News

B’z has finally broken the silence regarding their tour plans and has just announced the schedule for their PLEASURE 2013 tour! Pre-orders for the hall part of the tour are set to start on April 16th 12:00 PM Japanese time, and will run until April 21st 6:00 PM Japanese time. E-Plus is conducting the pre-orders, and the site for the pre-orders will go live here: http://eplus.jp/Bz-25/. The pre-order dates for the dome tour will be announced at a later date.

Ticket pricing is as follows:

Hall Tour
SS Category: 12,000 Yen (FANCLUB EXCLUSIVE)
S Category: 8,500 Yen
Standing: 8,500 Yen (applies only to Kagawa and Yamagata shows)
General public sale: May 18th, 2013

Dome Tour
SS Category: 12,000 Yen (FANCLUB EXCLUSIVE)
S Category: 8,500 Yen
A Category: 5,000 Yen
General public sale: June 22nd, 2013

Pre-orders for fanclub exlcusive tickets for both hall and dome tour are set to be announced in the next Be With! issue, which is set to be mailed out in the beginning of April.

B’z LIVE-GYM PLEASURE 2013 Tour Schedule

Hall Tour
6/15 (Sat) Miyakonojo Sougou Bunka Hall (Big hall)
6/16 (Sun) Satsumasendai Ichikawa Bunka Hall
6/18 (Tue) Kumamoto Shimin Kaikan Sojo Daigaku Hall
6/19 (Wed) Tosu Shimin Bunka Kaikan (Big hall)
6/24 (Mon) Oki Bunka Kaikan
6/26 (Wed) Torigin Bunka Kaikan (Rika hall)
6/27 (Thu) Toyooka Shimin Kaikan (Bunka hall)
7/5 (Fri) Minami-Uonuma Shimin Kaikan (Big hall)
7/7 (Sun) Kissei Bunka Hall (Big hall)
7/9 (Tue) Fuji Bunka Kaikan Rose Theater (Big hall)
7/11 (Thu) Tajimi Bunka Kaikan (Big hall)
7/16 (Tue) Akashi Shimin Kaikan (Awards hall)
7/17 (Wed) Marugame Shimin Kaikan
7/19 (Fri) Himegin Hall (Main hall)
7/22 (Mon) Link Station Hall Aomori
7/24 (Wed) Morioka Shimin Bunka Hall (Big hall)
7/26 (Fri) Natori Bunka Kaikan (Big hall)
7/29 (Mon) Yamagata Kenmin Kaikan
7/31 (Wed) Aizu Fugado

Dome Tour
8/24 (Sat) Sapporo Dome
8/29 (Thu) Nagoya Dome
8/31 (Sat) Nagoya Dome
9/1 (Sun) Nagoya Dome
9/7 (Sat) Fukuoka Yahoo Auctions! Dome
9/8 (Sun) Fukuoka Yahoo Auctions! Dome
9/12 (Wed) Kyocera Dome Osaka
9/14 (Sat) Kyocera Dome Osaka
9/15 (Sun) Kyocera Dome Osaka
9/21 (Sat) Nissan Stadium
9/22 (Sun) Nissan Stadium

News

B’z 25th anniversary is in full motion and we are all eagerly awaiting news of a new single and the announcement of a tour schedule. Meanwhile, the second of three consecutive releases is out now! You can order LIVE-GYM 2005 “CIRCLE OF ROCK” live on DVD on the usual websites. Tak and Koshi have released a message for their fans concerning this release. Check it out!

“CIRCLE OF ROCK”…
That was one of the wonderful tours in B’z history that left an extraordinary impression on me!
Please feel free to watch it!!
Tak

The rotating stage can finally be seen on DVD.
Please enjoy the atmosphere and presence on the center stage.
I would love to take that rotating stage for a spin again someday.
Inaba

News

B’z LIVE-GYM 2008 “ACTION” is out now on DVD and Blu-ray! Tak and Koshi have released a message for their fans concerning the long awaited home video release of this LIVE-GYM tour. Among pre-orders of upcoming releases, this home video release was ranked 2nd with only NEWS’ home video release of their “LIVE TOUR 2012~Utsukushii Koi ni suru yo~”  tour gathering more pre-orders. Now, without further ado, here’s the message from Tak and Koshi!

Action Daimaou(Devil)!
Tak

–NOTE: This is actually a joke by Tak. He is referencing an anime show from the 70s called “Hakushon Daimaou”(link). Japanese people pronounce ACTION as “akushon” which almost sounds like “hakushon”.

