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Messages - OmniaDei

Pages: 1
1
General chat / Re: X Japan : On the verge of destruction, AGAIN
« on: February 26, 2020, 09:10:28 PM »
Do Japanese fans still buy Yoshiki's lies/nonsense? I'm curious.

Also, why doesn't Yoshiki simply release old stuff to stay relevant? :-X

There's still so much fantastic X material that has never been officially released:
- Kyoto Sports Valley '88
- Nagoya Rock Wave '90
- Rose & Blood Tour '90
- X with Orchestra '91
- Violence in Jealousy Tour '91
- On the Verge of Destruction -3 Days- '92

I just don't understand Yoshiki's logic.

My guess is that the fans who decide to leave probably have mostly left already. People who stay probably just really don't care how much longer they have to wait.

Also in terms of releasing the old lives, i personally really would like to see more releases too, especially X with Orchestra and Rose and Blood. However, it's also true that he's very strict with editing the live footage (for example it took him like several years to release on the Verge of Destruction, and did he ever release any official live recordings post-reunion?), and realistically he probably just doesn't have the time. I personally just hope that if for example NHK does a documentary or something related to X Japan, hopefully some fans can just pressure them into signing something with Yoshiki and release some X with Orchestra footage on their end..

 

2
General chat / Re: X Japan : On the verge of destruction, AGAIN
« on: February 03, 2020, 03:38:07 AM »
Did anyone check out the stream of Yoshiki/Pata/Heath? Did they mention the band status or Toshi at all?

On Twitter someone posted a picture of their recent visit to the X Japan exhibit at Madame Tussauds and Toshi was not in it. A bit weird.

They actually mentioned all X members. Toshi was mentioned quite a few times, but mostly in the same old stories that Yoshiki tells from time to time. Pata actually referred to him as  Deyama-kun when they were talking about how Toshi was in charge of X's accounting during the indies days. Also if you watch the subtitle translations for Toshi's fancy studio tour,  Toshi explicitly mentioned how he wasn't in Madame Tussauds because of contract reasons. The Madame Tussauds thing happened quite a few years ago, so maybe it was during the time when he was still fighting for his rights with HOH?

Also in terms of band status, nothing much was said. Basically the same "ah being in the band is really nice, maybe I should release the album some time".



3
General chat / Re: X Japan : On the verge of destruction, AGAIN
« on: February 02, 2020, 03:06:57 AM »
Yoshiki, Heath and Pata are doing a live stream *together* this week...  they will take questions.  :o

I'd like to ask Pata why he only follows on Instagram the Yomiuri Giants but not Yoshiki, Toshi, Sugizo, Heath...  :D

Heath doesn't have any social media account.

On Twitter Pata follows Yoshiki and Sugizo, but not Toshi.

Interestingly Pata follows Cutt, who's kinda been Toshi's sidekick for a long time, but not Toshi.
On that note, Cutt also hasn't been seen interacting with Toshi for a while now. Not sure whether this also has to do with Toshi's contract issue.

4
Taiji / Re: Why Taiji was fired by Yoshiki
« on: January 20, 2020, 02:31:54 AM »
Another idea and not particularly my opinion, but could it also be possible that Yoshiki won't say the actual reason bcs it would show him (Yoshiki) in a bad light? (I'm not sure if this is correct English, since I'm not a native speaker). Or maybe Yoshiki also is thinking that the reason was a bit childish and he doesn't want to talk about it anymore?

it might very well be that both reasons are one. Maybe a "childish reason that would also have put him in a bad light". What's certain is that almost everybody in their entourage knew that the break up was imminent, and Yoshiki spread the 'rumor' soon to be confirmed... I recall that paragraph from Taiji's autobiography where he speaks about his future without X in those terms... " My departure from X was inevitable. When I think about it now, wasn't everyone saying things like that when I wasn't around?"

He only sort of retroactively realized he was destined to get fired, but when Yoshiki brought it up with him, Taiji's first reaction was still "wtf are you saying man," which means whatever he did to get fired, at that specific time he didn't realize that was a huge issue, so that might rule out some wild guesses out there...

