Luna Sea ~Profile & History~



Luna Sea is a Japanese rock band from Kanagawa, formed in 1989. The band was initially founded by, band leader and bassist Jun "J" Onose and rhythm guitarist Kiyonobu "Inoran" Inoue, when they were in high school. Originally the band was called Lunacy. When the senior members graduated from school in 1989, Lunacy recruited lead guitarist and violinist Yasuhiro "Sugizo" Sugihara, drummer Shinya Yamada and vocalist Ryuichi Kawamura, a lineup that has remained the same. Upon their first album release, the band changed their name to Luna Sea.



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, they came back with a more progressive rock style and toned down their on-stage attire. When they went on an "indefinite hiatus" in 2000, they left a big influence on the Japanese rock scene.

Luna Sea's sound is firmly based in '80s hard rock, with a versatile progressive approach to songwriting, with mixed elements of the eighties punk, metal and grunge rock, they formed hard, sappy, or fast tunes, as well as ballads with a mysterious atmosphere. Also their softer side, with violin playing displayed later on in the group's career, proved equally as strong. With their last two records, their sound did became more pop, and lost some mystery and yet still had the distinctive sound of the band.

Luna Sea achieved its breakthrough success with a sold-out tour in 1991 that helped them to get a contract with MCA Records, after Universal, and with the release of their second album Image which reached number nine on the charts. The band's best-selling studio album is Shine, with an estimated 902,310 copies sold in one year in Japan, although less than their compilation album Singles which managed to sell over one million in Japan. Throughout the 90s, Luna Sea released seven studio albums, one live album, 13 VHS/DVD releases, and 14 singles, selling over eight million records in Japan alone.

On August 25, 2010 the day of a full moon, 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. 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- will start on November 27, in Germany, and will continue with performances in the United States, Hong Kong, Taiwan and end with two performances at the Tokyo Dome on December 23, and Christmas Eve.


HISTORY

The band was formed in August 1989 by J and Inoran when they were still in high school, under the name Lunacy. Together with some senior members, they played at occasional live houses and radio music contests. When the senior members graduated from school in 1989, Lunacy recruited Sugizo and Shinya from the band Pinoccio to be guitarist and drummer, respectively. After searching for a few months, the band recruited Ryuichi from the band Slaughter to be the lead vocalist.

That year, Lunacy debuted on stage at the 100-seat capacity Machida Playhouse on May 29. They released their first demo which included the songs "Kill Me," "Sexual," and "Nightmare," all 100 copies sold out. The band's second demo, which was released three months later, included "Shade," "Search for Reason," and "Suspicious," again all 1,000 copies sold out. 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," and played an additional live at Machida Playhouse.

Lunacy were discovered by the late Hideto Matsumoto (then lead guitarist of X Japan), and then signed by X Japan co-founder Yoshiki Hayashi 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. 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 lead 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, which reached No.1 on Oricon. 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 bands short break, Inoran, J, and Sugizo helped collaborate on the album Dance 2 Noise 4. The song "Revive~walts for reminiscence of mind" was produced by Sugizo. Inoran and J joined Hide to set up a temporary unit called "M*A*S*S" to produce the song, "Frozen Bug", which was later remixed and put on Hide's first solo album Hide Your Face. On February 24, Luna Sea's first single "Believe" was released, reaching No.11 on the Oricon Chart with a total sale of 200,000 copies.

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 where it reached No.5 on the best selling album Oricon Chart. The band then released their next single, "In My Dream (with Shiver)" on July 21, reaching No.9 on the Oricon Chart. 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'ss 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 Oricon Chart and sold more than 400,000 copies in its first week of release. After a handful of live performances, the band released their fourth single, "True Blue" which topped the Oricon Chart with more than 450,000 sales during its first week. Responding to the popularity, Luna Sea released their third album, Mother on October 26. The album sold 700,000 copies in the opening week and was No.2 on Oricon. 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." In any event, 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 Oricon Chart with a total sale of 300,000 copies. 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" which reached No.1 on Oricon. The same thing would happen to their next single, "Desire" on November 13. 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, reaching No.1 on the Oricon Chart. The same thing would happen to their fourth album, Style in May. On July 15, the single "In Silence" 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.

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 Oricon Chart. 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 studio album, Shine was then released and reached No.1 on Oricon. 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, including Hong Kong, Taiwan and China. They held their first Asian tour in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Shanghai, respectively. To celebrate the 10th year anniversary of the band, Luna Sea released their first live compilation album Never Sold Out along with the concert "Luna Sea 10th Anniversary Gig ∞". The concert was attended by approximately 100,000 people.

After releasing nothing for nearly two years, Luna Sea came back with the new single "Gravity", which topped the Oricon Chart. 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 released their sixth studio album Lunacy in July. The album mixed the elements of progressive rock, hard rock, and metal. 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. The last single "Love Song" and compilation album Period ~The Best Selection~ were then released. Luna Sea held their two-day farewell concerts at the Tokyo Dome on December 26–27.

Since then, the members have either pursued solo careers (Ryuichi and J), new bands (Inoran with Fake) or collaborations with other musicians (such as the short-lived The Flare by Sugizo and Lazy Knack vocalist Yuna). Shinya, marrying Aya Ishiguro of the pop girl group Morning Musume, has been playing drums for other musicians such as Nanase Aikawa, Maki Ohguro, and Miyavi. More recently, Inoran has left Fake and reunited with Ryuichi to form Tourbillon in 2005, while Sugizo has joined the super group Skin in 2007, which also features pop/rock artists Gackt and Miyavi, as well as Yoshiki.

