The ROOSTERS(Z)

The ROOSTERS first formed in 1979 in Fukuoka with the original line up of Shinya Ohe (as vocalist and guitarist, Tomio Inoue on bass, and Jyunji Ikehata on drums. Shinya Ohe was the first frontman of the band; he sang lead vocals and wrote all the music and lyrics for the first 3 albums.

The ROOSTERS' first two albums consisted mainly of cover songs, but their third album Insane, was a step in a new direction. Hanada began composing songs from the fourth album Dis onwards, reducing the amount of songs composed by Ohe.

In 1983, Jyunju Ikehata left the group and the line-up changed: Jun Shimoyama on guitar, Kazuhiko Sakuyama on bass, Masayuki Nadatomo on drums and Koichi Ando on keyboards. With this new change, the band changed their name to The ROOSTERZ.

After the sixth album ?PHY in 1985, Shinya Ohe left the group to take a break from music. After Ohe's departure, Toshiyuki Shibayama wrote most of the lyrics, and Hanada wrote the music. While Shibayama was never an official member of the group, nor did he perform with the group, he continued to work with the group until the end.

Less than nine months after Ohe's departure, The ROOSTERS released their seventh album, Neon Boy. Shibayama's first contribution, Out Land, was found on this album.

The band continued strongly over the next two years with many live performances, but made the decision that after nine years and eleven albums, the band's activity would come to an end. In 1988, The ROOSTERS - now composed of Hiroyuki Hanada, Jun Shimoyama, Nikichi Anai and Shigeo Mihara - disbanded.

In March 1999, a tribute album is released, featuring the pillows, thee michelle gun elephant, TOKYO SKA PARADISE ORCHESTRA, Kemuri and others doing covers of The ROOSTERS songs.

In 2002, four of the original ROOSTERS came together to form the ROCK'N'ROLL GYPSIES. So far they have released three albums, one of which was a live album, and continue to make music today.

In 2004, Shinya Ohe came back to play one last live with The ROOSTERS at the 2004 Fuji Rock Festival in Naeba. Later that year in September, a ROOSTERS box set was released containing recorded material, rarities, live recording and several DVDs, for a total of 27 CDs and 6 DVDs.