Lareine

[The Moon 989]

their christmas mini was the shit x 

[Arkady 396]

To this day I still discover some promo single or the like I didn't even know did exist. Their complete discography is HUGE (they very much liked their variations for the same material)

[seikun 317]

Has anybody seen that picture where Kyo (Dir en grey) is sitting on Emiru's lap?

I remember a friend of mine had it years ago.

[Zalemu 236]

Tbh Versailles is more my style musically (I love power metal), but I think I'm so fixated on Lareine because their music had variety. There's nothing in Lareine's discography that makes me go "Oh, this sounds like a rehash of another song, still good though" and I catch myself doing that with Versailles a lot.

 

Anyway I want to hear Billet live and afaik there's no recorded footage of it. ;; 

[deedlitmurata 86]

7 hours ago, Zalemu said:

Tbh Versailles is more my style musically (I love power metal), but I think I'm so fixated on Lareine because their music had variety. There's nothing in Lareine's discography that makes me go "Oh, this sounds like a rehash of another song, still good though" and I catch myself doing that with Versailles a lot.

 

Anyway I want to hear Billet live and afaik there's no recorded footage of it. ;; 

I feel the same way, for me the best Kamijo work will always be Lareine, it was very unique.

[The Moon 989]

one of my very first vk bands. so unique and nothing has come close to what they did music-wise since then.

 

also there are like three full length lareine concerts on YT if u're looking for a nice way to spend ur friday night ;^)

 

edit: also their western fanbase as a whole back in the way was super chill & very welcoming. wish we could have that now uwu 

Edited July 14, 2018 by The Moon

[Arkady 396]

7 hours ago, The Moon said:

edit: also their western fanbase as a whole back in the way was super chill & very welcoming. wish we could have that now uwu 

This I think was (partially?) thanks to the fact that in those day Lareine wasn't one of the cool bands to stan (too pop-rock and kitsch), so pretentious *ssholes stayed away and in the fanbase there was people enjoyin them  and very happy to see someone else doing it, since there was not very much of us around. Or at least this is the impression i got from the italian VK fanbase pre band disbanding. 

[wesjrocker 21]

I also love Lareine, I think kamijo's voice sounds more natural when he is singing lareine's songs.

I wish we could watch this concert but it was a fanclub only release: https://puresound.co.jp/user_data/sp_artist_product_detail.php?pid=102020068&aid=lareine&bck=%2Fuser_data%2Fsp_artist_product.php%3Faid%3Dlareine

 

[saiko 429]

Any thoughts on their disbandment?

I've always felt that 95% of the stuff after Fierte was pretty generic, thus boring. I deeply believe it reflects an atmosphere of low creative energy, clearly derivated of the loose bonds between the members, with their easy comes and goes. This is something I've never came to understand fully, since there is much evidence that, although they never reached the mainstream attention bands like Shazna had, neither the levels of popularity bands like Dir en grey or Pierrot enjoyed in those years, Lareine was indeed a solid band with a strong concept, decent musicians and organic compositions, that had marked with fire the scene for ever. In fact, it is obvious to me that they started the prince and princesses trope back in the day.

I will always praise their contribution of a very genuine and refreshing approach to the visual kei clichés that will never be forgotten.

A tragic-concept band project met an actual tragic end...😢

 

P.D.: the tears I shed while watching Kamijo sing Fiançailles during his anniversary tour date in my country were the worthiest ever. 💗🌹

Edited July 17, 2018 by saiko

[The Moon 989]

i was being messy boots sorry y'all x

Edited July 18, 2018 by The Moon

[inertia 61]

I lived in Tokyo and went to all their local shows and many of the away ones too during their second period in the 2000s. Something that I think isn’t fully appreciated among international fans is just how unpopular and broke Lareine was during that time, and how desperately and passionately they worked despite the obstacles. But every concert was magical. It had to be. There was no reason to do it otherwise, and a million reasons to quit. It felt like borrowed time, and I was always so happy and grateful to be able to see them despite the bittersweet feeling they would have been better off doing something else.

 

They always looked exhausted at events, rarely had new costumes, rarely even had new goods because I think they had trouble coming up with deposits. Cheki didn’t start to become a thing until late in their history (2005-ish?) when they’d already spent years grinding away with little return. I suspect the reason why they were able to put out as many releases as they did is because back during Lareine’s Sony days Kamijo invested in buying a bunch of his own production equipment. I think normally an indie band at that level wouldn’t have had those resources.

