Mayday (Chinese: 五月天; pinyin: Wǔ Yuè Tiān), is a Taiwanese rock band that was formed in the late 1990s with five members, namely Ashin (vocalist), Monster and Stone (guitars), Masa (bass) and Guan You (drums).

            Formerly making music under the name of So Band, they officially came to be known as Mayday in 1997, with the name originating from Masa's online nickname.

         Musical Style and Influences
         Mayday's songs are written mostly in Min Nan (Taiwanese dialect) and Mandarin. They are popular for capturing the zeitgeist of Taiwanese youth in the 1990s which was an era of dreams, growing up, loneliness, love and disaffection.[2]

              Mayday has made no secret of its admiration of the Beatles whom they cite as influencing their ideals of rock music. )[3] The eighth track of their fifth album has a track called John Lennon (约翰蓝侬) where the band espouses its dreams to become the "Beatles of the Chinese World" (华人世界的披头四) and one day, to become better than them. Other diverse musical influences include the Irish band U2, the British band Oasis, the Japanese pop music artists Mr. Children, Sting as well as the Chinese rocker Wu Bai and China Blue.

In lyrics on recent albums, Ashin has also alluded to several cultural icons notably the Chinese mythical monkey-god Sun Wu-Kong, Mickey Mouse, Superman, Neil Armstrong and Che Guevara. The song "Armour" (武装) was also influenced by a Chinese drama 《孽子》and Haruki Murakami's novel, Kafka On the Shore.[4]

[edit] History

[edit] Formation and Early Years : So Band (1995-1997)
Mayday evolved from So Band which was formed by Ashin, Monster and the first drummer Qian You Da (钱佑达) in 1995 while they were studying in The Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan (师大附中). They were later joined by Masa and Stone, who were attending the same school. After graduation, the members went to different universities but continued to cut their teeth performing in pubs and eateries. They were also actively involved in promoting the growing rock music trend in Taiwan [5]. In 1997, the band registered under the moniker Mayday [6] in order to join the Formoz Festival (野台开唱). This would become the official name of the band.

[edit] Early Recording Career : (1997-1999)
Shortly after participating in the Formoz Festival (野台开唱), the band began to actively send demo tapes to various record companies in the hope of sealing a record deal. Their demo impressed Rock Records executive Lee Zong Sheng (李宗盛)[7] who described them as "the ones who would usher in the sound of the future".[8]

As a result, they signed their first record deal with Rock Records in 1998. In the same year, they also took part in the release of the Taiwan Independent Compilation Album 《ㄞ国歌曲》by indie music label tcm (角头音乐) which included their first studio recording Racing Car 《轧车》. [9] In June 1998, they also released the Embrace《拥抱》 compilation album for which they took on most of the songwriting, production and recording duties.[10]

In 1999, Guan You became the band's fourth drummer and they went on to release their first full-length studio album 《五月天第一张创作专辑》under Rock Records on July 7th, 1999. Their debut received critical acclaim and gained a following among the Taiwanese. It went on to move more than 300,000 copies, a feat for a new band in the then pessimistic and saturated music industry. [11] They were also nominated for the 11th Golden Melody Awards under the category of Best Band (十一届金曲奖最佳乐团奖). [12] The tracks "Peter and Mary" 「志明与春娇」and "Embrace" 「拥抱」 also caught on among the youth, and became the top songs in the KTV list. "Peter and Mary" was one of the top ten songs of the year according to the The Association of Music Workers in Taiwan (中华音乐人交流协会). On the 28th of August, they held their first large-scale performance called "168 Performances 「第168场演唱会」," cementing their position as one of the rising bands in Taiwan.

[edit] Release of Viva Love and People Life, Ocean Wild : (1999-2001)
The band's second album Viva Love 《爱情万岁》was released 7th July, 2000. Sales of Viva Love exceeded their previous album, shifting more than 350,000 copies.[13] Additionally, Viva Love won them the "Best Band" award at the 12th Golden Melody Awards (十二届金曲奖最佳乐团奖).[14] Mayday also held a series of concerts called "Ten Thousand Youths Standing Up" (「十万青年站出来」巡回演唱会) in Taipei City, Zhang Hua and Gaohsiung City. The concerts were famous for having the most concert-goers in 2000.[15]

In 2001, Mayday worked for the first time, on a movie soundtrack and accompanying score for the movie Migratory Bird 《候鸟》which starred Rene Liu and Huang Pin Yuan. Two months later, Mayday released their third album People Life Ocean Wild 《人生海海》, sales of which hit more than 35,000 copies after just a month.

[edit] Temporary Hiatus : (2001-2003)
In view of Masa's impending military call up, Mayday decided to take a temporary hiatus at the height of their popularity. This led to their farewell concerts titled Where Are You Going? 「你要去哪里」from 18th August 2001 to 1st September 2001. Tuo La Ku and Japanese rock band Glay were special guests at the concert. Memorably for many fans, guitarist Stone chose the occasion to propose to his girlfriend and the proposal song was also included in the live concert album. In November 2001, the members temporarily disbanded with Masa going into the military, Stone heading to England to learn production techniques and Guan You to Los Angeles in order to hone his drumming skills. Meanwhile, Monster and Ashin remained in Taiwan with Rock Records, taking up recording and production duties for other label mates.

