NEWS: History

[_Aya_]

I. History

The band NEWS was originally formed under Johnny's Entertainment in September 2003. Their primary function was to support the female volleyball team. They traveled with the team for a month and performed before the games. They were basically cheerleaders)) Now it has to be said that the band's formation was very sudden. They were pretty much herded to a photoshoot without being told anything and then a few days later they debuted. Well, actually, they didn't properly debut and despite releasing a single it was only sold in 7/11 so it didn't make it into the charts.



Originally there were 9 members aged 19 to 15 but rather than the age the members' status and experience varied greatly. The band's leader Yamashita (Yama Pi) entered the agency in 1996 while Tegoshi Yuya was there for less than a year. Not to mention two of the members were already a part of the band Kanjani8. Basically, at that stage NEWS wasn't a proper band but rather a collection of people. Apart from Yama Pi and two members from Osaka - Nishikido and Uchi there was also K.K.K. (Koyama, Kato, Kusano) who already performed together before, plus Tegoshi and Masuda who were supposed to debut as a duo and the youngest member Moriuchi. Actually, it would be fair to say that NEWS was originally formed around Yama Pi who was already extremely popular and it remained so for many years to come. Initially NEWS seemed like a one-time project and after the volleyball cup everyone got back to what they were doing before. Well, except Takahiro Moriuchi who left the agency.

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However, in May 2004 NEWS was back to debut officially and their new single went to No 1. All was going pretty well until in July 2005, Uchi Hiroki was suspended indefinitely from NEWS for underage drinking. Which was bad enough but only 6 months later the same happened to Kusano Hironori (who was one of the band's best vocals) and even though he denied it until the end he was suspended and the band's future was uncertain. For a year the members concentrated on individual activities. The leader Yamashita debuted as a solo artist and two of the members, Masuda and Tegoshi also used this chance to debut as originally planned in a band called Tegomass.



NEWS made their comeback in March 2007 as a 6-member band and thankfully this formation was fairly stable. Their songs were still hitting No. 1 although they were never as popular as some of their fellow JE bands.

It needs to be said here that right from the start the band's leader and most popular member Yama Pi was not happy about debuting with people he didn't know and he never really wanted to be a leader in the first place. At the same time other popular member Nishikido Ryo was working in two bands simultaneously which was very hard on him. By 2010 both of them had a lot of individual activities and were investing less time in the band.

NEWS in 2010. Can you tell who’s planning to leave?



And yet it came as a shock to the other members when in summer 2011 the two announced that they would be leaving the band. For months it was unknown whether NEWS would continue as a band. Two of the remaining members, Masuda and Tegoshi had their own band so they would definitely continue to perform but the other two - Koyama and Kato didn't feel confident enough to continue on their own so that would mean no more singing on stage for them. In the end the four of them decided to keep NEWS no matter what.



NEWS came back as a 4-member band in 2012 with a new single "Chankapana". The single and the following tour was a big success so the band once more secured their spot in the industry as all of their following releases made it to No 1. Lately the members are busy with personal activities such as dramas, plays an TV shows so they haven't had any group activities in awhile but they still get together a lot for photoshoots and such.

@темы: NEWS.