R.B.Araki
ProfilePueen's guitarist. At the debut live, he sang all the song. However, it was a stopgap. We tried to recuite a singer, but there was not enough time to find a fit person for the post before the show. R.B. Araki has been played Michael Schenker materials most of the time for the past several years. He copied Queen songs for the first time in about 15 years except that he sometimes played Love Of My Life with his acoustic guitar at the wedding ceremonies and some other occasions. He runs a Michael Schenker fansite but before he got into Schenker, he had been a huge Queen fan.
How he encountered Queen music
Around 1975 when he was an elementary school student, his cousin who is 6-year older gave him a cassette of the Queen II album (Black side only, I don't remember why). It was the first time he heard Queen. He thought a woman sang them. Later, the cousin gave him a cassette of "News Of The World" which got him totally hooked on their music. Recently some professional wrestlers use We Will Rock You as their entry theme song. But, he already used it as the theme song at the wrestling skit when he was an elementary student.
Favorite Queen Album/Tune
If he has to choose only one album, it would be Queen II. As for the fovorite song, he likes March Of The Black Queen very much, but maybe he loves Spread Your Wings the best. He lost his enthusiasm for Queen to some extent after Hot Space. However, he now feels all the later-stage materials are fantastic. For example, Who Wants To Live Forever is a masterpiece.
How He Formed Pueen
In August 2003, at the party after the concert where R.B. Araki played as a guitarist of a UFO tribute band called Queen Of The Deep, Ms. Sawako Ito who came to see his show all the way from Kobe (500km away!) was next to him. She was a big Queen and Schenker fan. And in front of him was Smile Endo who also played at the show as a drummer of the band called Mow Mow. These three people quite enjoyed chatting with each other on the subject of Queen. And, we have decided to form a Queen tribute band someday.
Music Gear
He uses a white Gibson Flying V as a main guitar. He bought a Greco-made Brian May model aroung 1985 before he got his fist Flying V. He never used the May model at the stage and it has been covered with dust for long years in the attic. Regarding pedals, he has long used Korg A4 multi-effector. He got a brand new Boss SS-20 delay machine to play Brighton Rock at the debut gig. He uses Herco nylon pick but he used 10 Pence coin only for Brighton Rock. His friends in U.K. kindly sent him old six pence and other coins. Old six pence coin is too small for him so he used 10 pence coin instead.
His other bands
Yamaguchi Schenker
Assault Attack
Luemetal
Dr. Bottom
Queen Of The Deep
M2SZ
Website