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LALIENE

The beginnings - (1994 - 1996)?

It all started in August 1994, when Kamijo and Mayu worked as roadies for the group Malice Mizer. The two boys sympathize and decide to form their own band which takes shape in November of the same year. They call the band Laliene. They speak about their meeting in a 1999 interview for Vicious. At that time, Kamijo called himself Shoki.

The very first band consists of Kamijo / Shoki on vocals, Mayu, Sakureu and Hirono on guitars and Kyouka on drums. Later, Emiru was recruited via an ad in a magazine called Rockin'fand. The group begins activity in March 1995.

Shortly before the first concert at the Shikawa CLUB GIO on March 25, Mayu left the band because he had musical differences with Sakureu, believing his sound was too much like another band.

The second Laliene concert takes place at Meguro Rockmayran on March 29th. A first Demo Tape limited to 100 copies was distributed on this occasion. This tape is called "Laliene"and is produced under the label LUCHERIE. It contains the song "Detest of Doll", which has quite a rock style, as we are not yet in the fairylike and sweet universe that the group will adopt later.

Kamijo / Shoki still sings quite incorrectly and it is noteworthy that his voice on this track is loser to his current tonality than his way of singing afterwards.

1st ??????Lucherie - ?????'95.03.29

After a first series of concerts in April, Sakureu leaves the group and Mayu returns in May.

In the following months the group plays in different musical events and distributes a new Demo tape that goes on sale in stores on August 22nd. Sales got off to a good start and the 1000 copies made for the stores were sold out.

On this second tape entitled "Funeral March", "Dir in Gray" which is still quite close to "Detest of Dolls" with a rather hard rock sound.

Lyrics & Music : Shoki (Kamijo)

This Youtube video allows to listen to a recording of a 1995 live, the sound is pretty bad but the content is interesting :

0:00 Shiroi bouquet DEMO - 5:33 Dir en gray - 11:00 Tsukiyo no kageki  - 18:15 Feerie DEMO - 26:36 Saikai no Hana
Video source : http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm6805982

Kyouka and Hirono leave the group in October 1995. They find themselves without a drummer, until the entry of Machi to this position in the group in the following November. It is announced at a concert at Meguro Rockmaykanon. Machi was also a roadie for Malice Mizer, from which he knew Mayu and Kamijo (source: interview of March 1999 for Vicious)

Shortly after, the group tours the country with a live show entitled "Pain of Love Story" until

February, with a few appearances in March 1996. At that time, the most important change was the Shinjuku Loft show on March 26th. The group celebrates its first anniversary with a concert where they distribute a promotional single, "Sakai no Hana". They also officially change their name to LAREINE. At the same time as the band name changes, Kamijo abandons his stage name of Shoki to use his real name on stage.

The band tours a lot, it seems that at the time visual groups had to do this in order to break through and make themselves known. There was no internet at the time and concerts were the best way to make your music heard. I guess all of this had to be pretty artisanal and financially difficult. The rare photos show rather simple stage costumes, repurposed feminine clothes, and imaginative accessories. Small venues, with cassettes distributed in concert or sold by mail. I read in interviews and articles that Kamijo had done odd jobs when he was young, as a ramen deliveryman, which must have been essential to live.

They needed a lot of passion and motivation to continue ... and the recklessness of youth …

Some images of this distant time, found on facebook, ebay ... we sometimes see resurgence of incredible things and precious archives.?
 

LAREINE

On the glory road - (1996 – 1999) 

In 1996 the band became more and more popular, a second guitarist, Akira, joined them temporarily.

Their first recording with him was a Demo Tape with a story ????? - « Tsukiyo no kageki ». Three titles on this tape : "Tsukiyo no Kageki" - "Hishu no Hanazono" - "Saikai no Hana". 1000 copies were produce and sold very quickly and a second edition of 500 copies was published a month later. We can notice that Kamijo's voice is more acute and that the musical style begins to be well defined.

13.07.1996

This production was promoted during a concert tour "Queen of Opera Dance" in July - August 1996.

On December the group released its first mini album "Blue Romance" printed in 1000 copies and sent by mail. Under the name of the group one can read in red "L'histoire d'amour trop chagrin" it means : The love story too sorrowful. The musical universe is there, the voice is still searching, it is very touching to listen to this Mini Album. It's sweet romantic and dreamy rock.

Titles 1 to 4 are composed by Kamijo, "Kitsetsufuu" is composed by Mayu and all lyrics are from Kamijo. Produced and arranged by LAREINE.

A second version of this CD was reissued to 3000 copies at the beginning of the following year. The album in audio …

It was in January 1997 that LAREINE gave her first solo concert at the Meguro Rockmaykanon and started the "Romancia" tour which ended with a free concert to celebrate the group’s second anniversary. This tour was very successful and the band added two final dates where they promoted their single "Romancia" August 28 concert "Romancia Real Final" was also the last concert with Akira, who then left the group for personal reasons. Its withdrawal was commemorated by a Special Demo Tape "Mist" which proposes a title composed by Akira.

   
fans pics where we can see the pretty artisanal costumes

LAREINE decided not to replace Akira and the group now has its definitive name and final membership of four members:

? Kamijo - Vocals ? Mayu - Guitar ? Emiru - Bass ? Machi - Drum ?

They continued filming the rest of the year and made their first full Album : "BLUE ROMANCE??????????"

This album come in a luxury edition, with a cardboard case, the CD slipped in with a small photo book titled Romancia. A lyric book accompanies the CD in the plastic box. Go to the library to download the full PDF booklets. More details in the discography

A live of the time with this very, very big hat …

   
Photoset

A video on Youtube showing a television interview of the group in spring 1998, probably the first. Hot Wave TV Show - Spring 1998 - ???? .

Thanks to Cantavanda for putting this video on his own channel because it was deleted.

I do not know if this is their first TV appearance, probably one of the first in any case. We can see four young men that are shy and well-behaved, far from the extravagance of their costumes and stage performances. It's always amazing to see these Japanese groups interviewed, polite and straight-laced like schoolboys! Mayu is smiling often, while Machi and Emiru speak a lot. Although he speaks more than others, Kamijo still seems rather shy compared to today. I have the impression that he is wearing a wig, his hair has no black roots as often in the photos of this period. Notice that he often puts his hand in front of his mouth when he laughs or smiles. Perhaps a small dental complex ?

Note also the jacket he wears, adorned with a pattern of roses. If you look at the costumes throughout his career, you'll find that this pattern in the fabric will often appear more discreetly via tone-on-tone or weaving (the blue "Engagement" coat seems to have a floral pattern, the black coat "Lyrical Sympathy", the black suit of "Jubilee", the red jacket "Holly Grail" and lately the cape of "Symphony of the Vampire" is entirely lined with red with a pattern of roses …)

On April 21, 1998, the band announced the creation of an official Fan Club "Fleur" followed by the release of a single by the same name in the following months. A national tour to promote the disc and the Fan Club ended with the band's first solo concert in a seating room, the Nippon Seikenman, on September 27, 1998.

   
A photos of the fanclub leaflet, documents found on EBAY -

The single Fleur Examples of photosets, sometimes complete sometimes incomplete, there exist versions of the same photo with a different background, it is thus possible to imagine the different photosets.

This first single was delivered with a mini sticker for the first 1000 limited copies sent by mail. The following copies, regular edition, available with a blue, green, yellow or pink disc. The photosets above may have had a blue, yellow, pink and green background, same as the discs ?

Track three of this Mini Album contains the song for the credits of the anime "Versailles No Bara" ("The Rose of Versailles" or "Lady Oscar") and is accompanied by a story in eight chapters. This very special album has an edition accompanied by a 50-page book with the story and photos of the group staged in the role of the characters. You can now discover this scanned book on the page "The Stories " of this site. I put the link to the original book to download in PDF and the images to be viewed are a version of the scanned scans to replace the English text by the translated English version of the Bonjour Honey website.

In October the popularity of the group was such that LILLIE CHARLOTTE was pressed to 20 000 copies.

We can really see on these images that the group profits from more substantial finances. They are produced by a subsidiary company of Sony, to stage Lareine’s projects and artistic vision. The costumes are really elaborate and the look of each member is really more typical.

