A J ! - E N T S P E C I A L F E AT U R E A R T I C L E

B Y W Y N N E I PI M A G E S C O U R T E S Y O F E M I M U S I C J A PA N

GLAYV E R B T O U R 2 0 0 8 I N U . S . - A U G U S T 1 5 , 2 0 0 8

H O U S E O F B L U E S - S U N S E T S T R I P, W E S T H O L L Y W O O D , C A L I F O R N I A

J!-ENT Celebrating our 15th Year Anniversary

J!-ENT

VERB TOUR 2008 IN U.S. AUGUST 15, 2008HOUSE OF BLUES - SUNSET STRIP, WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA

contents

Copyright © 2008 by J!-ENT. www.j-entonline.com. All Rights Reserved.All GLAY images and photography are courtesy of EMI Music Japan.

GLAY CONCERT REPORT

VERB TOUR 2008 IN US - AUGUST 15, 2008HOUSE OF BLUES - SUNSET STRIP, WEST HOLLYWOOD6

previous interviewsVisit www.j-entonline.com for the following interviews and articles currentlyavailable on J!-ENT. Click on a cover to access a previous article/interview.

VERB TOUR 2008 IN U.S. AUGUST 15, 2008HOUSE OF BLUES - SUNSET STRIP, WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA

GLAY FAN INTERVIEWS

Interviews with GLAY fans who attended the concert and a personal message from fans to GLAY.

“VERB” CD SINGLE REVIEW

Review of GLAY’s CD Single Verb

11

18

FOREWORD

Why GLAY’s performance means a lot - By Wynne Ip4

FOREWORD

GLAY’s “DRIVE” Credit card size calendar that I have kept in my wallet for my passion for their music.

Summer of 2000, I attended a show of my friends’ band in Anaheim, California. Among a number of popular anime rock songs that they performed, I remembered they played a really catchy J-Rock song with an English phrase “…because I love you…” in between a bunch of really fast Japanese words. All I knew was that I wanted to know what song that was, because it was so powerful and made everyone dance. It left me a strong impression. Same year, Christmas holiday, I went home to Hong Kong to visit some old friends from school. We went to karaoke, and I actually asked my friend Mimi if she knew a Japanese song with that particular English phrase. Right away, she looked it up in the karaoke catalog, punched in the code, and told me that it was probably this really popular song called “Yuuwaku” by the band GLAY. Mimi started singing it, and I recognized it immedi-

ately. I was so happy that I finally found the song, I asked Mimi what GLAY albums she would recommend, and she said “DRIVE”, because that was their “best of” 2-disc compilation album that just came out a month ago. I even bought the special edition that included a 2001 credit card size calendar. That day onward, I’ve been carrying that card in my wallet, because their music has been with me ever since. Now eight years later, to be able to finally see them perform in person, just 5 feet away from me, was some-thing I had never imagined being able to do. Perhaps it was because nobody thought that they could afford to bring a big act like GLAY to perform in the U.S., or that they would not have enough fans coming because GLAY is too mainstream. Back in 2003 or 2004, high profile artists such as T.M.Revolution and L’Arc~en~Ciel actually performed at a couple of large anime conventions because they had ties to several anime.

WHY GLAY’S PERFORMANCE MEANS A LOT

4 J!-ENT

The fact that they played at large anime conventions means they could have a high attendance, but it also gave the impression that no Japanese act could do a show here without being backed up by a large anime convention. Other conventions started inviting less famous Japa-nese acts to their events, most of them rock bands, particularly underground, visual-kei rock bands, because apparently they cost less and the organizers thought that Americans were interested in visual-kei J-Rock. Whether this is true or not, that led to the trend of many non-mainstream J-Rock bands testing out the U.S. market, doing group tours, etc. There were other popular non-visual-kei bands and major J-Rock solo artists (some comparable to GLAY’s status in Japan) that have toured the States as well and have attracted a lot of fans to go see them play, many who have played in mainly smaller venues that could hold people in the hundreds and some that have performed in

major locations. The truth is, I hope that with the success GLAY has had in their VERB tour, it can open the doors for other Japa-nese big-name artists, and not limited to rock bands, to come here and play for those of us who have been enjoy-ing their music half way around the globe. I have been fortunate enough to be able to watch this incredible band perform on all three days in San Francisco and West Hollywood, and each performance has been exciting and truly memorable. What you are about to read is my concert report for GLAY’s live performance in West Hollywood on August 15th, and interviews with fans who had traveled from the U.S. and from faraway countries, just to watch their favor-ite band perform. I hope you enjoy my second GLAY article for J!-ENT, and I also hope you discover this amazing band. — WYNNE IP

FOREWORD

J!-ENT 5

My GLAY CD and DVD collection. Images courtesy of Wynne Ip

GLAY VERB TOUR 2008 IN U.S. - AUGUST 15, 2008HOUSE OF BLUES - SUNSET STRIP, WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA

