The Gazette

The Gazette (ガゼット ,Gazetto?, typeset as the GazettE) is a Japanese [1] band formed in early 2002, currently signed to PS Company, King Records and CLJ Records.

In March 2002, Ruki, Uruha, and Reita (all former band mates), and Aoi and Yune (also former band mates) formed a band under the name Gazette.[2] Originally signed to Matina, they released their first single, "Wakaremichi", and a video release in April. By September they had released two more singles and another video, headlining a show for the first time in October.

In early 2003, Yune decided to leave the band, and he was replaced by Kai. Shortly after, they signed with the PS Company label, and in May released their first EP, Cockayne Soup. They started their first tour, with the band Hanamuke, and along with the tour, the bands collaborated on two songs. A second tour followed with the band Vidoll, and the bands were featured together on the November issue of Cure, a magazine focusing on Visual Kei bands.[3]

In early December they played a co-headlining show with Deadman. On December 28 they performed at Fool's Mate magazine's Beauti-fool's Fest which was later released on DVD.

On January 16, 2004 they recorded a solo performance at the Shibuya-AX, which was released on DVD as Tokyo saihan ~Judgement Day~.[2] On March 30, 2004 they released their Madara mini-album, which reached #2 on the Oricon Indie Charts. Madara was followed in May by a companion DVD, which included six music videos and an in-the-studio documentary. The same month, Gazette was featured in Shoxx magazine's Expect Rush III, a catalogue of independent Visual Kei artists.[4] A second live DVD, Heisei Banka, was released in August.[2] During September and October they toured with fellow PS Company bands Kra and BIS. Their debut album, Disorder, was released in October, and made it to the top 5 of the indies Oricon Daily Charts.

The band spent the remainder of 2004 and 2005 touring extensively, releasing Gama (another mini album) in August.

In 2005 the band released their first major label single, Cassis, in December.[5]

Starting 2006 with a name change—from Japanese characters to a romanized script—they released Nil, their second full-length album, on February 8, 2006,[2] and embarked on another Japanese tour, ending at the venue Nippon Budokan.[6] That July, The Gazette performed at the Beethovenhalle in Bonn, Germany, their first show outside of Asia. The concerts were arranged in conjunction with the AnimagiC anime and manga convention.[7]

Three more singles were released followed by another studio album, Stacked Rubbish on July 4, 2007. It reached #2 on the Oricon charts within a day from the release. The album debut was followed by a promotional tour from July through September. In October, The Gazette started their first European tour stopping England, Finland, France, and Germany.

A single called "Guren" was released on February 13, 2008, which landed a #1 spot on the Oricon Charts, and it was announced that a new DVD would be released in August, and a new single Leech in Autumn 2008 [8], which also landed a #1 spot on the Oricon daily charts.[9]

The Gazette accomplished a one man tour through all of October called "From the Distorted City", referencing to the song "Distorted Daytime" in their single "Leech". It portrays Tokyo as a Distorted City, in terms of the society and political crisis sweeping over Japan in current days. "From the Distorted City" illustrates 'A Message from the Distorted City of Tokyo'.

On November 15, 2008, the GazettE hosted their first Secret Live in Shinjuku Station. Originally, around 250 people were to be anticipated, but instead, over 7000 came to the live, the most in history. Due to the amount of people on the streets, the police were forced to shut it down after two songs. [9][10] On 3rd January 2009, the GazettE performed alongside their fellow bands signed to the PS company label to celebrate the record labels 10th anniversary where they announce that on March 25, 2009, they will release a new single called "Distress and Coma". In addition to their new single the band have announced that they will be releasing a new album "DIM" on July 15th.

Along with "DIM"'s release, the band will be having another Japan-wide summer tour starting July 2009, the tour final to be on September 5th at Saitama Super Arena.


Members

* Ruki – vocals
* Uruha – guitar
* Aoi – guitar
* Reita – bass guitar
* Kai – drums

Former members

* Yune – drums