The voice on the records that took LOUDNESS to America belongs to a man who had, two years before joining, announced that he was finished with hard rock.
Osaka
Minoru Niihara was born in Osaka on 12 March 1960. In high school he joined the band EARTHSHAKER, first as its bassist. He became the singer when the original vocalist left. In 1979, as a university student, he quit, saying he would not play hard rock any more.
It did not last. In the autumn of 1980 he auditioned for a new band being put together by Akira Takasaki and Munetaka Higuchi. He joined in March 1981 and moved to Tokyo. By his own account he had a single 5,000-yen note in his pocket.
The First Run
LOUDNESS made its debut on 25 November 1981. Over the next seven years Niihara sang on everything, including the two albums that charted in the United States: Thunder in the East (1985), which reached number 74 on the Billboard 200, and Lightning Strikes (1986), which reached number 64.
In December 1988 he was gone. It was reported at the time as his own decision. He has since said that it was not, and that he was dismissed. The band continued with an American singer, Mike Vescera.
Twelve Years
He kept working. In 1990 he formed DED CHAPLIN. In 1994 came SLY, in which the drummer was his old bandmate Higuchi. In 1999 he started X.Y.Z.→A with the drummer Funky Sueyoshi and the guitarist Fumihiko Kitsutaka. He also released a solo album, ONE, in 1989.
The Return
In 2000 the original four members of LOUDNESS reunited, and Niihara has been the band’s singer ever since. The second stretch has lasted far longer than the first.
In 2018 he published an autobiography. The band’s forty-fifth anniversary tour ran through 2025 and 2026.
Why It Matters
Being removed from the band you helped make famous is the kind of thing that ends careers. Niihara formed three more bands, waited twelve years, and went back. He has been open about how the exit happened, and he returned anyway.
Start with Thunder in the East. Then find X.Y.Z.→A to hear what he did in the gap.
