Chapter 2: The First Bands I was in

Joining my First Bands

By now, I was addicted to guitars and hard rock. I was in the third year of middle school, and obviously, the topic of high school entrance exams came up, but it wasn't something that ever crossed my mind. My scores at school were close to abysmal, naturally, since I wasn't going to school all that much. When my homeroom teacher spoke to me about my academical future, I was told: "There are only two high schools you can go to."One of them was a high school located near my house. The other was far from my house, a high school located in the town of Kisarazu. Choosing my future course was an important decision to make, and I made my choice to go to Kisarazu's high school because of their highly competitive baseball team. That was Kisarazu Chuo High School(Currently Kisarazu Sogo High School). I didn't even play baseball in middle school, I have no idea why I chose to go to a school that was one hour by train away from where I lived…

It seems like I got a decent score in the entrance exam, and for some reason I was placed in a preparatory course for college, and there was only one of these in that school. I didn't even know there was a preparatory course in that school. That's how much I cared about school. I didn’t mind the preparatory course, but was missing many classes due to asthma and my overall poor health. My attendance in the first year amounted to less than a full semester. The headmaster told me to come back the next year anyway, and I had to do the first year all over again. Or, as they say, I repeated the year. It was a hassle with school being so far from where I lived, the commute felt more like going on a mini trip. I repeated the same year for another year, and was still registered as a student, but gradually stopped going to school altogether.

When I became a high school student, I started a band with my middle school classmates. We participated in the Yamaha-sponsored contest East West. It was my very first band, named Headlock after a move from pro wrestling, of course. At the contest, I believe we performed one Rainbow cover song, and one other song. The Rainbow song was one of the more esoteric tracks from their 1979 album, Down to Earth. It was definitely not any of the major tracks such as "All Night Long", or "Since You Been Gone". Just before our performance for the contest, my guitar broke and I had to borrow a guitar from a high school classmate, who was in another band, and the sound was nothing like I wanted. That sad memory is what stayed with me the most.

The members of my first band, Headlock, went to a different high school, and we weren't all from the same neighborhood. As a result, we gradually stopped hanging out, one person quit, then another, and soon it came to a spontaneous end.

At the time, I started going often to a music shop in Sakae, Chiba, that also did repairs. There, I also got the opportunity to know some of my Kisarazu High classmates better. We were in the same school, but in different classes, and while we never talked to each other at school, we hit it off in that music shop. Not too long after, we decided to start a new band. One of them was such a huge fan of Akira Takasaki that he even owned a Random Star guitar. In that band, we played a lot of Loudness songs with twin guitars. In my second repeat year of the first year of high school, we played Loudness' "Loudness" and "Lonely Player" at a school festival. This band was the predecessor to Black Rose.

We also played a lot of Judas Priest covers, because Black Rose was a twin-guitar band as well. It was right when Judas Priest released Screaming For Vengeance in 1982, I remember also covering the title song. We also played "Tyrant" from Sad Wings of Destiny(1976). We didn't have a keyboard player, so we never actually played the namesake of our band, Thin Lizzy's "Black Rose". When we started playing the Judas Priest covers, it was also when we started playing our first live shows.

I stopped getting haircuts when I became a high school student, and soon enough I had long hair. However, about 80% of the students in my high school were "putting their hair up". That is, they had the hairstyle known as the regent pompadour. At the time, Kisarazu high school was infamous for their delinquent students.

At Kisarazu station, there was a bus that would take us to the high school, and in that bus, there was always a teacher who would be monitoring the students during the ride. Sometimes, that teacher would tell me off because of my long hair, saying: "You! What's with the Hideki Saijo hair?!" I wanted to answer him with Hideki's tag line from the Vermont Curry commercials: "Hideki's impressed!", but I wasn't able to make that kind of retort. After all, I was terrified of the teachers. They were all so tough in that school, I had no idea what would have happened to me if I crossed any of them. Still, I did not cut my hair, even though I was warned many times. And I wasn't going to school all that much anyway.

Nearby, there was the Kisarazu Koryo High School (Currently Takushoku University Koryo High School), which was also a delinquent school. It was famous for its hair code punishment, where one would get two stripes shaved off from the back of their head with clippers. Koryo High also got their bus at the same station as us, and naturally, there would be many "wars" between the two school factions. After getting off of the bus, all it took for a fight to break out was one student thinking the other did something wrong. When the train arrived at the station, in order to grab my seat before anyone else, I would throw my bag in through the window before boarding, but that would cause problems as well. I often heard the Kisarazu station employees yelling: "Which school did this!"

