 BZ is a Japanese rock duo, consisting of guitarist, composer and producer and vocalist and lyricist, known for their energetic hard rock tracks and pop ballads. BZ is one of the best-selling music artists in the world and the best-selling in their native Japan, having released 46 consecutive number 1 singles, 25 number 1 albums and sold more than 85 million records worldwide. In 2003, HMV Japan ranked the band at number 30 on their list of the 100 most important Japanese pop acts. In 2007, BZ became the first band from Asia to have their hand prints and signatures put up in the Hollywood's rock walk. HISTORY EARLY WORKS, 1988-1990 TAC Matsumoto, guitarist in Tetsuya Komuro's trademark network, had been extremely busy with various recording sessions and live performances. On May 21, 1988, Matsumoto released his first solo album, Thousand Wave. He saw this as the end of his solo career, and began his search for band members. He later met vocalist Kashi Inaba, who would later found BZ with him. At the time, Japan's music scene was loaded with many new bands being created. With all the digital sounds and mainstream music, the only sounds that they felt could not be expressed and replicated were the guitar and the human voice. As a result, they decided to keep it a two-man unit. On September 21, 1988, BZ made their debut with their first album, BZ, and single, Dockara Sono Teohana's Height. Their music was very much a product of its times, with synthesizers and samplers sharing equal time with Matsumoto's guitar, producing an experimental sound, very different from their well-known hard rock sound of today. Instead of immediately performing live after a debut album, as many Japanese bands were doing, BZ chose to have a clear vision of how they wanted to perform and decided to wait until they had enough material to play for at least 90 minutes. The two concentrated on recording, raising the quality of their music. Their efforts resulted in a second album, Off the Lock, released on May 21, 1989. With this second album came their first series of live performances, known better to their fans as Liv Jim. Liv Jim No. 00 started in Nagoya, continuing into Osaka, and finished in Tokyo. Tickets were sold out on the day they became available. On October 21, their first mini-album, Bad Communication was released. The title track was a blend of rock and dance music, and is still a classic played during their Liv Jims. It charted for 163 weeks on the Oricon charts. Their first nationwide tour, BZ Liv Jim No. 001 covered 16 shows around Japan. On February 21, 1990, their third album Breakthrough was released. To promote it, they started a tour with 22 shows nationwide. Their single Tei no Komaki Angel, was released on June 13 and peaked at No. 1 on the Oricon chart. Every single since that release has debuted at No. 1 on the Oricon charts. Wicked Beat, their second mini-album, was then released on June 21. In contrast to the many promotional efforts for Breakthrough, Wicked Beat received little promotion and the duo went back to the studio and began recording. Their fourth album, Risky was released on November 7 and went platinum. Their Risky tour, totaling 49 performances, also started in November. Their first music video, Film Risky, was recorded in New York City and London within four weeks, and was released on December 16. With a barrage of releases, 1990 came to be the busiest year for BZ. Transitioning into Hard Rock, 1991-1992. The third mini-album, Mars was released on May 29, 1991. Little promotion was done for it and after releasing only two singles, BZ released their fifth album, In the Life, on November 27. The release of the album marked BZ shying away from their advanced digital sounds and more towards rock. Their first live video, Just Another Life was out on December 11. For promotion, BZ also embarked on There In the Life 91-92 tour, with 66 performances in total. The tour started in December and managed to flow into the next year. The total number of live gyms they did during this year exceeded 100. In the summer of 1992, the Pleasure 92-time tour took place with 12 performances in three major cities. The arena class tour had amazing features such as a huge lighting set, called the Starfish, and seats that rotated 360 degrees. October 28 marked the release of their sixth album, Run, and proved to be more hard rock oriented than the previous. On December 9, they released a slightly different mini-album Friends. Different from Run, its concept is somewhat similar to that of a movie soundtrack. Switching to Blues, 1993-1994. In the early 1993, the Run tour concluded after 49 performances in 21 locations. In the following year, they held an open-air concert for the first time, called Jap the Ripper. The show took place in Bentonjima of Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka on July 31 and August 1. The successful event gathered 50,000 people per day, totaling 100,000 people in the end. Following this, BZ concentrated on recording once again, this time, producing a two-disc seventh album, The Seventh Blues. The album title not only came from it being their seventh album, but also after the seventh chord, that is frequently used in blues. Becoming much more bluesier and soulful, this album evidently shows their lean towards blues, the roots of rock music. On February 9, 