 

But time to write and rehearse seemed like a scarce commodity too back then. There were times when Kamijo looked half dead. And every time Lareine did a little tour we could watch Kamijo perk up day by day, at the same time as us fans with normal lives were getting more and more tired as the tour went on. It always made me wonder what on earth kind of awful schedule he normally had in Tokyo, juggling the band and probably a part-time job, that going on tour would feel like a vacation to him. (Later on when I read Versailles interviews, they mentioned that Kamijo and Hizaki first met while working at Third Stage.)

 

Unfortunately by 2003 Lareine was already perceived as old, out of date, and uncool. A ‘90s band. If they hadn’t paused in 2000 maybe things would have been different, maybe they could have built a solid base like Dir or Pierrot. But coming back in 2003 it was too late, the trends had already changed. Lareine had few fans back then, and it seemed like all of us were fans from before. I never met any Japanese fans who said they were new. (only international fans) Young VK fans didn’t care. Lareine wrote some of the currently trendy themes into their music in ways that were interesting instead of pure copy/paste, and us old fans had fun, but nobody else cared. They did some amazing experimental stuff on stage, and nobody saw it except us few old fans. To give you an idea of how young fans perceived them, there was a big outcry when Versailles was announced because people didn’t think a pansy weak vocalist with a thin high voice like Kamijo should be playing with awesome (but unknown) guitarists like Hizaki and Teru. They really got outraged when we heard Versailles was going to have a heavy sound. I got in a lot of arguments online at that time with people who clearly thought I was a delusional fangirl for saying that Kamijo’s voice is powerful enough to sing heavier music.

 

In February 2006 Kazumi announced that he was leaving Lareine and retiring from music. I never blamed him, I was thankful that he had done his best to help bring us great music for so long despite the hardships. But this was really the beginning of the end. Lareine put out big ads in the major VK magazines looking for a new drummer, and they even went out of their way to explicitly write that they would take applications from anybody regardless of age or sex or nationality, as long as they could play and would love the band. I think that would be shocking to see in a band’s want ad even today, and this was in 2006 before the explosion of international tours had happened. But they weren’t able to find a drummer, and then during the summer Mayu vanished again. Honestly I can’t even blame Mayu either for wanting to quit under the circumstances, but it was terrible that he vanished without communication or warning. The Club Citta live they did in October was originally supposed to be a Halloween Party event live with multiple bands, not their last live.

 

I went to as many of Kamijo’s anniversary tour dates as I could, since it was so special. The Tokyo final with everyone was amazing. So glad I went.

 

p.s. “Drama” was so great live that to this day I can still half-hear the performance in my memory, even though they only played it twice in Sapporo in February 2006 before Kazumi left. It was so powerful. Kazumi and Emiru were much louder than on the studio version; this song actually has a really sexy rhythm when you can hear them. Mayu took the electric part instead of the acoustic one. They came together solid and strong booming on the beat in that last chorus on the song, Kamijo singing powerfully instead of gently, and hard on the beat like the others. I regret not bringing my MD recorder to Sapporo, but I never imagined that those 2 nights would be the last times we could enjoy Lareine normally.

Edited July 18, 2018 by inertia

[saiko 429]

2 hours ago, inertia said:

I lived in Tokyo and went to all their local shows and many of the away ones too during their second period in the 2000s. Something that I think isn’t fully appreciated among international fans is just how unpopular and broke Lareine was during that time, and how desperately and passionately they worked despite the obstacles. But every concert was magical. It had to be. There was no reason to do it otherwise, and a million reasons to quit. It felt like borrowed time, and I was always so happy and grateful to be able to see them despite the bittersweet feeling they would have been better off doing something else.

 

They always looked exhausted at events, rarely had new costumes, rarely even had new goods because I think they had trouble coming up with deposits. Cheki didn’t start to become a thing until late in their history (2005-ish?) when they’d already spent years grinding away with little return. I suspect the reason why they were able to put out as many releases as they did is because back during Lareine’s Sony days Kamijo invested in buying a bunch of his own production equipment. I think normally an indie band at that level wouldn’t have had those resources.

