Not the end after allStudio Coast (Shinkiba)
ELLEGARDEN's last show before the hiatus: Studio Coast, Tokyo, September 7, 2008
On September 7, 2008, at Studio Coast in Shinkiba, Tokyo, ELLEGARDEN played the one-man show that would be their last before a hiatus. The pause had been announced on May 2 that year: the members' motivation for the new album they were making had drifted apart. It was the fourth of the four last one-man shows before the break, two in Osaka and two in Tokyo, in a hall that held about 2,400 people standing. The DVD released the following year follows the band on handheld home video cameras from the meeting where they chose the setlist to the show itself, and its live section ends with "Surfrider Association." That night Takeshi Hosomi told the crowd that if anyone had the wrong idea, they should pass it on: this was not the last time. He was right. The hiatus lasted ten years, and in August 2018 the four opened their comeback tour on the same Studio Coast stage.

Performance data
| Date | [15][22][23] |
|---|---|
| Venue | Studio Coast (Shinkiba) (Tokyo) |
| Event | UnverifiedNo title for this show has been found. rockinon.com called the four Osaka and Tokyo dates the band's last one-man shows before the hiatus without giving a title. The official DVD is titled 2008.09.07 STUDIO COAST.[15][22] |
| All dates | September 6, 2008, September 7, 2008 [15] |
| Category | Not the end after all |
| Why it ended | Hiatus [8][6][16] |
| Lineup | Takeshi Hosomi, Shinichi Ubukata, Yuichi Takada, Hirotaka Takahashi [1][14][21] |
| Attendance | UnverifiedNo published attendance figure was found. The hall held about 2,400 standing (Time Out Tokyo); Tokyo Dandy wrote that thousands filled it.[17][18] |
| Last song performed | UnverifiedFor reference: the fan-edited LiveFans lists "Surfrider Association," the third encore, as the last song. The live part of the official DVD also ends with it (Neowing; Tower Records), but because the DVD has only part of the show and may not keep the running order, it is not treated as proof. No press report naming the night's last song was found. The same song closed the band's set at ROCK IN JAPAN FESTIVAL 2008 in August (rockinon.com).[36][19] |
| Songs performed | 25 songsSee the setlist ↓ |
| Video release | Yes [22][23][19] |
About the artist
ELLEGARDEN is a four-piece rock band formed in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, in December 1998: Takeshi Hosomi (vocals, guitar), Shinichi Ubukata (guitar), Yuichi Takada (bass) and Hirotaka Takahashi (drums).[1] Their first CD, ELLEGARDEN, came out in May 2001,[1] and between the 2002 full-length Don't Trust Anyone But Us and Eleven Fire Crackers in 2006 they recorded the 21 songs later chosen for their best-of album.[2] A 2018 Modelpress article named "Kaze no Hi" (a windy day) and "Jitterbug" as their signature songs.[3]
They were above all a live band. A 2006 profile said they played close to 100 shows a year; the Space Sonic Tour 2005-2006, which began on December 3, 2005, sold out all 36 shows at 35 venues, and in March 2006 they played SXSW and then toured seven U.S. cities.[1] From April 2, 2005, they also had their own program, Riot on the Radio, on the Chiba FM station bayfm.[4]
At NANO-MUGEN FES. 2006 at Yokohama Arena on July 16, 2006, they opened with "Space Sonic," played the new song "Salamander" for the first time, and Hosomi said they were in the middle of recording a new album.[5] That album was Eleven Fire Crackers, released that autumn.[6] The final show of its national tour, at Makuhari Messe on March 24, 2007, drew about 30,000 people, the biggest venue the band had played; all 26 songs went onto the DVD Eleven Fire Crackers Tour 06-07: After Party.[7]
Why this was thought to be the end
A little more than a year after Makuhari, at midnight on May 2, 2008, ELLEGARDEN announced a hiatus on its official website.[8] The band had started work on a new album the previous year, but as it went on, the members' motivation for new work drifted apart. After talking it through, they concluded that carrying on would not produce a record all of them could be satisfied with, so they stopped the album and decided to pause.[8][6] No date was set for a return. The shows already booked through early September, including some not yet announced, would go ahead.[8]
