Flashback 37: 4 Years Without Vidoll

Exactly 4 years ago at Shinkiba STUDIO COAST, the iconic visual kei band Vidoll held their last live. Today, we are here to remember this wonderful band with some music and some facts of their history.

Vidoll formed under Kisaki’s label Matina in 2002 by the bassist and leader Rame, with Jui (ex-Luinspear) as vocalist, Yukine and Ayano as guitarists and Tero at the drums. In 2003, after playing many secret lives and having success in their debut, Ayano decides to leave the band due to musical differences.

Vidoll first line-up and music video for “Occult Proposal”, their first single.
But rapidly, HIDE joined the band to go on tour with the also recently formed band Gazette in a ten dates tour. In the meantime both Jui and Rame had been involved in side-projects with Kisaki. Jui became in KISAKI PROJECT’s vocalist, while Rame was the vocalist of KISAKI & Kansai Kizoku, but all priority was given to Vidoll.

It was all going good for the band. They opened a fan-club and their releases were quickly selling out, but in 2005 Jui announced that HIDE and Yukine were leaving the band at the end of June.

Vidoll performing “Wagahai wa, Korosuke Nari…” at HIDE and Yukine’s last live.

Early, on July, Shun (ex-calorze, ex-gossip) and Giru (ex-lilith) joined the band to stay until the end of Vidoll. Some months later, they release “Shutdown” and “Chocoripeyes” with the new line-up and in 2006 the band recorded their first full-length album “V.I.D～Very Important Doll～”. 2007 was a great year. it was announced that Vidoll would graduate from UNDER CODE PRODUCTION with Phantasmagoria and 12012. Then, the band signed with another indie label called Sword Records and had their first overseas live at J-ROCK REVOLUTION festival in Los Angeles hosted by Yoshiki (X-Japan). Under the new label, they released “INNOCENT TEENS” and “CLOUD” and later the second full album “Bastard” which ranked #4 on the ORICON indies chart.

New line-up promoting “Shutdown”.

In 2008 it was announced that Vidoll was going major next year with Crown records and to celebrate it, the band held a one-man live at C.C. Lemon Hall on December 19th. They had their major debut in early 2009 with the single “Puzzle Ring” and later with the album “Esoteric Romance”.

Vidoll promoting the first major album “Esoteric Romance” and last indies live.

Two years later, in 2010, after the release of their 4th full album “Monad” and the single “Crescent Gazer”, that would be the last one, Jui needs to undergo surgery due to thrombus in his throat and the band pauses activities. He commented in his blog that they were going to come back after his recovery, but, in 2011, during the hiatus they announced their disbandment and the release of a “best of” album titled “BEST”, including all the singles since they joined Sword Records.

And finally, a personal one. “Toumei Nakago”, one of my favorite songs from Vidoll.

Where can we find ex-Vidoll members today?

Let’s start with their vocalist Jui: He started a brief solo project and released an album titled “XI”. In 2012 he created the band GOTCHAROCKA with JUN (ex-Phantasmagoria, ex-Spiv States) and Toya (ex-DEONE, ex-Charlotte).

Sadly, after Vidoll, Shun decided to retire from musical scene. Shun will appear in one of the many session bands formed by the vocalist Shaura (ex-VII-Sense) in the “Re:Variable echo” event on 17th June 2015 in Tokyo.

Giru along with another well-known guitarist, Karyu (ex-D’espairs Ray) joined Angelo, the band formed by ex-PIERROT members.

Rame would form with ex-XodiacK’s vocalist Eros (now as Ice) the band Black Gene For the Next Scene, which has recently joined a new guitarist, SAN (ex NEGA, ex-the:Ø).

Tero joined †яi¢к to replace Kashiyama Kei at the drums and is eventually supporting Jui’s band GOTCHAROCKA. This year, on May 12 he will perform with a special session band called spats with some noticeable musicians: Vo.尽 (Jin) (HERO), Gt. JUN (GOTCHAROCKA), Gt. 刻 (Toki) (Black Gene For the Next Scene) and Ba. ヒィロ (Hixro) (ex-ν[NEU]).

Thank you for reading and I hope you have enjoyed this “special”.

More info:
Official Website (GOTCHAROCKA)
Official Website (Black Gene For the Next Scene)
Official Website (Angelo)
Official Website (Spats)
Twitter (Jui)
Twitter (Rame)
Twitter (Tero)