globe was formed in 1995 by the legendary songwriter and composer Komuro Tetsuya (also known as TK), who is famed for having worked worldwide with various popular artists from many genres. Originally consisting of Komuro, Yamada Keiko (who has collaborated with Hamasaki Ayumi) and Marc Panther (Sakai Ryuichi), globe is a band who despite their eleven years in the industry, holds a firm following and record breaking sales to their name.
Yamada was first discovered in 1994 at the Eurogroove Night Talent Search which Komuro held to find a lead female vocalist for his new group. However, many people who witnessed her performance considered her somewhat unattractive, awkward and although Yamada fell during her audition whilst on stage, she continued singing as soon as she had regained her balance. Yamadas strong, persevering character combined with her strong and clear voice spoke for itself and although avex trax originally desired her to become a solo artist, Komuro picked her as the lead singer of globe upon its formation.
globes self-titled debut album, issued in 1996, sold a record breaking 4,000,000 copies with Yamadas versatile vocal range becoming recognised as one of the main contributors to the albums success. It was with the overall success of globes debut album that Yamada came to be recognised as one of the best singers that Japan had ever produced, mainly thanks to her talent to be able to hit incredibly high notes. Although globe had released singles from 1995 onward, it was in the year 1998 that with wanna Be A Dreammaker that the band received the Japanese record industry's highest honour.
In 1997, in accompaniment with various other bands produced by TK, globe ventured on the TK Pan-Pacific Tour 97. It was in the spring of this year that globe earned international recognition with gross sale ticket sales for a single concert in Taipei, Taiwan, earning them a total of nearly $3,000,000. This strong sale left even internationally recognised band U2 who performed in the same venue, with a lesser profit than was accumulated by globe.
In 2002, Yoshiki (ex. X Japan) who had collaborated with Komuro in the project V2, joined globe and alternately played drums, keyboards, piano and guitar although his participation to the project ended in the year 2005. It was also after a two-year hiatus, in which Komuro and Yamada married, that globe released an album: globe2 pop/rock celebrating the tenth anniversary of the bands formation.
As for globes future, Komuro has announced that collaboration work featuring other artists may be for consideration alongside globe extreme, a collaboration once again featuring Yoshiki. globes record release rate may appear to be slowing down somewhat as the band matures, but one can safely say that they will always remain popular!
