In 1989 Kenji Ueda , bassist for Kenzi & the Trips, left the band with former Kenzi’s drummer Shinichiro Sato and invited the Coin Locker Babies vocalist Sawao Yamanaka to form a new band. Yoshiaki Manabe , the guitarist of the hair metal band Persia, joined them. The Pillows were…
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They released their first demo tape, “Lunacy”, on August 9, with all one hundred copies sold out.
The finalized lineup of Lunacy made their debut on stage at the 100-seat capacity Play House in Machida, Tokyo on May 29, 1989.
However, in his autobiography, J recalls that vocalist Yasuhiro “Yasu” Imai, one of his closest friends, suddenly told him one day that he wanted to quit. He speculated that Yasu might have become uncomfortable because, like any band, the members grew at different rates, differences in direction became apparent, and…
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The album Blue Blood was released on April 21, 1989, and debuted at number six on the Oricon chart.
including the March 16 show at Shibuya Public Hall
X’s sold out Blue Blood Tour started on March 13
As the other members left to pursue careers or college, they recruited Pinocchio drummer Shinya Yamada and guitarist Yasuhiro “Sugizo” Sugihara on January 16, 1989. J had originally asked Shinya, but the drummer insisted that his friend Sugizo also join, and the bassist did not object as he found the…
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That same year, a home video release also titled The Outer Mission was directed by Makoto Tezuka .
On March 22, 1989, the band started the Taboo tour. At this point they had stopped putting their hair up that extensively, and Sakurai had even given up on dyeing his. The tour was scheduled to run to the end of May, but it was cancelled abruptly when Imai was…
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