A normal day in Kisarazu was pretty much identical to the movie Be-Bop High School. But, this was not only how it was in Kisarazu, my entire hometown was also like that. There were many times when I'd have to avoid coming back home using the Nishichiba station because I heard there would be a gang war happening there. I think that happened a lot all over Chiba Prefecture in the late 70s and early 80s. I had delinquent friends, but I wasn't one, and I also hate conflict, so they never invited me to their gang wars.

I lived in a different world from theirs. That is, the world of a musician.

Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been like if I didn't play the guitar. Yet, I've never thought of myself living a different life. One thing I can tell you, however, is that I never thought I would be able to make a living playing in a band.

In fact, I did end up making a living playing in a band, but I never stopped to think too much about my future when I was 16, 17. There just was something I had a lot of fun doing, and I devoted myself to it. To me, that was playing the guitar, and being in a band. I never thought of the band as my future, I only saw playing in a band as having fun with my friends. I thought of it as being the same thing as when I played grass-lot baseball or kicked the can with my friends from primary school. Maybe, to me, being in a band and playing guitar are simply two other fun games.

Our Dancing Mothers Days

The first venue we played at was Dancing Mothers in Chiba. However, I don't remember much of our first performance. It's even fuzzy to me whether I was nervous or had fun. Back then, I wasn't great with things like bookings or small details, I believe it was our other guitar player who made many of the necessary arrangements. Our friends bought the tickets and came to see our show.

After that, we were allowed to be the opener band for Juni Hitoe (80s metal band). Around that time, our band was already named Black Rose and we had a few original songs. When we became Juni Hitoe's opening band, their guitarist, Yaegashi(Hiroshi) complimented us: "Your songs are really cool". That was simply delightful. Black Rose's songs were written together with the other guitarist, we would go to each other's houses and go back and forth, "There's a riff that goes like this," and that's how they were composed. I don't remember many details about those songs, but roughly, we had enough of them to perform on stage. I think there were about 5 or 6 songs.

Everyone at the venue we often performed at, Dancing Mothers, treated us very well. Even before we became the opening act, I would often go there to see Juni Hitoe play. I really liked them. I also saw many bands perform live at Dancing Mothers, before their debut, such as 44 Magnum, Action, and Anthem, to name a few.

I really enjoyed Anthem, too. I saw them in their very early days, when Anthem's guitarist was Otani Reibun. Speaking of Reibun, I also saw, at Dancing Mothers, another band he played guitar in, Marino, and also another band from Kansai, X-Ray. When I saw X-Ray, we were allowed to hang out in the venue during their rehearsal. When I saw Rajas, the venue owner told me to carry Joe's (Crazy Cool Joe, later joined Dead End) Hiwatt amp from the basement to the first floor. Now that I think about it, why in the hell did I have to carry Joe's damn heavy bass amp? I also remember seeing Blizard play live there.

The list is endless, but I saw many bands who would later become successful play at Dancing Mothers.

Incidentally, my sister was a bigger fan of Blizard than I was. She loved the guitarist, Ran (Toshiya Matsukawa), understandably, because he's very handsome. She had two of Ran's solo albums on the record shelf at home. My sister was also a member of Yasuaki Honda's fan club. Michiaki, my bandmate in ra:IN, also used to be in Yasuaki's The Toys, as part of the backing band. When I started playing with ra:IN, I was also invited to play guitar at Yasuaki's live show. Due to that connection, I invited Yasuaki as a secret guest to my sister's wedding. ra:IN played first, then I called Yasuaki as a special guest. When Yasuaki began singing, my sister was so moved that she couldn't stop crying. I think I did a good job with that, if I do say so myself (laughs).

Anyway, I was experiencing the rise of Japanese heavy metal as I watched many bands play live at Dancing Mothers. I wasn't there all the time, but the venue was only a bike ride away from my house. It also happened that while I watched a show, it never occurred to me to watch and learn from the guitar players. I would watch the guitarist's hands and wonder how they were playing, but because I was still too young, I barely understood any of it. 44 Magnum's Jimmy played too fast, Otani Reibun played too fast. When I saw Action, I thought their bass player, Keiichi Otani, looked a lot like Kenji Sawada... That was the kind of stuff I thought about (laughs). Back then, Otani still had his eyebrows. That's why I was shocked when Action debuted, I remember thinking: "Why the hell does Otani look terrifying?" But he's not terrifying at all, he's one of the finest human beings I have ever met.

