Golden Bomber is a visual kei band whose main concept is “Hyper-Giga-Hybrid-Super-Subculture-Visual Rock.” They are a band better classified as performers than musicians and stand out as the ultimate air band.
Golden Bomber was formed in 2004 by vocalist Kiryuin Sho and guitarist Kyan Yutaka. Their first live performance was in February 2005, but their activity did not truly flourish until several years later. Prior to 2008, the band cycled two drummers and support drumming staff before drummer Tenkujyou Dankichi joined the band.
In 2008, Golden Bomber released a single every month for five consecutive months, including Dakishimete Schwarz/Dotei ga! and Trauma kyaba jou/Moto kare korosu. Each single sold more than 3000 copies.
On January 1, 2009, they released a concept mini-album, Imitation Gold ～Kinbaku no meikyoku niban shibori. The album was streamed on radio stations NACK5 and FM802 among others and became popular on YouTube and the Japanese video site NicoNico Douga. On April 5, Tenkujyou Dankichi left the band after a performance at Takadanobaba CLUB PHASE and was soon replaced by Darvish Kenji. Despite the line-up change, Golden Bomber's activity did not slow and the band held a solo tour, visiting all 47 prefectures of Japan.
By summer of that year, Golden Bomber released the song Time Machine ga hoshiiyo, which became the ending theme of the Playstation 2 game "Skip Beat!" The band also made a movie called "Sorinokoshita Natsu." The members not only starred in it, but also scripted, directed, shot and edited the film themselves. When the movie was released, they also debuted its original soundtrack.
Also notable for 2009 was the band's monthly one-mans at Takadanobaba CLUB PHASE. They began at the start of the year on the first Sunday of every month and concluded in December. By September, the year's remaining Sunday performances were all sold out.
In 2010, Golden Bomber kept fans busy by releasing a new song monthly via the MP3 site dwango.jp. The songs soon reached the top of the charts every month. Continuing the trend of the previous year, they launched another 12 months of consecutive one-man shows, visiting the cities of Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo each once every three months throughout the year. All shows were sold out the day the tickets went on sale.
Although the band had already performed in all Japanese prefectures, Golden Bomber declared their nationwide one-man, One man kowai, their first one-man tour, and started in April 2010. The tour included 15 shows across the country, with one additional performance. Almost all shows were sold out.
That summer, the band released their best-of album, Golden Hour ~Kamihanki Best 2010~, which included the six songs originally available on dwango.jp during the first half of their 12-months-in-a-row digital release campaign. It ranked 3rd on TOWER RECORDS' Weekly Chart and reached 14th on the Oricon charts.
In September, Golden Bomber traveled to Shanghai, China, where they performed at the Japanese pavilion in Expo 2010 Shanghai China. One month later, the song Mata kimi ni bango o kikenakatta, which was distributed through dwango.jp in August, was released as a single, becoming their first single for 2010.
Golden Bomber started off 2011 with the release of best-of album, Golden Hour ~Shimohanki Best 2010~, which reached first place on the Oricon daily charts and third on the Oricon weekly charts. They were subsequently invited to perform on the morning television program "Hanamaru Market," and the show featured a short segment on why the band was popular, including the examination of a cardboard saxophone.
On March 27th, the band started their second nationwide one-man tour which kicked off at Shibuya AX and will finish on May 5th at Shibuya C.C. Lemon Hall.