 

But time to write and rehearse seemed like a scarce commodity too back then. There were times when Kamijo looked half dead. And every time Lareine did a little tour we could watch Kamijo perk up day by day, at the same time as us fans with normal lives were getting more and more tired as the tour went on. It always made me wonder what on earth kind of awful schedule he normally had in Tokyo, juggling the band and probably a part-time job, that going on tour would feel like a vacation to him. (Later on when I read Versailles interviews, they mentioned that Kamijo and Hizaki first met while working at Third Stage.)

 

Unfortunately by 2003 Lareine was already perceived as old, out of date, and uncool. A ‘90s band. If they hadn’t paused in 2000 maybe things would have been different, maybe they could have built a solid base like Dir or Pierrot. But coming back in 2003 it was too late, the trends had already changed. Lareine had few fans back then, and it seemed like all of us were fans from before. I never met any Japanese fans who said they were new. (only international fans) Young VK fans didn’t care. Lareine wrote some of the currently trendy themes into their music in ways that were interesting instead of pure copy/paste, and us old fans had fun, but nobody else cared. They did some amazing experimental stuff on stage, and nobody saw it except us few old fans. To give you an idea of how young fans perceived them, there was a big outcry when Versailles was announced because people didn’t think a pansy weak vocalist with a thin high voice like Kamijo should be playing with awesome (but unknown) guitarists like Hizaki and Teru. They really got outraged when we heard Versailles was going to have a heavy sound. I got in a lot of arguments online at that time with people who clearly thought I was a delusional fangirl for saying that Kamijo’s voice is powerful enough to sing heavier music.

 

In February 2006 Kazumi announced that he was leaving Lareine and retiring from music. I never blamed him, I was thankful that he had done his best to help bring us great music for so long despite the hardships. But this was really the beginning of the end. Lareine put out big ads in the major VK magazines looking for a new drummer, and they even went out of their way to explicitly write that they would take applications from anybody regardless of age or sex or nationality, as long as they could play and would love the band. I think that would be shocking to see in a band’s want ad even today, and this was in 2006 before the explosion of international tours had happened. But they weren’t able to find a drummer, and then during the summer Mayu vanished again. Honestly I can’t even blame Mayu either for wanting to quit under the circumstances, but it was terrible that he vanished without communication or warning. The Club Citta live they did in October was originally supposed to be a Halloween Party event live with multiple bands, not their last live.

 

I went to as many of Kamijo’s anniversary tour dates as I could, since it was so special. The Tokyo final with everyone was amazing. So glad I went.

 

p.s. “Drama” was so great live that to this day I can still half-hear the performance in my memory, even though they only played it twice in Sapporo in February 2006 before Kazumi left. It was so powerful. Kazumi and Emiru were much louder than on the studio version; this song actually has a really sexy rhythm when you can hear them. Mayu took the electric part instead of the acoustic one. They came together solid and strong booming on the beat in that last chorus on the song, Kamijo singing powerfully instead of gently, and hard on the beat like the others. I regret not bringing my MD recorder to Sapporo, but I never imagined that those 2 nights would be the last times we could enjoy Lareine normally.

It always seemed to me that their last DVD releases did not have the same quality of performance, audience quantity and response, glamour, that did have their performance at Shibuya Kokkaidou, recorded for their Chantons L'amour DVD... Even when, as you mention, you can actually see the band putting the best out of them... it really seemed kind of "sad" at some point. Now I can understand why...
It's been a while since I figured out that us, non-Japanese-residents vk fans, have sealed quite all the ways for getting more in touch with the bands we follow. Mostly if it is about this kind of information, that gives us points of view about the personal and emotional dynamics between the band and the scene, their mangement, their fans, and even between themselves as mates. Unofficial information that doesn't (and shouldn't) come out in the available platforms designed for their promotion, because, for good or bad, it definitely will take off all the "glorification" put on their image, leaving naked the simple, but at the same time complex, "humanity" that is behind every part of every project, and makes it possible, ultimately.
In this way, your testimony has become very precious to me. I'm not gonna hide that it actually did bring up a feel of sadness... Maybe because the empathy that spots in myself after reading on somebody's angst and pain related to the struggling on trying to convey your feelings direct to the hearts of the cold public... 

While reading, sometimes I could feel intensely some things you wrote...
Now, I find myself revaluing much more Kamijo, Mayu, Machi, Emiru, Kazami, Lareine... I can't doubt they did not a good, but and AWESOME work.

Thank you, very, very much. It would be very interesting if someday you decide to write with more detail your memories about the band, that I notice have a lot of love put into them.

[Arkady 396]

9 hours ago, inertia said:

I

Spoiler

 

lived in Tokyo and went to all their local shows and many of the away ones too during their second period in the 2000s. Something that I think isn’t fully appreciated among international fans is just how unpopular and broke Lareine was during that time, and how desperately and passionately they worked despite the obstacles. But every concert was magical. It had to be. There was no reason to do it otherwise, and a million reasons to quit. It felt like borrowed time, and I was always so happy and grateful to be able to see them despite the bittersweet feeling they would have been better off doing something else.

 

They always looked exhausted at events, rarely had new costumes, rarely even had new goods because I think they had trouble coming up with deposits. Cheki didn’t start to become a thing until late in their history (2005-ish?) when they’d already spent years grinding away with little return. I suspect the reason why they were able to put out as many releases as they did is because back during Lareine’s Sony days Kamijo invested in buying a bunch of his own production equipment. I think normally an indie band at that level wouldn’t have had those resources.

 

But time to write and rehearse seemed like a scarce commodity too back then. There were times when Kamijo looked half dead. And every time Lareine did a little tour we could watch Kamijo perk up day by day, at the same time as us fans with normal lives were getting more and more tired as the tour went on. It always made me wonder what on earth kind of awful schedule he normally had in Tokyo, juggling the band and probably a part-time job, that going on tour would feel like a vacation to him. (Later on when I read Versailles interviews, they mentioned that Kamijo and Hizaki first met while working at Third Stage.)

 

Unfortunately by 2003 Lareine was already perceived as old, out of date, and uncool. A ‘90s band. If they hadn’t paused in 2000 maybe things would have been different, maybe they could have built a solid base like Dir or Pierrot. But coming back in 2003 it was too late, the trends had already changed. Lareine had few fans back then, and it seemed like all of us were fans from before. I never met any Japanese fans who said they were new. (only international fans) Young VK fans didn’t care. Lareine wrote some of the currently trendy themes into their music in ways that were interesting instead of pure copy/paste, and us old fans had fun, but nobody else cared. They did some amazing experimental stuff on stage, and nobody saw it except us few old fans. To give you an idea of how young fans perceived them, there was a big outcry when Versailles was announced because people didn’t think a pansy weak vocalist with a thin high voice like Kamijo should be playing with awesome (but unknown) guitarists like Hizaki and Teru. They really got outraged when we heard Versailles was going to have a heavy sound. I got in a lot of arguments online at that time with people who clearly thought I was a delusional fangirl for saying that Kamijo’s voice is powerful enough to sing heavier music.

 

In February 2006 Kazumi announced that he was leaving Lareine and retiring from music. I never blamed him, I was thankful that he had done his best to help bring us great music for so long despite the hardships. But this was really the beginning of the end. Lareine put out big ads in the major VK magazines looking for a new drummer, and they even went out of their way to explicitly write that they would take applications from anybody regardless of age or sex or nationality, as long as they could play and would love the band. I think that would be shocking to see in a band’s want ad even today, and this was in 2006 before the explosion of international tours had happened. But they weren’t able to find a drummer, and then during the summer Mayu vanished again. Honestly I can’t even blame Mayu either for wanting to quit under the circumstances, but it was terrible that he vanished without communication or warning. The Club Citta live they did in October was originally supposed to be a Halloween Party event live with multiple bands, not their last live.

 

I went to as many of Kamijo’s anniversary tour dates as I could, since it was so special. The Tokyo final with everyone was amazing. So glad I went.

 

p.s. “Drama” was so great live that to this day I can still half-hear the performance in my memory, even though they only played it twice in Sapporo in February 2006 before Kazumi left. It was so powerful. Kazumi and Emiru were much louder than on the studio version; this song actually has a really sexy rhythm when you can hear them. Mayu took the electric part instead of the acoustic one. They came together solid and strong booming on the beat in that last chorus on the song, Kamijo singing powerfully instead of gently, and hard on the beat like the others. I regret not bringing my MD recorder to Sapporo, but I never imagined that those 2 nights would be the last times we could enjoy Lareine normally.

 

 

I'm not crying it's only onions raining in my eyes.

