[Translation]ZONE has disbanded~!

[isaac hiew]

After their last stage performance in the Budokan Stadium on the April Fool's day, ZONE, the 4-female-member music band officially declared their disbandment and the releasement of their first best compilation album/final album : "E" scored the first place in the Oricon Chart on the 13/April/2005!

The band, which were founded in the year 2001, at Hokkaido School of Drama and Arts, was the first ever "BANDOL" (band idol) in the Japanese music history: The Youngest and most musically talented girl band ever. Their very first single, "Secret Base", made their fame soared sky high as the song was the theme song of the J-Drama "The war of the kids".

Their appearence has broken the common stereotype that a girl band can't have both good looking faces and music skills. ZONE proved the critics wrong by creating the BANDOL genre. With an average age of only 15 years old at that time, they have proved themselves.

ZONE has also proved their popularity when they were invited to the Kouhaku Competition for 3 years straight. However, the band deteriorated badly when the band leader Takayo left because of study in the year 2003 but was soon being replaced by the new member, Tomoka. The latter was also one of their close friends during the band's time in Hokkaido. Alas, the good times didn't last right after the 3 of their previous popular albums, "Z", "O", "N" and finally, "E".

The album itself, has included 16 past singles' tracks, and also with a song that they had made during their indies era. Until now the best results created so far were 2nd place, scored by "Secret base" and "Z". Therefore the Japanese media praised this best album as the perfect period stop of the band's career. Meanwhile, ZONE was the best selling band so far among the disbanded groups currently this year. The album will be released on 15th April 2005 in Taiwan!



Translated by Isaac Hiew
All original article and picture belongs to mtvchinese.com and ZONE.
16th April 2005