The Gazette (band)
The Gazette, formerly known as Gazette, is a Japanese visual kei rock band, formed in Kanagawa in early 2002. The band is currently signed to Sony Music Records.
Biography
2002: Conception and early work
The band began in 2002 with Ruki, Reita and Uruha in Kanagawa Prefecture. After being involved with other bands in the visual kei movement, the trio decided that this band would be their last. They recruited Aoi and Yune from disbanded visual band Artia and formally became Gazette in January 2002. The band name is an intentional misspelling of "cassette".After signing to the Matina record label, they released their first single, "Wakaremichi", and first music video on April 30, 2002. "Wakaremichi" was re-released in June. By September, they had released "Kichiku Kyoushi no Nousatsu Kouza" and their second PV. In October 2002, they played their first solo live show, and on Christmas 2002, the 5-song compilation Yougenkyou with the song "Okuribi" was released.
2003–2004: New drummer, ''Cockayne Soup'' and ''Disorder''
In early 2003, drummer Yune left the band and was replaced by Kai who volunteered to be the leader of the band. Shortly after this, Gazette signed with the PS Company label and in May, released their first EP, Cockayne Soup. They started their first tour with the band Hanamuke, during which the two bands collaborated on two songs.A second tour followed with the band Vidoll. The bands were featured together on the November issue of Cure, a magazine focusing on visual kei bands.
In early December 2003, they played a co-headlining show with Deadman. On December 28, they performed at Fool's Mate magazine's Beauti-fool's Fest. The performance was later released on DVD.
On January 16, 2004, the band recorded a solo performance at the Shibuya-AX, released on DVD as Tokyo Saihan -Judgment Day-. On March 30, 2004, they released their fifth EP Madara, which reached No. 2 on the Oricon Indie Charts. Madara was followed on May 26 by a companion DVD that included six music videos and an in-the-studio documentary. In the same month, Gazette was featured in Shoxx magazine's Expect Rush III, a catalogue of independent visual kei artists.
A second concert DVD, Heisei Banka, was released on August 25, 2004. In September and October, they toured with fellow PS Company bands Kra and Bis. Their first studio album, Disorder, was released on October 13, 2004, and subsequently made it to the top 5 of the indies Oricon Daily Charts.
2005–2006: ''Nil'' and Nameless Liberty Six Guns tour
In early 2005, Gazette embarked on their Japan-wide spring tour called Standing Tour 2005 Maximum Royal Disorder. The final performance of the tour was held at Shibuya Kokaido on April 17, 2005. On March 9, they released the new single "Reila".After the DVD release of their concert on July 6, 2005, the band released their sixth EP, Gama, and embarked on the Standing Tour 2005 the Underground Red Cockroach. On October 20, Gazette released their first photobook, Verwelktes Gedicht, which included an exclusive CD containing the song "Kare Uta". On December 7, 2005, the band released their first single under a major label, "Cassis". The promotional video of "Cassis", was shot in Austria. On December 11, 2005, Gazette performed alongside other bands signed to the PS Company label to celebrate the record label's fifth anniversary Peace and Smile Carnival 2005 Tour.
After changing the spelling of their name from Japanese to English and adding the word "the" in front of it, the band released their second studio album, Nil, on February 8, 2006. Shortly after, the Gazette embarked on another Japanese tour called Standing Tour 2006 Nameless Liberty Six Guns. The final performance of the tour was held at Nippon Budokan. In May 2006, they released their first compilation album, Dainihon Itangeishateki Noumiso Gyaku Kaiten Zekkyou Ongenshuu, which included songs that had been released from 2002 through 2004. In the next month, they released their second music video compilation DVD, Film Bug I. On July 29, 2006, the Gazette performed at the Beethovenhalle in Bonn, Germany, their first show outside of Asia. The concerts were arranged in conjunction with the AnimagiC anime and manga convention.
On August 6, 2006, the Gazette held a festival called Gazerock Festival in Summer 06 at Tokyo Big Sight West Hall. Later that month, the band released two new singles, "Regret" on October 25, and "Filth in the Beauty" on November 1. To promote the singles, they began another tour, Tour 2006-2007 Decomposition Beauty. In the middle of tour, they announced that the final of the tour would be held at Yokohama Arena.
