NHK has just announced their setlist for the “66th NHK Kouhaku Utagassen” and Golden Bomber will be performing their hit song “Memeshikute” for the rarest of 4th time.
Golden Bomber commented “When will these guys stop appearing?! You must be thinking of this…but you’re right! We’re shocked ourselves, but also full of stress. But we’ve been chosen so we’ll make sure everyone gets excited.”
Member Utahiroba Jun tweeted “Golden Bomber will be performing Memeshikute for the 4th time, but this is also the most performed song alongside Namida SouSou in Kouhaku’s record. Personally, i think it’s great that we can set this record being an air band.”
Meanwhile, AKB48 will be performing a 10th year anniversary medley, whilst NMB48 will be sing 365nichi no Kamihikouki. Hmm…so without that 365nichi, NMB would not even be in Kouhaku.
Golden Bomber placed first in a poll for “Best Karaoke Songs” and was invited back to Ichiban Song Show to perform the song in question “Memeshikute”. Since it has been quite awhile since we last saw them on TV, i decided to post this video so everyone knows they are still alive!
The thing about Golden Bomber is, there’s always something new in their performances. This time round, drummer Darvish Kenji transformed into another singer in the midst of their song and unabashedly stole the stage away from vocalist Kiryuin Sho. His members tried to stop him, but alas were forced to become his backup dancers till the end of the song.
Golden Bomber’s breakthrough single “Memeshikute” has ranked No.1 on Oricon’s Karaoke Chart for a consecutive 49 weeks since 10th September 2012, surpassing AKB48’s “Heavy Rotation” which was the record holder at 48 weeks.
“Memeshikute” was released in October 2009 and made its debut on the Karaoke charts in Jan 2012, initially ranking 48. It finally climbed to No.1 after 30 weeks on 27th August, but lost the position for a week before regaining it’s position on 10th September 2012.
Vocal Kiryuin Sho said, “Eh? Eh? Isn’t this great?” However, he declined to confirm that this is proof of their popularity. “It’s going to be hard to produce hits like this moving forward, but i’m going to continue making good songs, and i’d be happy if there are people out there who sing my songs”
Golden Bomber has been appearing on various talk shows hosted by Johnny’s members, and they have finally appeared on Arashi’s show! In addition to the usual chitchat, they also did a collaboration perf of Golden Bomber’s hit song “Memeshikute”. Enjoy it below!
– This was their first meeting with Arashi after Kouhaku last year.
– They made a grand entrance walking down a golden carpet, flanked by models in golden outfits.
– Darvish Kenji became close immediately with Arashi’s leader Ohno, as they are of the same age and birthdate is just 2 days apart.
Talk about their driving license photos
– Kiryuin Sho said he wanted to take a pretty pic of himself since artistes are often asked to reveal their driving licenses on TV, so he took the photo wearing alot of makeup. When asked if people around him were shocked, he said they probably thought he was an okama(cross-dresser).
– Yutaka Kyan said he was in a bad mood so his photo ended up looking like a character from Dragon Ball. He happened to be wearing torn and tattered clothes and the cameraman thought he was joking around. However, cameraman still took his photo, with just his face alone.
– Kiryuin Sho said he was envious of Kyan’s photo cos it was so interesting. He did a image change later and updated his photo as below.
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– This became a battle of pride between Kiryuin and Kyan, and Kyan had no choice but to update his photo too. He shaved a portion of his forehead for the samurai look below.
-Kyan said the cameraman grew suspicious and went to consult his supervisor about Kyan. Kyan told him he was an actor and supervisor said “So you came here for a photoshoot?”. Eventually they played along and even said his expression was very cool.
-Looking at them, Sakurai Sho commented that they seemed very close, which Kyan dismissed cos he just hates losing to Kiryuin. When asked if they often go for meals after work, they said no.
Talk about presents from fans
-Utahiroba Jun said the fans often give them shocking presents due to their image. He once received 2 hamsters from a fan.
-Kyan was gifted a bicycle on his birthday.
-Kiryuin Sho often receives Mac vouchers??
-Darvish Kenji was given a scooter seat because someone destroyed his previous one.
Talk about baseball
-Darvish Kenji is a baseball freak and has been playing it since his teenage days. He seems quite good at it and was invited by Aiba to join his baseball team. Darvish Kenji got very excited and asked if he can quit Golden Bomber to join Aiba’s baseball team.
Talk about being a CEO
-Utahiroba Jun is worried about the band’s longevity so he started a fruits parlor in Akihabara (mentioned in my post here), which uses good-looking guys to attract female customers.
-Matsujun wants to become a CEO of a fashion shop.
-Ohno said he only wants a namecard with the title of CEO, but nothing further than that. Matsujun said he can just print a namecard with the title “CEO of Arashi”, but Ohno doesn’t like it.
Talk about their penniless days
– When they were poor many years ago, they lugged around a rice cooker while they were on tours, and had rice cooked from it to save money. The rice cooker was so important they treasured it more than their musical instruments.
– A sample of the rice they had many years ago…Arashi tried it and said it was better than expected.
(This is actually Saba rice. Saba is a kind of fish.)
-Kiryuin Sho mentioned they used a hotplate which happened to be around during a shoot, to cook noodles.
-Utahiroba Jun said they even made use of of the hot shower in hotel rooms to heat up curry?!!
-Their penniless days make it hard for them to spend money now.
Section where Golden Bomber creates visual kei names for Arashi
– Kyan gave Nino the name “Yo! Hollywood!” to reflect his acting career.
-Darvish Kenji gave Ohno the name “Badminton Satoshi” as he was a member of badminton club in middle school.
-Darvish Kenji gave Aiba the name”Anpontan Masaki” to reflect his innocent character.
-Utahiroba Jun gave Matsumoto Jun the name “Aikurushii Jun” to reflect his lovable character.
-Kiryuin Sho gave Sakurai Sho the name “Sakura fubiki Sho” to reflect sakura, snow in his name??(not too sure here)
This episode is like a documentary featuring Golden Bomber’s road to stardom.
I believe AKB48 was featured on this program after they won the Japan Record Awards with “Flying Get”. But Golden Bomber takes it to a higher level since all they’ve done so far was to top the Oricon weekly charts with “Dance My Generation”. With their exploding popularity, will we see them take one of the top spots in Oricon’s best selling singles of the year?
The documentary basically lists some fun facts about Golden Bomber.
1. Darvish Kenji was actually recruited into the group because he was not just comfortable with getting naked infront of an audience – he was actually confident! Hearing this, the other members had no other choice but him!
2. Their song “Memeshikute” was picked to be the bgm of a CM. From then it became a big hit, but when the song was first revealed, Yutaka Kyan thought it was lousy and wouldn’t sell. (But he confessed later he didn’t have any talent in music.) =)
3. They made their debut on TV by appearing on Hanamaru Market in Jan 2011 to perform Memeshikute. They were a fresh group because of their air band concept, and their ability to invoke laughter on variety shows (despite being a visual kei band) made them even more popular.
4. They have done 100+ different performances with their songs, and this was the key to their popularity. One performance in particular required Kyan to get a welding license so he could weld metal on stage. It was a meaningless stunt, but funny all the same.
5. Kiryuin Sho’s inspiration for combining music with performance came from his ex-girlfriend, who was actually deaf. Even though she couldn’t hear music, she had enjoyed it by looking at the performances instead. Kiryuin Sho also mentioned that his greatest joy comes from seeing the audience enjoy his songs and stunts that he and his bandmates have thought up, so this style would be their band’s style moving forward.
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