Back then I knew Lareine weren't very big in Japan, but I didn't know they struggled so much, and had so much passion for what they did

(And that we could have had them still if someone would have responded to those ads! 😡)

 

Now I'm even more glad I started to stan them so early and spent so much money on their new releases when I started to be able to buy original stuff (I know that they got only a minimal fraction of the ¥¥, but still), before they disbanded.

 

Thanks for sharing this and fighting the good battle versus the Kamijo haters, for us too (non japanese speaking western fans). Luckily here in Europe I don't remember much negative reactions at the news of the birth of Versailles and its members. On the contrary.

Edited July 18, 2018 by Arkady

[Cantavanda 141]

On 7/14/2018 at 8:36 PM, wesjrocker said:

I also love Lareine, I think kamijo's voice sounds more natural when he is singing lareine's songs.

I wish we could watch this concert but it was a fanclub only release: https://puresound.co.jp/user_data/sp_artist_product_detail.php?pid=102020068&aid=lareine&bck=%2Fuser_data%2Fsp_artist_product.php%3Faid%3Dlareine

 

Hello! I have copy number 14 of the DVD. It contains a concert, but actually much more. Two PVs (Fleur and ROMANCIA), the Fleur is much better then the VHS release we only have, it contains many many pictures in a slideshow that were released nowhere else, over 100. It also contains a slideshow of lots of unseen concert footage, but with just a song over it. And it contains excerpts of yet another major era concert, with about 15 seconds per song, it has Billet in that! The only live Billet footage there is.

This DVD just shows as a love letter how much love KAMIJO has for his fans, he didn't have money to print any more copies probably, because he had to print more compilation CDs at that time like Imperial Concerto, but it's still a big love letter.

 

Good news, I PUT A PART OF IT ON YT!!

Share it like widefire guys.

 

But I love this DVD so much, it's my favourite part of my collection besides their 1st demo tape (100 limited), and I want it to keep it's huge value among collectors, being sold for 100s the rare times it shows up, so I'm not going to put anymore online.

BUT I'm going to make an entry of this DVD in Discogs with a detailed tracklist guys

I'm already doing a lot for the fanbase by giving info and that one vid, cus there's litirally NO info at all about this at all on the internet besides the Puresound entry. Oh yes, if you have this DVD, YA BETTER NOT SHARE IT TOO  It must stay valuable.

 

 

And OMG I read your long post about their disbandment! This made me sooo sad.... I already knew some of this but not with this much detail! I always knew LAREINE had so much love for each other and their fans, even though I hear people sometimes say KAMIJO is an asshole. Or even a few posts before that they didn't like each other LOL.

APPLAUSE RECORDS was the only reason why LAREINE could still make music, I'm so grateful KAMIJO made it when he still had money in Fierte era. And their late era music has so much gems! Imperial Concerto, Sakura, Drama, 愛されていた日々-Ever Love-, 月の狩人, basically the whole Winter Romantic EP, but there's a lot of just good and some decent tracks too so that's why people think it. But I've listened to NEVER CAGE and Imperial Concerto sooo much times, hundreds that I love it all hahaha. Only 眠れぬ恋は真珠 I actively dislike and avoid. It might be one of the worst LAREINE songs ever lol.

I didn't know they actually COULDN'T find a drummer, that's soo sad! 😢

 

Also almost ALL releases of LAREINE after 2003 are expensive ASF and rare and rarely show up: NEVER CAGE, the main album of that time is rare, the three versions are all three rare, normal, Deluxe and Limited... The main singles: Trailer, Sakura, Drama and Sakura -Second Season-, 雪恋詩, 道化師の舞曲 and Cinderella Fantasy are rare too! It's exeptional that these are on puresound at the moment actually, they're KINDAAA overpriced, but are still expensive items. And let's not talk about Best Album Ballad and Fleur, Imperial Concerto, Winter Romantic, Deep Forest, 白蝶 and 女王という名の貴公子 that are each worth over 100.... A prime example of releasing REALLY GOOD music on limited batches of prints. They actually also had a revival of the Fleur fanclub magazine in 2004 that had a few issues, these seem to be so rare that I've never ever seem them on sale. Heck, even the Fleur magazines from the major era BARELY go on sale...

 

I'm dreaming of ever seeing a Bara wa live performance, question: Did they perform this and Billet in their late era concerts? Or songs like ピンクの傘 and パリは秋色 from Fierte, two of my favourites and sooo underrated. Sadly these four are not on the THE LAST OF ROMANCE I DVD main concert.

