In Hong Kong last week, Japanese boy band W-inds was welcomed by some 1,000 teenage girls at the airport. And some 2,000 of them turned up to see the dance-pop trio perform last Monday at the Pop Rock Gala, a concert celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. t was W-ind's first visit to the city since shooting to fame in 2001. Keita Tachibana, 22, is the main vocalist and also the tallest member of the group at 1.81m. The Fukuoka native was picked from a talent search by artiste management agency Vision Factory in 2000 and teamed with Ryohei Chiba, 23, and Ryuichi Ogata, 22. The latter two came from the same dance school in Hokkaido. The boy band started out as nobodies performing in the streets of Tokyo but grew so popular that its official debut in Shibuya drew an 8,000-strong crowd. A sure sign of its popularity in Hong Kong were the 10 trophies the men picked up from their three-day trip. W-inds is the best-selling Japanese musical act in Hong Kong in 2004-2006, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. It is also the most popularly searched international artiste on the Yahoo! Hong Kong website. But not all was rosy for the guys during their visit. They were booed while leaving the post-concert media interview. Blame it on their manager, who incensed the local TV crew. Ming Pao Daily reported that the manager refused to allow the trio to hold TV mikes, so broadcast journalists had to squat in front of them to hold the mikes. And he got security officers to push away mikes that came too close during the five-minute session. Then there was controversy over the 'startlingly high' asking price of HK$1 million ($195,000) that they pocketed for a mere 20-minute performance. Reporters tried to verify it with the W-inds guys, but their replies were truncated during translation. The singers themselves seemed polite enough but were tight-lipped about personal details. But they did let on what were their favorite Hong Kong dishes. Keita loved the crabs, Ryohei loved fried wanton and Ryuichi, century eggs. The chaps are now back in Japan to plug their new single, Love Is The Greatest Thing, which was released on 4 Jul. Source: Electric
I use to freakin' love these guys... but looking at them now I'm thinking to myself, "Why did I ever like these guys?" No no, actually they were ok... but their style has changed too much, and Keita now sounds like he's singing out of his nose... Keita's jeans in the 1st pic aren't all that appealing...