December 18, 1998 released "Metamorphose", a maxi single with three titles.

"Metamorphose" promotional vidéo

The "Metamorphose" period has a variety of complex costumes. There are those of the PV, those of the book - CD "Lillie Charlotte", the black and feathered costumes, and a series of photos with hooded capes of bright colors which are also visible in the images of the live of the time below.

They appeared again on the Hot Wave show at that time :

Live images of this period are visible in this video that covers the entire period of 1995-1999. The end of this video shows the group's notoriety at the time of "Engagement" in 1999 and the fairly substantial promotional campaign set up at Hachiko Square in Shibuya, Tokyo. with the projections of clips on the giant screens of the street and the truck showcase the members inside.

 
In the big leagues...

(1999)

In January 1999 the band signed for a big record company (a major): SME Records (Sony Music Entertainment Japan).

Their last independent label concert was the Metamorphose Tour Final at Shibuya Koukaidou (now CC Lemon Hall) on March 26, 1999. It was recorded for a video "Chantons l'amour ~ Lillie Kara No Tegami ~". In this live, we can see video sequences in French, it is the letters of Lillie that refer to the story "Lillie Charlotte".

A few days before, clips of LAREINE were shown in commercials at Hachiko Square in Shibuya, Tokyo. 
(=> https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibuya ) The previous video showed you some pictures of this promo operation.
You can read an interview of the group in three parts appeared in Vicious : Part 1 march 1999 - Part 2 april 1999 - Part 3 may 1999.
It's very interesting to read to know a little more about them and the group .

Pics from site Fanpop

   
magazine pages

On June 2, the group goes back to television on the show "Hot Wave"

No doubt the period and the most famous costumes of the group. A huge amount of photos is available.

 

 

  

 

 

      

 

   

   

"Billet"

Single "Billet" pics & video :

"Fuyu Tokyo"

pics & video :

Many scans from this era :

?    

This is the time when Kamijo cuts his hair. The long wavy blond hair gives way to short, straight hair.

He explains this change in an interview for a magazine in January 2000 : "(..) Before, my hairstyle was the symbol of "destiny ", to always look like the spiral of destiny" In independent label period, we exposed the “everlasting love”. At the same time, we were looking for eternity and we found the end of eternity. So we realized that what we were playing for was not infinite. My eternal love flourished at the same time in affirmation and denial. I decided to cut my hair to signify the end of the spiral of fate. (...) "

"????????????
 

The Last of Romance"

 

 

Between August and September, a special TV show LAREINE was broadcast by THK in three parts. In December, their official website was launched.

On February 16, 2000, LAREINE released her second album: ?????????????The Last of Romance?”was their only album to enter the Top 20 Oricon.

This album is really special. There is in the CD booklet the whole story since Lillie and Jeremie. A genealogy of the reincarnations of the characters. It's really beautiful ... The story is available in reading and analysis HERE. The sound is also very cinematographic. It's a real narrative album. The limited version offers a nice photo book rich of references and symbols. To see more go to the library. 

Pictures taken for an article in the magazine SHOXX n ° 86 of April 2000 as part of the promotion of the album. There are probably other pictures and other releases of this era and with these costumes, but it is almost impossible to find pictures and scans like the previous three singles where the online documentation is not lacking. If you have anything from then, I will gladly include it…

"Bara wa Utsukuchiku Chiru"

In autumn, an edition of the single "Bara wa utsukushiku chiru?" originally recorded on the album LILLIE CHARLOTTE comes out, containing the title song, cover of the credits of "The Rose of Versailles" and the title "Ano hito no aishita hito nara ". The cover of the CD is drawn by Riyoko Ikeda herself and a limited edition containing a poster is out. The mangaka, who is also a singer, is also the female voice who sings in the background ( Site Discogs ). 

Regular edition and collector's edition. For more information, click on the images to go to the title page.

However, the group remains absent from the scene and does not announce upcoming concerts or public appearances. After a few months of silence, Emiru announces his intention to leave the group. It seems that a musical divergence is responsible for his departure. He was followed by Machi and finally Mayu who did not want to continue without them.

