These photos are from the official live report and I really wish there were more! Loved TEEDA‘s hoodie top by the way:

And this is a map of the entire venue – BACK-ON was right in the heart of everything!

Icchan and Kenji03 certainly look as though they were enjoying themselves (see Icchan‘s full blog post):

Finally, to give you an idea of what the atmosphere is like at this massive music festival, take a look at the official Attractions & Audience photos and videos from Osaka – we’ve included a few below:

BACK-ON has been added to the lineup of of bands performing at the 10th Anniversary of the major Japanese ROCK Music Festival: SUMMER SONIC 2009!

Just to give you some idea as to how big this festival is, here’s a snapshot list of some of the other big name artists that have been lined up for the event in Osaka:

You might not listen to any of their music, but I’m willing to bet a BACK-ON album/single that you’ll have heard the name of at least ONE of them! :)

According to the SUMMER SONIC 2009 Osaka timetable, BACK-ON will be performing at on 7th August 2009 at 16:20pm on the Garden Stage and you can get buy the one-day pass directly from the SUMMER SONIC 2009 website for ¥ 13,000. The ‘sister’ event will be running concurrently just outside Tokyo.

Now, moving onto non-factual commentary: I know we like to talk about BACK-ON‘s “milestones” (like their work with GReeeeN to form BAReeeeeeeeeeN and doing the theme song for TotW:RM2) every so often on this fan site, but considering the variety and pulling power of the lineup and the enormity of the event – it attacted 200,000 people in 2007 – I think anyone would agree that for a ‘home grown’ talent like BACK-ON, this performance will potentially be one of their crowning moments!

Fingers crossed that international producers, record companies, or even bands who are known to spot previously unrecognised talent, will take time out to listen to BACK-ON‘s 40 minute live set and take them to the next level… Glastonbury, anyone?

UPDATE 31/07/2009: A really interesting post about the logistics of the event is Summer Sonic 2009: a reader Q&A about the event by Joshua Williams .

The anime convention will run between 18-20th September 2009 at their usual venue: the gorgeous Kongress Palais Kassel (see below for photos) and BACK-ON‘s live performance will be on 19th September 2009!

Although this fantastic news has already been posted for sometime on the official Connichi site, the band finally announced it today on their official website with a nifty new banner:

I know I will definitely be going (this *is* BACK-ON‘s debut in Europe!)  and hope to see many other BACK-ON fans there – from Europe and from other parts of the world! If you are planning to go, drop us an email or visit the Forums and let us know!  Fingers crossed we can have a mini-convention of BACK-ON fans.  In the meantime, stay tuned for travel information for fans heading to the convention (in English) and also more news about BACK-ON!

The festival is a celebration of the Tales of series, as well as an event for announcing forthcoming new games. This year’s festival was held on 14th June 2009 and BACK-ON were invited to perform flyaway and Re:Start, songs that most fans will know as the OP and ED (respectively) theme songs from Tales of the World : Radiant Mythology 2.

According to various reports, they wow’d the audience with their thrilling renditions of both songs:  Gpara said that ‘they single handedly roused the crowd’ during their performance.

BACK-ON later invited Ito Kanae (伊藤かな恵) – Kanonno Earhart‘s seiyuu – who featured in the flyaway [Tales of] remix – to join them onstage; she was too nervous to actually sing in front of the crowd.

BACK-ON with Ito Kanae courtesy of Gpara

The photos are courtesy of Gpara.com,  Dengeki.com and Famitsu.com, and you can view them in full by visiting the Tales of Festival 2009 section of the Gallery.

p/s: Although BACK-ON have posted a photo of the event,  Icchan and Kenji03 also talked briefly about the event in their official blog, they did manage to get hold of some nice programmes!

photo by ooishi nami

p/s2: For fans wanting to know more about the new Tales of games that were announced at the Festival, please visit the dedicated Tales of fansite Abyssal Chronicles for detailed information.

This breaking news was first spotted by Sesshy on Back-on’s official blog, and it was subsequently posted onto their official Myspace in English. They were both accompanied by a picture of the band with the cast and Hitomi Shimatani at the press conference that was held by the production team of Keitai Sousakan 7 to launch the show.

We will be covering the drama in more depth in another post. For a quick low-down of the facts (info courtesy of August Ragone, The Good, The Bad, and Godzilla 続・夕陽の呉爾羅):

The 51-episode series revolves around Kieta, a high school freshman who joins “Anchor” (the digital-crime-fighting organisation) and is given the transformer-phone, Phonebraver 7, to help thwart the plans of an internet-based crime organisation.