The announcement carried a comment from Shinichi Ubukata, who said the members would each keep growing so that they could release new work as ELLEGARDEN again.[6] Takeshi Hosomi wrote in his diary on the official site the same day that he still meant to keep the promise he had made to everyone, that these four would make music together for the rest of their lives, and that for that reason he did not want to say either "thank you" or "sorry."[6] Even after long discussions, he added, part of him hoped the others would turn around and say it had all been a joke.[9]
The June issue of Rockin'on Japan, out on May 20, put ELLEGARDEN on the cover with an interview in which Hosomi talked about the hiatus.[9][10] According to rockinon.com's summary, he said he had never imagined ELLEGARDEN ending, so he had never made an effort to keep it going, and that he did not think it had been wrong to live only for the band.[10] Years later, Real Sound recalled that in the same interview Hosomi apologized to fans on behalf of all four and said he very much wanted to see everyone again, and that they would definitely come back.[11]
Also on May 20, the band announced a best-of album, ELLEGARDEN BEST (1999~2008), for July 2. It collected 21 songs from Don't Trust Anyone But Us to Eleven Fire Crackers,[2][12] and Hosomi said there would be one-man shows in Tokyo and Osaka in early September.[12]
The summer festivals went ahead as planned. At ROCK IN JAPAN FESTIVAL 2008 in August, ELLEGARDEN were the last act of the three days on the GRASS STAGE. rockinon.com's on-the-day report noted that it was less than three months since the hiatus announcement, and that the September one-man shows would be, for now, the full stop. They opened with "Pizza Man," and after the encore "Kinsei" (Venus), Hosomi asked for one more song, saying that ending on a teary note wasn't their style, and they closed with "Surfrider Association."[13] They played FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL that summer as well, and backstage footage from both festivals later went onto the DVD.[14]
On July 30 came the dates of the last one-man shows before the hiatus: Zepp Osaka on September 2 and 3, and Studio Coast in Shinkiba, Tokyo, on September 6 and 7. Tickets were sold only by online lottery through the e+ ticketing service, with no presale or general sale, a limit of two per person, and applicants allowed to try for either Osaka or Tokyo, not both.[15] Riot on the Radio, on air since 2005, ended with its broadcast of September 3.[4]
The hiatus ended up lasting ten years. In May 2018, ELLEGARDEN announced its first tour in about a decade under the same name,[16] which is why this site classes the show of September 7, 2008, as "Not the end after all."
What is known about the day
September 7, 2008, was a Sunday: the second night at Studio Coast and the fourth and last of the pre-hiatus one-man shows, counting the two in Osaka.[15] The venue was an event hall in Shinkiba, Tokyo, that had opened in 2002 and held about 2,400 standing.[17] Eighteen months earlier the band had drawn about 30,000 people to Makuhari Messe;[7] they spent their last night before the hiatus in a room less than a tenth of that size.
Two days later the Tokyo culture site Tokyo Dandy reported that hundreds of fans had been outside the station looking for tickets and that thousands filled the hall.[18]
The documentary part of the DVD released the next year starts well before showtime. According to Takuya Furukawa's review on rockinon.com, the footage was probably never meant for release: it is rough, shot on several handheld home video cameras. It shows the members' meeting to settle the setlist, their arrival at the venue and the last rehearsal before the hiatus, with dressing-room scenes from that summer's ROCK IN JAPAN and FUJI ROCK cut in between.[14]
The live section of the DVD opens with a track titled "Opening," then "Fire Cracker" and "Pizza Man." Ten songs from the night appear, among them "Niji" (a rainbow), "My Favorite Song," "Jitterbug," "Supernova," "Kaze no Hi" and "Make A Wish," all of which were on the best-of album, and "Santa Kurōsu" (Santa Claus), which was not.[19][20][2] No press report of the night's songs and running order was found, and official material does not say how much of the show the DVD contains or whether it keeps the order of the night. The setlist on this page comes from a fan-edited database and is given for reference only.