I sort of get the feeling that the ultimate trigger to him getting fired must have happened really quickly, cuz timeline-wise, those larger issues like money, contracts or whatever could still wait, but when Yoshiki fired Taiji they literally was a few days away from the three-day Tokyo Dome concerts, and Yoshiki wasn't even thinking about this huge thing when he decided to let Taiji go. They had to literally negotiate (with staff) before Taiji at least had a chance to do the Tokyo Dome concerts to exit X properly. If it's about money & album copyright, Yoshiki could honestly just wait till Tokyo Dome's over before firing him. If the central issue wasn't an urgent thing, why such a hurry then?

Besides all kinds of crazy rumors out there (i'm pretty sure "underage groupie" wasn't the issue, even if there was any), there are two more likely hypotheses that were not brought up. 1. Taiji got too close with Loudness and when Yamashita quit, he probably promised to be involved with their next album without consulting Yoshiki. X members and staff were supposedly already unhappy with him making friends with Loudness. 2. Remember all X members spent half a year in LA under stressful recording conditions and lived in the same apartment for a while, and if drugs were involved at some point, it's not like Taiji could hide it from the others, and he would probably not be the only one doing it. However, it was likely that either he was talking too much once everybody got back to Japan, or he wasn't stopping the drugs when all others had stopped.

5
Taiji / Re: Why Taiji was fired by Yoshiki
« on: January 17, 2020, 02:26:31 AM »
Sorry to bump up such an old topic, but I remembered a Reddit post written by Yoshiki himself about the whole situation (here's the link https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/4a9o6b/i_am_yoshiki_pianist_drummer_and_leader_of_x/d0yim3p/ ). Seems like hide was involved in one way or another too...

No probs here to bump old topics ;)

In Taijis book it says he was fired bcs he asked for equal splits for every musician. He also said, Yoshiki is very two-faced.

While Yoshiki does have his own problems, I think this part of Taiji's book was probably taken out of in certain fan translations. This was more about how Yoshiki was both "an angel and a devil" with duality in his personality if I remember correctly, than about how Yoshiki was too-faced as in the English context (Taiji definitely did not mean that Yoshiki's personality was fake or that Yoshiki says fake things, which is what "too-faced" would suggest in English).
Also I personally find money & copyright unlikely to be the central reason, even though it probably played a part too. However this has always been an unclear thing, so I honestly can' t be certain either.


6
Taiji / Re: Why Taiji was fired by Yoshiki
« on: January 15, 2020, 05:49:47 AM »
Sorry to bump up such an old topic, but I remembered a Reddit post written by Yoshiki himself about the whole situation (here's the link https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/4a9o6b/i_am_yoshiki_pianist_drummer_and_leader_of_x/d0yim3p/ ). Seems like hide was involved in one way or another too...

As older replies said, there exist two versions of how Taiji left the band, depending on whose biography you believe. According to Yoshiki's biography hide was very angry with Taiji but that wasn't the main reason how Taiji got fired. Yoshiki made the decision to fire Taiji alone, and hide with other members only were told after the fact. This occurred exactly on 1992 New Year's Eve. Taiji claimed that he was fired earlier in December 1991 and assumed Yoshiki already consulted with hide, and claimed he heard hide was seen crying on New Year's eve. Whichever version is true or partially true, what we know is that hide was indeed crying in On the Verge of Destruction, and there are sources out there claiming to have seen hide visibly upset after the New Year's eve Rokcmaykan party. However, you can interpret it both ways, hide could have either been sympathetic to Taiji's departure, or he could have just felt sorry for making him leave.


7
General chat / Re: X Japan : On the verge of destruction, AGAIN
« on: January 12, 2020, 11:19:41 PM »

This actually makes sense, even with some holes.
But the manager could approach Yoshiki to get X copyright, but to do it, all the members (which were actually Pata, Heath, Hiroshi managind hide's part and Masaya managing Toshi's part) should agreed, as they all had their shares. How did he convince all of them? Mostly Hiroshi and Masaya, which I think would be the most difficult to deal.

I don't remember Toshi's autobiography that well, but I think there was a time around X Japan's breakup when his second brother was still managing his personal agency, and was fighting with Moritani? If the copyright change did occur in this time frame, I don't think HOH had enough control yet to raise any objections. Also another thing from his book, when the "Takeda" issue happened, Toshi had to return some of his Excess 24 shares as a form of apology. Not sure how much he returned, but this probably had something to do with how much say he has in X management.

