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 OTHER EVENTS 2001 |
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4179*LOVE Event at Makuhari Messe on 01/01/01
The 6th 4179*LOVE event was held on January 1st, 2001. The first day of the twenty-first century! It was the day after the Memorial and Countdown lives, at the same venue, and was free for all club members who applied by postcard. According to Hekiru's wishes, the event would have a stage costume exhibition (photos allowed) as well as the usual FC content. The content for the main event was taken from suggestions by club members. The event started at 1pm, with the open at 12:30. There were about 2500 people maybe? It took a long time to get everybody inside, especially since people were taking photos of the costumes (lined up in the front of the hall, just inside the entrance), plus the fact that you had to go through camera check before entering the arena, where photos were not allowed. The event started late, at 1:20. First they played the staff credit rolls (the video that comes on at the end of the concert, before the encore) for Starting Legend '98, Starting Legend 1999 ~CHANGE~ (with the fan video footage replaced by video from Starting Legend DASH), Starting Legend 2000 ~live to love~, and the video roll featuring 6 years of Shiina Hekiru that ran yesterday. Then the lights brightened, and "Love Love de ikou" from No Make Girl started playing (the album was played throughout the entire event) and Hekiru came on stage with Masako-san. Hekiru wore a blue string tank top with a unbuttoned red shirt(?) and dark pants. Masako wore the ~live to love~ windbreaker. Hekiru said, "Happy New Year!" and the crowd greeted her in return. "Is everyone all right?" Hekiru asked, and was answered with a weak cheer from the crowd. "Oh, you must be really tired from last night. But I'm fine!" she said brightly. Then Masako welcomed everyone, and explained that there had been many requests for the the staff roll video footage. She said that it must have been nostalgic to see that, and asked if Hekiru found it nostalgic too. Hekiru said that she looked really different with long hair, and that the band members had changed, with Yos-K becoming a star (in Japanese it means someone has died!), and Yosshi gone back to Da Pumpiii (piiii is the sound of words being censored on radio or TV). Hekiru said that there was some embarrassing footage in the last video of her younger days, especially the chubbiness and the really outdated, corny fashions, as well as her face which looked like "an insect". (Hekiru used to say she looked like an insect with her large eyes and strange face.) After some small talk, the event moved on to the usual Hekiru quiz. This was a cult quiz, where as usual you were asked questions so inane that it was a guess at best. Everyone stood up, and raised their right or left arm depending on which answer they thought was right. The ones who got it wrong would sit, and when a few were left it was a junken game with Hekiru. The prize was a red one piece dress with frills. Hekiryu explained that it was one that she had worn many times. She wore it under her costume during the CHANGE tour (you could see it during "Akai Hana" when she took off her top layer). Then the staff added the frills, and she wore it during the live studio take of "Akai Hana" for a television program. After that, she wore it during the Christmas in Hawaii event.
Hekiru Cult Quiz
2. In Shiina Hekiru's album Right Beside You, which track is the 7th track?
3. When you right "Shiina Hekiru" in kanji, how many pen strokes is it?
4. During rehearsal, Hekiru was engrossed in a book. Which book was it?
5. Where was Hekiru's first part-time job?
6. Shiina Hekiru's first single "Setsunai egao" was released on May 9th 1995.
What day of the week was it? At this point, the remaining people went to junken with Hekiru on stage. The winner was the only female fan, which I was very happy for. Hekiru was happy too, it seems, because she said, "Oh dear, I'm glad it was a girl because what would a guy do if he won this?" to which Masako replied, "I would have asked him to wear it and send pictures". Hekiru said, "No!!!" Masako said, "I'd say let them use it as they see fit". Hekiru said, "USE?!?!?!? For what?!?!" It was funny to watch that. After that came the "Gesture Quiz", a first. It a version of charades where Hekiru would pantomime a phrase to two teams, red and white, who would try to guess the phrase. The teams were picked at random from postcards handed in by the attending fans. Hekiru picked the postcards, and Masako read them, but there were names she didn't know the reading of, and it was funny watching Masako and Hekiru trying to guess the correct readings.
