Koshi Inaba News

Interior of the Shinagawa Stellar Ball

Koshi Inaba’s solo tour “Koshi Inaba LIVE 2014 ~en-ball~” kicked off today at the Shinagawa Stellar Ball. According to fan reports, the show started without a huge introductory movie or the like. Koshi just walked on stage, sat down, and started playing his acoustic guitar, which marked the beginning of the show with「Jimmy no Asa」as the first song. Throughout the show, 3D projection mapping was used to show special footage in support of the song currently being performed.

According to the same fan, 5 monitors that looked like Tetris blocks were mounted on the stage’s wall in the back. After the show ended, an unannounced song was played through the speakers while fans made their way out of the venue.

Here’s the show at a glance:

Koshi Inaba LIVE 2014 ~en-ball~ Day 1 Setlist

01. Jimmy no Asa (Koshi on acoustic guitar)
02. THE RACE
03. CAGE FIGHT
04. Wonderland
05. arizona
06. touch
07. Yokorenbo
08. Golden Road (3D Projection Mapping)
09. Nemurenai no wa Dare no Sei
10. Shoumen Shoutotsu
11. Nakinagara
12. Tooku Made
13. Route 53
14. Stay Free
15. Nensho (3D Projection Mapping)
16. Kodoku no Susume
17. Bicycle Girl
18. My Mirai
19. oh my love
ENCORE
20. Nami (Koshi on acoustic guitar)
21. Okay

Ending SE: Unannounced Song

Tak Matsumoto News

It has just been announced that Tak Matsumoto will be performing on next week’s rendition of「Music Station」. As with Koshi Inaba, Tak’s last solo performance on「Music Station」dates back 10 years to August 13th, 2004 when he performed「THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH」with his supergroup Tak Matsumoto Group (TMG). On next week’s「Music Station」, Tak is going to perform「New Horizon」from his new album「New Horizon」as well as「#1090 Sen Mu Ichiya」, which has been the theme song to「Music Station」since 1992.

Said episode of Music Station airs June 6th, 2014 at 8PM Japan Time on TV Asahi.

Koshi Inaba News

Are you a UFC fan? Well, then you’re most definitely going to like this. Koshi is in fact a very huge fan of UFC. The whole talk came about when Koshi wanted to publish some kind of talk on his newly created official website “en-zine”, a website where he wants to publish things he hasn’t done before. It was rather hard for him to find a suitable partner for a talk, but when he thought about his hobbies, he thought of UFC and remembered that singer/songwriter Masaharu Fukuyama is also very fond of UFC. In fact, Masaharu Fukuyama is sometimes a guest commentator on UFC Japan. They both got into UFC through pro wrestling.

During the approximately 54 minute long conversation, they, for example, talk about their favorite fighters and the appeal of UFC. The whole talk has been uploaded to B’z official youtube channel and can be viewed here.

Tak Matsumoto News

Have you been craving to get that nice looking tour shirt? Well, now you can! The merchandise for Tak Matsumoto’s on-going tour, Tak Matsumoto LIVE 2014 -New Horizon-, has been added to the official online store, B’z The Store.

Tak Matsumoto News

On a variety show that aired on Japanese channel MBS last night, TM Network’s Naoto Kine confessed that during the first years of the band, he couldn’t play guitar at all. TM Network rose to fame with their hit song “GET WILD” which was released in 1987. Kine was originally a keyboardist, but so was Kimuro Tatsuya. At the time of TM Network’s major breakthrough, there was no need for two keyboardists in the band, so Kine was told to play guitar for the band instead. Kine hasn’t had any experience playing an electric guitar and has only played acoustic guitars so far.

Due to his lack of skill, it wasn’t him who was playing guitar for the band, but it was Tak Matsumoto who joined TM Network as a supporting musician before founding B’z with Koshi Inaba in 1988. Kine would just pretend to play guitar during performances, while Matsumoto would provide the actual sound.
“When Tak left TM Network and started his own band, I practiced playing the guitar very hard”, he added. Tak Matsumoto used to be Kine’s guitar double for 4-5 years before Matsumoto started B’z. Matsumoto even took over Kine’s parts during recording.

Source: 木根尚登はエレキギター弾けなかった…Ｂ’ｚ松本が影武者だったと告白 （デイリースポーツ） – Yahoo!ニュース

Koshi Inaba News

Koshi Inaba’s new album「Singing Bird」is out now for all early bird(pun intended) buyers! To celebrate the release, Koshi Inaba has released a message for his fans. Check it out below. Furthermore, samples to Koshi’s new solo album are now available on the album’s B’z Wiki page. Feel free to get a glimpse of Koshi’s new album before you receive it. Or perhaps you’ll decide to buy it if you haven’t yet!

The memories I’ve scribbled down from time to time have been transformed into songs.
Please feel free to listen to them to your heart’s content.
I hope my singing [referring to “Singing Bird”] reaches each and every one of you.
Koshi Inaba