Tag Archives: Events
Matsumoto Visits Livejam School Again
News 
Tak talking to Livejam students
In 2011, we reported about a music school for teenagers called Livejam. B’z guitarist and Grammy winner Tak Matsumoto attended one of the sessions to share his experiences as a musician with young aspiring teenage musicians, who want to be rock stars someday. On April 7th, 2013, Tak paid that school another visit to talk about the times when he started playing guitar to his success with B’z. Students gathered in the school’s lobby to listen to what Tak had to say. It was a very unique opportunity to see a star up close. Tak is usually seen in large venues such as Tokyo Dome, with over 70,000 people watching him on stage from afar.
Tak also received a range of questions from the students, such as “How do I become a professional?” or “How do I polish my feeling for rhythm?”. When he was asked “When you wanted to form a band, where would you look for band members?”, he replied “A long time ago, you would look for band members in music magazines and such. But today, when you look for band members on the internet, you won’t know what kind of person you are going to meet. And that might be dangerous for middle- and high-school students…”. Where should they look for band members, then? He added “I think Livejam is a great opportunity to meet musicians of the same age and form bands in a safe environment”.
He also elaborated on that a bit further, saying “Somebody who just started out to play an instrument is able to join a band and start performing. When I first heard about that, I thought ‘There’s no way that somebody could do that’, but when I saw what is done here at Livejam, I was really surprised. It doesn’t matter how good you are. It’s a system you don’t see anywhere else.”
Everybody thanked him for the wonderful time they had. They hope that Tak Matsumoto will attend one of their sessions again!
Source: http://livejam.jugem.jp/?eid=200
Pepsi NEX presents B’z PREMIUM LIVE Report
Feature 
Last night, B’z returned to Osaka Namba Hatch where the 2006 Network Live took place that was later released on DVD and Blu-ray as B’z Live in Namba. This was the first of two limited events available to people who collected enough points gathered from specially-branded Pepsi items. Those who entered were eligible for a chance to receive double tickets good at either venue.
Fifteen songs were played at the show, including all of the songs from the recent English album. Although Juice, Into Free -Dangan, Splash, and Ultra Soul had been played lived in English before, this marked the first time Love Bomb has been performed on stage. In addition, the most recent single, GO FOR IT, BABY -Kioku no Sanmyaku-, also saw its live debut. A number of old favorites were revived for this setlist, including some not played in several years now.
The biggest surprise of the night was a B’z version of the song HEAT that Tak and Koshi recently wrote for Korean artist Kim Hyung Joong’s latest Japanese single. Japanese fans have been clamoring for a B’z version since it was announced that they would be contributing to the song, and now they have it–in live form, at least. Whether or not this opens up the possibility to a future studio version as a potential B-side remains to be seen.
Since the setlist of songs played in this show may reflect a portion of those played during the upcoming tour in North America, we won’t be posting the full listing here to avoid spoiling anything for those attending.
The second of the two premium live concerts is scheduled to take place in Tokyo on Saturday at STUDIO COAST.
Pepsi Summer Campaign: Win B’z Tickets
News 
Just like last year, B’z will be part of Pepsi’s summer campaign and you will be able to win two tickets for either of the B’z premium live shows. The first B’z premium live will take place on August 30th at the famous Osaka Namba Hatch where B’z played in 2006. Following the show in Osaka, there will be another premium live in Tokyo at the STUDIO COAST on September 1st.
What do you have to do to win? Drink Pepsi! You will have to collect 10 points in total to be able to win two tickets to either of the shows. One bottle of Pepsi NEX or Pepsi BLACK will award you one point. The only exception here is the Pepsi NEX 1.5L bottle which will give you 2 points.
The summer campaign runs from June 19 to August 13 in Japan.
Recalling the March 11th Disaster
News More than a year has passed since a very strong earthquake hit Japan. The resulting Tsunamis that hit the east coast of Japan caused the deaths of more than 10,000 people. But that is not all, the Tsunami that hit the coast of Japan destroyed the cooling systems of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which led to the most disastrous nuclear power incident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. The situation has still not been resolved although it’s not that often on the news anymore.
B’z has been hard at work, trying to support the efforts to rebuild destroyed homes and provide supplies by donating 50 million yen in March 2011. Furthermore, during their tour in support of their latest album C’mon, fans in attendance were able to buy so-called “charity merchandise items” where 100% of the proceedings would go to charity. The band has announced on April 9, 2012 that they raised about 64,301,000 Yen which will be donated to Save the Children JAPAN as well as ChildFund JAPAN.
The band has also collaborated with Linkin Park on their Music for Relief project and decided to do a charity concert together in LA. Together, they were able to raise $357,000 for the people in Japan.
Check out the video after the break. Mike also explains how he got to know B’z.
Billboard Japan Music Awards 2011
News 
The annual Billboard Japan Music Awards take place on March 3rd, 2012. B’z has been nominated in the categories “Top Pop Artist 2011” and “Animation Artist of the Year 2011” for providing a song to the Detective Conan series with their 49th single “Don’t Wanna Lie”.
Last year, Koshi Inaba was nominated for “Top Pop Arist 2010” but unfortunately didn’t get an award for his solo work. Also, it has already been one year since Tak Matsumoto won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album! I remember it like it was yesterday. Such a great moment.
Matsumoto Visits International Music School For Teenagers
Tak Matsumoto News 
Tak Matsumoto has visited an international music school called LIVEJAM. They held an event about “the surroundings in which everyone can study hard together to achieve a goal as a band”.
When asked to come to the school, Matsumoto gladly accepted the request: “If it’s for the kids, I’ll do it with pleasure”. He also spoke highly of the school’s new program called JAM PROGRAM. He thinks it’s a great thing to connect the children to one another and making new friends of music.
Tak talked about his experiences of being in a band at the event. He furthermore elaborated on various things from “How B’z succeeded”, “How I practiced playing the guitar” to “What’s a band?”, “What’s rock?”. Afterwards, they went on to a Question & Answer session where members of LIVEJAM could ask Matsumoto questions and he would try to reply in an easy to understand manner.
One of the children asked “When you were young, what would you do in your free time?” to which Tak replied “I played Super Mario. I was really good at it!”.
Another question was “Recalling past live performances, what moment will forever be in your memory?” to which Tak replied “Probably when Inaba suddenly disappeared from the stage. I could still hear him singing, but I couldn’t see him. When I wondered where he was, he actually fell off the stage. But even though he fell off the stage, he was still singing!”
Everybody was very delighted to have Matsumoto-san as a guest. They were listening very closely to everything he had to say and enjoyed the time with him. To finish off the event, they took a group picture:
