1984
In the spring Hisashi had decided on a name for their new band: Hinan Go-Go. (Hinan in kanji as Hisashi had wanted Japanese to be in the name, which means "criticism" or "condemnation", see below). About four months after acquiring their instruments, they played an annual amateur festival in their area called Little Rock. There were many Mods and Boøwy (two popular bands at the time) imitators among the other bands. There were about only 30 in attendance. Hinan Go-Go wore suits and sang three covers of the Japanese punk band Stalin, ("Romanticist", "Stop Jap", and "365"), so the members felt they stood out from among the other bands. Hisashi thought the others were boring and Hinan Go-Go was cool. Since they had barely learnt how to play, their performance could not have been very good and Hisashi has laughed in interviews how they messed up during the first song and had to stop.
The band decided that they would wait to play together as a band seriously (which meant moving to Tokyo) until after all of them had graduated. At this point, Hisashi and Atsushi had just graduated high school in March while U-ta and Hide still had one more year to go. But, Hisashi and Araki did move to Tokyo after they graduated without the other three. Hisashi enrolled in a design school in Tokyo and lived with Araki. Atsushi began working at a local auto parts company in Gunma. Hisashi and Araki start to lighten their hair. For the first year after graduating, Atsushi claims that he drank every day and fought with his parents because they wouldn't let him move to Tokyo like he desired. Hisashi spent his time focused on music, holed up in his room listening to songs, practicing guitar, and writing songs. He and Araki would return to Gunma on the weekends to play with the band. He dropped out of the design school after 3 months and his parents asked him to return home to Gunma.
In the meantime, all of the members started to seriously practice their instruments and Hide thought that if they were going to be serious then they should be playing their own songs. He wrote their first original song called "Soldier" but later renamed "Freaks". Later they apparently sold it to another band for ¥500(?!) but not before playing it live. (available on bootlegs). Shortly after that, Hisashi wrote "Plastic Syndrome". This song is now known as "Plastic Syndrome Type I" because subsequent songs have been written under the same title. [It should be noted that there are a few myths surrounding the beginning of the band and the early songwriting. I will elaborate my theories on the song titles further below.]
Hisashi was very much into punk, as evidenced by the band's first show comprising of all Stalin covers, but perhaps it was around this time that he really began to get into British new wave bands. Hide had already been listening to Bauhaus and The Cure but he met a girl who knew many British groups and would make cassette tapes for him. Hide shared these tapes with Hisashi. Atsushi was also a Bauhaus fan. He started as a Bowie fan and it intrigued him that Bauhaus covered Bowie.
During the summer, Hide bleached his hair but dyed it back to black in time for when school would resume. The story goes that Hisashi decided that since they were becoming more serious, their name should have an impact so he wanted to change the name of the group to "bakuchiku" but spelled it Buck-Tick, meaning firecracker in Japanese. Maybe he was starting to envision a greater future as when he first got the idea to form a band, he thought it would be something to do for a couple of months. I think though he may have settled upon a new name in in the fall.I relied on the books Love Me and Hyp. No.3 to list the concerts they played in these days but over the years, more and more bootlegs and flyers from the period have revealed they played more shows than documented in the official books. (The official Buck-Tick website has a concert chronology but the majority of their amateur days are not covered.) There is even a video of a show where they announced their name change. This show tends to be labelled as Summer 1984 and may be broken into 4 parts online. I believe this is actually the October 10 show at Takasaki Rock Festival and it gets confused for the summer show listed in the books because that's when the books claim the band changed their name and the books don't list the Takasaki Rock Festival appearance. In the video, after singing the first song "No No Boy", Araki says "Hinan Go-Go kara kondo bakuchiku to iu namae ni kaerimashita. Oboete kudasai." ("Hinan Go-Go going forward has changed to the name Buck-Tick. Please remember it.") It doesn't make sense that they would announce a name change and then continue to play under Hinan Go-Go so this must be from Takasaki Rock Festival. Also, having a multi-camera setup record the band on what appears to be a larger stage than they should have played on for this period makes sense that it would be at a festival. Anyway, thanks to the video footage we can see that Araki and Hisashi had make-up on. Araki's face is white with blue(?) lines coming down from his eyes and Hisashi has dark lipstick with an X (or multiple X's) on his forehead.
I am not sure exactly how many shows Hinan Go-Go played but between the chronology listed in the official books and bootlegs I have collected, I think it's safe to say they played at least 3 shows (Little Rock, sometime in the summer, and Takasaki Rock Festival), possibly another show whose date is unknown at this time. Thus far, I haven't mentioned Toll, Buck-Tick's current drummer because he didn't join the band until 1985. However, Toll was also in a band at this time called Spots who later changed their name to S.P. I am not sure why the Takasaki Rock Festival is overlooked in the books but other bands that played include Toll's band Spots as well as the most famous band from their hometown and prefecture, Boøwy. Sometimes Hinan Go-Go and S.P. would play shows together and all the bands who played that night would party afterwards (see below). Over the years, flyers have emerged from their early gigs which show that Buck-Tick and S.P played together on at least two occasions: October 10, 1984 and August 25, 1985
The band played as Buck-Tick for the first time in late 1984 at a contest called Popcon (which is short for Popular Song Contest) sponsored by Yamaha. Again they wore suits but and both Araki and Hisashi have make-up on. Araki's face is noticeably white with red lines on his face and blue lipstick. It appears that Hisashi drew something on his cheek. Also of note, Atsushi's father passed away in October.
