Never a dull moment at camp WACK eh? Their OG group has had a tumultuous but dynamic history, changing up their sound multiple times and doing some absolute insane stunts to get attention. That’s right, GANG PARADE are back from the dead with a new single and music video but this time, they aren’t planning on leaving.

If you aren’t super invested in a group it can be hard to follow things along, and GANG PARADE are a group with a rich tapestry of history detailing their wild and fun promotional stunts, closeness with their fans and consistent thematic evolution. It’d take a million years to tell you every single detail but know this: they were a very beloved group.

So why split up something so dear? It’s easy (and lazy/incorrect/overdone) to blame it on Watanabe’s decision making, but the reason was in part due to their internal dynamic not really working on account of then-leader Kamiya Saki feeling like she was holding things back. Saki had gone to BiS in exchange for Aya Eightprince for a rental trade and during this period, GP really levelled up. “GANG PARADE Takes Themselves Higher” was more than just an album title, they smashed through the ceiling. Hard. Feeling like a stranger in the house she helped build, Saki made the decision to graduate but there was also the problem of her shadow perpetually hanging over the group, plus their limited success compared to… other groups who formed around the same time. So GP, along with their staff, made the decision to split into G (GO TO THE BEDS) and P (PARADISES): the kind of industrial rock kitschy horror themed group and the kind of inoffensive pop-rock best-summer-ever group.

Both did some amazing things in their own right, like GTTB surviving on a deserted island for a week and constructing their own raft back to society out of wood, and not having a looming shadow over them definitely allowed them to explore new ways to idol, but that GP spirit of always having fun and making things exciting still remained.

And what better way to make things exciting than to bring back the group all about excitement? In the span of an evening! Really, the GP account tweeted that people should check the newspaper on New Year’s Day and there was an advertisement saying they were coming back. The members also didn’t know about this until they were brought to the office in the dead of night, given a paper and told they had about a day to prepare for their restart live.

It’s a bit of a long winded explanation, but GANG PARADE having such a dynamic history is apart of their charm. This is a group that frequently goes against all odds head on and comes out on top, with their heart on their sleeve. This is the group that launched WACK and through rebrands, member withdrawals, insane promo stunts, through anything and everything they’ve remained true to themselves and their fans.

“PARADE GOES ON” goes on sale in March but right now it’s out for advance streaming! We’ll have to wait for that sweet b-side but until then, put your headphones in and say hello. To old favourites and new faces but most importantly, to a bright future.