Versailles Valentine...

live, that is. Though not in the strictest sense as the live actually was on Feb. 12th, not 14th, but definitely close enough to the date that the boxes in which fans can place gifts for the band or their favourite member was overflowing with packages of expensive chocolates and other gifts - something we could not take pictures of since right up to the start of the show the table holding those boxes was so crowded with fans it was impossible to get any good picture.

Some others we took instead are of only some of the huge stands of flower bouquets send by friends and wellwishers...


a little "show off" our "access all areas" sticker and...


a "sneaky" shot from our - excellent - viewing location, high up, right behind the "tech team" with all their to me mystery gadgets... about which it is not customary to talk, but that impressed me with just how much effort was put into all those parts of a show that aren't directly noticeable to the fans at the venture, but are essential to the whole.


Also, there is one more picture, of those I don't know what they are called things that are get shot out of "cannons" to rain down on fans - not that I'd usually would have wanted a picture of that, if it had been the usual all silver.


Which it was not, but two color, silver one side, almost orange bright bronze the other - something rather unusual.

But then, so is Versailles.

Unusual also, I think, in that Kamijo in one of his last MCs not only thanked their staff in Japan but also "all our street teams overseas," who helped to make the whole tour happen.

That they appreciated their overseas experiences, street teams and fans also was very clear from some other things they choose to display all over the foyer of CC Lemon Hall, some even placed behind the wall replacement windows so they could be seen right when anyone would walk up to that.

Those - I won't say what now - you can find in the Gallery HERE - I am pretty sure anyone who wet to a Versailles overseas live last year will appreciate what they did in turn.

Rika

Versailles in Chile (From BXtE.info staff blog)

Chile is, as everybody knows who has followed the scheduling of the overseas legs of their world tour, by far not the only country they'll be playing in, but a comment in their agency's last news update on the tour makes it a rather special one:

As stated in a press release from Delacroix today, Versailles had actually expected their appearance in Chile to be canceled, due to the after effects of the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that hit the country two days after their appearance there had been officially confirmed, and were resigned to that, since as citizens of a country frequently suffering from earthquakes as well, the situation was only too familiar.

It seems it came as a surprise to Versailles themselves, that instead fans swamped them and/or the organizer with pleas to appear, questions like "Will you still come, despite all this?" Urging them to come and play, to, I suppose, make their lives brighter even only for that night of the live.

So, the Chile live will happen as planned, with a slight adjustment: Versailles announced that they'll be donating part of the ticket sales to a charity to benefit the earthquake victims.

Someone cynical might call it good public relations; I rather think it shows how much they care for their fans.

The nights of the long knives - er, lives. (From BXtE.info staff blog)

That is, four in the nine days between April 30th and May 8th, during the so called Golden Week beginning of May that fortunately-unfortunately always is crammed with lives. (The only better-worse time is Year End/New Year...)

For the first of those, below


actually wasn't where we were going this time - though I do believe that who we were going to I will eventually see IN Tokyo Dome - but around a few more corners and down some more stairs to make it to


Versailles' last live of the Japanese leg of their World Tour, with 3,000 seating, the biggest hall they have played so far.

It was also the most flamboyant live they've done so far, one that finally makes KAMIJO's "We went what is called major for the sake of doing what we want to do, (because what we want is possible there). We intend to become even more flamboyant." comment something very easy to understand.

I'm not sure if it was accidental or if someone loves us in Versailles or Delacroix, but I think we couldn't have had gotten a better view on stage if we'd gotten to choose our own seats...



As for the length of the live, that was 2 hours and 51 minutes, 21 titles...

A little shorter, 2 hours and 35 minutes, was the next live we were at, on May 3rd. (At Shibuya O-WEST, one of those places I don't like to take pictures of unless it's extremely close up, because of certain other buildings that would also show up in those photos.) One that I am glad I was at but also in a different way wish it hadn't happened:


"Last Scene," the end of THE UNDERNEATH LAST LIVE TOUR 2010...


No reason has been made public for their break up - nor do I expect one to be offered still - which leaves things a bit unsatisfactory, without a sense of general closure, but the live itself was one of their best, I think. Definitely it did what TAKA at one time said they wanted to make it, "something you won't ever forget in your whole life."