The main role is played by 19 year-old Masataka Kubota, and is supported by actors Mickey Curtis (Agitator), Yuko Ito (Bubble Fiction), Kanji Tsuda (Japan Sink), Natsuki Okamoto (Arch Angels), Satoshi Matsuda (Kamen Rider Ryuki), and Nao Nagasawa (Hurricanger).

From left: Takashi Miike, Nao Nagasawa, Yuko Ito, Masataka Kubota,
Kanji Tsuda, Satoshi Matsuda, Natsuki Okamoto (Source: Nippon Cinema)

Some big names are involved with the project, including:

• Takashi Miike (三池崇史), the supervising director for KS7 who is famous for directing Great Yokai War and the Alive or Dead series.
• Mamoru Oshii (押井守), the director behind Ghost in the Shell.
• Shusuke Kaneko (金子修介), a well known director who most recently worked on the live movie version of Death Note.

In addition to the ‘all-star’ director group, TV Tokyo also recruited Hitomi Shimatani to sing the opening theme song. Apparently the new song is called WAKE YOU UP. There are reports that the singer may even guest-star in the series as well. (Author’s note: Will Back-on guest-star too?)

Alas we can’t see very much of the band from the photo posted on their blogs, but with a big thanks to bebekjelek, we can share some really good closeups of the band from the press conference that you can see below:

As a super-special bonus, we’ve kindly been given permission to post even more photos from the event that were taken by David Michaud of LeJapon.fr, a freelance photographer who hails from France and is based in Japan. The full-sized versions of the thumbnails (and more photos) can all been seen in the BOO Gallery – KS7 Press Conference, and aside from the excellent group photos, there are also individual pictures (closeups!) of Kenji03 and Teeda! I would really encourage everyone to view the photos in full, since thumbnails really don’t do them enough justice!

The commercial ‘tie-in’, or the transformer-robot-phone(s) Phonebraver (the Toshiba 815T PB) is actually receiving a tonne of attention in its own right, as it is probably the first ‘hybrid’ toy transformer and phone. The initial report on Gizmodo Japan was swiftly picked up by the US Gizmodo, before Akihabara News posted their report from the press conference.

With all this promotion going on, it is quite unbelievable that all the blogs and news site (such as Variety Japan, Tokyograph etc.) never actually mentioned that Back-on are singing the ending theme for the drama. I’m guessing that this is because of all the big names that have dominated the headlines, but as a fellow fan, I’m sure you find this rather disappointing as well!

However, (even if I am biased!) I think their music will speak for itself when the drama is premiered on April 2nd 2008. This is the second time that Back-on‘s music will feature as main theme for a J-drama (the first being Shinjuku Swan) but given the wide ranging publicity given to Keitai Sousakan 7 and the fact that it is a prime-time kid-friendly show (contrasting especially with Shinjuku Swan) it is more than likely to be a major breakthrough for Back-on reaching the mainstream. Let’s keep our fingers crossed! :)

I’m fairly certain this is the first outdoor venue that Back-on has performed at (to be continued with their upcoming performance at Anime Evolution in Canada on August 18th 2007!) and many of us would have missed out, save for gangangan03! He has kindly uploaded two video clips of Back-on performing Believer and Chain live, both of which are available to watch below, or here and here respectively!

The first video is particularly special imho, because at the start of Believer, Kenji03 says hi to the crowd in mandarin (he went to school in Taiwan for a bit!) ending with “I love everyone!” which really sets the mood; it is also the first LIVE recording of Believer!

BUT, in the second video – Chain - I can honestly swear that Kenji03 has a costume change with a bandana and black t-shirt! :D And he looks pretty darn good. In addition to that, at the end of the song when they leave the stage, you can hear the crowd shouting ENCORE! in unison. I hope for the sake of the crowd that Back-on did return for an encore! :)

So a big thanks to gangangan03 for sharing the videos with everyone! :D If you want to watch the videos here on BOO, take a look below!

Believer

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Chain

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This outdoors music festival, which began in 1995 and is held annually at the end of July. As one of the major events in the rock music calendar, it attracts artists from all over the world, particularly those from around Asia. Artists that have performed at FF (note the logo are mirrored Fs) in recent years include Moby, Super Furry Animals, May Day, The Back Horn, Lisa Loeb, Kishidan and Nanase Aikawa.

This year, Formoz Festival have invited groups such as OK GO (they did the ‘famous’ Treadmill Dancing video!), LM.C, Anna Tsuchiya and Teriyaki Boyz. But most importantly, Back-on, G.F.S and even Rize will be performing!

