History Color

There are multiple artists with this name.

1. A Japanese visual kei punk band from the early 90's. *

2. C O L O R is the musical project of Los Angeles native Nelson London (signed to Cult Records). **

3. A French rap group.

4. Hungarian rock band formed in late 70s by three brothers: Gyula, Tibor & Attila Bokor. ***

5. Japanese vocal/R and B group.

6. Taiwanese pop/rock duo.

7. Color is a 60s band, presumebly from California. ****

8. Color is a four man alternative rock band from Austin, TX formed in the late 90s. *****

9. Color is a pop rock/alternative group from San Jose, CA that formed in 2012. It is made up of Thomas Burns, David Rayment, Ramzi Kawar, Justin Taylor, & Anders Ericsson.

* 1. COLOR was formed in 1985 by Dynamite Tommy (vocalist) in Osaka. In the original line-up, Dynamite Tommy actually was the guitarist and there was a keyboardist. During 1986, all of the other original members of COLOR left the band. Afterwards Dynamite Tommy recruited some new members, two of them included Cindy (rhythm guitarist) and Tatsuya (lead guitarist). Tatsuya only joined COLOR since Dynamite Tommy was impressed with his skills on the guitar. It has been noted that Tatsuya's guitar teacher was You Adachi of Dead End fame. After that, Dynamite Tommy switched from being the band's guitarist to the vocalist. COLOR went through two more line-ups in '86 and one in ' 87. In 1987, they released their first single, "Molt Grain". In 1988, Toshi (drummer) and Marry (bassist) joined the band. This ended up being their final and most well known line-up.

During Janurary 1988, COLOR released their Gekitotsu!! album, which was a huge success and sold as well as X Japan's Vanishing Vision. This is when the rivalry between X Japan and COLOR started. "East" X Japan had more of a metal sound while "West" COLOR had more of a punk sound. This is also where the whole "East Extasy V.S. West Free-Will" debate originated from. The ironic thing about the rivalry is that the members of X Japan did sing the chorus parts on many of the songs off of Gekitotsu!! Early 1989 saw the release of COLOR's Fools! Get Lucky! EP. After the success of that release, COLOR were signed to Crown Records (which later became Nippon Crown). At the end of 1989, Japan got the release of COLOR's first and only major album, Ask The Angels. Ask The Angels was originally written with Englsih lyrics and had a more violent theme. However, Crown Records wanted it to be more mainstream and made the band re-write some of the songs in Japanese and change a few lyrics in most of the songs.

However, their popularity was short lived compared to their rival. In 1990, COLOR started their promotion tour for the Ask The Angels album. Their major label debut concert would be one of the few major concerts they would ever do. The concert was held in COLOR's "hometown", Osaka. The crowd was wild that night and during one of the songs, the crowd went a little too crazy. The crowd rushed to the stage and during the stampeding, a fan got stomped to death. After that concert, COLOR decided to lay low to avoid the media and ended up losing their record contract with Crown Records. COLOR were inactive for six months. During that time, Dynamite Tommy started Sister's No Future with C.D.N. Ken-chan (ex-Kamaitachi) while Marry started Goatcore with You Adachi (ex-DEAD END). COLOR returned to the scene back as an indes band with the now rare single, The Exhibition. 1992 saw the first COLOR album since Ask The Angels, Cherry's World. That would be their last album featuring their original sound. COLOR also released their self cover album, Remind, that same year which was step closer to the sound of what would appear on GALAXY.

1994 saw the last tour by COLOR and their last album, GALAXY. GALAXY contained new songs and all of the songs are said to have a more of a techno dance sound. In 1995, their last live with the original line-up, well that was noted anyways, was the "Behind the Mask" concert. Other notable bands that played that concert were Kneuklid Romance and Rouage. After that, COLOR fell off of the face of the planet. A greatest hits album was issued in 1996. And in 1997, the now defunct jrock magazine, J-ROCK, published an article about COLOR being disbanded due to no actual activity since 1995.

Sometime during the 2001-2002 period, Marry joined G. D. Flickers. On June 14, 2002, Marry died in a motor vehicle accident. That July and August, Dynamite Tommy reissued Gekitotsu!! and Fools! Get Lucky! as apart of the Free-Will Summit line. The reissued versions came with bonus tracks that were originally only found on their singles. A year after Marry died, the remaining members of COLOR held the first of many farewell concerts for him. Playing Marry's part in the original farewell concert was former COLOR roadie and good friend, Den (ex-BY-SEXUAL). At this concert, Dynamite Tommy announced that COLOR were officially disbanding. There has been a Marry Memorial concert every year since 2003. One of the unique bands that perform at the Marry Memorial concerts is Chibi Color, which is Cindy's Color-cover band. Remmy, the bassist before Marry, also plays in Chibi Color. In 2005, there was a tribute album for COLOR released.

** 2. Growing up playing in a variety of local bands, London drew from his experience performing live in the downtown warehouse scene. The resulting sound of C O L O R is composed of wide spectrum of digital production, vintage synths and virtual instruments, seamlessly interwoven with live performance. London's goal is to push the boundaries of sonic experimentation while maintaining a cohesive focus on melody + musicality. The debut EP from C O L O R will be released on Julian Casablancas' label, Cult Records.

*** 4. The 80s line up featured also Miklós Felkai. The band have then recorded albums Color and Új színek (meaning "new color") and toured central Europe.

**** 7. An acetate exists, containing a great version of Down The Road Apiece plus an excellent Stones-y pounder called Young Miss Larsen, complete with a rave-up finale.

***** 8. The group consists of vocalist Chris Cann, guitarist Dean Truitt, bassist Chad Salls, and drummer Van Robbins. Its 200l debut album, Are You With Me?, was produced by Grammy Award winning producer Matt Serletic.

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