PHOTOS: Outside the House of Blues in West Hollywood. Photo by: Wynne Ip

6 J!-ENT

une 15, 2008 – the day when their MySpace site officially opened, GLAY shocked many fans by an-nouncing their Verb Tour 2008 in

the United States. The official news traveled quickly on the internet: GLAY would be perform-ing one show in San Francisco on August 12th, and two shows in West Hollywood on Aug. 15th and 16th. The dreams of many, including myself, have just started to become a reality. Back in February when I took a vaca-tion to Japan, I was this close to spending four times the face value for a concert ticket from a Japanese auction site, just so that I could have a chance to see GLAY’s concert in Kobe during their HIGHCOMMUNICATIONS hall tour. Looking back, perhaps it was a blessing that I did not win the auction, I could now use the same money and spend it on their first ever public tour in the U.S., and be able to see all three shows, as it would cost just about the same. Besides, The Fillmore in San Francis-co and the House Of Blues in West Hol-lywood are truly the only two historic live houses that could create an intimate and intense setting for some unforgetta-ble performances of this Japanese veteran band of twenty years.

10:00am. August 15, 2008. West Hollywood. Sunny. I was still buzzed from their first ever public U.S. performance in San Francis-co, but I arrived at the House Of Blues early, bringing some breakfast to a couple of friends waiting in line – I have only met them in person just the day before, but it seemed that I have known them forever, simply because we shared the same passion towards GLAY’s music. Despite the fact that the performanc-es were only going to be held on the West Coast, GLAY fans from all over the country came flocking to see them – some came as far as New York, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia. Others even came from overseas to see GLAY in the U.S. – fans from Canada, Peru, Ireland, and even Australia showed up – and of course, a number of GLAY’s native fans from Japan came as well. As the afternoon went on, the line at the House of Blues grew slowly, and you could hear fans discussing their favorite moments in GLAY videos, how their favorite members always dressed so gorgeously on stage, what favorite songs they wanted to hear at the lives, how GLAY’s lyrics have moved them, etc. As I walked up and down the line to stretch my legs, someone in line caught my eye – a teenager was carefully walking down a few steps outside the

House of Blues with the help of an older woman; the teenager was blind. I thought to myself, if she couldn’t see, then that means how pretty GLAY looked on stage or what clothes they were wearing became completely irrel-evant – what really mattered to her was simply the warmth of GLAY’s music, the message in GLAY’s lyrics, and the op-portunity to experience GLAY in person. I only wish I had the courage to ask her how GLAY has made a positive in her life. As we got closer and closer to show time, we could also hear the band begin-ning to rehearse part of their set. The problem I have with House of Blues has always been the fact that you can hear the music inside so clearly even when I am lining up outside, and this really takes the surprise element away from the actual show, because apparently GLAY was practicing songs that were not played at the San Francisco show, and I would have preferred finding that out during the live. As 6pm passed, more and more people got off from work and began to show up – people from all walks of life, all age groups – I even saw an old American couple with all grey hair enter-ing the seated section.

8:10pm. Doors opened for general admission.

J

VERB TOUR 2008 IN U.S. - AUGUST 15, 2008HOUSE OF BLUES - SUNSET STRIP, WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA GLAY

PHOTO: GLAY performing on August 15th at the House of Blues. Photo courtesy of Iwane Ai and EMI Music Japan.

J!-ENT 7

I was among the first group to enter the music hall. Having started following GLAY’s music since their DRIVE “best-of ” album in 2000 and watched so many live DVDs in the past, I knew exactly where I wanted to stand, and I got it exactly the way I wanted – first row, left side, but near the center; in other words, I was standing directly in front of where GLAY’s bassist, JIRO, would stand, with just a little over an arm’s length from the edge of the stage. While the frontman of GLAY is TERU, JIRO has often managed to steal the show at certain moments, simply be-cause he always gives the brightest, most adorable smile, and is always the most energetic on stage, therefore I expected nothing less from him tonight. I could tell that the left side of the crowd definitely filled up faster and would most likely behave wilder than

the right side, simply because guitarist HISASHI could quite possibly be the most popular member among his U.S. audience. Leader and guitarist TAKURO had stressed on GLAY’s MySpace page that this tour was created for those of us who have been waiting for GLAY for a long, long time. He wrote that a lot of people have asked them, “Will you be doing something different for your shows in California?” to which he replied, “We’re certainly going to do our best to share our passion for music with all our fans, family, and friends. But that’s what we always do. That’s what we’ve learned from our heroes.” Indeed, those of us who live in the U.S. have waited this many years, and I do truly believe in GLAY 100% that they would give it all in tonight’s show as always.

9:11pm. Lights dimmed. And right away we screamed.

