Alice Nine
Members
Shou (将) (Vocals)
Hiroto (ヒロト) (Guitar)
Tora (虎) (Guitar)
Saga (沙我) (Bass)
Nao (ナオ/Nao) (Drums)
Blood Types:O (sh),O (T),O(H),AB (S),A (Nao)
Alice nine. (アリス九號.) Is a Visual-Kei, Oshare-Kei band under PS Company that was formed by Nao(leader/drummer) in April 2004. Their music varies between soft alternative rock and harder rock. When bis was still with PS Company, they were often coupled as performers.
Nao had a talk with Saga and later, Shou, Tora then Hiroto, to make a band. Shou and Tora were members of a band called Givuss
Their first concert was held at the Ikebukuro Cyber on May 11, 2004. After a few concerts, they began to tour with other artists/bands such as Miyavi, Ayabie, Karen, Kagrra,, Kra, and bis. They completed their first solo (one-man) tour between August 8 and August 31, 2005. Their third solo tour hit 14 stops across Japan in August of 2006.In 2006 Alice Nine had two songs, "Akatsuki" and "Ikuoku no Chandelier", used as opening and closing themes in the second season of the anime series Meine Liebe.
They have now finished their one-man tour 'BLACK JEWEL, WHITE ROSE 2007' and are continuing to improve and develop new ways of making music.
They produced a full length second album ALPHA which was released on November 28, 2007. The album contains a few tracks from previous albums and singles, such as Jewels, Number Six, White Prayer and Blue Planet. The album is ranked 9th on the Oricon Weekly for 2007 week 49.
The band has held a 2008 standing tour across Japan, 'A to U', starting from Zepp Sendai on January 10, 2008 and ending on February 9, 2008.
Guitarist Tora was in a critical condition with spinal disc hernia. He was numb from his head to his left hand and his entire left arm had gone cold. The rest of the band has postponed three stops on the tour until further notice of Tora's health. The tour has been resumed with Tora's persistence wanting to go on with the tour. The other members of alice nine has quoted on their blogs that Tora has gained his strength, However, he has not fully recovered. No further information was released after that, though Tora seems to have recovered enough to continue releasing singles and going on tours.
The band released a new single, titled "Mirror Ball" on March 26, 2008. The title song of the single was used in the live-action movie adaptation of the manga Aquarian Age.
Two compilations of the band's music videos, "Alice in Pictures I" and "Alice in Pictures II", were released on July 2, 2008. The DVDs contain approximately 8 music videos in chronological order of their original release, with "Alice in Pictures I" including the videos from "Gin no Tsuki Kuroi Hoshi" to "Number Six". "Alice in Pictures II" contains videos from "Jewels" to "Eraser -Memoire d'une fleur-", and also includes a new music video for "Gekkouyoku", a song which was exclusively included with the "Dive into the Sun" photobook.
On August 6, the band released their latest single, "Rainbows." The single reached a peak mark of #3 on the Japanese Oricon daily charts which is currently the band's current top position on mainstream Japanese charts. The band also started their tour called "Discotheque play like 'A' Rainbows" which coincided with the new single. The tour lasted the entire month, and the concert footage is scheduled for release on their live DVD called Discotheque play like "A" Rainbows -enter&exit- on October 29, 2008.
A new single called "Cross Game" is planned for release on December 10, 2008. The aforementioned song is currently being used as the ending theme song for anime Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D'S, and is planned to be released in two versions. On December 19, 2008, the band's tour at the time would culminate in the grand final, named "Crossing the Supernova", at NHK Hall.
A blog entry by vocalist Shou announced that the band is already in recording session for a third album named Vandalize, which is set for release on January 14, 2009. "Cross Game" will be the third single to be featured on the album, along with "Mirror Ball" and "Rainbows" for a total of 11 tracks. The album's title comes from the theme of "the destruction of culture."
Their single called HANA was released on August 5th. It includes 3 tracks and has 3 versions. Their full photobook, with all they've done upto this point,called: Piece of 5ive elements “THE BOOK” ~Alice Nine 5th~’ was released on August 24th.
For their final leg of ‘ALICE NINE. TOUR 2009 “UNTITLED VANDAL(ism)♯1”’ they performed at Kawasaki CLUB CITTA’,
The band began its activities in 2010 with the announcement of a compilation album, Alice Nine Complete Collection 2006-2009, which contains the title songs from each of the band's maxi-singles released since 2006. The compilation album was released on March 24, 2010. The band also finished their first tour of the year, Kikagaku no Kotowari (幾何学ノ理), that same month.
On April 4, 2010, during the final live of the Kikagaku no Kotowari tour, the band announced the release of a new single on August 4, 2010. However, the official website stated a slight delay of the single's release, pushing the release date to August 25, 2010. In the same announcement, the single was officially titled "Senkou." Filming of the music video for "Senkou" began in May 2010.
The band's official 2010 tour, Flash Light from the past, begun on July 5, 2010. The tour will span over the next four months with 30 performances in 27 live houses across Japan. The tour finale, Tokyo Galaxy, will be on January 6, 2011 at the Nippon Budokan.
Their single "Stargazer" was released on the 10 November 2010.
After leaving PS Company in 2014, Alice Nine joined Universal Music Group's Nayutawave Records (now know as Virgin Records). The band also officially shortened their name to A9 on March 1, 2015, but changed it back to Alice Nine in 2019.