One of the good things in the sadness I guess is that it seems TAKA, MASATO and RYOU at least won't be giving up their musical careers...

A happier occasion - though the shortest of the lives, with "only" 2 hours and 11 minutes - was a few days later, May 6th, in a different part of Shibuya, at C.C.Lemon Hall,


when KAMIJO produced Matenrou Opera celebrated their 3rd anniversary on stage.


I still feel loved there, too, actually (the picture of the stage from our seats makes it look farther away than it was, it was actually a very nice view)...



As Matenrou Opera clearly is by their fans: after they did their first encore, said fans, instead of demanding their reappearance on stage with the usual calls, broke out into signing Happy Birthday for "Dear Opera" until the guys came back - twelve times in a row until that happened.

That they also announced their major debut seemed like a fitting birthday present.

The last of the lives, on May 8th, was another birthday celebration, if one wants to put it that way - that one though, 25 years, one that would make "3 year old" Matenrou Opera something of a possible DerZibet offspring, at least in the difference in years on stage; though just in my personal opinion, the way the Matenrou Opera guys looked at the C.C.Lemon live, in largely black with silver, Matenrou Opera would not even be that unlikely offspring, even visually, for DerZibet - and one that the members celebrated, too. Not only with another 21 titles live, even beating Versailles in length - if only by 6 minutes - but actually at the end on stage in their own way...


"Happy 25th Anniversary - kanpai"

Unlike one might expect at birthdays, in this case it was the birthday boys giving presents, instead of receiving them, after the live.


Talking about presents from DerZibet, that reminds me of another one that I - kind of, it wasn't handed directly to me, but came flying my way, rather - got from them, and one that someone actually sent me an email about, asking for details. About ISSAY's bazooka-shot candy on New Year's Eve.



As it says on one of the packages, it really is for kids... maybe I could say it's less a danger to fans' health than some other things ISSAY at times likes to do (hint: shirt buttons, edge-of-stage balancing acts, etc)...

Please look forward to more about all of the above.

PS: We got to take pictures of DerZibet again - lots, though it'll take time to get the good ones from that - but better than that, they not only had their own photographers there but a full fledged video crew. If THAT doesn't result in some DVD, it seems to me they wasted a lot of money.

PPS: That actually applies to Versailles and Matenrou Opera, too. Fans of all three, start saving.

Versailles in Versailles (From BXtE.info staff blog)

In the summer of 2009, Ina had the opportunity to visit the real Chateau de Versailles. A blog about that trip was supposed to see the light around then, but so far it hasn't. (It might be in the near future, if we can find time for it). However, it was that that got us thinking about Versailles in Versailles and checking to see if it is possible for bands to perform there (it is).

Those of you who have read our interview with Versailles probably remember that in relation to that, we showed the band a picture of the Versailles Royal Opera, suggesting they should try to play there - we still like that idea! - about which KAMIJO said it "looks a lot like the cover of our next album."

Actually, we were a bit baffled in regards to that when we first got to see the actual cover picture in the Warner Japan's advance Press Kit, since as lovely as the angel on the cover is, he doesn't quite look like the Opera... or maybe there were last minute changes between the time we talked to Versailles in October and the release of the album, since then their shooting for it was still underway and final design decision possibly not made yet.

We do plan to ask KAMIJO about that next time we get the chance to interview him. Though, given how his "more detailed" explanation worked out last time, that might not be so clarifying after all (though likely it'll make for laughter at the interview).

In any case, before we get completely carried away and you get completely bored, here is what we wanted to show you: a scan of what exactly we showed the band members (in reality, a high gloss, photo quality print out), of which we took one for them, and another one on which we got a little 'present' from them (click on it to see a bigger version):


(That is, from left to right: YUKI, KAMIJO, TERU (center upper right) and HIZAKI. Once you know that TERU, unlike the other three, signed his name in Japanese, you can actually find the Hiragana to identify his name - something that as far as letter recognition is concerned is almost impossible for KAMIJO and barely better for HIZAKI and YUKI.)

PS: For the Valentine's Day event, we hope the store will add to its usual security guards as it is bound to be crowded (since we still want to have the chance to interview KAMIJO and HIZAKI, together with TERU and YUKI, again)

(From BXtE.info staff blog)

That picture.

