ELLEGARDEN is a punk rock group that formed in December of 1998 in Chiba, Japan. It includes drummer Hirotaka Takahashi, vocalist Takeshi Hosomi, guitarist Shinichi Ubakata, and bassist Yuichi Takada. As of May 2, 2008, Ellegarden's leader Ubukata Shinichi announced an indefinite hiatus of the band. All previously decided shows (including shows not yet announced) up until early September 2008 will still be performed. Though they are on hiatus, the vocalist, Hosomi, has repeatedly stated that they will not be breaking up anytime soon, and will be back on the stage performing again in the future. Soon after the hiatus began, an official announcement was made on the website declaring that all activities of the band had been indefinitely suspended They are also referred to as ELLE. ELLEGARDEN has a sound strikingly similar to some American Pop Punk bands, and sings in both Japanese and English. Their English lyrics (mostly written by Hosomi) are usually grammatically correct and generally very well pronounced. In the Summer 2006 issue of American J-rock magazine purple SKY (p.24), Takeshi was quoted as saying his English skills were improved by the time he spent working as a computer engineer in first Oakland, California, and later in Japan where he had English speaking co-workers. ELLEGARDEN has been compared to famous artists of similar style, most notably Sum 41 (ELLEGARDEN was the band's opening act on February 2005 during the Sum 41 Japan Tour 2005), Blink 182 and Good Charlotte. Their popularity comes from the sounds that they bring and the strong emotions they express. Despite these similarities however, they have a wide range of sounds that don't quite fit into a single style, but encompass a decent range of rock sounds. In 2006 ELLEGARDEN performed in numerous Japanese Summer Music Festivals, such as FUJI ROCK, SUMMER SONIC, NANO MUGEN FES and RISING SUN ROCK FESTIVAL. Their final tour of 2006 features the American band Allister - the bands became friends during SXSW 2006. It is difficult to get their tour and live tickets because they become sold out in a very short amount of time. With the international release of their newest album "Eleven Fire Crackers", Ellegarden is quickly growing in popularity - no doubt aided by their recent U.S. gigs. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.