The screen that had been playing random House of Blues video clips and advertisement was slowly drawn up, and an upbeat dance version of “Who Killed Bambi” came roaring out of the speak-ers. We all clapped to the beat in full anticipation of GLAY’s arrival on stage – it’s just any moment now. The first person that came through those backstage curtains on the right side was HISASHI, who brought his “let me hear you scream for me be-cause I am awesome” attitude, followed by JIRO and his bouncy self with his “watch me until you can’t take your eyes off me” grin. I was too busy screaming at JIRO but I knew that the warmth of TERU’s

PHOTO: GLAY performing on August 15th at the House of Blues. Photo courtesy of Iwane Ai and EMI Music Japan.

smile and the cool air of TAKURO must have followed, because once all members took their positions, the band began the show with their first chord that got all of us ready to roll. GLAY opened their set with the title song of their tour, “VERB”, their latest rock single with a rather fast tempo, and while we bounced to the beat, we also joined in singing “doushite” in the chorus phrases. As the first song winded down, TERU pointed to long-time support-ing band member TOSHI, who busted out the famous drum roll into arguably their most popular song, “Yuuwaku”, and we all went crazy to the 1998 hit, singing along and waving our arms for the entire song; no longer surprised like he was during the San Francisco show, TERU seemed very satisfied at our performance. Of course, TERU yelled “Come on,

HISASHI!” right before the guitar solo part of the song, to which HISASHI responded by showing off his mad guitar skills to us. “We are GLAY!” TERU talked to us the first time this evening, and thanked us whole-heartedly for waiting for them for such a long time. Next up were two more GLAY classics from the around 1995-96: “GLORIOUS”, and “Ikiteku Tsuyosa”, with JIRO and TAKURO doing the background vocals respectively, oh and of course us the audience as well; TERU took a lot of time to make sure he made eye-contact with everyone in the crowd. In contrast, the fifth song of the night was a lesser-known, funky “B-side” called “GIANT STRONG FAUST SUPER STAR”, which was in rather nonsensical English and had quite a few voice-over anime style conversations among three characters – Dr. Moog,

Capsule Kei, and Giant Strong. While any HISASHI fan would have been able to follow along this fun song without missing a beat, I was only able to sing along the parts “6 guns and 24 bit beam” and “10 tracks and 2048 speed”; it made no sense, but nonethe-less, it was absolutely fun to sing along. TERU then tried to get everyone involved by having us repeat after him different lengths and variations of “yeah-oh”, like a memory game, and then he tried to teach us the chorus to the next song “STARLESS NIGHT”, and when he was happy with the result, the band dived into the number. One thing I love so much about GLAY has always been the simple fact that they interact with the audience a lot, making us feel that we are contribut-ing to this performance just as much as they are. Oh, and the fact that TERU walked

8 J!-ENT

GLAY VERB TOUR 2008 IN U.S. - AUGUST 15, 2008HOUSE OF BLUES - SUNSET STRIP, WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA

up to HISASHI on the left during the song, started putting his arm around HISASHI, rubbing his nose against his face, grabbing his chest… Uh, need I say more? Total fan-service. The seventh number of the night “AMERICAN INNOVATION” is truly one of those songs you don’t think much of it on the album but sounds incred-ibly full of energy during live – the fast tempo, the guitar distortion, the unison of the phrase “American Innovation”, and the fact that we all whirled our towels or our hands in the air during the chorus made it so much more fun to be a part of. Near the end of this song, TERU made us clap to the beat that matched JIRO’s bass line from the start of the song – seemed complicated at first, but we all got it after several tries. TERU completely displayed his sexi-ness in the next song “Lock on you” by first performing a slow strip tease, peel-ing off his sweat-drenched outer jacket that was sticking to his skin, and then feeling his whole body up in front of the microphone stand – I shall leave the juicy details to the imagination of those reading my writing thus far. For a change of pace, GLAY took us into the love song segment, first with a heart-rending performance of their latest ballad “SORRY LOVE”, followed by a short interlude on the piano by sup-porting musician SEI-CHAN, leading into their 1997 classic “HOWEVER”, which was when quite a few fans started sobbing. Beside the obvious fact that TERU sang his heart out during the ballads, the rest of GLAY also displayed lots of emotions on their instruments. While a lot of fans are very attached to the song “HOWEVER”, my hands-down favorite GLAY ballad lately has been “SORRY LOVE”, and it had a lot to do with the way its music video was put together – a story depicted entirely in still photographs, about 2000 of them, taken by none other than the photogra-pher of this very tour, Ai Iwane. I was still trying to calm myself with the slow ballads, but once again the strong rock’n’roll guitar melody

came from HISASHI, and it’s time for “ROCK’N’ROLL SWINDLE”, followed by the popular “MERMAID”, one of the two songs tonight not played at the San Francisco live; the band members began to move around the stage again, but I was bit disappointed towards the end of “MERMAID” that JIRO and HISASHI didn’t get together to do their little jamming session like they always did in those live DVDs. Next, TERU took a microphone stand from near the drums and put it at the front of the stage.