1994 the BZ Live Gym 94 the 9th Blues tour started. The tour became their longest and biggest tour thus far, managing 87 performances in the year. During the tour, the album, The Seventh Blues, was released on March 2. The tour finished in Sapporo's Tsukisamu Green Dome on December 24. This album was a kind of fans' trap, because they made it to clean their fandom and just keep the rock and blues loving people with them. Adopting Pop, 1995-1998. In the first half of 1995, BZ spent their time recording and after creating numerous demos, they held the Pleasure 95 Buzz Stadium tour with 12 shows in seven cities. Their eighth album, Loose, was released on November 22. Loose was concentrated on the original concept of a two-man band. While combining rock with pop, this album is well balanced with a variety of sounds. The album sold over 3 million copies, marking it as the best seller for BZ. The BZ Live Gym 96 Spirit Loose tour, started on March 15, 1996 and held 44 performances in 21 locations. The show opened featuring a short BZ action movie, shot in Los Angeles. A short while afterwards, BZ released their sixth mini-album titled Friends 2 on November 25. The album displayed more of an adult-oriented rock. On January 29, 1997, member Inaba's first solo album, Magma, was released. He had been recording the album since the previous year, writing all the music and lyrics. The album, which topped the charts, showcased another side of him, different from that of his usual image in BZ. In March, the Dome Tour Pleasure 97 Fireball consisted of nine performances in five locations. Tickets for each dome, which have a capacity of about 30,000 to 50,000 people each, were all sold out. The tour included stops at Tokyo, three nights, Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka and Mayabashi, all being successful. On November 19, their ninth full-album Survive showcased yet another new direction in sound and style. BZ's first promotional effort for the album included performances in concert halls in Akita, Hakodate, Kishi, Shiga and Nagasaki, before plunging into the main tour. BZ Live Gym 98 Survive started on January 24, 1998. On May 20, BZ released their first official compilation album, BZ The Best Pleasure, which also marked their tenth year since debuting. Every song included in this album was a huge hit, and was highly acclaimed and its first shipment had sold more copies than any other Japanese artist in history. By this album, their sales in Japan surpassed 50 million records, making them the first artist to do so after Oricon started. On June 6, the Survive tour had successfully ended. Solo Work, 1998-1999 In the mid-1998, BZ entered a period of both rest and recording. Both Tak and Kashi had wanted to start on their own solo projects since the Survive tour, and finally got a chance to begin. During the period, on September 20, their second best-of album, BZ The Best Treasure was released. After a lengthy period, on December 16, Kashi released his first solo Maxi single, Tuka Made. At the beginning of 1999, Tak released his first solo Maxi single, The Changing on March 25, which was the first time he had sung on a released record. The single entered in at number 2 its first week on the charts. On April 14, he released the album, Knock and Tear Round, which contains many other tracks with full vocals and also includes, the Formula 199 theme song, Go Further. The album has both instrumental and vocal tracks. However, even before the release of the album, BZ had already started recording again. Returning to the music scene, 1999-2000, BZ started off the year of 1999 by busily promoting their recent singles and their 10th album Brotherhood, which was released on July 14. The album's track, Geary Geary Chop, version 51, was recorded by the support of Mr. Big Drummer Pat Torpey and its bassist Billy Shehan. In July, another dome-class tour began starting in Sapporo. The title of the tour, BZ Live Gym 99 Brotherhood included 14 performances in seven locations. They did away with extra stage acts and concentrated on their musical performance, playing songs from the new album and many hits from the past. On August 28 and 29, they played in the Yokohama International Stadium. BZ Concert was the first to be held in this stadium and gathered a stunning 140,000 people in just two days. Although the second day at Yokohama experienced heavy rain, the tour ended successfully. Shortly afterward, BZ started recording again and continued to do so throughout the rest of the year without rest. On February 23, 2000, they released the album BZ The Mixture, which included remastered tracks of past songs, songs from past singles that were not the featured track, remixes and a new song. In the middle of May, they started a rehearsal for the summer tour BZ Live Gym Pleasure 2000th Juice, starting a hall-class venue show in Toyama, May 30. The tour totaled 18 shows in 10 cities, including a performance on the famous Nippon Budokan on June 20 as a start. The recording of their single Juice was supported by drummer Brian Titchy. When they released Juice, on July 12, the duo set a Japanese record of marking No. 1 in the first week, making it their 25th No. 1 single in sequence. During the tour, once upon a time in Yokohama BZ Live Gym 99 Brotherhood was released. The year of 2000 was finished with the