Read on Twitter
OK, are we ready? Spoiler-free (cause this all happens before the book) history of the main visual kei band from The Stars May Rise and Fall, La Rose Verboten (La Rose for short).
La Rose was formed in 1998, by Minori (実, guitar) and Bara (BARA, vocal)
La Rose was formed in 1998, by Minori (実, guitar) and Bara (BARA, vocal)
Seika (聖花, bass) was also an original member, and they had a different 下手 guitarist and drummer. I don't know their names but if I get bored enough I might make up stories for them too. They all had flower/plant names. Minori and Bara originally had different stage names...
But when they decided to make a band together and use a "flower theme", they changed their names. Seika I think was always Seika. Minori was 21, Bara was 22, and Seika was 24 at the time. Minori and Bara were kind of friends because their old bands played together a lot.
They weren't like "tell each other everything" BFFs, but friends. Seika was someone else they knew because he'd been playing in the scene for awhile (he's the only one who was around when Rei was actually in a band). The other two I think were similar, professional acquaintances?
The other guitarist quit pretty soon, maybe after 6 months or so? And Yasu (I think he just writes YASU too, his real name is Yasuhiro so he doesn't want to give away too much actual personal information by using kanji) saw an ad at a live house or music store and called them.
Yasu was in kind of a metal band before that, he was good at it but it wasn't really what he wanted to do so his bandmates were okay with him leaving to do visual kei. And then about a year after that, the drummer quit for financial reasons.
He just left the industry entirely, was in his mid-late 20s too and was just like "Eh, this is going nowhere, I need a job." So... Yasu introduced the band to Teru, who had been in a couple of bands before but none of them really clicked or went anywhere.
Neither of them had to take flower names because they were already using their stage names, and plus the flower thing was kind of 中途半端 (half-assed?) to start with. Like, Bara got really into it but as a whole, the band didn't really have a strong image.
So they sort of ended up being one of those generic bands that kinda has a theme but nothing that really stands out, and Minori, Yasu, and Seika were really good at what they did but as a whole the band didn't really come together.
And Bara and Minori fought all the time... Minori said it was because Bara didn't really work to improve his singing and thought he could be famous just by being hot, and Bara said it was because Minori was too serious all the time, but it was a bigger personality rift too.
They've had a couple of staff girls but no one really stayed around for long. The most recent one was Yasu's ex-girlfriend, and ever since she dumped him they've been selling their own stuff. They've put out 3 or 4 demo tapes, and some home-done photos.
Annnnd.... I guess if you want to find out what happens next, get thee to my pinned tweet and read the book? <3
I'll keep working on the logo thing after a long soak in the bath. :P