The spotlight turned to JIRO, who vigorously strummed his bass in the back for a short time to get us all pumped up, walked up to the front, spoke to us in Japanese for a couple of lines, and began his bass intro to the next must-play number, “SHUTTER SPEEDS NO THEME”. Always a crowd favorite, JIRO did the opening vocals for the song before TERU took the microphone away, and he also dazzled us with a rare bass solo in the instrumental portion, all the while I screamed like I was 16 years old again.

J!-ENT 9

VERB TOUR 2008 IN U.S. - AUGUST 15, 2008HOUSE OF BLUES - SUNSET STRIP, WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA GLAY

PHOTO: Various GLAY swag available at the concert. Photo by Wynne Ip.

The climax of the show continued on to the next up-tempo number “Peak hateshinaku Soul kagirinaku”, during which we all sang the part “Woh-oh glory days woh-oh”, followed by the last song “BEAUTIFUL DREAMER”, which always began with the powerful soaring guitar scale from HISASHI. Before the song, TERU asked us if we have dreams, and told us that GLAY’s dream was to play here in the U.S., and now that this dream has be-come a reality, he promised us that they would be back, and told us that he loved us (I love you too, GLAY). After they disappeared from the stage, we were clapping and shouting for their encore, and somehow we began to sing to the chorus of “I’m in Love” in anticipation of their return to stage; sure enough GLAY came out again, but this time in the U.S. tour t-shirt - what a smart idea it is to market to their loyal fans: buy our shirts! The encore began with the second of the two songs that did not make the set at The Fillmore, their best-selling single to date, the 1999 mega-hit “Winter, again” . TERU described it to us as a song from their hometown, the very cold Hakodate in Hokkaido, and the intro-duction of the song had such an over-whelming effect on me that it has always given me chills listening to it, therefore the overflowing emotions that I had while watching it performed live would never leave me. Then the mood of the show took a quick turn to another rock n’ roll festival with “Kuchibiru”, once again raising our excitement in the audience, followed by yet another must-play number “Kanojo no “Modern...”” with all hands in the air; for the first time this evening, TAKURO came to the our side of the stage, but it was almost too little too late, and I really wished he had moved around a bit more. To watch the guitar duet between TAKURO and HISASHI in “Kanojo no “Modern…”” was actually a rather difficult task simply because they stood on the opposite end of the stage, but to the ear they sounded just perfect.

As the final climax of the whole show, I have to say there was no better song to end the evening than the epic “ACID HEAD”, which involved TAKURO taking center stage at the start of the song, distinctive background vocals from JIRO throughout the song, and echoing phrases between TERU and HISASHI toward the end. I strongly believe that “ACID HEAD” is another one of those songs that needs to be enjoyed live, because the recorded version would have never been able to capture all the excitement and audience involvement that made “ACID HEAD” such a fan favorite. At the end of the show, as if to symbolize unity and our One Love for GLAY, we all joined hands in the audi-ence, as we watched all the members on stage joined theirs, and JIRO started counting down… “3… 2… 1…” And we all jumped… or at least tried to, because 1,000 of us somehow man-aged to pack into the House of Blues tonight to watch GLAY, who absolutely deserved this good of a turn out from Southern California. They had promised us a phenomenal show, and they delivered, just like they always have, and they always will. Eight years for me was totally worth the wait, for my dream of seeing them live had finally come true, and since they have promised to return to the U.S., I know that some day in the near future, I will be seeing them again under the same roof.

10 J!-ENT

GLAY VERB TOUR 2008 IN U.S. - AUGUST 15, 2008HOUSE OF BLUES - SUNSET STRIP, WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA

For more information on GLAY, please visit:

GLAY’s official homepage: http://www.glay.co.jp

EMI Music Japan website: http://www.emimusic.jp/capitol/artist/glay/

GLAY’S Official MySpace Page:http://www.myspace.com/glayofficial

WYNNE IP is an entertainment writer-at-large for J!-ENT.

GLAY VERB TOUR 2008 in U.SAugust 15, 2008 - House of Blues Sunset Strip / Set List

1. VERB2. Yuuwaku3. Glorious4. Ikiteku Tsuyosa5. GIANT STRONG FAUST SUPER STAR6. STARLESS NIGHT7. AMERICAN INNOVATION8. Lock on you9. SORRY LOVE10. HOWEVER11. ROCK’N’ROLL SWINDLE12. MERMAID13. SHUTTER SPEEDS NO THEME14. Peak Hateshinaku Soul Kagiri-naku15. BEAUTIFUL DREAMER

ENCORE1. Winter,again2. Kuchibiru3. Kanojo No “Modern...”4. ACID HEAD

GLAY VERB TOUR 2008 in U.SAugust 16, 2008 - House of Blues Sunset Strip / Set List