As for Hiroshi, there are conspiracy theories that suggested he might have been manipulated by this ex-manager (again, that manager was close enough with Hiroshi to be the official funeral organizer for hide, was once involved with Headwax). He was suing Yoshiki and Japan Music Agency, but left Nexstar out of it (if I remember correctly). Another thing from that 2ch story I forgot to mention was that, this manager was also head of the X Japan production management committee which was created around the reunion in partnership with all members' agencies, but allegedly after all the money laundering and deficits that went down, the existing 4 members all decided to go around/break away from this committee. This might have eventually led to all the disorganization later on too?

PS. Heath's fight with his agency also somehow featured in this story, but wasn't explained very clearly.
 

8
General chat / Re: X Japan : On the verge of destruction, AGAIN
« on: January 12, 2020, 07:32:03 PM »
Exactly.

This came up after the Headwax lawsuit. They exposed how X businesses worked.
Basically they created a management company, called Excess 24, on which each member had their shares (even Yoshiki having more than the others). It worked like this until 2008, according to Headwax statement. Basically after the first reunion concerts, all the bands' rights were transferred to Japan Music Agency (JMA), Yoshiki's office. And since then the members are hired by JMA, they don't have any part of the band anymore.

Yoshiki tried to centralize everything on himself, not only the management.

I won't extend myself, but my replies to an older thread (https://www.x-freaks.com/forum/index.php?topic=7567.0) I show what I think is wrong with X. And is basically how Yoshiki handles everything awfully.

The version I read that's translated from 2ch (yeah, 2ch, so take it with a grain of salt) goes something like this: an Excess 24 manager (not "Takeda" from Toshi's biography, but another one after him) persuaded GLAY to break away from Yoshiki's label around the time when X JAPAN was breaking up. Yoshiki then was facing a situation where he still had the debts from X JAPAN in Excess 24 but was not making any profits in the short-term, so some other shady guy came up to Y and promised to take care of the debt in exchange for X copyright, and that's how Japan Music Agency and all the confusing business side came about (and that's around 2000, not 2008 when the band reunited). According to this version, the pressure for reunion came after GLAY was problems with this manager, so that manager had to bank on an X reunion to get money. Around this time he was involved with NEXSTAR, but at least at one point he was also involved with Headwax (I think as a board member), and in 1998 he was even the official organizer for hide's funeral, so he definitely did have something to do with the lawsuits.

This version doesn't completely check out because "Takeda" did not feature in that story, but it does explain why GLAY wasn't on speaking terms with Yoshiki for years and suddenly got friendly to him again around the time of X reunion. Also this was translated years back when the lawsuits were still going on, so I'm not sure whether Yoshiki has completely got rid of these guys yet (probably yes), or replaced them with capable managers (probably not).

9
General chat / Re: X Japan : On the verge of destruction, AGAIN
« on: January 12, 2020, 05:12:00 AM »
As a relatively new fan, I find this discussion interesting.

From what I understand, Yoshiki controls X Japan, he owns it, right? And the other band members are hired as needed?

It's not surprising that the money issue would come up at some point. The others get a salary, Yoshiki gets everything else. Sadly, that's not really a "band". So if they release a new album as X Japan... do they share the profits or does Yoshiki get everything? Surely, this has come up.

Not 100% sure on that. The business side of X has always been confusing AF. Prior to their break-out they did have an old management company and each member had shares of it, but after breakup it was closed down and Yoshiki transferred all X rights and debts to a new company, which then pays the copyright to other members. Last time I checked, this is currently his own agency (but not sure how much ownership he has over it). I think the whole confusing business side was at least partially the reason behind all the Headwax, Nexstar, Heath lawsuits (as far as I heard).There were quite a few shady people involved with X management back in those days, but once Yoshiki gets rid of them, I'm not sure whether the staff he replaces them with are all that capable either I feel like? But again, not 100% sure on that, hopefully there might be some fan who actually knows about corporate or copyright law LOOL


10
Yoshiki / Re: Any thoughts on Yoshiki's Imitation Rain for SixTones?
« on: January 06, 2020, 07:38:59 AM »
Thanks for the information.
The song is quite ok. I think it's funny that Yoshiki wrote a song for a boy band.  ;D
What do you think? Do you like the song?

