Abingdon Boys School is a Japanese rock band formed in 2005. It consists of vocalist Takanori Nishikawa, guitarists Sunao and Hiroshi Shibasaki, and keyboardist Toshiyuki Kishi.
They have released two studio albums, Abingdon Boys School (2007) and Abingdon Road (2010), both of which reached the number two position on Japan's Oricon chart.
members: Takanori Nishikawa, Hiroshi Shibasaki, Sunao, Toshiyuki Kishi
formed in: Tokyo
labels: Epic Records Japan
genres: rock music, alternative rock
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Abingdon Boys School began in 2005 when Takanori Nishikawa, known for his pop music under the name T.M.Revolution, decided to return to his rock roots in Luis-Mary with Sunao, a guitarist who supported him in his solo career. They were introduced to guitarist Hiroshi Shibasaki (ex-Wands) after Nishikawa publicly praised his band Al.ni.co on the radio show that he did for All Night Nippon. Shibasaki then joined the T.M.Revolution backing band as well. They continued to discuss forming a new band, when Tetsu suggested they contribute to a tribute album being made for the manga series Nana. Programmer and producer Toshiyuki Kishi was a classmate of Shibasaki's in music school who had handed Nishikawa a demo of what he was working on. The...
Abingdon Boys School released their first song "Stay Away", an English-language track written by Nishikawa and composed by Shibasaki, on the 2005 Nana tribute album Love for Nana ~Only 1 Tribute~. The band also recorded a cover of the Buck-Tick song "Dress" for their tribute album, Parade -Respective Tracks of Buck-Tick-. The group's first live concert was performed on November 24, 2005, alongside Uverworld and Tsubakiya Quartet, as a show presented by music magazine CD Data.
Music website Barks described Abingdon Boys School's music as having a "free-spirited, hard-hitting musicality, reminiscent of alternative rock." According to Robert Michael Poole of The Japan Times, the band's music consists of "glossy rock-guitar solos, harmonized choruses and pummeling drums", and recalls 1980s era Van Halen and edgier 1990s acts such as Jane's Addiction. All four members bring songs to the rest of the band via their own demo tapes. They then gather in a studio to play and discuss them, with Nishikawa's lyrics added last. The singer described his three bandmates' individual composing styles. Kishi's background is in instrumental music they called "art-work", but Nishikawa said he has a sense of Japanese melodies, so...