As mentioned before, Back-on will be the feature act on what is known as the Wind [風] stage, an arena traditionally reserved for the most well-known performers. There are seven other themed arenas, including:

• Forest [林] - apparently for unique performers
  
• Fire [火] – where G.F.S will be performing, and features both new and well-established bands
• Mountain [山] – which focuses on chillout music
• Electricity [電] – the stage for Electronic music
• Light [光] - themed audio-visual centre
• Stone [石] – featuring heavy metal, punk and other hardcore bands
• Fight [炎] – wrestling arena first introduced in 2003

Tao [道], the final arena, is the newest addition to Formoz Festival. Rize will be one of the headline bands for this stage alongside e.g. Anna Tsuchiya, but for a taste of what Wind will be like, you can view the picture below from the official FF site.

I really want to go! as it really looks amazing ~ alas it’s peak travel season and plane tickets are prohibitively expensive. But if you are in the area, for around £40 GBP (or $85 USD) you get a 3-day pass to all of the arenas for Formoz Festival 2007, so whilst it’s still a little on the expensive side for locals, it’s definitely a good deal when you take into account the exchange rate!

So if you are attending Formoz Festival 2007, please let us know! We would love to hear about your experiences, especially (of course) those relating to Back-on! For other readers, Back-on Online will try our best to make a full report if/when we find out more at the end of July, so please stay tuned! :D

• a special performance at Ruido K2 on May 10th, especially presented by Icchan
• performing with Airstrike on the second day of their Airstrike presents Airtrip11 – The 2 Days gig at Honnou’s Clove in Chiba on May 13th
• as one of the main bands for GOLDEAD presents UEST SIDE vol.11 HIP ROCK NIGHT-ONE LIFE ONE CHANCE at Nagano Club Junk Box on May 26th

In addition, they also have another gig scheduled for this evening (May 27th 2007) as part of the *massive* Shibuya Jack event, which features 30+ artists including RIZE (Jesse is one of the organisers) and ELLEGARDEN for a dedicated evening of Rock! Back-on will be performing at Club Unity from 20:45 ~ 21:30, wrapping up the evening as the last of the 5 bands at the venue. Shibuya Jack will then continue into the night with an extensive list of DJs performing at various clubs.

To give an idea about how *large* the event really is, you can see a screenshot of the website showing a list of the sponsors:

and also, a photo of Jesse et. al promoting the event on the streets (courtesy of Olly Denton)

I don’t know why I keep leaving the most important part till the last but yes, there is a video!

To promote the event, Back-on have actually recorded a greeting which is available on the Shibuya Jack Movie (Interview) page! You can also watch the 45 second clip below or on Youtube. :)

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p/s: This video may not display in IE6/7 at the moment so am looking into it. You can still click on the link above to watch the video directly from Shibuya Jack!

Teeda‘s profile can be found at http://www.myspace.com/teedafrombackon and you can see a screenshot of his current Myspace below:

If you’re interested in some statistics, the page has clocked up 431 views in a period of just over a week, and Teeda currently has 53 friends on Myspace. You can also just about see that his featured song is New World, which you can listen to just by visting his profile.

Kenji03‘s profile can be found at http://www.myspace.com/1000547563, and as above, you can see a screenshot of the current view below:

Kenji03 hasn’t actually publicly displayed the number of profile views, so we’ll have to focus on other things, such as the important fact that his profile states that he is:

Single and straight!

which, as die-hard fans will know (cough cough, notably Ichi) is one fantastic piece of news! Hehe :)

We also get to listen to a song by one of Kenji03‘s favourite artists: Hide (formerly of X-Japan). The song is called Electric Cucumber which was recorded in 1998, and according to Wikipedia, is actually by Zilch, an industrial-rock band fronted by Hide that was intended to break into the English market.

Alas, the other band members haven’t yet signed up yet, but let’s all keep our fingers crossed!

p/s: If you live in Japan or plan to be in Japan on July 4th 2007, Back-on will be playing their first ever solo gig at Shibuya O-Crest. The tickets will be on sale starting from tomorrow so go and buy them before they’re sold out! :)

If you wish to purchase them online, you can buy them at Eplus.jp for ¥2500, but the best thing about this gig, is that if you’re the first 100 people through the door, you’ll get a special T-shirt for free!

Unfortunately the Anime Matsuri website is down at the moment as it has exceeded its bandwidth (neeuu!) but I’m sure the organisers will have it back up soon. In the meantime, you can still visit their official forums at MashHarder.

In the meantime, you can still find out about Back-on‘s schedule on Back-on Online, but whilst I was looking up the George R. Brown Convention Center website, I came across a little bit of information regarding the venue. According to the GRBCC website, Anime Matsuri will be utilising the:

Exhibit Hall E / General Assembly / Meeting Rooms

If you do have lots of time on your hands and want to see what the centre looks like inside, you have the option of viewing images or a 360 degree panoramic view.

This information is brought to you by a Flick who is furiously attempting to type up Gaku-Ten lyrics on time and is taking a break by surfing Anime Matsuri related sites.