Tak Matsumoto News

The new year kicks off with great news! The band has just announced the dates for Tak Matsumoto’s 2014 solo live tour in support of his new solo album! No details have been mentioned about the album, but we can be sure that his new song Rain that he has performed during B’z LIVE-GYM Pleasure 2013 -ENDLESS SUMMER- will be on the album. The album is set to be released this Spring.

Tak Matsumoto Solo Live Tour 2014

General sale: March 15th, 2014
Fanclub tickets: Access code will be sent out with Be With! Vol. 100 in January

News

Japanese music magazine PLAYER has published its annual readers’ poll in the latest issue. Check out the ratings below. You can find last year’s readers’ poll here.

Category “Best Artist”: B’z ranked 1st (4th in 2012, 5th in 2011, 5th in 2010, 3rd in 2009)
Category “Best New Album”: B’z The Best XXV 1999-2012 ranked 2nd
Category “Best Live Performance”: B’z ranked 1st (3rd in 2012)
Category “This year’s biggest news”: B’z collaboration with Aerosmith (AEROSONIC) ranked 8th
Catagory “Best Vocalist”: Koshi Inaba ranked 1st (3rd in 2012, 1st in 2009, 2010, 2011)
Category “Best Guitarist”: Tak Matsumoto ranked 1st (2nd in 2012, 2011, 1st in 2010, 3rd in 2009)
Category “Best Drummer”: Shane Gaalaas ranked 4th (13th in 2012, 16th in 2011, 8th in 2010, 9th in 2009)
Category “Best Bassist”: Barry Sparks ranked 3rd (9th in 2012, 6th in 2011)
Category “Other Musician”: Takanobu Masuda ranked 2nd (3rd in 2012)

News

We have got about a month left before everyone can enjoy the latest homevideo release from the band: B’z LIVE-GYM Pleasure 2013 ENDLESS SUMMER -XXV BEST-. Recently, the band has released a new trailer detailing each song on the show’s set list in about 2 minutes and 18 seconds. B’z LIVE-GYM Pleasure 2013 ENDLESS SUMMER -XXV BEST- is set to be released on January 29th, 2014.

By the way, B’z LIVE-GYM Pleasure 2013 ENDLESS SUMMER -XXV BEST- is 26% off at Amazon Japan. I saved about 1000 yen compared to CDJapan and other shops, so if you have a credit card, you should definitely check out Amazon.co.jp. Here’s the link: [Amazon.co.jp]

Feature

From now on we will also bring you the latest updates from the B’z PARTY staff. Fanclub staff members regularly post information about the fanclub and B’z. This will also give everybody the chance to understand them if you are a member of B’z PARTY and don’t speak Japanese.

This diary in particular reveals the title for the new song played during the show at the EX THEATER ROPPONGI and used as the ending music for the 25th anniversary tour Pleasure 2013 -ENDLESS SUMMER-. The title is “Kimi wo Ki ni Shinai Hi nado”.

Title: Speaking of winter…

Christmas illumination is lighting up the city, and once you see the Santa Claus and snowman decorations in front of all the shops, it certainly feels like winter. This year’s summer was a very, very long one (for B’z PARTY) and thus, we were not able to feel autumn at all and feel a bit sad about it. But we get to eat very delicious nabe in cold winters! Therefore we want to make up for fall this winter. (…fall is the best time to eat!? lol)

Well, speaking of winter, the annual christmas cards come to mind! They will be sent out momentarily and this year’s motive features a wonderful picture of Tak and Koshi that reflects this holiday season. Please look forward to it☆ And one more thing when speaking of winter… the annual B’z calendar!! Have you all already got your pre-orders in? This time we have also taken pre-orders at the venues during the ENDLESS SUMMER tour, and are currently underway to finish our final preparations before sending them out to you. When your B’z Calendar 2014 will be shipped depends on the time you have pre-ordered yours, so you might get the Christmas card at the same time as the calendar. For those that have pre-ordered, please look forward to the B’z Calendar 2014.　♪
And for those that haven’t pre-ordered yet, you can still order using the mail-in form contained in fanclub magazine vol. 99 and if you pay by December 15th, the calendar will be shipped before the end of the year. Those who just thought “Oh man, I want a B’z calendar now!” should please hurry. Of course you can also order at the fanclub member exlcusive online store “B’z PARTY the Store”. Just click “SHOP” after logging in to B’z PARTY. We hope that we are able to bring the B’z Calendar 2014 to as many people as possible before 2014.☆ Please look forward to it♪ (T)