In my first year of high school, I also went to see western bands. The first international band I saw was Whitesnake at Nakano Sunplaza. David Coverdale was on vocals, of course, and Micky Moody and Bernie Marsden were on guitars. Neil Murray was on bass. Jon Lord (keyboards) and Ian Paice (drums), formerly of Deep Purple, also played. I managed to land a great front-row seat, so much that I was able to watch the concert at almost touching distance from the band members. Micky was right in front of me, my ears were ringing after the show from taking the direct roar of the Marshalls. At the time, I never imagined I would later be in the position of giving people ringing ears myself.

After that, I also went to see Rainbow after buying the tickets from a ticket center in the Seibu Shinjuku Line. In those days, the system worked as follows: the earlier you bought your ticket, the better your seat. Because of that, people started lining up the night before they went on sale, and you had to write your name on a list in order to get a numbered ticket. Some very kind girls I didn't know helped me get an early place, having written the name "Kuromasu-san" on the list early, and giving it to me. Thanks to them, I was able to buy a ticket for a great seat. By the way, it goes without saying that the pseudonym they used, Kuromasu, translates to Blackmore. To this day, I am still thankful for what those girls did. Well, they must be middle-aged by now (laughs)...

Iron Maiden and Saxon also toured Japan when I was in the first year of high school. I was thrilled to go see Saxon. By the way, on this same occasion, hide went to see Iron Maiden. We later got in some heated discussions as hide was team Iron Maiden, and I was team Saxon. He would say things like, "Saxon's songs have no chorus!", which made zero sense to me, and we would argue. Of course, when you think about it, there's absolutely nothing wrong with liking both bands.

Tadaya, the Catalyst for Many Connections

Despite repeating a year of high school, and even though I was still registered as a student, I rarely showed up to classes. Instead, I was mostly spending my time hanging out with older people. Out of those people, the one who helped me the most was Yujin, who worked as a cameraman. He was about 5 years older than me, and he would tell me about how he photographed a Thin Lizzy show.

Yujin would drive to my house and tap on my window, or rev the engine twice. Whenever I showed up, he always asked if I wanted to go eat something and we would go to a cheap restaurant, then he would buy me a record. I would record it into a cassette tape and give the cassette to Yujin, and I kept the record. Yujin was a big music fan, and we would discuss music quite a lot, and I also talked about guitars. One time, I made a comment in passing about how expensive a certain guitar pick was, and the next time we met, he gave me one of those picks. I still remember it was the pick that had the "roughest" sound out of all DiMarzio picks.

I met Yujin at a music shop in Sakae, Chiba. The same shop where I also met the members of the band I was in before Black Rose. Yujin was also acquainted with the owner of that shop.

Then, when I was in high school, I got my first part-time job there. At the time, I just vaguely thought I'd become a guitar repairman or craftsman. They also did a lot of customizing when modified guitars became popular, and I used to hang out there all the time. I was asked by a staff member if I wanted to work there. Even before working there, I already tinkered with my guitar quite a bit, like using a chisel to level the neck pocket, and other small modifications I did myself, at home. Nowadays, I can’t be bothered to do any maintenance myself (laughs).

At the time, I played a Tokai strat model. It was just like the guitar Ritchie Blackmore played, a Fender Stratocaster anniversary edition model that started being sold around the time Rainbow came to Japan, in 1979, when they released Down to Earth. I was so excited about it that I went to see the real deal at a music shop with my own eyes, and as I expected, it was insanely expensive. It wasn't something a student could ever afford. I stripped the paint off my Tokai model and repainted the body in a metallic silver. I did that kind of modding myself. I was very meticulous.

Afterwards, the music shop I worked at moved to Inage, which also meant I had to drag my boots to Inage. The shop in Inage was named Tadaya. It was a bookshop that also sold instruments and records, and they also had a rehearsal studio. Inside, they even had a small stage where performances could be held.

One of the employees at Tadaya was Saito(Hiroshi Saito), who is now the manager of Look in Chiba. We quickly became friends, and I started to hang out more at Tadaya.

Saito organized many events featuring bands from Chiba, that played on that small stage in Tadaya. I watched Sabbrabells play one of these events, and Yoshiki's X shared the stage with them that day. I also met Harry Yoshida (who is now a member of United) of Dementia there in Tadaya.

The shop was frequented by many young musicians who were in bands, like Harry and I, a guy who played sessions of bass for one Kinniku Shoujotai album, Tetsu, who is now a PA engineer in Osaka (and sometimes played with Bellzlleb). Like drunkards drawn to the red paper lantern bars, Tadaya drew musicians to it. I made many acquaintances who were also around my age there. It wasn't even that big, but it became something of a social meeting place. All the music lovers in that area used to gather at Tadaya.

