Glay
Glay is a Japanese rock band formed in Hakodate in 1988. The core four members, vocalist Teru, guitarists Takuro and Hisashi, and bassist Jiro, have been together since 1992. Primarily composing songs in the rock and pop genres, they have also arranged songs using elements from a variety of other genres, including progressive rock, punk, gothic rock, electronic, R&B, folk, gospel, reggae, and ska. Originally a visual kei band, the group slowly shifted to less dramatic attire through the years. With five million copies sold, Glay's 1997 compilation album Review is the fifth best-selling album of all time in Japan. Their July 1999 concert "Expo '99" at Makuhari Messe was attended by 200,000 people, making it the largest-ticketed concert ever held by a single act at the time. As of 2008, Glay had sold an estimated 51 million records; 28 million singles and 23 million albums, making them one of the top ten best-selling artists of all time in Japan.
History
1988–1994: Indies era
Glay formed in 1988 as a high school band when Takuro asked Teru, a schoolmate, to play the drums. They found a bassist but had difficulty finding a vocalist. When Teru made a tape of his singing and gave it to Takuro he was immediately recruited for the part, leaving the drums part to be filled by another person. On the search for a second guitarist, Hisashi was asked to join but declined 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. Hisashi eventually accepted Takuro's offer and became Glay's lead guitarist after Ari disbanded in 1989. Officially, the name "Glay" was coined by Takuro and is a deliberate misspelling of the word "gray" to represent the style of music they wanted to play: a mixture between rock and pop. However, Hisashi confirmed in an interview with Natalie that the name came from Jun Gray, a member of the punk rock band Kenzi & The Trips that he and Takuro had read about in the magazine Takarajima.By the time of Takuro and Teru's graduation, Glay were enjoying some popularity in their hometown of Hakodate and were playing full live houses. Following Hisashi's high school graduation in 1990, the three moved to Tokyo to try to further expand their musical career. The bassist and the drummer chose to stay in Hakodate. In Tokyo, they found a completely different situation: although they had been relatively popular in their hometown, it was not easy to begin a career in Tokyo. Their concerts attracted few people, and sometimes none at all, and many live houses would not accept them because they did not fit well into either rock or pop categories. The band had to conciliate their music career to part-time jobs and faced financial problems during their first years in Tokyo.
During this time, members were constantly joining and leaving the band. When their bassist quit, Takuro knew that Jiro, who was also from Hakodate and had played with the indie band Pierrot, 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 eventually he became Glay's official bass player, finalizing the official four member lineup in August 1992.
They promoted the band by handing out flyers on the street and giving out demo tapes. Eventually they became better known on the Tokyo live house circuit and began drawing larger crowds. Eventually, hide of X Japan gave one of Glay's demos to his bandmate Yoshiki. During an October 1993 show, Yoshiki and his entourage came to watch and offered the band a contract to his record label Extasy Records. Their debut single, "Rain", and their first album, Hai to Diamond, were both released on May 25, 1994.
1995–2000: Record-setting success
After the time of their debut, Glay steadily became more popular. Their 4th single "Freeze My Love" made it onto the Oricon Top 20, debuting at No. 19. Two months later their second album, Speed Pop, peaked at No. 8. It was their first album released on Platinum Records, a division of PolyGram that Yoshiki founded that same year. Their first No. 1 hit was in 1996 with their third album Beat Out!, which was marked as a major turning point in Glay's career. Released later that same year, the fourth album Beloved was their first album to sell over 1 million copies. In September 1996, Glay played the final concert of the Beat Out! Reprise Tour at Nippon Budokan, their first concert at the venue, which is stated by them to have been their biggest dream coming true. In August 1997, their 12th single "However" remained at the top of the charts for two weeks in a row and, after it was displaced by Zard's single "Eien" for one week, it re-appeared at the top position for another three weeks.In the period between 1997 and 2000, Glay produced six million-selling singles, being the third artist with most million-selling singles of all time. Their 13th single "Yuuwaku" topped Oricon yearly single ranking in 1998. In 1999, their 16th single "Winter, Again" was number two of the year and won the 41st Japan Record Awards "Grand Prix" award, which is considered the most important Japanese music award. Their albums were also massively successful; both Pure Soul and Heavy Gauge, along with the compilation album Drive - Glay Complete Best, sold more than two million copies each.