I like some parts of it (the piano arrangements mainly) but the drums felt kinda weird, not sure why. I don't really know whether it was him playing the drums, but probably not.
I personally prefer it to the song that he wrote to the Korean boy band Trax (like 14 years ago almost?). But the full-length studio version isn't out yet so we'll have to see.

11
General chat / Re: X Japan : On the verge of destruction, AGAIN
« on: January 06, 2020, 07:33:49 AM »
Yea I also felt Yoshiki's IG and live comments were really weird. For me personally, if they could address this issue to fans more honestly and be frank about the fact that X is probably not gonna get together for a long time (again), it probably wouldn't have felt as bad, but it's the lack of information and not knowing what is happening that's the really scary part.

And also if this rumor is true though, at least it answers one age old question I had, which what things can actually manage to piss off Pata besides soba and Giants losing. Toshi must have pissed him off real hard cuz to my knowledge I never knew Pata could seriously get mad at anyone.

12
Yoshiki / Any thoughts on Yoshiki's Imitation Rain for SixTones?
« on: January 04, 2020, 12:16:29 AM »
Not sure if it's mainly because the forum is kinda quiet or some people might just haven't heard yet, but Yoshiki wrote and produced a song for an idol group SixTones from Johnny's.

Half of it is out on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTh-ncw31ZA

Any thoughts?

13
Taiji / Re: Did Taiji appear on stage at Hide's funeral?
« on: November 29, 2019, 07:46:31 PM »




TAIJI, right?

One thing that bugs me is that according to both Yoshiki and Taiji's biographies, at this funeral service Taiji would have genuinely looked terrible. His jaw would look dislocated without several front teeth, he would be wearing a borrowed suit, I think he wasn't even able to walk steadily, so to others he looked much older than his real age. I have seen some pictures of Taiji during the D.T.R era and even then he looked older than this person shown here. However, we couldn't get a clear closeup of him, so I'm not personally sure either.

14
Thanks so much for sharing! From a huge gossip girl's perspective, there are actually some questions that I have if you're still in contact with him and wouldn't mind helping me ask!

For the band members' private lives, many fans now know Yoshiki's famous girlfriends Kudo and Voth, Sugizo's ex-wife and Taiwanese girlfriend, and of course everyone knows Toshi's infamous wife. However I'd really hope to get more gossip on the other band members but haven't been able to. I have heard dubious rumors about Pata being already married and having a kid, but I don't know for sure.. Taiji's private life was also interesting because most of his fans now know that he was divorced and had two kids, but no one knows who the ex-wife is, or even when exactly they got married (rumors put it at around X's debut, but was it really that early?) Given that no one has heard of what happened to his ex-wife and kids after he got divorced, I assume that they severed all ties and want to move on, but if Mr. roadie has heard of any details with Pata and Taiji, I'd really love to know! Also the fact that no one knows who hide's girlfriend was (or probably even that he had a girlfriend until he passed away), but she probably has moved on too...

I've also heard rumors that Taiji used to cook for the band sometimes, and when Heath took over he also had to do some cooking, but I'm not sure if that's credible information...

Another thing is I'm also quite intrigued as to how Yoshiki and other band members get U.S. visas so easily. I'm assuming U.S. visa process works differently for artists and celebrities, but back then they probably all had arrest records from all the drinking during indies era which could honestly really affect your visa application, and they often had to fly to U.S. very frequently for recording and stuff. How does that process even work out?

Anyways, thanks so much for sharing! Sorry for posting quite some questions  :D ;D

15
D.T.R. / Re: D.T.R's influences
« on: November 16, 2019, 06:43:11 AM »
Quote from: Hollywood
Or if you want ALL OF THEM :twisted:, that's cool too, I can try to do one song a day or so.

That would be kinda nice...  :twisted:

About this JURIA... I have a scan of the back of Acoustic, and he's credited for the lyrics of "Circle Of Nations"... "First Small Song" and "Towards Red Earth"'s lyrics are credited to JURIA & GO...

Now... Correct me if I'm wrong, but... These are instrumental tracks... O.O

My personal fan theory is that JURIA is TAIJI himself. The songs that JURIA got credited for kinda give a hint. Plus if you've heard a bit of TAIJI's personal life around the time of DTR you might also be able to guess why I came to that conclusion :)

Even if it's not TAIJI himself, my guess would still be that this is someone very close to TAIJI that he hired to be credited for under that name.

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