| 1998.7.2 |
GLAY's 10-year anniversary. |
| 1998.7.29 |
4th album [with Unlimited Records/mustard]-pure soul, is released. It is no. 1 in the Oricon Charts (8.10). They broke their own past sales record. 12 hours of radio broadcasting. |
| 1998.8.5 |
Live video [Pure Soul Tour '98] is released. It is no. 1 in the Oricon Charts (8.17). |
| 1998.8.8~9.6 |
Glay Stadium Tour [pure soul in STADIUM "SUMMER of '98"] starts. [7 places, 13 times]. |
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GLAY's 10-year anniversary
-It was GLAY's 10th anniversary since 1988.
TAKURO: We did kagamiwari.
(aciel's note: "Kagamiwari" is a traditional Japanese ceremony where participants wear matsuribanten [happi] and carry sledgehammers. They shout and hit a keg at the same time. The keg contains sake which they will drink.)
HISASHI: The live was great.
TERU: Right.
HI: Shizuoka.
TA: Kagamiwari... It's very rare. (Laughs)
HI: Daimongundan.
(aciel's note: "Daimongundan" was a group of characters in a Japanese TV program, "Seibu Keisatsu". The characters performed kagamiwari in that show.)
TA: We are not Ishiharagundan in a sense.
(aciel's note: Ishihara [production] produced Seibu Keisatsu. They like traditional Japanese ceremonies. TAKURO is implying that Glay probably do not like traditional Japanese ceremonies very much.)
HI: But they influenced us.
TA: That's right. So we did kagamiwari. We have a lot of video tapes and photographs of kagamiwari. Our staff gave us a banner. We were very impressed by that. You can see this scene in the pure soul MOVIE.
JIRO: We like Ishihara Pro and Daimongundan. It wasn't only remembering the scene where Danchou did kagamiwari, but I could also see the scene...
TA: Actually, we couldn't see the scene. But performing kagamiwari was like them.
JI: Then we concluded that kagamiwari was suited for this type of occasion. (Laughs)
HI: I had the role of Tetsuya Watari. "I want the role of Tetsuya Watari too!" (Laughs)
(aciel's note: Tetsuya Watari was the coolest person in Seibu Keisatsu.)
TA: After the ceremony, we went back home by bus at midnight. (Like the Greyhound.)
-Are the members' birthdays and Glay memorial days important for you guys?
TE: That's right.
TA: Sometimes I celebrate by myself.
TE: I said congratulations for my photo. It says "Cheers". (Laughs)
TA: I celebrated my birthday with yamori (a lizard). (Laughs)
JI: With yamori. (Laughs)
-Did you have a Shibuya guerilla live around this time?
TA: No. Actually, it wasn't a guerilla live.
JI: It was called that. We thought we had to do guerilla things...
TA: For example, occupying the concert hall. Then holding the audience hostage. (Laughs)
JI: For example, entering the concert hall by crawling on the floor. (Laughs)
TA: It's okay to do campaign activities. But we should have done more guerilla-like things. In those days, I had the idea for [FATSOUNDS] in my mind.
HI: The next guerilla (live) was in front of ALTA (in Shinjuku). We distributed sonosiits.
(aciel's note: "Sonosiit" is a cheap, flexible [phonograph] record.)
-After the concert in the arena, you had a concert in a big concert hall...
JI: We did oharai.
(aciel's note: "Oharai" is a Shinto rite to exorcize evil spirits.)
TE: Yeah, we did. It was something like a norito (a Shinto prayer)? A kanmeshi (a Shinto priest) led the prayer. In the prayer, each of the members names appeared. "TERU blah blah blah~." (Laughs)
JI: The first concert was in Wakkanai. The pure soul Stadium Tour started there.
TA: After all, Appikogen was great.
JI: We realized that each concert was important and that the live concert consists not only of musicians but also a lot of staff.
TE: It's hard to believe that the stage was destroyed by strong winds.
JI: (Even) if that had happened, we would never change. We had a hard life but this hard life reminds us of the importance of never postponing a live because of the staff's effort. The staff assists GLAY.
TE: We could see the nearly-destroyed concert stage from the hotel.
JI: The concert was delayed for 2 hours. We tried to start earlier. Our staff said, "Camera check, security check, and so on is difficult to do today." Such circumstances and our own efforts made GLAY's teamwork tighter. It's not the small audience. We don't care about that.
-There was a concert at Seibu stadium, wasn't there?
JI: The Seibu live was great.
TE: Yeah. I cried.
JI: On the way home after the concert...
HI: Yeah. We went to the studio where we had the rehearsal for [Hai to Daiyamondo]. It was located in "Icchyome Icchyome" Higashi Murayama. (Laughs) Then we arrived at the studio around 11:30. I rang the doorbell. Then the master of the studio appeared.
(aciel's note: ["Icchyome Icchyome" Higashi Murayama] is a famous song by Dorifu. Hisashi indicates the location of the studio by quoting from this song.)
JI: When we recorded [Hai to Daiyamondo], his daughter was very young. But when we paid the visit, she had grown up. The master said, "Get up! Get up! GLAY has come to our house." He woke her up. (Laughs) |