Bonus
The other day, on November 30th, B’z has rocked the EX THEATER ROPPONGI with their “B’z Special LIVE”. Just like we told you during the last staff diary, we have completed our work for fanclub issue no. 100 before the B’z Special LIVE. Therefore, we were not able to put a report regarding the B’z Special LIVE in the upcoming issue and would like to put the setlist information in this staff diary instead! There are a lot of songs that haven’t been played in a while as well as the unannounced ending song from the ENDLESS SUMMER tour as well as a cover of a LOUDNESS song. This is a very rare setlist. And since this is a concert after finishing up a long tour, this concert turned out to be a bit different from the usual LIVE-GYM performances, in a more relaxed atmosphere.☆

B’z Special LIVE at EX THEATER ROPPONGI 2013/11/30 ～SET LIST～
1.Kuroi Seishun / 2.F・E・A・R / 3.Yasei no ENERGY / 4.STAY GREEN ～Mijuku na Tabi wa Tomaranai～ / 5. Konya Tsuki no Mieru Oka ni / 6.ONE ON ONE / 7.Yami no Ame / 8.SKIN / 9.Ichibu to Zenbu / 10.ultra soul / 11.Crazy Night（LOUDNESS Cover） / 12.Nagai Ai / 13.Perfect Life / 14.OH! GIRL / 15.Q&A / 16.Kimi wo Ki ni Shinai Hi nado / 17.Shoudou ［ENCORE］1.BANZAI / 2.IT’S SHOWTIME!!

News

From the moment the latest B’z tour came to an end, fans have been eagerly anticipating the home video release for their 25th anniversary nationwide tour B’z LIVE-GYM Pleasure 2013 -ENDLESS SUMMER-. Today, we finally know when the package will be released, and much to everyone’s surprise, it is coming in a bigger and better form than anyone ever expected!

B’z LIVE-GYM Pleasure 2013 ENDLESS SUMMER -XXV BEST- will be released on January 29, 2014, and will be available on both DVD & Blu-ray. What sets this release apart is that it will come available in not just a Regular Edition containing the full Nissan Stadium finale concert but also a Complete Edition that is no doubt the biggest B’z has ever released!

The Complete Edition contains not only the full finale concert but also a feature-length hall & dome tour documentary as well as yet ANOTHER full concert from the band: an earlier July performance during the hall tour with a vastly different setlist comprised almost entirely of rarely played songs and full of gems that fans have long clamored to have added to their home video collections. This massive addition to the B’z home video collection comes in at a staggering 348 minutes (nearly 6 hours!) runtime and is definitely not one to be missed!

Hit the jump for the full contents of both editions of the upcoming release as well as a trailer (the music in the video is OVERTURE, by the way!) just released by the band! (more…)

News

The November 30th, 2013 special live that served as the grand opening for the TV Asahi-sponsored venue of the EX Theater Roppongi has come to an end, and B’z definitely did not pull any punches on this one. Living up to the title of “special live”, the band brought to the table songs no one expected to hear, including ones that had not seen the live stage in nearly twenty years!

B’z at the EX THEATER ROPPONGI

The show opened very unexpectedly with ACTION album song “Kuroi Seishun”, which had not been played in the five years since 2008’s album tour prior to the show. It was followed by a very rare performance of the 15th anniversary single “Yasei no ENERGY”, itself not having been played live in the ten years since 2003. “ONE ON ONE” and “Perfect Life”, two other ACTION album tracks, also saw performances, with the latter having been included during the hall dates for B’z LIVE-GYM Pleasure 2013 -ENDLESS SUMMER-.

Other album songs performed included 1994’s “Yami no Ame” that had not been played since the first part of that year’s “The 9th Blues” tour and 1999’s “SKIN” and “Nagai Ai” from Brotherhood. Singles “ultra soul” and “Ichibu to Zenbu” were also carried over from the recent Pleasure tour, as well as classic 1989 fan-favorite “OH! GIRL” that had been previously performed during select hall tour dates along with 2002 album track “STAY GREEN ~Mijuku na Tabi wa Tomaranai~”. The singles of “Konya Tsuki no Mieru Oka ni” and “Shoudou” were also revived for the occasion, followed by encore returns of “BANZAI” and “IT’S SHOWTIME!!”.

“Q&A” from B’z The Best XXV 1999-2012 was likewise performed, along with the live debut of a brand new song of an unknown title that had earlier been heard as the ending music to the ENDLESS SUMMER tour. Afterward followed a memorial cover of Japanese metal band LOUDNESS’s 1985 song “Crazy Nights”. The performance taking place on November 30, 2013 came five years to the day of the band’s founding drummer Munetaka Higuchi passing away on November 30, 2008.

Check out the setlist after the break.

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