal, an official Twitter account, a Facebook page and an official YouTube channel was launched. On every following full moon day, a new video was uploaded on their YouTube channel. On August 25, also a full moon day, it was announced that they will hold an urgent press conference on August 31 in Hong Kong, where they once announced the end of their activities in 2000. The press conference was broadcast worldwide live through streaming service Ustream.tv.[10]
During the Hong Kong press conference, the band announced their reunion and the first concert tour in ten years. They also said that new songs were being written. The tour, named "20th Anniversary World Tour Reboot -to the New Moon-", began on November 27 in Germany and continued on to the United States, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and was planned to end with two shows in Japan on the 23 and 24 of December.[11]
On November 30, it was announced that the band would hold a free concert at the Tokyo Dome on December 25. The concert titled "Lunacy Kurofuku Gentei Gig ~the Holy Night~" refers to the band's former name (Lunacy), as well as to three previous "Kurofuku Gentei" (dress code black) shows held in their indie days, where the audience had to wear black.[12] The concert was performed under their original name Lunacy,[13] and all songs performed were pre-1995.
As of December 1, Luna Sea are signed to the record label HPQ, which is owned by Avex Group. Their first release with the label was the self-cover of their debut album, Luna Sea, on March 16, 2011.[12] On December 9, a two-day concert at the World Memorial Hall in Kobe for December 30 and 31 was announced, the later entitled "20th Anniversary World Tour Reboot -The Last Count Down-" was the band's first New Year countdown concert.[5]
In response to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami that occurred on March 11 in Japan, Luna Sea announced they would release their first new song in 10 years.[14] "Promise" was released on April 9 exclusively on Amazon websites as a digital download, with all proceeds donated to the Japanese Red Cross to aid the victims.[15][16]
Their December 4, 2010 concert in Los Angeles was filmed in 3D, and it was released as a live album and video. Both titled Luna Sea 3D in Los Angeles, the album was released on June 1, while the video was shown in theaters nationwide in Japan on June 4.[17] The band streamed a live press conference, at the movie's premier at Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills, through Ustream.tv on May 29.[18] There they announced a charity concert titled "Luna Sea for Japan "A Promise to the Brave"" at the 30,000 seat Saitama Super Arena on October 22. The concert was broadcast live on WOWOW,[19] and all proceeds from the event would go to the Japanese Red Cross for the victims of the Tōhoku earthquake and Tsunami.[20] Tickets for the show went on sale on August 14, they sold out in five minutes.[19]
According to Alexey Eremenko of Allmusic, Luna Sea's sound is "firmly based in '80s hard rock, with a versatile progressive approach to songwriting, and its softer side, displayed later on in the group's career, proved equally strong."[21] With mixed elements of punk, metal, gothic rock with pop tunes,[6] they formed hard, slow, or fast tunes, as well as ballads, all with a mysterious atmosphere. Also their softer side, with violin playing proved equally as strong. With their last two records, their sound became more mainstream, and lost some mystery and yet still had the distinctive sound of the band.
The members of Luna Sea are credited exclusively by their given or stage names.
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