1. VERB2. Yuuwaku3. Glorious4. Ikiteku Tsuyosa5. GIANT STRONG FAUST SUPER STAR6. STARLESS NIGHT7. AMERICAN INNOVATION8. Lock on you9. SORRY LOVE10. HOWEVER11. ROCK’N’ROLL SWINDLE12. MERMAID13. SHUTTER SPEEDS NO THEME14. Peak Hateshinaku Soul Kagiri-naku15. BEAUTIFUL DREAMER

ENCORE1. Winter,again2. Kuchibiru3. Kanojo No “Modern...”4. HIGHCOMMUNICATIONS

ENCORE II1. ACID HEAD

B Y W Y N N E I PI M A G E S C O U R T E S Y O F E M I M U S I C J A PA N

GLAYT H E F A N I N T E R V I E W S

J!-ENT

or the first time in my life, I think I have truly experienced “Global Communication” of GLAY’s “One Love”.

As corny as it might sound, GLAY gathered over 3,100 fans from differ-ent nationalities and all walks of life for 3 days in California from all over the world, to witness their first ever U.S. tour, because as GLAY has put it, those of us outside of Japan have waited for a long time for them. Meet 24-year-old Glen, a fan for 9 years who came from New York to watch GLAY’s San Francisco live – he first heard of GLAY from their debut single Rain in 1995 when he saw the film “Yamato Takeru” (1994) on video. “I liked the song, but it wasn’t until 1999/2000 that I was finally able to get my hands on their album pure soul, and after that, I just kept on listening to them,” Glen said. “GLAY is my favorite band and until

now I haven’t had the means to see them live, so since they are closer than ever in San Francisco, I had to jump on the op-portunity,” Glen commented. Isabel, 29, who also flew in from New York, spent the night outside The Fill-more in order to secure first in line with her friend from Los Angeles. Isabel commented, “I decided to come to watch GLAY’s live in San Francisco because that was the only day available in my schedule, as my brother is getting married when GLAY is play-ing in Los Angeles. My friend flew up from L.A., and we decided to camp out overnight. The planning was smooth and we had a great time.” Alessandra, 22, who currently goes to college in Utah, originally came from Bolivia. Alessandra said, “I’ve been a fan of GLAY since 2001 when I was going to a Japanese school back in Bolivia. My teacher gave me a CD with their music

and I loved it. The moment they entered the stage was the moment I knew it was real and not a dream.” For some unfortunate fans, tight fi-nancial situations would mean that they were unable to afford the trip to Cali-fornia, such as Vivian, 24, who has been listening to GLAY since 1998. “My heart was set on coming at first, but I ended up hitting financial situa-tions with my own things so I regret-tably ended up not going. Gas prices shot up tremendously over the summer, so a plane ticket from New York to L.A. doubled in price,” Vivian said. When I asked Vivian how GLAY’s music had influenced her, she said that their music had taught her to keep push-ing on and strive for those unreachable dreams. And as for Glen, GLAY’s music has given him inspirations in more ways than one. “I majored in Graphic Design in col-

12 J!-ENT

GLAY FAN INTERVIEWS

PHOTO: Fans line up outside the House of Blues in West Hollywood for the GLAY concert. Photo by Wynne Ip.

F

GLAY FAN INTERVIEWS

J!-ENT 13

lege and produced an experimental video set to ‘Doku Rock’. For my Sequential Arts class I storyboarded a possible video for ‘The Frustrated’. My favorite achievement was for my Package Design class. “I designed an experimental pack-age for a ‘GLAY 10th Anniversary’ CD collection, a double-CD case that could transform into a freestanding 3-dimen-sional display of the band members. “Finally, it was GLAY that convinced me to learn how to play the guitar and seriously write music for myself,” Glen explained. Hank, who considers himself a J-Rock music fan in San Francisco, went to the show at The Fillmore. “GLAY was a great inspiration to me in both music and performance style,” he recalled. “As a musician myself, I still remember watching their music videos, intently studying their moves and mannerisms, and incorporating them into what I was doing on stage,” Hank commented. Angela, 42, who came from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, is a PhD student in anthropology and archaeology. Though not considering herself a GLAY fan, she was excited to have the opportunity to see them. Angela said, “Because it is the first time, since I have been listening to Japanese music, that a really high profile band had come to North America. I was very curious to see what the performance would be like, what the audience would be like, and how GLAY would compare to the other Japanese performances I’ve seen over the last year and a half. “GLAY is so famous in Japan, yet they don’t have the same type of active online fan base in North America that you see for some of the newer, mostly Visual Kei bands. “Nevertheless, my friend who is a big GLAY fan insisted that they did have a substantial, if quieter, fan base here. And she was right. The audience was demo-graphically different from those of most of the other shows I have seen,” Angela said. This friend that Angela had men-tioned was Psy, who currently lives in

