News
X Japan to Reunite with Single, Concert by Year's End
posted on by Egan Loo
The surviving members of X Japan announced that the J-rock group will reunite after ten years to record a single and to tentatively perform a concert tour this year. Pianist Yoshiki Hayashi and vocalist Toshimitsu "Toshi" Deyama are planning a new vocal version of a tribute to their late guitarist Hideto "Hide" Matsumoto, who died a year after X Japan disbanded in 1997.
YOSHIKI and Toshi had a personal reunion in November of 2006, and kept in touch by phone after that. At YOSHIKI's invitation, Toshi came to Los Angeles, California this past March to sing a version of "Without You," a formerly instrumental song that YOSHIKI wrote in 1998 for Hide's passing. YOSHIKI says he had created lyrics years ago for the song, but the "puzzle came together" only when Toshi sang it.
YOSHIKI and Toshi are planning to start a reunion concert tour in Los Angeles and offer the new "Without You" version with Toshi's vocals. Guitarist Tomoaki "Pata" Ishizuka and bassist Hiroshi "Heath" Morie have also informally discussed the reunion. They are considering having over ten guest artists at each concert to take the place of Hide.
YOSHIKI notes that "Since we lost Hide, we've heard many extreme opinions from fans—from 'if you reunite, I will kill [you]' to 'if you don't reunite, I will die.' It wasn't easy deciding what to do, so even we didn't put anything into motion before. [X Japan's] reunion is something we had to decide for ourselves."
X Japan's notable anime contributions were the songs in the X² music video collaboration with X manga's Clamp and the later X movie. Madhouse Studios animated both productions.
Source: Sports Nippon
Image © 2007 Japan Music Agency Co., Ltd.
