A guesswork
Happy New Year ^O^
One of the most unexpected truth I realized during Laruku’s 20th anniversary is how much effort they put in marketing (in Japan of course).
When they were just indies, tetsuya had it under his control and they paid much attention to create their brand (e.g. they never handed out their flyers themselves, like other amateur bands did). When they signed to Danger Crue and then Ki/oon, even though they left marketing and advertising to others, many of their CMs have always been original in their concept, as tetsuya proudly confirms in Best hit LEC.
Sometimes, you can tell the story of a band even through an ad. That’s what tetsuya did in Tetsugaku 2, where he talks about dating-back to 1992-93 ads, with only hyde and him printed on. It’s not that common to find the faces of two members only on Laruku’s promotion, as they clearly wanted all the members to be in the spotlight. So I’m assuming he’s talking about the ads with this pic:
It was used to promote DUNE’s release, Sonic Gig and an event called “Kareinaru Mashou” in 1993.
Here are tetsuya’s words from Tetsugaku 2:
It’s precisely because also hyde was perceiving your talent, that he believed the leader would be a suitable role for you, I think. Coming to think of it, in L’Arc-en-Ciel’s history there have been 7 members in total: the 7 colours of the rainbow. In 1992 former guitarist hiro left, and ken joined the band. Then in 1993 the drummer pero changed the band configuration. Can you talk me about that period?
The president of our office, Ooishi-san, at the beginning of his career was an engineer, so he was quite fussy about the sound. He immediately told me to change the drummer. Well, you may consider it a really overbearing speech, but actually it’s quite usual when an amateur band makes its debut. Since then, when people like other senpai told me the same, I would think: “Waah… here it comes (laughs)”.
In a way, they foresaw it.
We released DUNE as indies, but we hadn’t a real artist shooting until we joined the office. At that time they took a two shot with only hyde and me. Of course, they also took a pic with all of us, and single shots for each member, but for some reasons they put only hyde and me on ads for DUNE at first.
That was revealing, wasn’t it?
To tell the truth, at that time Ooishi-san wanted to change the drummer and the guitarist. That’s why they put on ads the pic with only hyde and me.
Why?
You should ask it to Ooishi-san, you know. But I told him I didn’t want absolutely to change the guitarist.
So that’s how it went…
Here is where the pic tetsuya is talking about was used:
on a flyer, on a direct mail, and on a magazine ad (SHOXX, March 93)
So it was Ooishi- shachou and his staff who decided to put only hyde and tetsuya on the ads. The guitarist he was talking about is ken, without any doubt: hiro had already left the band (June 92) when they signed with Danger Crue (October-November 92).
About the drummer, I’m not that sure it was pero or sakura, as pero quitted on January 1993 and ads are not helping in this case, since pics are usually taken months before the publication. In this case, in the original photo shoot the drummer was still pero. On Fool’s Mate, March 93 issue, there’s a pic with all band members. Thanks to tetsuya’s gaudy dress I can guess it probably belongs to the same shooting:
Leader was wearing the same dress on other lives in 1992,
so I’m assuming this pic was taken in late 1992.
So the pic was taken before pero left, but used for promotion in 1993, when sakura joined the band. The magazine ad has the name of sakura printed on the back. But well, from what tetsuya said in Tetsugaku 2, I believe he was talking about pero and not about sakura.
Even if tetsuya now disapproves of some ken’s habits, like playing golf (I think he hints at ken when he writes in the book that rockers shouldn’t play golf, because he believes it to be a sport for uncool people), I can feel how much he respects him (and other members, too) as an artist. I’m very happy he defended ken and that Ooishi-shachou respected tetsuya’s will! I can’t imagine Laruku without ken’s guitar and beautiful melodies ^^
...and I wonder if all this influenced in some way pero's withdrawal...