 

 

 

And some good info:

I'm working on a huge LAREINE fansite! With scans of every release booklet, a full discography AND miscellanous items like the many many message CD/VHS/Tapes, lots of information, magazine and book scans! It's sitll in early stages so no link yet, but I will make a topic and a new LAREINE thread here (this one's from 2007 lol) when it's close to done and presentable!  Using a paid domain and a very good Wordpress theme with many plugins. I think I am very fitted to make the website since I own almost every item ever except the FC magazines that I barely own.

 

Inertla thank you so much for your post!! Can I use info of it in my site? I will credit you! This might also be my favourite post on this whole site lol!

Bye

 

On 7/9/2010 at 10:45 PM, D.L.S said:

It took me a long time to get used to Kamijo's Lareine voice. Actually just last week is when it stopped annoying me.

Also if anyone is wondering why Reine de fleur I and II sound so weird, it's because it's a compilation of pre-BLUE ROMANCE LAREINE except for Detest Off Doll and a version of Féerie. KAMIJO's voice was completely untrained in some of the songs on it. When I first started listening and downloaded Reine de fleur I and II I was also very confused by this LOL. I put on 季節風 and Dir en gray at random and was like "WTF??" lol

Edited August 12, 2018 by Cantavanda

[Zalemu 236]

On 7/20/2018 at 5:16 PM, Cantavanda said:

it has Billet in that! The only live Billet footage there is.

I am so jealous of you lmao I was just whining about wanting to see Billet live footage sdkhkdfg

 

EDIT: Does anyone else like A Wish of Monika? I always thought it was a weak track. Rewatched the Scarlet Majesty DVD the other day and now I have the song on repeat; my fickle music taste strikes again.

Edited July 22, 2018 by Zalemu

[SHOKI 66]

@inertia Thanks for sharing those memories on that beautiful experience. I always thought KAMIJO looked ridiculously thin (even more than usual) during that late LAREINE-NEW SODMY period, and I also had read about some of his part-time jobs at the time, but I never imagined things were really that bad for them. Makes everything they did even more impressive and makes me respect KAMIJO's passion even more than I already did. His love and the efforts he made to keep the band alive are more than admirable! I would love to hear more stories, since I sadly got to know them too late, and those details I missed make me appreciate them even more and more.

@Cantavanda Same thing goes for the info on the LAREINE fansite you are working on, I can't wait to see it finished!

[Paraph 826]

On 7/21/2018 at 12:38 AM, Zalemu said:

EDIT: Does anyone else like A Wish of Monika? I always thought it was a weak track. Rewatched the Scarlet Majesty DVD the other day and now I have the song on repeat; my fickle music taste strikes again.

A Wish of Monika was always one of my favourites. Along with la nostalgie de jardin...which is probably a very unpopular opinion haha. Funnily enough Billet also, and I am now overjoyed that there is a live recording in existence.

[Arkady 396]

La nostalgie de jardin is a cute song, maybe a bit too much heavy handed in the "plim plim" side (I don't know what instrument is it😛) IMHO, but enjoyable to listen to.

[Shion8 11]

On 7/5/2007 at 11:07 PM, Lareine said:

It's a shame that Lareine disbanded last year.

It's crazy to think how back then their disbandment was only recent, but now (it feels like) it's been an eternity... Sadly, way before I was a fan.

 

On 7/13/2018 at 10:17 PM, seikun said:

Has anybody seen that picture where Kyo (Dir en grey) is sitting on Emiru's lap?

I'd love to see that 😆

[desparejo86 160]

On 7/17/2018 at 7:41 PM, inertia said:

I lived in Tokyo and went to all their local shows and many of the away ones too during their second period in the 2000s. Something that I think isn’t fully appreciated among international fans is just how unpopular and broke Lareine was during that time, and how desperately and passionately they worked despite the obstacles. But every concert was magical. It had to be. There was no reason to do it otherwise, and a million reasons to quit. It felt like borrowed time, and I was always so happy and grateful to be able to see them despite the bittersweet feeling they would have been better off doing something else.

 

They always looked exhausted at events, rarely had new costumes, rarely even had new goods because I think they had trouble coming up with deposits. Cheki didn’t start to become a thing until late in their history (2005-ish?) when they’d already spent years grinding away with little return. I suspect the reason why they were able to put out as many releases as they did is because back during Lareine’s Sony days Kamijo invested in buying a bunch of his own production equipment. I think normally an indie band at that level wouldn’t have had those resources.

