The Blue Hearts were a punk rock band, who managed to be both credible to punk fans and achieve mainstream popularity. The band consisted of Hiroto Komoto on vocals, Masatoshi “Marcy” Mashima on guitar (with trademark headband), Testuya “Kaji” Kajiwara on drums (sporting the Mohawk), Junosuke Kawaguchi on bass, and later Mikio Shirai as a “support member” on keyboards. Their sound was a mix of influences including the Clash, The Ramones, The Buzzcocks and The Jam. The band started off playing Tokyo livehouses like Shinjuku’s Loft, and established themselves as a solid live band. Their self-titled debut album was released in May 1987 on the label Meldac Records, which was created with funding from a number of companies, one of which was Mitsubishi. The band ran into trouble when their third album
Train, Train contained a song called “Chernobyl”, which was critical of nuclear power, an industry in which Mitsubishi was actively involved. Rather then drop the song, as they were pressured to do, the band split from the label. The controversy was picked up by the media, and the publicity helped launch the album to million plus sales. This album’s spectacular sales also helped make them a huge live attraction, and soon they graduated from livehouses to playing Budokan and Yoyogi Olympic Stadium. The group made two tours of the United States, a ten show tour in 1990, and an eight stop run in 1991, but established only modest inroads. They released an Ameri...
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The Blue Hearts were a punk rock band, who managed to be both credible to punk fans and achieve mainstream popularity. The band consisted of Hiroto Komoto on vocals, Masatoshi “Marcy” Mashima on guitar (with trademark headband), Testuya “Kaji” Kajiwara on drums (sporting the Mohawk), Junosuke Kawaguchi on bass, and later Mikio Shirai as a “support member” on keyboards. Their sound was a mix of influences including the Clash, The Ramones, The Buzzcocks and The Jam. The band started off playing Tokyo livehouses like Shinjuku’s Loft, and established themselves as a solid live band. Their self-titled debut album was released in May 1987 on the label Meldac Records, which was created with funding from a number of companies, one of which was Mitsubishi. The band ran into trouble when their third album
Train, Train contained a song called “Chernobyl”, which was critical of nuclear power, an industry in which Mitsubishi was actively involved. Rather then drop the song, as they were pressured to do, the band split from the label. The controversy was picked up by the media, and the publicity helped launch the album to million plus sales. This album’s spectacular sales also helped make them a huge live attraction, and soon they graduated from livehouses to playing Budokan and Yoyogi Olympic Stadium. The group made two tours of the United States, a ten show tour in 1990, and an eight stop run in 1991, but established only modest inroads. They released an American only compilation called
Blast Off, consisting of six songs taken from their debut and 1988’s
Young and Pretty. They later also released a 12 track CD, along with vinyl and cassette versions. The Blue Hearts managed to pick up some college and FM radio play, and a decent amount of print, including a “pick to click” in the national newspaper USA Today. Their live shows also received positive reviews, but the critical approval did not turn into substantial CD sales. Meanwhile in Japan they were far from forgotten. Their fourth album
Bust Waste Hip on Warner in 1990 was a big success.
East West Side Story in 1995 contained the smash hit “Linda, Linda”, which became perhaps their most popular song, and also helped make this album another huge hit. “Linda, Linda” is to be used as the title of a movie due in 2005 from director Nobuhiro Yamashita. Amongst their other most popular songs are “Hito Ni Yasahiku” (Be Kind To People), “Train, Train”, “Kiss Shite Hoshi” (I Want A Kiss), Yume” (Dream), “No, No. No”, “Love Letter”, and “Aozora” (Blue Sky). The band broke up June 23, 1994. Komoto, Mashima and Shirai went onto form the High-Lows, whose sound was not drastically different from that of the Blue Hearts. The Blue Hearts have been subject to two tribute albums and a tribute maxi singles, and among the artists who have recorded tribute songs are many of the more popular punk bands that followed them, including Pealout, Pot Shot, In-Hi, Husking Bee. Another tribute album is due July 20, 2005 from Universal.
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