On the coming-of-age day, when I turned 20, I did not attend the local ceremony, and went to Tadaya instead. It was Saito's day off, and Harry came in when I was wondering what I should do. He was with the guy who played bass with him, who suggested we go to Saizeriya and drink to celebrate, and off we went. My memories of my coming-of-age day are drinking at Saizeriya. Drinking at Saizeriya, a popular restaurant that originated in Chiba, is a bit of a big deal for those of us who are from Chiba.

These connections I made in Tadaya would have an immense impact on my life, later on.

Meeting Yoshiki

I started my next band after I started hanging out more at Tadaya. This new band was called Judy, and I started it with the vocalist of Black Rose. Black Rose had two guitarists, but I was the sole guitarist of Judy. However, shortly after we started to play our first shows, the drummer left. We already had gigs booked, and I went to Tadaya to ask Saito for advice: "We have no drummer but we have shows to play..." Then, someone, who I believe was a long-time friend of Yoshiki, said that he could ask Yoshiki to give us some help. We promptly approached Yoshiki, and he was already interested in us, and he agreed to help with the drums for Judy.

Of course, I already knew about X for quite a while. I first saw them play at the East West contest, where they also participated. At the time, Toshi had his head completely shaved, as he was part of his high school's volleyball club. Their guitarist also had a shaved head as he had been suspended from school, and their bass player Tokuo (Atsushi) was already styling his hair up. Yoshiki had a regent pompadour hairstyle that looked like something out of a manga... You can probably imagine how striking they looked as a band (laughs). Yoshiki and the others say they played "I'll Kill You" and "X" for the contest, but from what I remember, they only played "I'll Kill You". Toshi won a special prize at the contest, the Big Fish Singing Award.

Later on, we also played a show at Tadaya with X. It was back when they had Jun on guitar and Hikaru on bass, and X was already playing gigs in Tokyo, in venues such as the Meguro Rock-May-Kan. I even heard they were going to make an appearance in NTV's show Tensai! Takeshi no Genki ga Deru TV.

X were popular, but I wasn't worried about that. They were a band we played with, and there were absolutely no sentiments of rivalry or antagonism between us. I was never one to play guitar with that kind of mindset, and I don't have that weird sense of competition in me. I'm the type of person who is satisfied as long as I get to play whatever I want on the guitar.

I was pretty serious about my band, but at the time, I had no thoughts whatsoever about making a living playing in a band. To this day, I still don't fully understand why I'm making a living playing guitar (laughs). Sure, I am making a living playing guitar indeed, but I never ever thought I could live off music. I've never had the ambition. Though, I do think it happened because I joined a band made of people who did have that ambition.

From the moment we met, I believe Yoshiki was very ambitious about many things. But, when I first spoke to him, I didn't get a glaring impression of that. When he arrived at Judy's rehearsal to help us out with the drums, as previously mentioned, Yoshiki had very fluffy blonde hair, and I even thought he might be from another country.

Back to the story, Yoshiki became Judy's temporary drummer, and we had a rehearsal. The first time we jammed together was at a studio in Yotsuya, Tokyo. Judy had some fast-paced songs here and there, so we thought we would try them out first, to see how we matched. We could play them well even though they were fast because they were our own songs, but Yoshiki hit the drums so fast we had no idea what he was even doing. Did it go with the song? Did it not? Meanwhile, Yoshiki suddenly stopped playing in the middle of a song, and declared: "I made a mistake!" I thought: "Mistake? ... What is he talking about?" and shared a look with our bassist. Yoshiki stopped playing and said he made a mistake, but we had no idea what or where the mistake was. Later, the bassist and I talked about how Yoshiki's energy was incredible.

I believe Judy played about 3 gigs with Yoshiki's help. I would say Kanagawa Explosion and Shibuya Yaneura. We played a few Judy shows around the Tokyo metropolitan area.

Now that I think about Judy's sound and songs, they were the very standard Japanese metal fare of the time. Our vocalist had a high voice. The bassist wrote most of the songs, but I did write a few too, and we had double bass drums. I don't remember the melodies, but we had some fast-paced songs, and to make it easy to imagine, they sounded something like early era Reaction.

As a matter of fact, Judy came to a natural end. We couldn't schedule shows because we had trouble finding an official drummer. After that, I didn't seek a new band, and had no more live performances.

Until the time when my phone suddenly rang. It was around New Year's 1987, and the person on the other side of the line was Yoshiki.