Members of the Fan Club Fleur were able to see the band in concert during the "Miss Carmila" Tour specially made for the members. A box "Memorial Box - Miss Carmilla" was published to commemorate this last tour of LAREINE.

"Miss Carmilla"

Few pictures of this period. The look is more sober and dark.

Backstage images and photo shoots from 1999, "Metamorphose" and "Billet" periods. The images of live date from August 2000, it is the last concert of Machi with Akasaka Blitz on August 6, 2000.

This video was distributed free of charge during the 10th anniversary live on March 26, 2005 at Shibaura Holiday

Another excerpt live from this era in a very rare DVD distributed for the FC to a hundred copies. Catavanda youtube Channel.

Emiru's career continued with a new group, Ribbon, in the summer of 2002. Machi announced the creation of a Solo project called "Chantons l'Amour" (Singing Love) a few months after leaving LAREINE.

The end of this LAREINE period is the end of the group's golden age. This is the period when they were the most creative, they had their visual and musical universe. The end of the story told in "????????????~- The Last of Romance -" marks the end of this era.

It should be noted that the transition to a major record company has not halted their creativity, they have been supported by the major label since "Lillie Charlotte" which was produced by a subsidiary company? of Sony.

"Miss Carmila" is musically very different and probably this turn, this direction did not suit Emiru ... to the point of leaving ...

Kamijo seems to keep a particular attachment to this album as everything that revolves around seems to still have a great importance from a personal point of view because on his current site of Château Agency his personal profile contains a link ... a link to the page of this latest album presented on the Sony  website. It's been 17 years since it came out and it's still online. At this time, he holds this as a precious memory.

I see this period of LAREINE as a first absolute love, a love where we want to live everything, see everything, give everything ... and when it ends it's difficult. We can love again and give again after but nothing is ever the same. It is no longer of the same strength and more absolute. It is this absolute feeling that I see in those years, a passion a creative impulse without complication.

The creativity of this era, the strength of music and history will not end up for years to Kamijo.

LAREINE solo project

 ( 2000 – 2001 )

Kamijo finds himself alone and decides to continue. This is the time when he start his own independent label, Applause Records, to produce LAREINE's third album. He sets up a free News Letter via the LAREINE website to keep in touch with his fans. At the end of the year comes the single "Grand Pain" followed by the album « Scream ».

This album almost entirely composed and written by Kamijo (the song Miss Carmilla is signed LAREINE without precisions, two musicians who worked on the album participated in the composition : Jimmy Sakurai composed "Scream" and Takuya Fuji composed "When. ..25: 17 "). The sound is much more of a hard rock feel. We do not find the particular sound of LAREINE.

He also plays guitar on this album as he is credited as a guitarist, putting into perspective bios who mention that "Kamijo plays a little guitar." On the song "Miss Carmilla" he would be the only guitarist.

A DVD entitled "In Vienna" was shot in Vienna, Austria. We see Kamijo wander the streets of the city, alone against the backdrop of the music of the album. The pictures are beautiful, it's a bit slow and contemplative. We see above all a pale young man of 25 years, too thin (I would even say lean), with short hair and a blonde too yellow, in a male suit twice too big for him. However, the charm is there ... It was sold much later, in the second period of LAREINE.

Two excerpts from this wandering in the streets of Vienna. The slowness and immobility of the images contrasts with the very rock sound.

These pics are very melancholy and give off a lot of loneliness. The lyrics of "Grand Pain" are also quite dark. This is a style very different from the sound of LAREINE, more in the vein of the first two songs of the group. The musical divergence which led to the dissolution of the band might come from this change of style in Kamijo's compositions.

At the same time, he participated in Shock Wave's Halloween show at Shibuya O East.

On January 5, 2001 he gave his first concert, "Stranger in New Days" as LAREINE alone on stage with an orchestra of session musicians. The concert takes place at the Ebisu Liquidroom. This is the last and only LAREINE concert before Kamijo decides to temporarily freeze the band's activity. He probably chose to do so after finding yourself alone in managing everything for the band. We would not start a solo project in these conditions.

Shortly after, he joined again with Mayu for the creation of the band New Sodmy. This band will last two years. 

To know more about the complete discography of this period click on the link below (in french)