Lazy (band)

Lazy

Lazy (レイジー, stylized as LAZY) is a Japanese rock band founded in Osaka in 1973 by classmates Hironobu Kageyama, Hiroyuki Tanaka, and Akira Takasaki. Named after the Deep Purple song of the same name, the band aimed from the start to play hard rock. Their management had other ideas, however, and launched them as a teenage pop idol act in 1977. After years of creative tension, Lazy shed their pop image in 1980, declared their commitment to hard rock, and released a final album before dissolving in 1981. Two of their members — guitarist Akira Takasaki and drummer Munetaka Higuchi — went on to found Loudness, while vocalist Hironobu Kageyama became a celebrated anime song singer and a founding member of Jam Project. Lazy reunited in 1998 and has continued to release and perform intermittently since.

History

Formation and Early Years (1973–1976)

Lazy was formed in 1973 in Osaka by elementary school classmates Hironobu Kageyama (vocals), Hiroyuki Tanaka (bass), and Akira Takasaki (guitar). The trio soon added drummer Munetaka Higuchi and keyboardist Shunji Inoue, both recruited from their school. The band's name was lifted directly from Deep Purple's instrumental "Lazy," reflecting the hard rock ambitions the young musicians shared. Despite their musical intentions, the band spent several years developing before signing to a major label.

Pop Idol Era (1977–1978)

Lazy made their commercial debut on July 25, 1977, with the single "Hey! I Love You!" on RCA Japan. Rather than developing their hard rock sound, management and producers repackaged the five young men as a Japanese boy band — assigning each member a Western stage nickname (Kageyama as "Michell," Takasaki as "Suzy," Higuchi as "Davy," Tanaka as "Funny," and Inoue as "Pocky"), outfitting them in costumes, and crafting singles aimed at the teenage market. The approach was commercially successful, producing a steady stream of singles through 1978 and two studio albums: This Is the Lazy (1978) and Dream a Dream (1978). According to Kageyama, the gap between the idol persona and the members' actual musical identity caused significant internal friction during this period.

Shift Toward Hard Rock (1979–1980)

Beginning with their third album Rock Diamond (1979), partially recorded in Hawaii, the band began asserting creative control — writing their own material and pulling the sound toward harder rock. Their fourth album Lazy V (1980) retained the rock sound, though it did not feature original compositions. During the 1980 summer tour, the band made a formal public declaration of their commitment to hard rock, dropping the idol trappings. The declaration culminated in Earth Ark (宇宙船地球号, December 1980), a full hard rock album featuring cover art by renowned illustrator Noriyoshi Ohrai. Earth Ark became their best-selling record and is regarded as the creative high point of their original run.

Disbandment (1981)

Despite the critical and commercial success of Earth Ark, internal tensions between the band and their management office came to a head. Drummer Higuchi, as the eldest and de facto leader, had been negotiating on behalf of the group over matters including living arrangements, which put him at odds with management. When the office threatened to remove a member, the five chose to leave together rather than splinter. Lazy announced their breakup on February 18, 1981, at a concert in Chofu, Tokyo, and officially dissolved on May 31, 1981, after a farewell show in their hometown of Osaka.

Post-Breakup Careers

Following the dissolution, each member pursued a separate path. Kageyama embarked on a solo career in anime theme music, eventually becoming one of Japan's most prominent anime song vocalists and a founding member of Jam Project in 2000. Takasaki and Higuchi formed Loudness in 1981 with vocalist Minoru Niihara and bassist Masayoshi Yamashita, going on to become Japan's first heavy metal band to sign with a major American label. Tanaka and Inoue collaborated in the band Neverland before transitioning into music production.

Reunion and Later Activity (1998–Present)

Lazy reunited in 1997–1998, releasing the studio album Happy Time in July 1998 and undertaking a reunion tour. A second reunion album, Earth Ark II (宇宙船地球号II), followed in 2002. The band suffered significant losses in subsequent years: bassist Hiroyuki Tanaka died of heart failure on September 1, 2006, at age 46, and drummer Munetaka Higuchi died of liver cancer on November 30, 2008, at age 49. Later Lazy projects incorporated guest musicians Tamio Okuda and Kazuyoshi Saito in their places. In 2009, the band — billed as "Ultimate Lazy for Mazinger" — recorded a new version of their 1980 single "Kanjite Night" with Kageyama's Jam Project for the anime Shin Mazinger Shogeki! Z Hen. A further single, "Reckless," appeared in 2011 for the animated film Towa no Quon, and a 40th-anniversary single, Slow and Steady, was released in December 2017.

Members

Name	Stage Name	Role	Status
Hironobu Kageyama	Michell	Vocals	Active (current member)
Akira Takasaki	Suzy	Guitar	Active (current member)
Shunji Inoue	Pocky	Keyboards	Active (current member)
Hiroyuki Tanaka †	Funny	Bass	Died September 1, 2006
Munetaka Higuchi †	Davy	Drums	Died November 30, 2008

Discography

Studio Albums

Year	Album	Notes
1978	This Is the Lazy	Debut album; RCA Japan; pop idol era
1978	Dream a Dream	Pop idol era
1979	Rock Diamond	Partially recorded in Hawaii; first album with original compositions
1980	Lazy V	Rock sound; no original compositions
1980	Earth Ark (宇宙船地球号)	Full hard rock album; cover art by Noriyoshi Ohrai; best-selling original-run record
1998	Happy Time	Reunion album
2002	Earth Ark II (宇宙船地球号II)	Second reunion studio album

Selected Singles

Year	Single
1977	"Hey! I Love You!" (debut single)
1977	"Camouflage"
1978	"Jigoku no Tenshi"
1980	"Kanjite Night"
1981	"Glass no Heart" (final original-era single)
2009	"Kanjite Knight" (feat. Tamio Okuda, Kazuyoshi Saito & JAM Project)
2011	"Reckless"
2017	"Slow and Steady" (40th anniversary single)