release of the 11th album 11 on December 6. BZ finished their work in 2000 with the appearance on the TV show Music Station Special and would start the rehearsal for the tour BZ Live Gym 2001-11 which kicked off on February 26, in the following year. Continuing into the 200s, 2001-2007. On February 26, 2001, BZ Live Gym 2001-11 kicked off at Ehime Kenmin Bunkakiken. Most of the shows were exclusive to fan club members. After the Okinawa shows on 27 and June 28, BZ travelled abroad. They officially released their CDs in Taiwan and Hong Kong and after having Live Gym that year, they made a promotion trip for the first time there. BZ Live Gym 2001-11 had 46 shows in 19 locations and 600,000 attendees. After the 11th tour, BZ prepared for their first Asian tour, which included BZ Live Gym in Taipei 2001 and BZ Live Gym in Hong Kong 2001. While BZ started recording as soon as the year 2002 started, Tak finished his solo albums. Which were released simultaneously, Dragon from the West which consists of hard rock tunes, and Hanna, which includes more melodic and Asian influenced tunes. BZ finished their recording in the middle of May, and started rehearsal in Tokyo for the Live Gym tour that year, as well as performing with Aerosmith on the stage of FIFA World Cup Korea-Japan official concert International Day, at Tokyo Stadium on June 27. On July 3, Green was released, and there was a supporting tour. The tour began in Saitama Super Arena on July 8 and ended at Osaka Dome on September 9, encompassing 700,000 attendees, 14 shows, and 11 cities. The live band was rounded out by bassist Billy Sheehan and Canadian drummer Shane Galaaz. In September, after the last show at Osaka, BZ had their first US tour starting in San Diego at Keynes on September 22 and the Palace in Los Angeles on September 24. On October 9, Inaba released his second solo album, Sheehan, five and a half years after his first solo album. On November 27, a live video A Beautiful Real was released in addition to BZ Live Gym 2002-Green Go Fight win, which packaged everything that happened on the Green tour. It also contained a second disc with material from Live Gym 2002-Rock and California Role. On December 11, their first Ballad Compilation album The Ballads' Love and BZ was released. The year 2003 marked their 15th anniversary and the two started recording from the beginning of the year, traveling to US in February for additional recording. Apart from BZ, Inaba released his solo single, Key, on June 11. Along with these continuous releases, the tour BZ Live Gym the final pleasure its showtime, started in July. The tour pleasure series started since 91 would end this year. The tour kicked off July 3 at Hakodata Shimon Kaiken and finished at Nagisa-en on September 21, which was ironically the day of their debut, having a total of 23 shows altogether. As it has been 10 years since BZ had performed at Nagisa-en since their 1993 performance of BZ Live Gym Pleasure 93 Jap the Ripper, it gathered 100,000 audience for two days. Even though the shows were hit by Typhoon and it rained very hard, it managed to still attract thousands of audience. After the Nagisa-en performance, BZ flew to the US. The tour BZ Live Gym 2003-Banzai in North America concluded with seven shows including Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver. Their 13th album, Big Machine, was released on September 17. As they flew back to Japan, BZ started their third tour in 2003, BZ Live Gym 2003 Big Machine. It was a dome tour in six locations, from Saitama Super Arena to Tokyo Dome in December. During the tour, TAC announced his solo project. As the start, he worked with the late Izumi Sakai from Zard for the song Iyujin, as well as with Maikuriki for the song Imitation Gold. Later, the compilation cover album The Hit Parade with various vocalists was released on November 26. Kicking off 2004, BZ went back to the studio to begin recording again. On February 25, a DVD, Typhoon No. 15 BZ Live Gym The Final Pleasure Its Showtime, in Nagisa-en, was released. For the rest of the year, they worked mainly on their solo projects. Soon after finishing each solo tour, they began recording together again. On April 6, 2005, BZ released their 14th album The Circle. For the album's recording, the duo were particularly worried about its live sound. For promotional activities, BZ started the tour BZ Live Gym 2005 Circle of Rock that ran from April to September, totaling 27 shows in 41 locations. On August 1, their box set The Complete BZ was digitally released only for the Japanese iTunes store. House of Strings Label, which Tak established a year before, released the artist's second album, Theatre of Strings, on October 19. On November 30, BZ The Best Pleasure II, the third compilation album, was released, reaching 1 million by the end of 2005. On June 28, 2006, their 15th original full-album Monster was released. Most of the recording took place in Los Angeles. BZ kicked off the tour BZ Live Gym 2006 Monsters Garage from Amami Bunker Center on July 2, having 17 shows in all, including 5 big domes in 11 locations and 450,000 audience members all together. In the end of 2007, more precisely on December 5, BZ released their 16th album, Action. The drum parts of their two singles from Action, E In Note Tsubasa and Super Love Song, were recorded by drummers Josh Freese and Jeremy Coulson respectively. On November 19, 2007, BZ was inducted into Hollywood's Rockwalk as the first Asian inductee in Sunset Boulevard, California, U.S. 20th Anniversary, 2008. In February 2008, BZ released a DVD titled BZ Live in Namba. The show was recorded in 2006 and was also broadcast online. The concert featured songs from the Circle and Monster eras, along with a number of older hits as well as several English versions. On April 16, 2008, the band released their 45th single, Burn Fu Metsu No Face, which became their 41st consecutive number-one single. 