The review notes that the DVD also shows the four walking back to the dressing room between the main set and the encore. Watching them, Furukawa wrote, it was plain that the four on stage were more than a set of individual players: they had become one band.[14]
During the show Hosomi told the crowd that if anyone had the wrong idea, they should tell them: this was not the last time. Furukawa ends his review with that remark.[14] Ten years later, Natalie wrote that at this Studio Coast show ELLEGARDEN had vowed they would definitely come back.[21]
The live section of the DVD ends with "Surfrider Association,"[19] the same song Hosomi had put at the very end of the band's ROCK IN JAPAN set in August because ending on a teary note wasn't their style.[13] No press report has been found, however, that says what the actual last song of the night was.
Tokyo Dandy's piece touched briefly on the scene after the show and signed off by saying the parting was only for now.[18] The DVD's product description dates the start of the hiatus to September 7, 2008.[22] The next time the four stood on a stage together was almost ten years later, on August 8, 2018, at the same Studio Coast.[16]
What the show left behind
The DVD 2008.09.07 STUDIO COAST came out on April 8, 2009, a single disc combining a documentary that follows the band from the May announcement, the September 7 show and nine music videos.[22][23] rockinon.com, announcing it, recommended it both to those who had been there and to those who could not get in.[23]
During the hiatus the four played in other bands and, as one writer later put it, gained years and experience.[24] Shinichi Ubukata formed Nothing's Carved In Stone, which played its first show at Daikanyama UNIT in Tokyo on February 27, 2009.[25] Takeshi Hosomi started a new project, the HIATUS, whose first album, Trash We'd Love, came out on May 27, 2009.[26]
On May 10, 2018, ELLEGARDEN announced THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN TOUR 2018 on its official site: Studio Coast on August 8, Sendai PIT on August 10 and ZOZO Marine Stadium in Chiba on August 15, the band's first tour in about ten years.[16][27] The site showed the four in what looked like full-body tights.[24] The same day Hosomi posted on his blog under the title "Tadaima" (I'm home), with a single line promising to put a smile on everyone's face.[28] The tour opened at Studio Coast, where the band had played its last two nights before the hiatus ten years earlier.[16][15]
Reporting on the ZOZO Marine Stadium show on August 15, Natalie wrote that ELLEGARDEN, who had vowed at Studio Coast ten years before that they would definitely come back, had kept their promise to the audience. ONE OK ROCK were the guests on every date, and ELLEGARDEN opened with "Supernova." Hosomi told the crowd the band had never thought it would take ten years and apologized for keeping them waiting so long; Hirotaka Takahashi admitted that over those ten years he had privately wondered whether ELLEGARDEN would ever return. About 38,000 people sang along to "Make A Wish," and fireworks went up over the stadium with the last note of "BBQ Riot Song," the second encore.[21]
The hall where the band spent its last night before the hiatus is gone. Later known as USEN STUDIO COAST, it closed after its last day of business on January 30, 2022, when its fixed-term land lease ran out.[29][17]
That same year ELLEGARDEN began releasing new music. On September 9, 2022, the band put out "Mountain Top," a song first played as an encore at BAND OF FOUR -Shisetsukon-.[11] On November 11, ELLEGARDEN TRIBUTE, with covers by Vaundy, My Hair is Bad, BiSH, Macaroni Empitsu, Sayaka Yamamoto, BLUE ENCOUNT and Saucy Dog, was released on Amazon Music.[30]
On November 25, ELLEGARDEN : Lost & Found, a documentary directed by Taichi Kimura, began streaming on Amazon Prime Video.[4][30] It traces the band from before its formation through the sudden hiatus announcement at the height of its popularity to the story behind the return after ten years.[30] All four attended a screening on November 14; Ubukata said he had teared up a few times watching it on the big screen, and Hosomi said it was interesting to see how the band looked through Kimura's eyes.[31]
The sixth album, The End of Yesterday, followed on December 21, 2022, the first since Eleven Fire Crackers 16 years earlier;[30] all 11 songs were made in the United States.[32] Riot on the Radio, which had run from April 2005 to September 3, 2008, returned for one night on January 4, 2023,[4] and a one-man tour of live houses around Japan, The End of Yesterday Tour 2023, was set to start that March.[33]
In August 2026 the band announced Bad For Education Tour II (2026), its first one-man tour in about three years, named after its 2004 Bad For Education Tour. Fourteen shows in seven cities, including Seoul, were scheduled from Zepp Fukuoka on October 13 to a two-night finale at TOYOTA ARENA TOKYO on December 8 and 9.[34]
On the night of September 7, 2008, Hosomi said this was not the last time.[14] The last show before the hiatus did not turn out to be ELLEGARDEN's last show.