Thanks to social media, an old school fan shared their treasures, including early live flyers and what appears the band created their own interview for distribution in 1984. It is hard to tell if this was a one time thing or part of a series as pages 12 and 13 appear at the bottom. The interview was conducted on September 23, notes the new name of Buck-Tick, and also indicates it took place at the Rattan live venue in Maebashi. Please note that this is 2 years before any published shows at Rattan in the Buck-Tick books. Also, one of the flyers they shared appears to be from 1985 with gig dates not published in the official books. It's a dual flyer for both Buck-Tick and Toll's band S.P and includes a date at Maebashi Rattan. This only strengthens my belief that the band played more shows in their early history than they wrote down and shared with fans officially. In the interview, Araki states that he is a punk, Hide thinks he or the band is new wave, and U-ta says they're not hardcore. The interview gets funny when Araki keeps telling Hisashi to go to school. They also reference Boøwy a couple of times. The interview ends with the interview asking if they have any last words and they say in unison, "sex." At the bottom of the page, there is also an excerpt from the lyrics to "Monochrome Star" which was really helpful in trying to decipher the lyrics in the live bootlegs. (Also a shout out to youtube user SyncleMusicTV who attempted to cover Hinan Go-Go songs and helped me make out some words I couldn't make out before.)
As far as Hinan Go-Go's song catalogue is concerned, some of the songs were developed further (mostly in terms of musical competency) as Buck-Tick and were released during their Indies days. There are a few unpublished songs though. I am not sure if the first song that Hide wrote called "Soldier" really was renamed to "Freaks". I think they may be two completely different songs. Of course, I could be completely wrong on the unpublished song titles but let me explain my guesses and why I have labelled them so. The quality of bootlegs is poor and I've tried hard to listen to how Araki introduces the songs and what is being sung. There are 2 songs sung at multiple shows that I have called "Soldier" and "Freaks" respectively. "Soldier" is a slower song and "Freaks" is faster.
"No No Boy" and "Vacuum Dream". These are the most accessible songs as they were professionally recorded and appear as CD extra tracks on the Indies album Hurry Up Mode (1987). They have long been shared by fans with cassette tape dubbing and now internet shares.
"Plastic Syndrome", later known as "Plastic Syndrome Type 1". We know this is the title from the official books. There are also bootlegs. I can only guess as to which song on these bootlegs is "Plastic Syndrome" as I have never heard Araki specifically say "this song is Plastic Syndrome". However, one can guess the title by listening carefully to what Araki sings (chorus of one song sounds like "plastic" repeats a lot with Araki saying the word then Hide repeating it). This song is under 2 minutes and has a fast, punk vibe along with some moments of screaming out the words in a particular way in the middle of the song and repeated at the end of the song. The band would go on as Buck-Tick to write and record "Plastic Syndrome Type II" as well as "Plastic Syndrome Type III".
"Soldier" is about 5 minutes long and starts off with an arpeggio like intro on guitar with some bass and drum accents for about 1 minute 20 seconds and then Araki starts to sing. Around the 1 minute 30 seconds mark, it sounds like Araki is singing the word "soldier" for the first time and repeats it in the song, ("soldier, sekai wa boku ni..."). Around the 1 minute and 40 seconds mark, the drums fully come in at this point as Araki sings "ayamachi". Around the 4 minute mark, there's a drum fill and the song gets slightly faster.
"Freaks" is a little over 3 minutes long. In one introduction, it sounds like Araki is saying "Freaks" but the last part of the word is spoken softly and cut off so it sounds more like "Fli...". The chorus has Araki singing, "Sore de boku wa kimi to onaji sa" ("and then I am just like you"). Knowing the film Freaks (1932) is loved by Hisashi, I can't help but wonder if Hide liked it too and it inspired him. Not to spoil the film, but essentially there is a circus with human freaks and the beautiful trapeze artist gets into an accident and is no longer beautiful. She becomes a freak and the others chant "one of us! one of us!" This seems to fit with the Hinan Go-Go song that I hear as "Freaks".
"Monochrome Star" is another song around 3 minutes to 3 and a half minutes long. At one show, Araki gave an intro that sounded like he was saying the title before singing the song and the same words are sung in the chorus. To me it sounded like "Monokuro No Star" but as I get older it sounds more like "Monochrome Star". It starts off with an effected melodic guitar riff and then the drums comes in with the vocals. About one minute in, the chorus has what sounds like "monochrome star" is sung. The ending is like the intro but with a drum fill finish.
Are there anymore songs from this era? Possibly. I do not have a copy of the Yamaha Popcon show and I have not seen a setlist. As time goes on, there may be more of their history that surfaces and adds clues to the puzzle. However, after all these years, I am not sure if there were anymore shows in 1984 than what I have documented here in this website but if and when I do discover more, it will be noted.