L'Arc-en-Ciel; Means "the rainbow" in French, it is a popular Japanese Rock Band, formed in 1991. The group has sold over 15 million albums, 30 million singles, and millions of other units, such as videos. and has been voted #58 in HMV Japan's "Top 100 Japanese Pop Artists" of all time.
History
Formation; In February of 1991, bassist Tetsuya Ogawa (Tetsu), later band leader, recruited vocalist Hyde along with guitarist Hiro and drummer Pero, and formed a band under the name of L'Arc-en-Ciel. After a year of gaining notoriety in their hometown of Osaka, Hiro left the band on June 12, 1992. Pero soon followed on December 30 of the same year, supposedly to join up with his friend Hiro again. To replace the two, tetsu convinced his friend Ken Kitamura (Ken) to quit his university studies in architectural design and join the band as the guitarist. Later, a new drummer, Yasunori Sakurazawa, was recruited after Tetsu saw him perform in a few shows.
Sakura's Depature; Despite their blistering climb to superstardom, the band would face a devastating personal and professional loss. In February 1997, drummer Sakura was arrested for heroin possession, and officially quit the band on October 4, 1997. This proved to be the lowest point in the band's history. When news of Sakura's arrest became public, there was an immediate official response. CDs were removed from the shelves and any of their songs that were used as theme songs were quickly replaced, such as The Fourth Avenue Cafe for Rurouni Kenshin which was immediately replaced with former theme Heart of Sword after only six episodes of running time. Although L'Arc's latest album True remained on the charts for two years, their next single The Fourth Avenue Cafe was postponed (it was eventually released in 2006.)
Break and Come Back; The next few months were an extremely uncertain time, with doubts as to whether the band would recover. They continued to be featured in magazines, but only as a trio. They created their own cover band, "The Zombies", and poked fun at their own songs. They also covered artists such as Marilyn Manson and Nirvana. The return from the break was marked by the appropriately named Reincarnation 97 Live in Tokyo Dome, with their new drummer, Yukihiro (former drummer with ZI:KILL and DIE IN CRIES). The first concert had an attendance of 56,000, which sold out in a still-standing Tokyo Dome record of four minutes. They released Heart, in 1998, which, like their second major album "heavenly" is seen as transitional: moving away from memories of the past, but also maintaining their originality and success. In 1997, the first single after Sakura's departure, was released with Yukihiro listed as a supporting member. Not long after the release of the single, Yukihiro was signed on as the official drummer for L'Arc-en-Ciel.
Late 2005-2007; Following the AWAKE and ASIALIVE tours, L'Arc-en-Ciel's members turned their attentions back to their solo projects. Tetsu began recording with a new band Creature Creature. Yukihiro rejoined acid android, which released their newest single "Let's Dance" on 2006/04/05. Acid android joined Mucc, another Japanese rock band, to perform two concerts in China (Shanghai) in April of 2006. HYDE composed the music for "Glamorous Sky", theme song to the much anticipated, manga-adapted film, NANA. HYDE's next solo album "FAITH" was released in Japan 2006/04/26 accompanied by a five month tour throughout Japan between April and August, 2006. After signing on with Tofu Records, four small concerts were scheduled in San Francisco and Anaheim, California in the United States. HYDE made his U.S. debut in July of 2006, the first of L'Arc-en-Ciel's solo projects to extend internationally. On August 23, Ken released a solo single entitled "Speed."On November 25th and 26th, 2006, L'Arc-en-Ciel played two shows at the Tokyo Dome to celebrate their 15th anniversary entitled "L'Anniversary". A poll was created on the official website during the weeks up to the concert to allow fans to pick which songs they would like to hear at the event. The concert was later shown on the WOWOW channel on December 23, 2006. It was also broadcast on February 8, 2007 on Korea MTV. Now that L'Arc-en-Ciel are reunited, they have put out a new song called "SHINE" and have kicked-off their Mata Heart Ni Hi Wo Tsukero 2007 tour in Japan. L'Arc-en-Ciel released their first single "Seventh Heaven" last 30 May 2007 and it topped the Oricon charts for 2 consecutive weeks. They also have a new song called "My Heart Draws a Dream". This single will be out on 29 August 2007.
P'unk-en-Ciel; is the alternative line-up/Cover Band of L'Arc-en-Ciel whereby members of the band switch their usual instruments. Introduced in 2004, Hyde takes over guitar, Ken goes to drums, Yukihiro plays bass, and Tetsu performs vocals. P'unk-en-Ciel cover L'Arc-en-Ciel material into punk arrangements which are usually heavier and faster with a different tone due to tetsu's vocals. Hyde often dons a pirate patch over his left eye in P'unk-en-Ciel performances, and Yukihiro is known to wear a gas mask. P'unk-en-Ciel is the revision of D'ark-en-Ciel, the former being a special event that took place during the early L'Arc-en-Ciel years when Sakura was the drummer.