 

But time to write and rehearse seemed like a scarce commodity too back then. There were times when Kamijo looked half dead. And every time Lareine did a little tour we could watch Kamijo perk up day by day, at the same time as us fans with normal lives were getting more and more tired as the tour went on. It always made me wonder what on earth kind of awful schedule he normally had in Tokyo, juggling the band and probably a part-time job, that going on tour would feel like a vacation to him. (Later on when I read Versailles interviews, they mentioned that Kamijo and Hizaki first met while working at Third Stage.)

 

Unfortunately by 2003 Lareine was already perceived as old, out of date, and uncool. A ‘90s band. If they hadn’t paused in 2000 maybe things would have been different, maybe they could have built a solid base like Dir or Pierrot. But coming back in 2003 it was too late, the trends had already changed. Lareine had few fans back then, and it seemed like all of us were fans from before. I never met any Japanese fans who said they were new. (only international fans) Young VK fans didn’t care. Lareine wrote some of the currently trendy themes into their music in ways that were interesting instead of pure copy/paste, and us old fans had fun, but nobody else cared. They did some amazing experimental stuff on stage, and nobody saw it except us few old fans. To give you an idea of how young fans perceived them, there was a big outcry when Versailles was announced because people didn’t think a pansy weak vocalist with a thin high voice like Kamijo should be playing with awesome (but unknown) guitarists like Hizaki and Teru. They really got outraged when we heard Versailles was going to have a heavy sound. I got in a lot of arguments online at that time with people who clearly thought I was a delusional fangirl for saying that Kamijo’s voice is powerful enough to sing heavier music.

 

In February 2006 Kazumi announced that he was leaving Lareine and retiring from music. I never blamed him, I was thankful that he had done his best to help bring us great music for so long despite the hardships. But this was really the beginning of the end. Lareine put out big ads in the major VK magazines looking for a new drummer, and they even went out of their way to explicitly write that they would take applications from anybody regardless of age or sex or nationality, as long as they could play and would love the band. I think that would be shocking to see in a band’s want ad even today, and this was in 2006 before the explosion of international tours had happened. But they weren’t able to find a drummer, and then during the summer Mayu vanished again. Honestly I can’t even blame Mayu either for wanting to quit under the circumstances, but it was terrible that he vanished without communication or warning. The Club Citta live they did in October was originally supposed to be a Halloween Party event live with multiple bands, not their last live.

 

I went to as many of Kamijo’s anniversary tour dates as I could, since it was so special. The Tokyo final with everyone was amazing. So glad I went.

 

p.s. “Drama” was so great live that to this day I can still half-hear the performance in my memory, even though they only played it twice in Sapporo in February 2006 before Kazumi left. It was so powerful. Kazumi and Emiru were much louder than on the studio version; this song actually has a really sexy rhythm when you can hear them. Mayu took the electric part instead of the acoustic one. They came together solid and strong booming on the beat in that last chorus on the song, Kamijo singing powerfully instead of gently, and hard on the beat like the others. I regret not bringing my MD recorder to Sapporo, but I never imagined that those 2 nights would be the last times we could enjoy Lareine normally.

 

Thank you so much for sharing that.

 

Lareine were one of the greats who, due to bad personal decisions, bad management and just some bad luck, never got anywhere near what they deserved. They never recovered from imploding right after their major debut. I had no interest in Scream. I remember buying New Sodmy's debut a little later and being so into them.... and then being so annoyed when they pulled the plug on that and went back to trying Lareine again, but in retrospect I guess you can't "sell out" if none of the major labels will take a chance on you. It was just a mess. Never Cage had some good songs, but it was really out of step with the times. Can't blame the fans or the labels for leaving the band behind.... I was a huge fan and flat out forgot they existed after that. It was many years later before I circled back and listened to the rest of their releases.

 

Mayu is/was a really special guitarist. A once in a lifetime type of player who could write songs just as well as he could rip, but was also an extremely sensible and tasteful player. It's an absolute crime he isn't one of the most successful and revered players in the scene. 

 

I don't care for Versailles one bit, but was happy to see Kamijo enjoy some success. God knows he's earned it.

 

Edited October 23, 2018 by desparejo86

[Punk 5]

The last lareine singles were amazing one cool evolution but yeah was late them