Berkeley, California, a fan of GLAY for a little over 7 years. Psy explained, “GLAY’s passion for what they do is truly inspiring and it just makes you want to shoot for your own dreams that much more and never give up. The fact that they are so close to one another for so many years has really made me treasure and cherish my own long time friendships, and feel just a little more thankful for them than I may have otherwise.” When I asked Psy about her favorite GLAY songs, she went on and on about

how a lot of her favorites were played at the lives, but her very first GLAY song she heard was “HOWEVER”. “They played ‘HOWEVER’ at all three shows and since it was the very first GLAY song I ever heard, it was so emotional for me to see them perform it live, that I couldn’t help but cry each time they played it. I couldn’t believe it. I feel choked up just remembering how much it truly means to me to have seen that live,” Psy said. Mirta, 21, who took a one-month vacation in Washington, DC, originally

PHOTO: Fans line up outside the House of Blues in West Hollywood for the GLAY concert. Photo by Wynne Ip.

came from Peru, and she also cried dur-ing the ballad segment. “I was tearing up at ‘SORRY LOVE’. I was in the first row, in front of TAKURO. And when he saw me, he kind of pouted at me. It was weird but I smiled.” Dawn from Los Angeles, who has been a fan of GLAY for almost a decade explained, “The most memorable mo-ment for me, was when they played ‘Winter, again’. I felt so incredibly happy and almost wanted to cry from how it made me feel. “There’s a lot of nostalgia that was mixed in with my emotions during the concert, and hearing all the songs I used to listen to non-stop when I was grow-ing up and shaping myself into an adult really touched me,” Dawn commented. For Cara, 29, who went to the Los Angeles shows and came from the northwest state of Washington, GLAY didn’t play her absolute favorite “coyote, colored darkness” but they did play a bunch of her other favorites. “‘ROCK’N’ROLL SWINDLE’, ‘GIANT STRONG FAUST SU-PER STAR’, ‘Kanojo no “Modern…”’,

‘HIGHCOMMUNICATIONS’... Those were high among my favorites, and they were great performing live, especially ‘GIANT STRONG FAUST SUPER STAR’, the funniest song of both nights,” Cara said. Speaking of which, 19-year-old Ian from San Francisco was completely stunned when they played ‘GIANT STRONG FAUST SUPER STAR’. “I love that song to death and I thought that was a song that they will never play again after HIGHCOMMU-NICATIONS 2003. When the music hit, I just stood there frozen and turned my head to my friend in disbelief,” Ian explained. Like her friend Cara, Tamica’s favor-ite songs “coyote, colored darkness” and “MIRROR” were not performed during the live concert, but the 21-year-old who traveled from North Carolina to Los Angeles said that so many amazing things happened during the two days, that it was impossible to pick just one moment that stood out. “Rocking out to fast paced songs like ‘MERMAID’ and ‘ACID HEAD’, crying my eyes out during songs like

‘HOWEVER’ and ‘SORRY LOVE’, seeing their smiling faces when they received the fan-made sign we created, the crowd singing the chorus of ‘I’m in Love’ in hopes of an encore. Both shows have simply meshed into one big amaz-ing moment that I will never forget,” Tamica said. The fan-made sign that Tamica had mentioned above was created by Audrey from Los Angeles. She made a vinyl banner with GLAY’s mascot and slogan “NO GLAY NO LIFE” and asked fans in line to sign it. After GLAY performed their first encore number, TERU noticed the big poster that Audrey was holding, so she went ahead to hand the poster to TERU, who also handed her the microphone in return. Audrey was beyond shocked, and the only word that she was able to say was “purezento”, which means “present” or “gift” in Japanese. “It was a fangirl’s dream come true,” Audrey commented, who attended her first show at House of Blues. “Also another thing that was ex-tremely memorable for me was just

14 J!-ENT

GLAY FAN INTERVIEWS

PHOTO: The official GLAY VERB TOUR 2008 in U.S. t-shirts. Photo by Wynne Ip.

GLAY FAN INTERVIEWS

meeting the fans and getting to know everyone better. I really liked how every-one was friendly and was there for one cause, to feel GLAY’s love for us, and to give them ours,” Audrey commented. Tamica had a similar sentiment, “Finally meeting the wonderful friends I have made through GLAY’s fandom, standing in line with these friends wait-ing for hours for the show to start… Everything was such a great experience. “I don’t have any specific hopes and dreams for GLAY other than to keep making music. I can’t even bare to think of what it would be like not looking for-ward to any of their releases anymore,” Tamica said. “I believe GLAY will still continue releasing singles and eventually albums again.” Ian from San Francisco said. “I have a feeling that another EXPO will be held soon enough, and if they do

