News Tour Dates and Upcoming Concerts

There is more than one artist with this name: 1) NEWS is an six-member Japanese boyband, consisting of: 山下智久 (Yamashita Tomohisa - 9th April 1985) 錦戸亮 (Nishikido Ryo - 3rd November 1984) 小山 慶一郎 (Koyama Keiichiro - 1st May 1984) 加藤成亮 (Kato Shigeaki - 11th July 1987) 増田貴久 (Masuda Takahisa - 4th July 1986) 手越祐也 (Tegoshi Yuya - 11th November 1987) Former member: 森内貴寛 (Moriuchi Takahiro - 17h April 1988) 内博貴 (Uchi Hiroki - 10th September 1986) 草野博紀 (Kusano Hironori - 15th February 1988) Nishikido Ryo and Uchi Hiroki also belong to the group 関ジャニ∞(Kanjani8). Whereas Moriuchi Takahiro left Johnny's Entertainment and is now ONE OK ROCK's lead singer. The group began with nine members in 2003, headed by leader Yamashita Tomohisa. Their first single was a 7-11 limited release, but their official debut single was Kibou ~Yell~, which debuted at #1 on the Oricon weekly charts. Moriuchi Takahiro left just before the release of this, reportedly because of family issues and to concentrate on his studies. Since the release of Kibou ~Yell~, every NEWS single to date has debuted at #1 on the Oricon weekly charts. In 2005, Uchi Hiroki was arrested for drunken behavior. As he was under the drinking age of 20 in Japan, he was suspended indefinitely and NEWS continued as a 7 member group. In January 2006, Kusano Hironori was accused of underage drinking and denied the accusation but decided to withdraw out of his own accord. NEWS released one more single, Sayaendo, before they were officially put on hiatus by the management. Non-suspended members continued with solo work (most notably, Yamashita Tomohisa and テゴマス, composed of Tegoshi Yuuya and Masuda Takahisa) until the end of the year of 2006. In late December, the management announced the end of the NEWS hiatus. NEWS first re-appeared officially at the 2006-2007 Johnny's Countdown concert. The group reappeared with six members, without the two members suspended for underage drinking. On March 21st of 2007, NEWS released their first single since the hiatus, 「星をめざして」 (Hoshi wo Mezashite). The single debuted at #1 on the Oricon weekly charts with over 200,000 copies sold, and has a theme, in the lyrics, of thankfulness to waiting fans. Asides from the new single, members have also resumed all previous group activities such as magazine shoots, concert tours, and TV appearances. In May of 2007, Johnny's Entertainment announced Kusano and Uchi's return to public media, in roles on Shonentai's musical. In January 2008, it was reported that Uchi Hiroki and Kusano Hironori had graduated from their trainee status. They have not returned to NEWS, but are appearing in various magazines and under public spotlight again. 2) News was a Danish pop band that were active during the 1980s. The band was formed by Aske Jacoby as Aske Jacoby Band in 1979. In 1983 guitarist Aske Jacoby and lead singer Gitte Naur left the band. Naur was replaced by Søs Fenger, who later was replaced by Nadia Stein. After the band’s last album in 1994 they disbanded the following year.