Buck-Tick Zone

1988

In January, (on the 5th, 7th-9th, 11th-15th, 19th-20th), Buck-Tick were in the studio recording. They were left pretty much to their own for production, which meant a lot of fun in mixing. The result was a mini-album as they say in Japan, or an E.P., released on March 21 called Romanesque, which ranked number 20 in the singles chart.

For television appearances, there were several. Buck-Tick appeared on "Live Tomato" on January 6. The band recorded an appearance for the television program "Live Town" on January 17 but I'm not sure if it was broadcast the same day. It was filmed at Meguro Rokumeikan. On the next day, January 18, they recorded another television program appearance for "Young Stage" but I'm also not sure if that was broadcast the same day. They appeared on "Pati Pati Tomato" several times throughout the year on May 5, July 16, and December 31. They recorded for "All Night Fuji" on June 25 but I'm not sure if it was broadcast the same day. (All of these for which I'm not sure if it was broadcast the same day, just go ahead and assume that it was or was very close. Most of these appear to be mini concerts held for the broadcasting on the show so perhaps they were live or at least broadcast relatively close to the recorded date.)

On January 24 the band held a secret gig at Shinjuku's Loft and played as the group Bluck-Tlick. Partway through the gig the band changed costumes and played as Buck-Tick. All the work did amount to some success. Buck-Tick's reward was a party given by Victor at a hotel on February 16.

On February 21 a video entitled More Sexual!!!!! was released. It contained the promotional music videos for "Sexual XXXXX!", "Dream Or Truth", "Hyper Love", "Empty Girl", "Illusion" and credits rolling along footage against the song "My Eyes & Your Eyes".

From February 13 to March 11, Buck-Tick again entered the studio. This time they recorded their second major label album entitled Seventh Heaven. The album jacket photo session was on March 3. The album was released on June 21. No singles were released off of this album either. Though the absence of singles meant a lack of promotion and airplay, Buck-Tick became quite popular through touring. In fact, a magazine survey from 1988 reveals just how popular they were getting. (I don't remember which magazine this was from but I think it was from the end of 1988, possibly published in January 1989.) In it, Buck-Tick ranks in the top 3 for everything good, such as best group, best live, etc. The only categories which Buck-Tick didn't make the top 3 were best keyboard or other player as they did not have one, worst dresser as they dressed super cool, and biggest news because well, this was in 1988 and not 1989. (See the history for 1989 to see what big news happened.)

In between the recording and release date of Seventh Heaven, Buck-Tick held many concerts. The pamphlet sold at the "Buck-Tick Shock Tour" lists 34 dates in total. However, the books Hyper and Love Me break this down into the "Touhoku Rock Circuit" for 14 dates and "Buck-Tick Shock Tour" for 20 dates. The "Touhoku Rock Circuit" tour consisted of the bands Laughin' Nose, Rogue, Personz, Lä-Ppisch, Angie, Ziggy, etc. Besides the "Touhoku Rock Circuit" tour, Buck-Tick played shows with other bands (mini festivals if you will) throughout the year but mostly over the summer. Some of these concerts include "Rock Wave", "Sound On Wave", "Kids Alive" (with De-Lax, etc.), "Kirin Sound Together Pop Hill", and "Pop Rockets" (with Mika Kaneko, Show-Ya, Up-Beat, etc.).

Video footage was shot on May 15th-17th. They were apparently able in this short period to film the music videos for "Physical Neurose", "Victims of Love", and "...In Heaven...".

Buck-Tick played at the Shiodome Pit on April 1 to an audience of 3000. The tickets for the concert sold out in two hours. On June 20, the band did a live recording for radio broadcast at the Nisshin Power Station in front of 600 winners (out of 12000 contestants).

On July 7th-8th + 12th-14th, Buck-Tick were again in the studio. This time they recorded their first major label single. The cover photo session was on August 11 and a video was shot on August 23th-24th. It was called "Just One More Kiss" and released October 26. It made it to number 6 on the singles chart.

A comic book entitled Hearts was released on July 15. The characters were a struggling band that were modeled after Buck-Tick. The band in the comic were called Bluck-Tlick and each coinincidentally had the same first name as the members of Buck-Tick. The second and third in the series were released on January 10, 1989 and May 15, 1989, respectively.

