Yoshiki, leader of X Japan, one of the biggest rock bands in Japan, put his “crystal” piano up for auction yesterday afternoon, Sunday, 4/17, to raise money for the Japan Relief Fundraising Auction, in conjunction with Yahoo! Japan. About eight minutes into the auction, the bid shot from $.01 to $42,000, and is currently at more than $1.2 million. There are still six days remaining in the auction. The custom-made, plexi-glass “Yoshiki Signature Piano by Kawai,” has Yoshiki’s name engraved on it and was used when Yoshiki’s band, X Japan, played their legendary shows at the Tokyo Dome.
The Japanese-born Yoshiki, who lives in Los Angeles, felt the earthquake tremors while in a Tokyo recording studio working on X Japan’s first North American album, and was shocked by the large-scale damage across Japan. Yoshiki and his X Japan band mates decided to postpone the March 15 release of their first U.S. single, “Jade,” so they could focus their time and energies helping with the recovery.
In addition to the auction of Yoshiki’s “crystal” piano, Yoshiki, through his Yoshiki Foundation America, is spearheading a major celebrity auction to benefit the survivors of the earthquake and tsunami. The Foundation has already received items from Marilyn Manson, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Anthony Kiedis, comic book legend Stan Lee, Robert Pattinson, James Franco, and Reese Witherspoon.
Yoshiki also leaked some tour dates on his twitter page! We gathered them up and posted them here, Venue’s have not yet been stated.
June 28th - London, UK
July 1st - Paris, France
July 4th - Berlin, Germany
August 13 - Osaka, Japan
August 14 - Tokyo, Japan (Summer Sonic)
For more info on the Yoshiki Foundation America, go to: http://www.yoshikifoundationamerica.org/
For more info on X Japan, go to: http://tiny.cc/c8ixy
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Anybody catch these guys on their first US tour last fall? AMAZING!
omgoodness, I love YOSHIKI so MUCH!!!! <3 He's such a huge inspiration!
not to mention, X is my fave band of all time. <3