Penicillin formed officially on Valentine’s Day in 1992, the members meeting via their Tokai University “music circle”. The band then and now features vocalist Hakuei, guitarist Chisato, bassist Gisho, and drummer O-Jiro. Penicillin is solidly in the realm of “visual kei". Originally their costumes and overlook was quite girl-ish, but later also somewhat science fiction influenced. More recently they have a stylish and less bizarre look. Penicillin have enjoyed a long and successful career despite many unconventional twists. Frequent side projects suggest restlessness, and label hopping unfulfilled expectations, but Penicillin have long had a long list of side projects, and are still going strong despite numerous label changes. Like many visual kei bands, they got their start playing Rock- May- Kan, the famed livehouse in Tokyo’s Meguro district. The band played their first show in February 1995, and by July 1995 the band was selling out seven shows in a row. In between, Penicillin also managed to visit New York, and to shoot their first video “Human Doll”. By September 1995 interest had heated up to the extent that when they booked for the substantially large venue Shibuya Kokaido, the show sold out in ten minutes. The band made their major debut album in June 1996 with
Vibe on Pioneer LDC (basically what today is known as Geneon Entertainment). Following a summer of high profile gigs, Hakuei released his first solo album on Nippon Crown on September...
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Penicillin formed officially on Valentine’s Day in 1992, the members meeting via their Tokai University “music circle”. The band then and now features vocalist Hakuei, guitarist Chisato, bassist Gisho, and drummer O-Jiro. Penicillin is solidly in the realm of “visual kei". Originally their costumes and overlook was quite girl-ish, but later also somewhat science fiction influenced. More recently they have a stylish and less bizarre look. Penicillin have enjoyed a long and successful career despite many unconventional twists. Frequent side projects suggest restlessness, and label hopping unfulfilled expectations, but Penicillin have long had a long list of side projects, and are still going strong despite numerous label changes. Like many visual kei bands, they got their start playing Rock- May- Kan, the famed livehouse in Tokyo’s Meguro district. The band played their first show in February 1995, and by July 1995 the band was selling out seven shows in a row. In between, Penicillin also managed to visit New York, and to shoot their first video “Human Doll”. By September 1995 interest had heated up to the extent that when they booked for the substantially large venue Shibuya Kokaido, the show sold out in ten minutes. The band made their major debut album in June 1996 with
Vibe on Pioneer LDC (basically what today is known as Geneon Entertainment). Following a summer of high profile gigs, Hakuei released his first solo album on Nippon Crown on September 20th, and Chisato his solo via Tokuma on September 24th. These were followed by a mini album,
Fly Penicillin featuring Chisato, only two months later. For New Year's 1997 they played three nights at Akasaka Blitz - the first being Chisato solo, the second being Hakuei solo, and the third featuring the whole band. By April, O-Jiro had launched his own solo unit, 808, with an album. By early July members of Penicillin had reassembled and released their second major label album, entitled
Limelight. It was followed just a week later by Gisho’s first solo album, and so within just over a year after making their band debut, all members also had solo careers. For New Year 1998 the band again played shows at Akasaka Blitz, which became a tradition for the band. They followed this with extensive touring, and then released their third album,
Ultimate Velocity, in October 1998. After releasing four videos in 1999, they capped the year with a greatest hits album entitled simply
This Is Penicillin 1994-1999. In 2000 the band ventured away from home to play shows in Korea twice, and to London. In 2001 they jumped ship to record label Omega A.T., where they released a multi-media single, before moving on to the East West/Warner label. Penicillin played a two month long tour dubbed
Nuclear Banana, and later released an album by the same name. 2002 saw the group celebrate their ten year anniversary (they have also made a habit of playing birthday shows), and released their sixth album called
No. 53, on Hiboom Records. Without going into all the gory detail, besides the side projects already mentioned, along the way there has been also Crack6, CrackZ, machine, Starman, Omega Project Holdings, nano, Cospa, and media youth . Kiyoshi, from the band Spread Beaver, is a member of machine together with Hakuei, produced their
Penicillin Shock EP, and has been involved in various ways with the band over the years. By 2004 Akasaka Blitz had been torn down, and so their New Year’s event moved to Club Citta in Kawasaki. As with most visual-kei bands, Penicillin has an extremely loyal following, and so returning the love, the band played some gigs for just their fan club members. 2005 was kept full with the new album
hell bound heart and a tour called
happy birthday to Mr. hell hound “H”. The band is now signed to the powerful AVEX label, and kicked off 2007 with New Year’s gigs at Club Citta. A two day Valentine’s Day/15th anniversary live performance is planned, and their tenth album, is due February 28, 2007.
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