[edit] Return to the Music Scene : (2004)
During their hiatus, Mayday released the autobiographical documentary titled The Wings of Dream 《摇滚本事》, with ticket sales hitting more than NT1.2 million in barely three days. [16]. They also released an accompanying soundtrack.

After Masa's official release from the military, the band regrouped and made a return to the music industry. To mark the event, Mayday held their City of the Sky 「天空之城」 concert on the 16th of August 2004 at the Taipei Stadium (台北市立体育场举办). The concert attracted nearly 400,000 fans which broke the record for most concert-goers at a concert, a record previously held by Michael Jackson.[17]

On the 11th of November 2003, the band also released their 4th studio album Time Machine 《时光机》. Sales of the album hit more than 15,000 within two days[18] , with Mayday seeing no decline in their popularity despite their hiatus. The Time Machine also won Mayday their second "Best Band" award at the 15th Golden Melody Awards.

In the summer of 2004, Mayday also participated in the making of an accompanying soundtrack for the movie 《五月之恋》in which they also presented new arrangements of some of their old songs. Guitarist Stone also had a supporting role in the movie.

5th of November 2004 saw the release of their 5th studio album God's Children Are All Dancing/Flying Angels With A Falling Soul 《神的孩子都在跳舞》. This album used the simultaneous recording technique to create a "live-band" sound and the band flew to Japan for the recording. In 2005, they also released a best of compilation album Just My Pride (《知足最真杰作选》)，which included six new songs and favourites culled from previous albums.

[edit] Final Home Concerts : (2004-2006)
Near the end of 2004, Mayday embarked on an ambitious worldwide series of concerts called Final Home - When We Are All Together「Final Home 当我们混在一起」. This took them round the world to America, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Japan. The concerts lasted for six months until early 2006. A compilation of live performances from those concerts were released in a DVD-CD format and simply titled 《Final Home》.

Not content with performing on the ground, Mayday also took to the top of the Taiwan 101 building to perform. Called the "Nearest to the Sky Concert"/"Our Heads Reaching the Sky Concert" 「史上最接近天空演唱会」(or「头顶天空演唱会」)，Mayday performed at a height of nearly 390.6 metres from the ground.

[edit] Continuing the Dream : (2006-present)
Born to Love 《为爱而生》was released on the 29th of December 2006, with Mayday organising an autograph session lasting ten hours that became the first in 2007. In conjunction with their new album and sponsored by Le Tea, they also held Born to Love 《五月天 le power 天使，为爱而生新歌演唱会》 concerts around Taiwan. Tickets to these concerts were packaged within the first edition of the Born to Love albums, and fans formed lines overnight in order to get their hands on the actual tickets that allowed them entrance into the concerts. Mayday played a total of 12 concerts, and the best performances are compiled into a DVD that was packaged with the third edition of the Born to Love album.

2007 also saw the release of Jump! (Leaving the Surface of the Earth) 《离开地球表面》, which included several new songs, live performances from the concerts of the same name and the promotional tune Going Crazy 《抓狂》 for the video-game Halo 3. Included also is a duet with singer Cheer Chen, Elope to the Moon《私奔到月球》. Not to be outdone by the previous year, Mayday held a concert 《突然很想见到你》on January 1st of 2008 that lasted from 1:00 AM to around 6:00 AM.

Presently, Mayday are in the midst of preparing for their Returning to the Surface of the Earth 《回到地球表面》 concerts which will take place in mid-2008. They have also begun planning for their 7th studio album which is slated to be released sometime in 2009.

[edit] Members

[edit] Ashin
Real Name: Chen Hsin Hung (陈信宏)
Date of Birth: 6 December 1975
Place of Birth: Taipei, Taiwan
Instrument: Vocals/Guitar/drum
Position: Vocalist
Height/Weight: 180cm/74kg

[edit] Monster
Real Name: Wen Shang Yi (温尚翊)
Date of Birth: 28 November 1976
Place of Birth: Hsin-Chu, Taiwan
Instrument: Guitar
Position: Leader
Height/Weight: 168cm/62kg

[edit] Stone
Real Name: Shih Chin-hang (石锦航)
Date of Birth: 11 December 1976
Place of Birth: Taipei, Taiwan
Instrument: Guitar
Height/Weight: 172cm/67kg

[edit] Masa
Real Name: Tsai Shen-yen (蔡升晏)
Date of Birth: 25 April 1977
Place of Birth: Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Instrument: Bass, Guitar, Piano, Harmonica
Height/Weight: 172cm/66kg

[edit] Guan You
Real Name: Liu Yen-ming (刘谚明)
Date of Birth: 28 July 1973
Place of Birth: Miaoli, Taiwan
Instrument: Drums, Keyboards
Height/Weight: 178cm/60kg