I will try my best to attend. I hope that GLAY will never disband and have more tours in the US or even other parts of the world. I basically just want GLAY to never stop making such great music,” Ian commented. “I have no idea what GLAY will do, but I would love to see them do more international touring, and include some Canadian dates in their next tour,” An-gela from Calgary explained. “The sky is the limit for GLAY,” Psy from San Francisco said. “They will continue to be the extraor-dinary musicians that they always have been and continue to strive to be the best that they can be. They have promised to return to the US and I have the utmost faith that they will be true to their word, so I will be patiently yet anxiously await-ing their second US tour,” Psy explained. But as much as Glen loves GLAY, he

hoped that they would take it easy in the future. “The band already has a deep and varied repertoire; I hope that they don’t ever feel like they’re repeating them-selves just to please new fans. I would love to see more songs by TERU, JIRO, and HISASHI, because I’m sure there are several new directions they’d like to try,” Glen said. Dawn from Los Angeles also felt the same. “I want them to keep true to them-selves and to continue to love what they are doing as a band together. I hope to see them again in L.A.,” Dawn said. As for Vivian who missed her chance to the California shows this year, she had only one wish for GLAY: “Come back to New York and plan a concert if you can.”

J!-ENT 15

PHOTO: Audrey and Stacy with a fan banner signed by GLAY fans attending the concert. Photo by Wynne Ip.

16 J!-ENT

J!-ENT ASKS “Do you have any words to say to GLAY?”

The show in San Francisco was amazing! A friend and I waited outside the Fillmore since Monday night and the wait was worth it. Please come back to the US for more shows! – Isabel, New York, New York, USA

Keep doing your best! We’ll continue to cheer for you loudly from the other side of the world. – Vivian, New York, New York, USA

See you next year as you said!– Alessandra, Utah, USA

I really want to thank you for coming to the States. I am from Peru! Hi There! I was in the first row in the San Francisco live, I was in front of TAKURO the whole time and wore a black hat and I made a heart with my hands and TERU did the same and pointed at me! Do you remember me now? Because I will cherish that concert forever in my heart. Once again, you have fans in Peru! Try to get out of Japan more often ok?– Mirta, Peru

You’re awesome and I hope you come back (maybe to Seattle, but LA’s fine too, lol), and I further hope you had fun while you were here as well. You put on a great show. GLAY rocks!– Cara, Puyallup, Washington, USA

Thank you for coming to the States and giving us a great time! I hope you had a great time here and hope you can come again in the future!– Hank, San Francisco, California, USA

THANK YOU. Thank you for coming to the United States and making so many dreams come true. Thank you for making the wonderful music that you do, and touching the hearts of those around the world. Thank you for remaining humble and true to your-selves after being in the harsh world of the music industry for 20 years. Thank you for coming into my life and helping me through so many things. Please continue to make amazing music for as long as possible, and don’t ever change who you are.– Tamica, North Carolina, USA

Ganbarimasu! You guys have been together for so long, and I just wish for you all to continue to rock out and give your love to all of us for many years to come.– Audrey, Los Angeles, California, USA

J!-ENT 17

J!-ENT ASKS “Do you have any words to say to GLAY?”

Thank you for all that you’ve taught me about music.I am not a musician, but I think people who listen to music is important and learning to appreciate the talents of a musician is also important. If it weren’t for you entering my life, I would never have learned to be a true listener of music.

You were with me when I was growing up and your songs were the background music to my life as I went from being a child to an adult. All your songs are always so unique to me, bringing me all sorts of different emotions and feelings. When I listen to SUR-VIVAL, I always feel like I could rock out and dance to the song forever! When I listen to HOWEVER, I feel a deep loving emotion inside of me. When I listen to Winter,again I can feel the atmosphere of the song’s lyrics and I can hear each of the band member’s unique sounds.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. You helped shape me as a person. Thank you.– Dawn, Los Angeles, California, USA

Thank you, GLAY, for inspiring me as a graphic designer, illustrator, AND musician! It’s not often that something hits on so many levels. And no matter which direction you go, you’re sure to keep creating memorable songs that we GLAY fans will love!P.S. Play in New York!!– Glen, New York, New York, USA

Simply, GLAY is the most gracious and awe-inspiring group of people I have ever had the pleasure and honor of being near to. It was a dream come true for me and so many other fans that we cannot possibly begin to thank you enough for it. You have moved me deeply and I hope that the love you felt from your fans who attended the lives has perhaps moved you as well. I will treasure this experience always. I wish you nothing but the best in both your professional and personal lives. Thank you so very much.– Psy, San Francisco, California, USA

I hope you had a great time in California. Please keep your promise and come back to North America! We’d love to see you come to Canada one day.– Angela, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

GLAY, thank you SO much for coming to San Francisco to perform, you have made my dream come true. This concert has changed my life in so many ways, I have experi-enced feelings I’ve never felt before so thank you for making my life even better than how you guys made it already. You guys will always have my support forever. Please come back to perform again!– Ian, San Francisco, California, USA

grooveworldJ!-ENT

GLAYVERBCapitol Records/EMIRELEASE DATE: June 11, 2008

Limited editionFormat: Single (CD + DVD)Catalog No.: TOCT-40214Retail Price: JPY 1,575 (incl. tax)