When I rewatch the footage of our Action Tour now, my body is getting exhausted once again. Please enjoy watching a Live-Gym soaked with sweat!
Koshi Inaba

Tak Matsumoto News

While Tak Matsumoto’s “Strings Of My Soul” has been available on iTunes by the time it went on sale in the U.S. and in Europe, “Live Life” from the very album has now been released as a digital exclusive single. It is available for purchase on iTunes internationally and contains two tracks: An instrumental version of “Live Life” and the regular album version of the song.

Live Life is one of the new tracks on Tak’s album and features English lyrics sung by Sam Drysdale. The lyrics for the song are available in the wiki: http://bzwiki.offthelock.com/Live_Life_(Lyrics)

Grab it on iTunes here.

News

Tak Matsumoto’s critically acclaimed Strings Of My Soul album has received the Golden Disc Award for “Instrumental Album of the Year” at the 27th annual Golden Disc Awards in Japan. The album contains Tak’s selection of songs he considers his finest works and show the true nature of his sound.

Furthermore, Japanese music magazine PLAYER has published its 2012 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 4th (5th in 2011, 5th in 2010, 3rd in 2009)
Category “Best Album”: Strings Of My Soul ranked 5th
Category “Best Live Performance”: B’z ranked 3rd
Catagory “Best Vocalist”: Koshi Inaba ranked 3rd (1st in 2009, 2010, 2011)
Category “Best Guitarist”: Tak Matsumoto ranked 2nd (2nd in 2011, 1st in 2010, 3rd in 2009)
Category “Best Drummer”: Shane Gaalaas ranked 13th (16th in 2011, 8th in 2010, 9th in 2009)
Category “Best Bassist”: Barry Sparks ranked 9th (6th in 2011)
Category “Other Musician”: Takanobu Masuda ranked 3rd

Feature

With this being the 25th anniversary year for B’z, we have decided to run a series of retrospectives throughout the year celebrating the band’s achievements and accomplishments. Essentially, we will be providing extensive write-ups on certain B’z albums, singles, tours, and related subjects on a regular basis for the entire year. All articles pertaining to this feature will also be simultaneously archived in the B’z Wiki for posterity.

Today, it’s a look back at the band’s first double A-side single that spawned two of their most beloved early singles: “Mienai Chikara ~INVISIBLE ONE~/MOVE“!

Should you prefer to read this article in Wiki form, you can do so right here!

Mienai Chikara ~INVISIBLE ONE~/MOVE

Mienai Chikara ~INVISIBLE ONE~/MOVE (ミエナイチカラ, Invisible Power) is the nineteenth single by B’z and their first double A-side, released on March 6, 1996. Tak stated that with the songs in question and the tie-up promotions attached to them, it made the most sense to couple the two songs as a double A-side. It remained the band’s only double A-side single until “Ichibu to Zenbu/DIVE” was released in 2009.

Although this would be a non-album single, both tracks would be collected on future compilation albums. “Mienai Chikara ~INVISIBLE ONE~” was voted for inclusion on the band’s first fan-selected best of album B’z The Best “Treasure” and would also be included on the first of the band’s two 20th anniversary collections, B’z The Best “ULTRA Pleasure”. In 2000, “MOVE” would be included on the remixes and re-recordings album B’z The “Mixture”, although it was in its original, unaltered form. Later, in 2008, the song was nearly voted onto B’z The Best “ULTRA Treasure” where it finished fortieth in the voting.

Both of the songs that made up the single were performed during B’z LIVE-GYM ’96 “Spirit LOOSE”, where “Mienai Chikara ~INVISIBLE ONE~” was used to close out all dates on the tour. The two songs would be included sporadically in setlists over the years, including a revival of “MOVE” for LIVE-GYM 2010 “Ain’t No Magic” and “Mienai Chikara ~INVISIBLE ONE~” seeing its North American premiere during LIVE-GYM 2012 -Into Free-.

A promotional video for “Mienai Chikara ~INVISIBLE ONE~” was filmed through the first chorus, but was canceled and shelved when the band found the concept unclear. Instead, the promotional video featured behind-the-scenes footage from the “Spirit LOOSE” tour. The video aired for “MOVE” featured footage from the then-recent recording of “Real Thing Shakes” in Los Angeles. Concurrently, the two songs were both used in tie-in promotions. “Mienai Chikara ~INVISIBLE ONE~” served as an ending song to the anime “Hell Teacher Nube”, a first for the band, while “MOVE” was used in a commercial for one of Benesse Corporation’s “Shinkenzemi” junior high study course programs.

B’z made no television appearances for the single due to preparations for their upcoming tour, but did grant several magazine interviews to promote the release. The double A-side single moved 715,000 copies in its first week on shelves, making it the fifth fasting-selling B’z single to date. It would later be given the Million certification by the Recording Industry Association of Japan with over 1.2 million in physical copies sold.

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