NIGHT HAWKS

Night Hawks's story officially started in December of 1987 when they participated in an audition organized by CBS/Sony Records. The audition was a success and so they obtained a major record deal. In February of 1989 they released their first, self-titled album, and in May they got the chance to tour with X, later known as X JAPAN. In March of 1990, their first single, STAY ALIVE, and second album, NIGHT HAWKS II, came out. However, they only started to gain fame amongst a larger audience in August of 1990, when they provided their song SHOUT as the opening song for the anime "Fuuma no kojirou." Because of this, it is remembered as the most famous and representative song of the band. On April 21, 1992, their third album, NO SATISFACTION, came out with a sound that hadn't changed from their early days. Though the songs were excellent, they didn't really offer anything new. In 1993, the band teamed up with TOSHI (X JAPAN), who had just started his solo career. They performed together in various live houses, amongst them the legendary Nippon Budokan. Toshi with Night Hawks released LOOMING-Tashikametai-, PARADISE and ALWAYS-Tsutaetai- in 1993 and Naite irunowa in 1994. At the end of this collaboration, in 1994, Night Hawks released two new albums. First was a best-of album, MIDNIGHT HAWKS -the best-, followed by their fourth and last studio album, POWER OF LOVE. The new album bore some differences from their previous work. Their music was still melodic rock, but the songs occasionally had a bit of a funk-like edge, sometimes even a pop feeling. TOSHI was also featured on the album and provided the vocals to two songs. The following year, Shuichi Aoki started to work on his side project, Kings, with Luke Takamura (Seikima II), Taiji Sawada (ex X JAPAN) and Satoshi 'Joe' Miyawaki (ex 44 Magnum). From then on, Night Hawks's activities slowed. The very last Night Hawks release was a live album, POWER IN LIVE, which came out in 1997. Two years after this release, and a few stray performances later, they ceased all activities. However, under the name The Whooze, with the exact same lineup, they released the album 37 Karat, which consisted of covers of well-known bands from the 70s and 80s. Since then, all band members have continued their music career, playing in various bands and working on other projects. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.