Context for readers
In Japan a band can announce katsudō kyūshi, an open-ended hiatus, rather than a breakup. ELLEGARDEN's announcement in May 2008 said it was a pause with no date set for a return,[8] and the last shows were billed as the last one-man shows before the hiatus, not as farewell concerts.[15] A "one-man" (wanman) show is a headline concert with no other acts on the bill. Studio Coast was a standing-room hall for about 2,400 in Shinkiba, Tokyo,[17] a fraction of the roughly 30,000 people the band had drawn to Makuhari Messe a year and a half earlier.[7] The band spent that last summer at outdoor festivals, closing the three-day ROCK IN JAPAN FESTIVAL 2008 on its main GRASS STAGE in front of tens of thousands of people; two years earlier, the 2006 NANO-MUGEN FES. had been held indoors at Yokohama Arena.[13][5]
Setlist
25 songs Unverified[36][19][20]Main set Encore Last song
- No.13
- Fire Cracker
- スターフィッシュ “Sutāfisshu” (starfish)
- Pizza Man
- モンスター “Monsutā” (monster)
- 虹 “Niji” (a rainbow)
- サンタクロース “Santa Kurōsu” (Santa Claus)
- My Favorite Song
- Space Sonic
- Middle Of Nowhere
- Missing
- 高架線 “Kōkasen” (an elevated railway line)
- BBQ Riot Song
- Supernova
- 風の日 “Kaze no Hi” (a windy day)
- I Hate It
- Salamander
- Red Hot
- Make A Wish
- ジターバグ “Jitābagu” (jitterbug)
- Encore金星 “Kinsei” (Venus)
- (Can't Remember) How We Used To Be
- Encore 2Insane
- 月 “Tsuki” (the moon)
- Encore 3Surfrider Association
Another final curtain
More “last” shows that turned out not to be the last.
Foto: Stefan Brending / CC BY-SA 3.0 DE· Utilita Arena Birmingham
Linkin Park
Linkin Park's last show with Chester Bennington: Barclaycard Arena, Birmingham, July 6, 2017
Last song performed “Bleed It Out”
Photo: Will Fresch / CC BY-SA 2.0· Weston Park
Oasis
Oasis at V Festival, Weston Park, August 22, 2009
Last song performed “I Am The Walrus”
- Active years (December 1998 – September 7, 2008)
- Final show
- Shinichi Ubukata's new band, Nothing's Carved In Stone, plays its first show at Daikanyama UNIT in Tokyo.1 year later
- The DVD 2008.09.07 STUDIO COAST is released, with a documentary from the hiatus announcement, footage of this show and music videos.1 year later
- the HIATUS, Takeshi Hosomi's new project, releases its first album, Trash We'd Love.1 year later
- The official site announces THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN TOUR 2018, the band's first tour in about ten years, marking its return.10 years later
- The comeback tour opens at Studio Coast in Shinkiba, the same venue as the last show before the hiatus.10 years later
- ZOZO Marine Stadium in Chiba, with ONE OK ROCK as guests, ending with "BBQ Riot Song" as the second encore.10 years later
- Studio Coast (by then USEN STUDIO COAST) closes after its last day of business.14 years later
- The new song "Mountain Top" is released as a download and stream.14 years later
- The documentary ELLEGARDEN : Lost & Found, directed by Taichi Kimura, begins streaming on Amazon Prime Video.14 years later
- The End of Yesterday, the band's first album in 16 years, is released.14 years later
- A one-man tour, Bad For Education Tour II (2026), the first in about three years, is announced for October to December (14 shows in seven cities).18 years later
Watch / buyPR
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2008.09.07 STUDIO COAST
One disc with a documentary following the band from the hiatus announcement, footage of this show and nine music videos (Billboard JAPAN; rockinon.com). The track list has ten songs from the night, from "Fire Cracker" to "Surfrider Association" (Neowing; Tower Records). It appears not to be the full show, but no official wording calling it partial was found.
Supported by Rakuten Developers
Sources
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Revision history
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