Buck-Tick Zone

1985

Buck-Tick's live debut (by themselves without any contest or festival help) was on August 4 in Tokyo at Shinjuku Jam. The band was poor as many bands who start out don't have much money. The tickets for the show were handmade. Buck-Tick played at Beat For Beat Vol. 1 at the same place on November 8. It was Araki's last show with Buck-Tick because a little later after that, Hisashi decided that Araki didn't fit with the image he had of Buck-Tick because he couldn't sing the songs. It was very hard for Hisashi to tell this to Araki because they had been friends since grade school, moved to Tokyo together, and were sharing a room because that's all they could afford to do for living quarters. The members were drinking at a bar when Atsushi brought up the topic. To the band's surprise, Araki said he had felt the same way. Now with Araki out of the picture, the band did not know what to do for a new vocalist.

[The book Love Me has this photo of Hisashi (right) and notes that it was taken on October 18 at Shinjuku Jam. However, it is never noted in the book that Buck-Tick played a gig that day. The book does comment though that Hisashi began to decorate his face around this time and in the photo, one can see that Hisashi painted across his nose and shaved a bit of his head.]

Atsushi had decided that he would rather sing than play the drums. He didn't think he played the drums well at all. He consulted U-ta's older brother Toll since he was a drummer and had been nice enough to let Atsushi practice at his house. (Atsushi's father couldn't stand the drums. He died in October of the previous year.) Also, Toll's band SP had just lost their vocalist. Toll told Atsushi that he shouldn't become the vocalist because he is Buck-Tick's drummer and should stay the drummer. He also wouldn't allow Atsushi to join SP. Toll told Atsushi SP had broken up.

Speaking to Toll had bothered Atsushi a lot since he was determined to sing. It is said that Atsushi told his dilemma to a member of the famous Japanese band Boøwy. This member told him that he should be a vocalist if that is what he wants to do. This convinced Atsushi. Another story goes that when Boøwy was back home in Gunma, they threw a party and Atsushi was there. The singer told him he has a good face so he should be a singer too. Atsushi has later denied that this story is true. The point is, Atsushi decided he would rather sing than play drums and told his plans to U-ta. U-ta then called Hisashi in Tokyo. Hisashi didn't like this idea because Atsushi had been the drummer and he didn't know what his voice sounded like. Also, Hisashi had already begun auditions with a tall man he thought fit Buck-Tick's image. Hisashi decided the band should hold a meeting.

At the meeting Atsushi made his desire to sing quite clear. He said that no one wanted to sing more than he. The band thought if Atsushi were to sing, who would play the drums? U-ta suggested his brother Toll since he was no longer in a band as SP had broken up in October. The rest of the members knew of Toll's drumming power and thought that there could be no other drummer for Buck-Tick. It was U-ta's job to convince Toll to join them.

Toll told U-ta that he had given up on music and would not join the band. He had been playing in bands for awhile and said that if he couldn't make it there was no way U-ta and his friends could. U-ta eventually convinced Toll that becoming the drummer of Buck-Tick was the only thing he could do. Toll agreed to join them in November and thus rehearsals were begun immediately. This line-up's live debut was on December 4th at Shinjuku Jam. The set was about 30-40 minutes long and they still have yet to change their line up. They played another show on the 9th in Maebashi at a place called Garcia.

Toll's history: he began to learn the drums because he and U-ta's older brother had played the drums. This brother was five years older than Toll and unfortunately got into a motorcycle accident and never completely recovered. He died within a year in May 1977. Toll was interested in music and practiced on a cheap SG type of guitar. But memorizing chords was boring for Toll, so he decided he would continue his brother's drumming. It's a sad story, but if this had never happened, there probably would have never been a Buck-Tick like there is today. Toll's first band was in 1977 and it was called called Shout. They were a copy of the Japanese band Carol. Toll's band later was called Spots and then changed to SP. At the time he wore his hair in a mohawk. They played many local amateur festivals such as Popcon and East West. In fact, SP is on the double live record East West '85 along with Lä-Ppisch, who also later became a famous band in the late 80s. (Lä-Ppisch were on the same major label as Buck-Tick, (Victor Entertainment, Inc.), and toured together once. I remember both bands also endorsed JVC stereos.)

[this page was last updated on Monday, 14-Apr-2008 00:08:16 PDT]