2008 also marked the 20th anniversary of the band. To commemorate the occasion, the IBBZ20 campaign was launched that saw two further compilation albums. BZ The Best Ultra Pleasure was released on June 18, 2008 and featured the greatest of the band's hits on a two-disc collection, and in chronological order, with two all-new modern recordings of older tracks BZ The Best Ultra Treasure was released on September 17, 2008. Its two-disc track listing was decided by fans who were invited to vote for three of many songs at the BZ 20th anniversary website, which featured an exclusive song on a three-disc gift bundle, as well as a re-recording and a remix. On January 25, 2008, BZ performed only the latest of its showcase series, which are generally small venue performances of older album songs and the more obscure B-side that are mostly unsuitable for the larger arena concerts. Following this, BZ immediately embarked on their eight-month action tour that saw them perform all over Japan. Afterward, they segued into their 2008 pleasure tour, titled Glory Days. Throughout the month of September, BZ performed for hundreds of thousands of fans in nine performances across three cities. The special tour ended on September 21 with a concert on the 20th anniversary of their first release. This performance was later released on DVD February 25, 2009 as BZ Live Jim Pleasure 2008 Glory Days. Further music careers as a band and solo works, 2009–present. Following their massive tour in 2008, BZ returned to the studio to record new material. Their first release of the year was a double A-side single, Ichabu to Zenbu Dive, released on August 5, 2009 that features drummer Chad Smith. The non-full-track ringtone downloads, Chakayuta, of Ichabu to Zenbu began on July 13, 2009, and the full-track ringtone downloads, Chakayuta Full, of the song also began on August 26, 2009. For its strong download sales in August and September on Rikashoku, the song served the Monthly Rikashoku Award, Best Song Award Grand Prix for Chakayuta and Chakayuta Full each for two consecutive months. On October 13, 2009, KDDI also announced that Ichabu to Zenbu was awarded the Yuditomo Award of September 2009 for the sales on Yuditomo via Ozlismo. The second release was the single My Lonely Town. The physical CD of the single was released on October 14, 2009. Both singles are featured in the band's next studio album, entitled Magic, released on November 18, 2009. On December 10, 2009, it was announced that their song Ichabu to Zenbu won the Ibu Billboard Japan Hot 100 of the year 2009 award. After the Ibiza Live Gym 2010 ain't no magic tour, they began their solo activities each and did not release any single as a duo in 2010. Matsumoto released the album Take Your Pick with Larry Carlton on June 2, 2010. Inaba's solo studio album Hada was also released on August 18, 2010, debuting at No. 1 on the Oricon album charts. Take Your Pick won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album at the 53rd Grammy Awards on February 13, 2011. In 2011, they came back as BZ with the 48th single Sayonara Kizudarek No Hibiyo, which is written and used as a commercial song for Pepsi Next. They have released their 18th studio album See Monday on July 27, 2011, which featured 49th single Don't Wanna Lie. Don't Wanna Lie is the theme song used for Detective Conan, Quarter of Silence. In summer 2011, BZ will continue their Live Gym tour with additional stops in North America, Vancouver, San Francisco and Los Angeles. A fall 2012 North American tour has been confirmed for San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, Toronto, Silver Spring, New York City and Los Angeles. The BZ shared their first English language songs with American audiences on their North American tour. Matsumoto explained, �This will be our fourth U.S. tour. We love playing for American audiences, and are excited to share our first English language release with our fans.� In anticipation of their upcoming American tour, the band released a five-song mini-album featuring re-recorded English versions of various hits such as Juice, Ultra Soul and Splash. The album is available internationally through the iTunes store, and was released on July 25, 2012. At the beginning of November 2012, rumors stated that the band would prepare a 25th anniversary tour, release a new album and release a new video. Then, on November 21, 2012 on the official website, on the eve of their 25th anniversary, they announced three new home videos of unreleased live material and which are BZ Live Gym 2008 action, BZ Live Gym 2005 circle of rock and BZ Live Gym 2001-11 announced for January 30, February 27 and March 27, 2013 respectively. The group was the third artist by total sales revenue in Japan in 2013, 5.379 billion yen.