Saturday, June 23, 2007

   Some info on Hide
hideto "hide" matsumoto (ªQ¥»¨q¤H) was born in 13th of december 1964, in kanagawa, yokosuka. his blood type was ab and he played guitar. he was the member of Saver Tiger, X, X Japan, hide with Spread Beaver and Zilch. he also had solo works. he is undoubtfully one of the greatest guitarist in jrock history, and his voice is also unique and cannot be imitated.

when hide entered primary school, he was very fat weighted 80 kg, almost a double of his classmates. hide was teased and expelled by his classmates, so he was determined to lose weight. during the process, he found that personal responsibility was more important than other's opinion, and that made him a bit egocentric, reluctant to express himself to others. hide's parent made him participate in many hobbies like piano, caligraphy and so on. they even brought hide to united states for a month-long home stay in primary 4 to make him more "international". however, hide did not enjoy his childhood much.

hide's love for rock music began in secondary 2, when he listened to Kiss, an european heavy metal band. in Secondary 3, hide got his first electric guitar which was a gibson, and his classmates started calling him "gibson" too. Since then he spent most of his spare time listening to Kiss songs and playing the guitar, which made him even more introvert. during high school, hide formed his first band "Saver Tiger", but it was banned by the school. so Saver Tiger went to live houses in tokyo to practice and play publicly.

however, saver tiger was not going well. members kept joining and leaving, and hide was too strict to other members. as hide was not a socialable person, the members lacked coordination and they always argued. finally, Saber Tiger broke up and hide went to study in a costume school (on a side note, years later Saver Tiger reformed with new lineups and is still active right now). however, a call changed his life.

when hide nearly graduated from costume school, he received a phone call from yoshiki, leader of another indies band "X", which was facing disolution due to member loss. yoshiki asked hide to join X, and hide replied with only one word - "fine". when they met in a live house for the first time, yoshiki introduced himself first, "how do you do, I'm X's yoshiki"; and hide replied, "I'm hide, how do you do". that was not dramatic at all, but it definitely changed hide's life dramatically.

X was formed in 1982 by yoshiki and his schoolmate toshi, but not until 1985 did they release their first single "I'll kill you". in february 1987, X had its formation settled down, with leader yoshiki on drums, toshi on vocal, hide and pata on guitar, and taiji on bass.
from 1987 until joining sony in march of 1988 were the toughest days of X. late 80's japanese music scene was dominated by idols, and visual bands like X were merely ignored. they had little earnings and at the same time they had to promote their works to the public. sometimes, they were so broke that they had to walk 3-4 km to home and eat two cup noddles for 5 of them. during those harsh days, hide found his true friends and managed to strive through that period.

signing with Sony in 1988 was a turning point for X. they were supported financially and they quickly gained popularity. their major releases in 1989, including "Blue Blood" and "Endless Rain", were unexpectedly popular. however, lack of coordination among members seems to be an universal problem among all rock bands. bassist taiji left the band on 92.1.31, who was replaced by heath. in august of 1992, yoshiki suggested to change the name from X to "X Japan", aiming at international market. Although hide accepted the new name, but he thought X was not yet strong enough to expand out of japan.

X Japan boomed in the 90s and gained its position as one of the legendary rock bands in japan. however, disagreement among members seemed to grow deeper and deeper. members focused on solo works instead of X Japan. finally, tragic news broke out on 97.9.22: X Japan was disbanded. the claimed reason was that toshi felt like he was treated unfairly; however, this may be just an example of their very disagreement.

after X Japan, hide focused on solo works. he wrote music and lryics for himself, and sang his songs with his unique voice. on 96.5.22, hide opened his production company "LEMONed", which aimed at bringing up new potential rock bands and gathering fans of hide. before his death, hide was focussing on two bands, namely, "hide with Spread Beaver" and "Zilch".

everyone was shocked about hide's sudden death. yoshiki went back to japan from los angeles to attend his funeral. yoshiki said in the press conference on 98.5.4 (adopted from Rockin' Heaven):
"I'm very shocked because I heard his sudden death. I still cannot believe it. he is sleeping with a very beautiful face. I tried to wake him up again and again, though he is still sleeping. hide was the calmest person in X Japan. it was also hide who always calmed me down and gave advice to me, who was an overimpulsive leader. of course, sometimes he lost his way when he was under pressure. however, he always called me in such a case. we talked about everything; such as our band, music, friends, life, fans. sometimes, he was like my elder brother, and sometimes like a younger brother. sometimes, we drank and fought, but he always said the next day, "yoshiki, what did I do yesterday? sorry, I don't remember anything." however, he went to sleep without saying anyting now. all his fans, and all his friends, everyone is confused I think. I cannot express how sad I am, but we have to accept the fact because we cannot change anything. now, everyone, including his parents, is trying to get over this tragedy. we, X-JAPAN, are also tring to do so. so, all his fans please alo do so. please see off hide, who always encoruraged and supported us, in wonderful way by our hand. please see him off to the heaven warmly."

more than 12,000 fans has visited the funeral held at the honganji temple in tokyo's tsukiji destrict on 98.5.7. police arranged helicopers, boats and more than 100 officers to the temple. moreover, 170 private security guards were hired to keep things in order. the line of fans stretched down the street for about a kilometer from the temple gates. some of the fans felt sick after being crushed by the crowd, and some collapsed due to emotional sadness. there were 4 attempted suicides due to hide's death, in which 2 girls died.
on the funeral, toshi and yoshiki performed "Forever Love". beside the X-Japan members, many musicians attended, including LUNA SEA, GLAY, SHAZNA and tetsuya komuro.

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