This weekend sees the UK debut of rock outfit SCANDAL as they fly in to perform at the O2 Islington Academy this Sunday.
The 4-piece band have chalked up an impressive resume since their formation back in 2006 by Haruna Ono (vocalist, guitars), Mami Sasazaki (lead guitar), Tomomi Ogawa (bass) and Rina Suzuki (drums). Originally starting out as an indie outfit, the foursome switched up to major label Epic in 2008.
Their first single on Epic, ‘Doll’ reached No. 26 in the Oricon charts and it wasn’t until 2009 with the release of the guitar-fuelled melodies of ‘Shojo S’ that the band’s popularity really took off, due in part to the single’s use as the opening theme for the anime series Bleach. The single reached No. 6 in the charts. Meanwhile, their debut studio album BEST★SCANDAL managed an impressive No. 5 and charted for 21 weeks.
The outfit have kept their hand in on anime soundtrack work with contributions to the anime Loups=Garous (as well as appearing in the anime itself) and in 2012, returned to Bleach with their twelfth single, ‘Harukaze’, which was used as the opening theme for the anime. SCANDAL also like to pay tribute to musical anime K-On! by dropping a cover version of songs such as ‘Don’t Say “Lazy” into their live shows.
SCANDAL also swept the board during the 2012 JpopAsia Music Awards, including Favourite Artist and Best Video.
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and Perfume producer Nakata Yasutaka has also collaborated with SCANDAL for their 2013 single ‘OVER DRIVE’.
SCANDAL’s sixth studio album HELLO WORLD, which also has a special UK and European release, features the singles ‘Departure’ and ‘Yoake no Ryuseigun’ as well as new single release ‘Image’.
Plus, a special SCANDAL Greatest Hits album (specifically compiled for the European market) is scheduled for release next month featuring classic tracks such as ‘Harukaze’, ‘DOLL’, ‘SCANDAL BABY’ and more.
SCANDAL will be performing live at the O2 Islington Academy on Sunday 26th April.
HELLO WORLD is available via UK iTunes to download
SCANDAL Greatest Hits will be released on 4th May 2015 via JPU Records.
http://www.scandal-4.com
http://www.o2academyislington.co.uk
http://www.jpurecords.com