On July 30th-31th, Buck-Tick shot video footage in at Haneda Airport for a commercial. They endorsed a portable stereo by JVC called "CDian". The song used in the commercial was "Just One More Kiss". Several different print ads ran and I saw two different commercials on television. The commercials were quite similar, the difference was mainly a matter of editing. The slogan was: "Juteion ga bakuchiku suru." ("The heavy low sound will firecracker.") This type of marketing proved quite fruitful as exposing mass audiences to Buck-Tick's music via television catapulted the band towards mainstream popularity. Not to mention the fact that their music was also being given away with purchases of the product. The first people who bought the stereo received a 3 song sampler CD containing: "...In Heaven...", "Romanesque", and "Sexual XXXXX!". [Webmaster's note: despite the heavy marketing campaign, I could not find this stereo nor pamphlets for it with Buck-Tick's image in my area at the time. Perhaps I looked too late or it never made its way to the poorest prefecture.]

The band played at "Pop Rockets 88" on August 15 with various musicians, including Mika Kaneko. Hisashi wrote a song entitled "Watashi No Teki" for Mika's album Kick which was released the same year. Hisashi also wrote a song for Naoko Nozawa entitled "Itoshi No Gaitare" for her album Tonkichi Chinpei Kanta also released in 1988.

The band played at "Sound On Wave 1988" on August 18 at the Sports Ballet in Kyoto. It was at that show that they announced "Kore kara Buck-Tick wa kami wo tatetai toki ni shika tatenai kara na." ("From now on Buck-Tick will only put up their hair when they want to.") They were beginning to go against Indies big man Sawaki's advice, they were deviating from their established look by letting their hair down.

Buck-Tick embarked to London on September 1 to record another album at Master Rock Studio. Whilst recording, the band roomed in two flats. Hisashi forgot to bring a demo tape and had to rewrite one song. That song was the acoustic "Silent Night" and Hisashi says the version he wrote in London is much better than the original. Recording began on the 2nd, rhythm parts laid down on 3rd-5th and 8th-9th, guitar tracks were dubbed on 10th-15th and 17th-19th, synthesizer recorded on the 16th, percussion was added on the 20th, and vocals were recorded on 13th-15th + 17th-20th + 22nd. The album was mixed from September 23-October 1. While they were in London, they even played a gig at the Greyhound on September 21, (Fabulous Me opened up). The band left London on October 2 and returned to Japan the next day. Atsushi enjoyed abroad so much that halfway into it he didn't want to leave. (Incidentally, Boøwy, one of the most popular bands in Japan at this time, had played in London 3 years earlier. Please note also that Boøwy broke up this year and it is said that many of their fans then went on to support Buck-Tick.)

Buck-Tick just recorded their third album, but they have not yet toured for their second, so it was tour time again! "Seventh Heaven" tour began on October 11 with a show for fanclub members at Todashi's Bunka Kaikan. The members were burnt out on touring and some days before the show they did not feel like playing. Toll said they were in a slump. On November 4, Buck-Tick made their first appearance on the popular music show "Music Station". They performed "Just One More Kiss". On November 10 Buck-Tick played a show in Hiroshima and their performance of "Just One More Kiss" was broadcast live on the television show "The Best 10". It was a weekly show with performances by the artists of the top 10 songs of the week, just like "Music Station". (I actually remember watching it as I used to watch this show regularly but I was still a couple months shy from being a fan so I did not record it at the time.) The hosts asked such intelligent questions as how long does it take the members to put up their hair and how many bottles of hairspray does it require. After the band's performance, the male host of the show announced they would be going into commercial break wearing a huge wig mimicking Buck-Tick and said in Japanese, "I am boxing promoter Don King. Oh, you don't know who that is."

New Year's is a very special time in Japan. There are many television programs reserved for that time of year. The big Japanese music awards show is called Nihon Record Taisho. Buck-Tick appeared for their first and probably only time on Record Taisho on December 31. They were nominated for the best new artist award with the song "Just One More Kiss" and thus they performed it but they did not win. (The grand prize winner of the show was a boy band if that gives you any indication of how awards shows go in Japan. But to be fair, that's how it goes in other countries too and the boy band that won were unprecedently huge, the most popular ever at that time in Japan.) The other big new year's musical show is "Kouhaku", where men and women battle each other in performances, hoping to win votes. It's pretty much mandatory that every Japanese citizen watch this and judging by the type of performers on the show, Buck-Tick will never appear on Kouhaku.

[this page was last updated on Wednesday, 19-Mar-2008 22:51:27 PDT]