Gesture Quiz
Phrase 2: Banana no kawa de subetta saru - A monkey who slipped on a banana peel
Phrase 3: Uchuu to koushin suru yuki daruma - A snowman transmitting to space
Phrase 4: Nebou shite awateita Shiina Hekiru - Shiina Hekiru who overslept and panicked
Phrase 5: Para para odoru yuubin post - A postbox dancing the para para
Phrase 6: Manin densha on iyarashii oyaji - A perverted old man in a packed train It was a tie so they did junken. The prize was staff passes of yesterday's live. "Don't miuse them today after the event," Masako said. "Trust me, we'll know." Hekiru said, "I have to go back to seiyuu/acting school. I sorry!" But Hekiru was really cute and funny doing the patomimes! Then came the "Dance Lesson Corner". Um, it was Hekiru teaching the fans how to do dance moves. But she said that there were few songs of hers nowadays with fixed dance moves, and that she usually ad-libbed so it was different each time. The dance moves were pretty tough. 3 sets of moves, done really quickly. At first they didn't play the song, but after rehearsal they played it and it wasn't a Hekiru song, it was a really fast disco dance mix. Ugh... I was already aching from the previous day... After that, there was some talk. Masako asked Hekiru how she found the live, and Hekiru talked about how the flash canons that came on during the Countdown were the loudest of all the years she had performed. She was thrown back with the force of the blast and her ears were ringing. She said the drummer told her afterwards that he flew up 5cm but still managed to keep playing. "So what are you going to do in the 21st century?" Masako said, and Hekiru said, "I'll do my best". (She used an old expression "I'll shed sweat".) "Is there anything you want from your fans?" Masako asked, and Hekiru said, "Well, there's the usual thing like staying healthy, but I would also want everyone to find their own brand of happiness." Then Hekiru said "My new album will come out on February... um... February.. um... well, during the month of February!" At this point Tairaku-san came on stage and berated Masako for being a poor talk host. He said that there was an important announcement, and proceeded to announce the train schedule (the trains had stopped running that day due to high wind), and some info for those who came of the group tour package. Then on the screen was a message "News Flash!" which changed to "Kabayashi Masako is getting married?!" Tairaku-san said, "Yes, Kobayashi Masako who has run 4179*LOVE all this time will be getting married in March and will be leaving us. And who is she getting married to...? It's this guy!" and pointed to the screen. It was a picture of Yoshiaki with his eyes blacked out! (Criminals whose pictures appear have their eyes black out in the same way.) "Yes, it's the guitar player on the right! Yoshiaki!" And said guitar player shuffled onto stage, pulled by Masako, to the cheers of the crowd. And all staff brought out flowers for her, one by one, and Masako started crying. Hekiru handed her a bouquet too and hugged her. Then Tairaku said there would be a special live, and everybody left the stage. Tairaku and Hekiru sat in front of the stage while waiting for the staff band to set up. But the vocal wasn't ready yet, so the band ask Tairaku to stall for time. So Tairaku started talking about this time when he went to a cabaret club and all the girls were cute except for his and then he started to nosebleed so they couldn't leave until his nosebleed stopped. But the vocal still wasn't ready, so he went on about going to this club in Hiroshima, and Hekiru said, "Someone stop him before he says anything more embarrassing!!" The vocal was finally ready, so Tairaku shut up (to the consternation of the male fans who wanted to hear more guy talk). The lights dimmed, and the staff band struck up "Thousand of Stars" as Masako appeared on stage to sing her parting song. She was crying as she sang, and it was really moving. Then the song ended, and Masako placed the mike on the stage and left, and the camera showed the mike lying on the ground. Then Tairaku called Yoshiaki out for a special appearance, and Manami-san (the sound checker) came up as the band played the opening to Graduater. Then Manami-san, really embarrassedly, gave a "Whoo!" call into the mike, then the band played the ending to Graduater as Manami disappeared off the stage.
On the screen was a message Then Tairaku and Hekiru came back on stage, sharing one mike. Tairaku-san, "Hey, she left her mike. Do people usually leave their mikes?" and picked it up. Hekiru said, "She took her shoes off too." But there was no time left, so Tairaku-san ended the event there really quickly. Hekiru had a last comment: "See you at the winter tour. I'll be singing all the songs from Precious Garden, as well as songs that I couldn't sing at the Memorial or Countdown live, like "Anata mo shiranai koi no hate ni" or "No, No, No!". It was really hard to trim the songs down, and there were just so many songs to choose from, but I hope to sing them next time. The winter tour will consist of almost all new songs so it's probably going to be hard on the band, but we'll do our best so please come to see the concert." After the event, I went back up and had my picture taken with some of the costumes. It was a really fun event, but the last part with Masako-san was also the most poignant thing I've ever seen.
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