Tulip

Japanese pop-rock band from Fukuoka, lead by Kazuo Zaitsu.

Born from ashes of student folk group "The Four Singers", they debuted in 1972 with album "The Yellow Magical Shoes". After releasing the no. 1 single "Kokoro no Tabi" (The Heart's Journey) in 1973, Tulip became a successful act nationwide, being known as the "Japanese Beatles". Although the band disbanded in 1989 after many personnel and musical direction changes, all but one of Tulip's original members (with bassist Shinichiro Miyagi in Akira Yoshida's place, being retired) reunited in 1996, inspired by the Beatles' Anthology project. They are still occasionally active, going on tours and releasing music, most recent album being 2007's "run".

Original line-up (1972 - 1979):
Kazuo Zaitsu - guitar, keyboards, vocals
Akira Yoshida - bass, vocals (retired 1980, died 2024)
Toshiyuki Abe - guitar, vocals
Tatsuya Himeno - guitar, keyboards, vocals
Masatoshi Ueda - drums, vocals (left the band to form [a=Tony (174)] in 1980)

Second line-up (1980 - 1985):
Kazuo Zaitsu - guitar, keyboards, vocals
Toshiyuki Abe* - guitar
Tatsuya Himeno* - guitar, keyboards, vocals
Shinichiro Miyagi - bass, vocals
Kaoru Ito* - drums, vocals
*Left the band in 1985 to form Always

Final line-up (1985 - 1989):
Kazuo Zaitsu - guitar, keyboards, vocals
Shinichiro Miyagi - bass, vocals
Jun Matsumoto - drums, vocals (left after 1987 album "Primary Color")
Yoshiaki Tanno - keyboards, vocals
Hiroyuki "Hiro" Takahashi - keyboards, percussion, vocals (joined in 1987, died 2005)

Reunion line-up:
Kazuo Zaitsu - guitar, keyboards, vocals
Toshiyuki Abe - guitar (died 2014)
Tatsuya Himeno - guitar, keyboards, vocals
Masatoshi Ueda - drums, vocals
Shinichiro Miyagi - bass, vocals