Luna Sea reunited for a "God Bless You ~One Night Dejavu~" concert on December 24, 2007. The concert aired live on Japan's NHK BS Hi-vision Satellite channel, with a few songs cut from the track list. The full-length DVD version of the concert was released on March 26, 2008. 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 3, 2008. During their respective oversea tours in Hong Kong, both Inoran and Ryuichi teased in their interviews regarding the possible 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. Besides their official website renewal, an official Twitter and Facebook were launched, as well as a YouTube channel. On every following full moon a new video was uploaded to their YouTube channel. On August 25, on the day of a full moon, 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 live through streaming service Ustream.tv to the world.

During the Hong Kong press conference the band confirmed their reunion and announced their first concert tour in ten years. The tour, named "20th Anniversary World Tour Reboot" will start on November 27 in Germany and will likely end with a 2day performance at the Tokyo Dome in December. They also said that new songs were being written.

MEMBERS

As with numerous other Japanese bands, the members of Luna Sea were usually credited with their given or stage name.
  1. Ryuichi Kawamura (河村隆一, Kawamura Ryuuichi) – Vocals
  2. Yasuhiro "Sugizo" Sugihara (杉原有音 Sugihara Yasuhiro) – Lead guitar and violin
  3. Kiyonobu "Inoran" Inoue (井上清信 Inoue Kiyonobu) – Rhythm guitar
  4. Jun "J" Onose (小野瀬潤 Onose Jun) – Bass
  5. Shinya Yamada (山田真矢 Yamada Shinya) – Drums

DISCOGRAPHY

Albums
  • Luna Sea (April 21, 1991)
  • Image (May 21, 1992)
  • Eden (April 21, 1993)
  • Mother (October 26, 1994)
  • Style (April 22, 1996)
  • Shine (July 23, 1998)
  • Lunacy (July 12, 2000)

Singles
  • "Believe" (February 24, 1993)
  • "In My Dream (With Shiver)" (July 21, 1993)
  • "Rosier" (July 21, 1994)
  • "True Blue" (September 21, 1994)
  • "Mother" (February 22, 1995)
  • "Desire" (November 13, 1995)
  • "End of Sorrow" (March 25, 1996)
  • "In Silence" (July 15, 1996)
  • "Storm" (April 15, 1998)
  • "Shine" (June 3, 1998)
  • "I for You" (July 1, 1998)
  • "Gravity" (March 29, 2000)
  • "Tonight" (May 17, 2000)
  • "Love Song" (November 8, 2000)

Box sets
  • Complete Single Box (December 23, 2003)
  • Complete Album Box (May 29, 2004)

Compilations
  • Singles (December 17, 1997)
  • Never Sold Out (May 29, 1999)
  • Period ~The Best Selection~ (December 23, 2000)
  • Guitar Solo Instruments 1 (December 19, 2001)
  • Guitar Solo Instruments 2 (December 19, 2001)
  • Piano Solo Instruments 1 (December 19, 2001)
  • Piano Solo Instruments 2 (December 19, 2001)
  • Piano Solo Instruments 3 (December 19, 2001)
  • Piano Solo Instruments 4 (December 19, 2001)
  • Another Side of Singles II (March 6, 2002)
  • Slow (March 23, 2005)
  • Complete Best (March 26, 2008)

V.A. Compilations
  • Nucler Fusion (March 10, 1991)
  • Tribute Spirits (May 1, 1999)
  • Vitamins - for your heart (February 19, 2003)
  • Rock is Loft (June 14, 2006)
  • Rock Nippon Noriko Shoji Selection (January 24, 2007)
  • Memorial Cover Album -Re.birth- (December 19, 2007)
  • CDTV No.1 Hits - Age Uta - (December 23, 2009)
  • CDTV No.1 Hits - Naki Uta - (December 23, 2009)
  • CDTV No.1 Hits - Tomo Uta - (December 23, 2009)

OSTs
  • Mulan (September 9, 1998)
  • The World Is Not Enough (January 19, 2000)
  • Another Heaven Complex (April 28, 2000)

Home videos
  • Image Or Real (July 22, 1992)
  • Sin After Sin (December 16, 1993)
  • Eclipse I (May 24, 1995)
  • Lunatic Tokyo 1995.12.23 Tokyo Dome (July 15, 1996)
  • Rew (May 21, 1997)
  • 10th Anniversary Gig [Never Sold Out] Capacity ∞ Live! (September 29, 1999)
  • The Final Act Tokyo Dome (May 29, 2001)
  • Eclipse II (November 28, 2001)
  • Eclipse I+II (November 28, 2001)
  • Revive ~Mafuyu no Yagai~ (May 29, 2003)
  • Luna Sea 1998 Revive ~Manatsu no Yagai~ (May 29, 2003)
  • God Bless You ~One Night Dejavu~ Tokyo Dome 2007.12.24 (March 26, 2008)
  • 10th Anniversary Gig [Never Sold Out] Capacity ∞ Live! (May 30, 2010)
  • Mafuyu no Yagai & Manatsu no Yagai (May 30, 2010)

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