2007–2009: ''Stacked Rubbish'' and ''Dim''
In early 2007, the single "Hyena" was released. "Chizuru", its B-side, was used as the ending song of the Korean horror film, Apt.. The band's third studio album, Stacked Rubbish followed on July 4, 2007. The album reached No. 2 on the Oricon charts within a day of the release. The album was followed by a long promotional tour called Tour 2007–2008 Stacked Rubbish that went from July 2007 until April 2008. In the midst of the tour in October, the Gazette embarked on their first European tour, performing in England, Finland, France, and Germany. The tour finale was held in Yoyogi National Gymnasium on April 19 and April 20, 2008.In the beginning of 2008, the Gazette collaborated with GemCerey on jewellery. They released the single, "Guren" on February 13, 2008, which reached No. 3 on the Oricon charts. The DVD for their Stacked Rubbish Grand Finale at Yoyogi National Gymnasium was released on August 6, 2008. The single "Leech", released on November 12, 2008, landed a No. 2 spot on the Oricon charts. On July 14, 2008, the band performed in the event Music Japan 2008 with other bands such as Alice Nine, Plastic Tree, LM.C and Mucc.
On August 23, 2008, the Gazette held a festival called Gazerock Festival in Summer 08 at Fuji-Q Conifer Forest. They then went on a fanclub tour throughout October called Standing Live Tour 08, referencing the song "Distorted Daytime" from their "Leech" single, which portrayed Tokyo as a "distorted city", in terms of the societal and political crises sweeping over Japan.
On November 15, 2008, the Gazette held a secret show at Shinjuku Station. Over seven thousand people showed up, marking a record at the venue. However, the police deemed it too dangerous to continue and shut the event down after only ten minutes and two songs.
On January 3, 2009, the Gazette performed at Nippon Budokan alongside fellow PS Company bands in the Peace and Smile Carnival 2009 Tour to celebrate the record label's 10th anniversary, where they announced they would release a single titled "Distress and Coma" on March 25. The release was preceded by a 7th anniversary performance called Live 09 at Makuhari Messe. The band released their fourth studio album, Dim on July 15, 2009, followed by another Japan-wide summer tour starting in July, for which the tour's final performance was held at Saitama Super Arena on September 5, 2009. On October 7, 2009, the single "Before I Decay" was released. After that, the Gazette performed at V Rock Festival 2009 at Makuhari Messe on October 24.
In December, the Gazette held a Christmas Eve live performance to close out the year called Live 09 at Tokyo Big Sight.
2010–2011: Label change and ''Toxic''
On March 17, 2010, the band began the Standing Live Tour 10 at Zepp Tokyo. After the fan club tour, the band then announced a live tour, which was called Tour 10 Nameless Liberty Six Bullets starting in July with two consecutive nights at Nippon Budokan. Among all of these events, the band also announced that they would be transferring from King Records to Sony Music Records. "Shiver" was the first single released by the Gazette under the new label. It was also selected as the opening theme song to the second season of the Sony anime series Black Butler. On August 4, 2010, they released their third music video on DVD titled Film Bug II, which included ten PV's from "Regret" to "Before I Decay".Right after the release of "Shiver", the band announced that the final stop of the Tour 10 Nameless Liberty Six Bullets would be held at Tokyo Dome, and that two new singles, "Red" and "Pledge", would be released.
In March 2011, the band embarked on a fan club-only tour called Live Tour 11 and 9th Birth at Zepp Tokyo on March 10, 2011. The Gazette postponed the releases of their best-of album Traces Best of 2005–2009 and the live DVD The Nameless Liberty at 10.12.26 Tokyo Dome, which contains footage of the Tokyo Dome show, due to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Both were later released on April 6, 2011.
The single "Vortex" was released on May 25, 2011. In July 2011, Ruki and Aoi joined in on PS Carnival Tour 2011 Summer 7 Days at Shibuya. Ruki was in a session band named "Lu/V" and Aoi was in a session band named "Aoi with Bon:cra-z". The Gazette also performed at the 2011 Summer Sonic Festival that was held on August 13–14, 2011 in Tokyo and Osaka. On September 18, 2011, the Gazette performed at the Inazuma Rock Festival 2011 with TM Revolution.
The Gazette announced the release of their single "Remember the Urge" on August 31, as well as the release of the album Toxic on October 5 and the Live Tour11 Venomous Cell. The tour started on October 10, 2011, at Tokyo International Forum Hall A and led the band through 27 cities with a total of 28 performances held through the end of 2011. The tour finale was held in Yokohama Arena with the title Tour11-12 Venomous Cell -the Finale- Omega on January 14, 2012. On October 3, the Gazette was rewarded "The Most Requested Artist 2010" from the 2011 J-Melo Awards.