The impact of their popularity was such that, in 1998, Japan's telephone service was temporarily put out of order due to the mass number of fans trying to reserve tickets to their upcoming tour. The 1998 Winter Olympics were being held, and press coverage of the event became chaotic because of the incident.
In this period, the band won several prizes and established records. In 1997, their compilation album Review - Best of Glay stayed for five weeks in a row at the top position of the Oricon chart and became the all-time best-selling album in Japan at the time, with almost 5 million copies sold. Their 1999 video Survival sold approximately 900,000 copies and is the all-time best-selling video/DVD. In the same year, their first "Expo" concert would lure a record audience of 200,000 people.
File:JAL GLAY JUMBO B747-100SUD TYO.jpg|thumb|right|A Japan Airlines Boeing 747 featuring Glay Expo '99 Survival livery
1999 was the year Glay played their first dome tour, Glay Dome Tour "pure soul" 1999, which made the band the first to hold a consecutive 5 day "dome" concert. This tour had a total of 15 performances in four venues and attracted a total audience of 750,000 people. Glay closed the year of 1999, playing the concert The Millennium Eve - A Christmas Present for the People Who Love Live a Lot, a joint concert with Luna Sea, on December 23, and the Glay Countdown Live in Messe "Come Together" concert on December 31.
Takuro described the "Expo'99" as a dream come true. When the album Heavy Gauge was released, in October 1999, Takuro wrote a diary entry in Glay's official home page, describing the album as a representation of his feelings at that moment. His feelings were not of happiness, but of "emptiness" and not knowing what to do after "doing everything" they wanted to. The album is seen as a first step to a new direction in the band's career. The band considered disbanding in 2000, after releasing their second compilation album, which was a suggestion made by fellow singer Yuki Isoya, whose group Judy and Mary had disbanded.
2001–2003
After this period of massive success and a considerably steady style in their music, Glay's work took a turn in 2001. Their 2001 album One Love got mixed feelings among the fans, due to its disparities to their earlier works, with a different, generally poppier and experimental sound, and songs that had reggae and R&B influences. Their 2002 album Unity Roots and Family, Away, which was almost completely made of slow-paced songs and also had elements from other types of music, was not welcomed by most fans.In spite of the "cold" reception these works had, the band reached No. 1 spot in the charts with both albums. Glay continued being successful with their tours in Japan. They proved to enjoy popularity outside Japan as well, in 2001, when members visited Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea to promote the Expo 2001 "Global Communication" and officially invited artists Dome, Nicholas Tse, Mayday and Jaurim to participate in one of the Expo concerts. The next year, they played outside Japan for the first time, when they played a sold-out live performance for a 35,000 audience in Beijing. The concert is the most expensive in China's history. Glay also met then-CCP General Secretary Jiang Zemin.
In 2003, they made a contract transfer from Pony Canyon to Toshiba EMI, the most expensive transfer in Japan's history, at 4 billion yen. Under the new company, Glay released their first DVD—single "Itsuka" and their first B-Side compilation albums, Rare Collectives Vol.1 and Rare Collectives Vol. 2.
Also in 2003, an art gallery dedicated to Glay was opened in their hometown, Hakodate. "Art Style of Glay" was located in the Winning Hall, a famous building in the city and remained open until 2007.
2004: 10th Anniversary
In 2004, Glay had several activities to celebrate their 10th anniversary since their major debut. As a start to this celebration, Glay presented the concert Rock Shock vol. 3 in 2003. The name was taken from an indie festival organized by Glay in 1989, which had had two editions. In March of that year, they released their 9th studio album, The Frustrated, and in order to promote the album, the band held the Glay Concert Tour 2004 X-Rated and later, in October, the Glay Arena Tour 2004 "The Frustrated" -Extreme-.On July 27 they played a "pre-Expo" concert at Universal Studios Japan and on July 31, they played the third edition of the Glay Expo, which was the main event of the year by the band. At the end of the year, they held the fan-club exclusive Countdown Live in Messe "Come Together" on December 31. They finished the 10th anniversary celebration with the release of the compilation Ballad Best Singles: White Road in January 2005 and with the 10th Anniversary Year Final Glay Dome Tour 2005 "White Road" which finished with the Glay 10th Anniversary Year Final Glay Osaka 4 Days Special 2005 "White Road".