Today, on7,000th dayof this weblog, I'm afraid I have to place a sad news. On June 5, 2025
, Nishimura Tomohiko
, the guitarist of Sing Like Talking
, departed from his life at the age 61 due to cancer.
The members of Sing Like Talking
,Satou ChikuzenandNishimura TomohikoandFujita Chiakiare childhood friends. They formed a band in 1985, and won a contest in 1986 andgot a chance to make their debut. Back then, the Band which was named Sing Like Talking to apply for the Contest, had six members. Butthe Record company plotted to keep Chikuzen and Chiaki who write most of their songs, and fire all other four members. Chikuzen thought that Nishimura's guitar is indispensable for music he wanted to create, So he persuaded the Record company and producer to keep Nishimura, too. Thus, Sing Like Talking became a trio group.
From the album" Metabolism
", Nishimura writes some of their songs. And you must not miss Nishimura's instrumental numbers included in S.L.T.'s singles and albums. Not only Nishimura has performed important roles as a guitarist of S.L.T., But also he made a release of three albums of his own. "Combine" is the third of them. First album is " Graffiti
" and second album is " Wonderland
".
After S.L.T. made a release of album " Renascence
", they went into long-term hiatus. Since this period, Nishimura began to work as a tour guitarist with CHAGE
Kai Yoshihiro
, and so on. Superfluously; CHAGE, one of the duo members of " CHAGE & ASKA
", and Nishimura look alike in appearance. Chikuzen jocularly describes them CHAGE & CHAGE.
In 2021, Nishimura was found out that he had stage 4 mesopharyngeal cancer.
At first, doctors thought it was too late to save him. But Nishimura himself had strong will to survive and come back to stage, and fought his illness.
On S.L.T.'s 35th anniversary concert in spring2023, Nishimura came back to the stage, and made public about the fact of his illness. However, his cancer flared up again and took a turn for the worse. According to other members of S.L.T., despite of the situation that seemed hopeless, he lived every day happily, performing guitar and talking with Chikuzen and Chiaki about S.L.T.'s stage and songs until his end of the road.
Nishimura's final recording is Kai Band
's latest album " Noir Midnight
".
The day when Nishimura's passing was announced wasJune 12, the anniversary of decease of Aoki Tomohito
,the bassist of
FOUR of a KIND
. That reminded me of an interview I read on a memorial article for Aoki on a magazine. The interviewee was Asano Yoshiyuki
alias Butcherwho departed from his life about ten months after Aoki's passing. He said thatback then, on Kadomatsu Toshiki
's stages, he thought that Kadomatsu and Aoki and he were forming a triangle, butif a triangle loses one dot, two sides are also lost, and remains only one line. It's possible enough that Chikuzen and Chiaki keep on writing new songs together and perform S.L.T.'s songs on stages. But if I visit the concert by them two, I will be compelled face the reality that the Triangle of Sing Like Talking is lost forever.
Realistically speaking, since Nishimura had terminal cancer once, I wondered whether he could live to become seventy. But I strongly believed that at least we can celebrate S.L.T.'s 40th anniversary together in 2028
. Therefore, Nishimura's too early passing is nothing but all the more regretful.
(Translation: Unable-to-think-up-Handle)
" Combine
" : August 26, 2020 POCE-12154 " Wonderland
" : April 18, 2015 CIACD-020 " Graffiti
" : June 24, 1998 FHCF-2427