CD1. VERB2. –VENUS3. WITH OR WITHOUT YOU

DVD1. STARLESS NIGHT from GLAY HIGHCOMMU-NICATIONS TOUR 2007-20082. VERB music video

Normal editionFormat: Single (CD)Catalog No.: TOCT-40215Retail Price: JPY 1,260 (incl. tax)

CD1. VERB2. STARLESS NIGHT3. WITH OR WITHOUT YOU

A J!-ENT MUSIC REVIEW

Once again, GLAY has succeeded in adding another solid rock tune into the familiar 8-beat collection. The title song of their 42nd single, “VERB”, which is also the title of GLAY’s recent tour in the U.S., is a fast-paced pop-rock number, that in my opinion bares some similarities to an old song of theirs called “Freeze My Love” in terms of melody and pace. Just like “Freeze My Love”, “VERB” has a very catchy chorus that goes “doushite”, which means “why?” in Japanese. Guitar and leader TAKURO has written the following on their MySpace page regarding the choice word of “doushite”: “It seems to me that this is a pretty important word in this crazy day and age. It’s also a word I like to apply to myself. Why do we do the things we do: good, bad, beautiful, ugly, kind, mean, etc.? Do you sometimes ask yourself that question too?” “VERB” is tied-in to the Nihon TV’s music program “MUSIC FIGHTER” as their opening theme song in June 2008. It is also the TV commercial song of mobile download site “music.jp”. The second track of the single depends on the version, but both of these songs have been previously released digitally through the online music site MUSICO

< A POWER ROCK SINGLEGLAY returns with two original songs of varying tempos and moods plus one outstanding cover song.

earlier this year. The CD+DVD version comes with the track “–VENUS”(pronounced “minus venus”) which is a harder number compared to “STARLESS NIGHT”, which is more pop and comes only in the CD version. Personally I preferred the harder “–VENUS”, and since I was already going to purchase the version with the DVD anyway, this all worked out for me. “STARLESS NIGHT” is tied-in as the image song of several Nihon TV soccer programs. The most enjoyable track of the three for me is actually the last track, a cover of U2’s “WITH OR WITHOUT YOU”, in which TERU’s English pronunciation has shown great improvement. This is the second of their four cover songs that they have planned to release on their singles, with the first one being “MOTHER NATURE’S SON” by The Beatles, on their 2007 single “Ashes.EP” and the third one coming out on their next single in September 2008, “SUFFRAGETTE CITY” by David Bowie. I especially love the guitar riffs that

HISASHI did towards the end of “WITH OR WITHOUT YOU”, as that reminded me of the way he played in an older song called “HEAVY GAUGE”, and GLAY definitely incorporated their own style into this 1987 classic. The DVD in the limited edition contains two tracks- a live footage of “STARLESS NIGHT” from GLAY’s nationwide HIGHCOMMUNICATIONS TOUR 2007-2008, and the music video of the title song “VERB”. Both tracks were just as expected from our veteran band, who will be celebrating their 15th anniversary next year since their major debut. To my surprise, when the single arrived, the alternating stripes of black and white in the promotion pictures were actually stripes of black and metallic grey on the CD. Overall, the “VERB” single is what I would call a typical power rock single that GLAY has always delivered, with two original songs of varying tempos and moods plus one outstanding cover song.

— WYNNE IP

18 J!-ENT

AVA I L A B L E N O W O N J ! - E N T, O U R F I R S T S P E C I A L F E AT U R E O N

I f y o u e n j o y e d o u r G L AY c o n c e r t r e p o r t , a l s o c h e c k o u t W y n n e I p ’ s f i r s t s p e c i a l f e a t u r e o n G L AY c o v e r i n g t h e b a n d ’ s h i s t o r y

a n d m o r e . N o w a v a i l a b l e o n J ! - E N T.

J!-ENT

GLAY

20 J!-ENTNYAFF08-v1.indd 43 6/9/2008 3:56:01 PM

Written by the staff of J!-ENT, a Japanese and Asian entertainment and pop culture website celebrating its 15th Year Anniversary in 2008. www.j-entonline.com

J!-ENT

Wynne Ip joined the J!-ENT family in the summer of 2004 and has contributed as an interviewer and a writer with a focus in Japanese rock music. Born in Hong Kong, Wynne has had clas-

sical piano training for 10 years until she was 16 years old. Having been exposed to J-rock for the first time in the late 90s while studying in the US, Wynne has since developed a love for this genre of music. Wynne graduated from University of Illinois at Urbana-Cham-paign with a Computer Science degree and is currently based in Los Angeles, CA.

COMING OUT IN JAPAN ON SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

Aka to Kuro no Matadora / I Love You wo Sagashiteru

The 43rd CD single release from GLAY includes the theme songs to the TV series “Dageki Tenshi

Ruri” and the film “Shukumei.” The CD single includes the tracks “I LOVE YOU wo

Sagashiteru,” “Aka to Kuro no MATADORA” and a cover of David Bowie’s “Suffragette City”.