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Glay ranks among Japan's most successful artists, having a knack for effective pop-rock songs that allowed the band to sell 35 million records in less than decade and a half (and that's to say nothing of the other merchandize, with which the band is proficient even by Japanese standards). Glay were sometimes associated with the 䀘visual key' movement, especially in the beginning of their career, but generally they're too refined for that, boasting their own type of extravaganza -- like filming promo videos in Iceland and London and generally being icons of glamorous rock music.



Glay was launched by elementary school friends Takuro (guitar) and Teru (vocals) living in the northern island of Hokkaido. The name of the band is supposed to mean 䀘gray', although it remains unclear whether the misspelling was accidental -- which seems possible, seeing that Glay started out when the members were still in high school. The band, picking another guitarist Hisashi from a short-lived local punk/rock sensation Ari, managed to make a name in their hometown, but when they moved to Tokyo after graduation, they found out that the road to fame is never smooth: sometimes Glay even had to play gigs with no audience at all. Things began to change in 1991, when they acquired the bassist Jiro from one of the Tokyo underground bands. His inclusion cemented the line-up that hasn't changed since (although the band plays with session drummers), but it still took two years of polishing their sound before Glay scored a lucky ticket -- which happened in 1993, when they were signed by the indie label run by Yoshiki, the drummer of the Japanese metal gods X-Japan.



Their debut album Hai to Diamond was out in 1994. It's considered an indie release, but Glay didn't stay indie for long, beginning a steady rise to stardom: their second disc Speed Pop was out on a major label (Victor), third album -- Beat Out! (1996) -- was their first to top the Oricon charts, it's follow-up Beloved, released on the same year, first to sell more 1 million units, and However was their first #1 single. These achievements were repeated more than once during the band's history, and their best-off compilation Review (1997) sold more than 4 million copies, making it the biggest-selling Japanese record at the time. In the heyday of Glay's popularity in the mid- to late 90s the band's fans even crashed the phone service nationwide once, attempting to book tickets for the 1999 tour that also happened to include the first of the 䀘Glay Expos' -- a megalomaniac's delight of a show that the band has been repeating since on a regular basis. The first 䀘Expo', held in Makuharu, gathered 200,000 audience, thus ranking the biggest live gig in nation's history.



Glay's career took a dip in early 2000s. Partly it was to blame on the music -- Glay added R&B & reggae on One Love (2001) rap, gospel and traditional music on Unity Roots & Family, Away (2002), and later collaborated with the boy band Exile on the single Scream (2005). The fans didn't react well to these experiments -- relatively, of course, as the band still managed to top the charts, though none of the records from that period managed to outsell the 1 million units mark. That didn't affect Glay's reputation as a live band, however -- all their shows were sold out, including a 35,000 one in Beijing, their first big foreign event. It was big by all accounts, ranking the most expensive concert in China's history and scoring the band a meeting with Jiang Zemin, the then-president of the country. Staying true to the 䀘big' approach, in 2003 Glay transferred from Pony Canyon to Toshiba EMI, with the 4-billion yen contract ($34 million at the time) becoming the most expensive in Japanese history.



A huge contract and the foreign success didn't prevent the band from going on a 1,5-year long hiatus in 2005-2006. The members worked on side projects, one of which, The Predators, involved members of Straightener and The Pillows, and the other, Rally -- of The Mad Capsule Markets and Thee Michelle Gun Elephant. Besides, Glay had a falling-out with their promotional agency -- not much is known, but reportedly it was a money dispute, and the group even thought of disbanding. Luckily, they thought better of it and, solving all their problems, went back to their rock n' roll roots -- a three-day Budokan marathon, collaboration with another J-rock star Kyosuke Himuro, ex-vocalist of Boowy, and a new album Love Is Beautiful (2007). ~ Alexey Eremenko, All Music GuideMore

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