BEING Doubles Sales Thanks To B’z
News Today, Oricon has announced the sales for the year 2013 per music label. AVEX Group Holdings is now holding first place for two years in a row. Followed by Sony Music Entertainment on 2nd place and Universal Music on 3rd place. What’s interesting is that the BEING Group, to which Vermillion Records belongs, has more than doubled their sales due to releasing B’z live DVDs and Blu-rays as well as the XXV best-of releases, putting them in 10th place compared to last year’s 17th place.
B’z began their careers with BMG Japan and operated under several of their labels. Later, B’z would leave BMG to form their own label, Vermillion Records, as part of Being GIZA. Publication rights to the band’s original four releases (the self-titled debut album, OFF THE LOCK, BAD COMMUNICATION, and BREAK THROUGH) remained under BMG control with the label switch, leading to recordings from that era ineligible to be included on compilations until an agreement was finally reached in time for the band’s 25th anniversary single collections, B’z The Best XXV 1988-1998 and B’z The Best XXV 1999-2012.
Source: Oricon
Carmine Appice Mentions B’z in Interview
News American rock drummer Carmine Appice was recently interviewed by the Examiner and when asked a question about Japan, he mentioned one very particular band…
Ray Shasho: There are so many legendary rock bands from the 70’s that are having more success overseas these days … especially in Japan.
Carmine Appice: “Japan has their own domestic artists that are huge. It used to be that Japan didn’t have any domestic artists until the mid 90’s. All of a sudden they started getting their own artists. So all the American and UK artists who used to go there and play the Budokan are now playing smaller venues. But their artists are playing stadiums. There’s a group over there called B’z and they can play three stadium nights in every major city in Japan. We’re talking 150,000 people. It’s a singer and a guitar player. I went to see them in Japan as a guest, they’re friends of mine, and I think it was the night before or night after I saw Kiss over there. Kiss was playing at the stadium too. The B’z production was bigger than the Kiss production. It was ridiculous…it was so big. Over there they don’t travel around in big semis, they travel around in these sixteen to twenty foot trucks … so they must have had about a hundred trucks going from city to city … it was crazy. But there just huge over there.”
B’z LIVE-GYM Pleasure 2013 ENDLESS SUMMER -XXV BEST- TV Commercial On Air
News The first TV commercial for the upcoming release of “B’z LIVE-GYM Pleasure 2013 ENDLESS SUMMER -XXV BEST-” was aired during Detective Conan today. Check it out below!
Happy New Year 2014 & Message From B’z
News Hello everyone! I wish each and every one of you a Happy New Year! May this year bring you a lot of happiness and may your wishes come true. I would also like to thank everybody for their continued support of OFF THE LOCK and supportive messages you have sent me over the years.
Let’s see what 2014 has got in store for us… Tak Matsumoto’s new solo album will be released this spring and he will tour Japan in May and June. Perhaps some overseas dates in Hong Kong and Taiwan will get added to that tour. Time will tell. And there’s still time to release a new B’z album, too. As you know B’z is constantly working on new material, even when they’re touring. So I’m sure they’re currently in the final stages of production and will blow our minds away with some new songs soon.
Last but not least, here’s the annual new year message from B’z! Enjoy!
PLAYER Readers’ Poll 2013
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)
New Trailer for B’z LIVE-GYM Pleasure 2013 ENDLESS SUMMER -XXV BEST-
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]