The brilliant green

The brilliant green, or buriguri for short, is a Japanese rock (or J-Rock) band. Tomoko Kawase (川瀬智子 Kawase Tomoko) is the vocalist; Ryo Matsui (松井亮 Matsui Ryo) plays electric/lead guitar; and Shunsaku Okuda (奥田俊作 Okuda Shunsaku) is on bass as well as acoustic/rhythm guitar. To his fellow band members and fans alike, Okuda is affectionately known as “Leader” as he composes the majority of the band’s music. The band were formed in 1995 after Ryo and Shunsaku spotted Tommy singing “Sometimes Always” by The Jesus and Mary Chain, and The Rolling Stones written Marianne Faithfull hit “As Tears Go By” in a Kyoto karaoke bar.

The Brilliant Green take much of their influence from Western music, most predominantly The Beatles with over half their songs including English lyrics. They released their first single “Bye Bye Mr.Mug” in 1997 with little success, but their break came in 1998 when their third single “There Will Be Love There” was chosen as the theme song for popular Japanese Drama Love Again, and as a result went straight to the top of the charts. After another number one hit with “Tsumetai Hana” they released their self-titled debut album which sold over one million copies in just two days. On the back of this success their first national tour, There Will Be Live There, sold out across Japan in only three minutes. The Brilliant Green were suddenly one of the biggest bands in Japan.

In the following years, the band was prolific, releasing two more album, “Terra 2001” and “Los Angeles”, along with severn more singles, and two clips DVD’s and a superb live DVD entitled “Super Terra 2000”.