We, Ina and me, were pretty much caught up in all the technicals and preparations for posting our full coverage of VRF when news checks got us the news about the Versailles Jasmine You memorial event; then before we could even react much to the news she took and sent me that picture.

I agree that it feels like Jasmine smiled at us just then. That is, not just her and me - but maybe, her and me, too - but naturally the members and all of their fans, too.

That picture, it reminds me not only off Kamijo's blog, where he said rain fell as they all walked up the stairs to Nippon Budokan, after having "sent him off" at the hospital, the place that was/is their next big goal to play in, after their major debut, that made him feel like Jasmine was there, approving what they were doing.

It reminds me more of something he said over a year ago, after the hide memorial summit: that he had not been able to go to hide's funeral, and regretted that he then couldn't, but that a break in the clouds - that had shadowed Ajinomoto Stadium at that time of the summit - while they were playing made him feel as if hide was watching. That he - Kamijo - felt that as hide's smile, as a chance to say good bye that he previously had not had.

I feel like Kamijo, at that. I wasn't in Japan when Jasmine died; I couldn't have gone to his funeral no matter how much I wanted to. There was no "good bye" then, even while my rational mind registered the news that "Versailles bass Jasmine You" had died. Like Kamijo with hide, I had not had a chance to say a proper good bye.

This picture, then, makes me feel like Kamijo at HMS. Even while I was not at the location it was taken, it makes me feel like that.

I've had the priveldge to know Jasmine, a little, as a person. I won't go into how or why or whatever it was that we talked about, that is too personal to share.

But that picture fits him perfectly.

He was - no, is - a light in the lives of everybody who knew or saw him.

For those who understand him - unfortunately, there are also those who didn't; who, I think are scared by his courage to embrace the unusual, go beyond limits, shread borders, live for what he wanted to live for, his music, and in that, yes, courting death (not, as is often associated with rock, through substance abuse, but simply because he was rather fragile physically, something that did not usually get mentioned) and ultimately sacrifice his life at a time far too early - but for those who understood and understand him, he is - pardon the cliche, but he is - a bright light that attracts and guides and gives comfort. Liberates.

Jasmine, on stage and off, was someone exceptional.

One of those rare persons that once met you won't ever forget.

Seeing Versailles live on stage a V-Rock Festa, hearing Kamijo say - make that shout - his name again, more than once, over and over again, that was beyond words. Sadness and joy deeply mixed and all of it appropriate, perfect.

If things work out according to schedule, I'll be interwieving - talking to - Kamijo and Hizaki and Teru and Yuki before the end of the week.

I'm sure that someway, somehow, Jasmine will be there, too.

Sunshine through the clouds... (From BXtE.info staff blog)

This blog has been a long time coming. We kept postponing it for months, as technical matters required our attention. Now, we decided to start it, finally, because of a picture. A picture of a perfectly timed view. You can see the picture at the end of this post and it was perfectly timed because it was taken just as were posting the news about the Jasmine You memorial live. And because I have grown to associate such scenes with Jasmine. Partly because of the message the remaining members of Versailles have posted after his passing, about their climbing the steps to the Nippon Budokan and it suddenly starting to rain. It is, however, the sun through the clouds that makes me think of Jasmine more than the rain, because he shone brightly like that.

I was never his or Versailles' biggest fan, but somehow it was obvious that Jasmine was someone who brightened people's lives. I regret the fact that I never realized how much he meant to me until he was gone, but I like to believe he'd still be happy to know how many people's lives he's touched in one way or another. Despite his leaving us so soon, I think of Jasmine as someone who won in life, something not many people can say, even if they live to be a hundred. And so, sunshine through the rain, or clouds, will always remind me of him. Someone who, despite his dark circumstances shone brightly and touched people, even people who have never met him. In a way, sunshine through the clouds is like Jasmine smiling down at people, supportive, encouraging, gentle and kind, like so many people who knew him and loved him say he was.

Maybe it's strange that we started this blog with a post that refers to something sad, but on the other hand it seems fitting that it should start with what could be called a tribute to someone who seems to have affected everybody who met or just saw and heard him on TV or PC screens. This is for Elegant Jasmine You!