Mayday is a Taiwanese alternative rock band that was formed in the late 1990s with five members, Ashin (vocalist), Monster (Leader) and Stone (lead guitars), Masa (bass guitar) and Guan You (drums).

Formerly making music under the name of So Band, they came to be known as Mayday in 1997, with the name originating from Masa's online nickname. Mayday won the Golden Melody Award for Best Band in 2001, 2004, 2009 and 2012.They are known as "king of concert" in China.

Formation (1995-1997) Mayday evolved from So Band which was formed by Ashin, Monster and the first drummer Qian You Da in 1995 while they were studying in The Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University. 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 perform in pubs and eateries. They were also actively involved in promoting the growing rock music trend in Taiwan. In 1997, the band registered under the moniker Mayday in order to join the Formoz Festival. This would become the official name of the band.
Early years (1997-1999) Shortly after participating in the Formoz Festival , 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 Jonathan Lee who described them as "the ones who would usher in the sound of the future". In 1999, Guan You became the band's fourth drummer and they went on to release their first full-length studio album under Rock Records on 7 July 1999. Their debut received critical acclaim and gained a following among the Taiwanese. It went on to move more than 300,000 copies, a considerable feat for a new band in the then pessimistic and saturated music industry. They were also nominated for the 11th Golden Melody Awards under the category of Best Band.The tracks "Peter and Mary" and "Embrace" 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. In fact, "Peter and Mary" has been acknowledged by Mayday's Ashin as the "song that brought them from the north of Taiwan to the south, allowing everyone to recognize Mayday." On 28 August, they held their first large-scale performance called The 168th Performance, cementing their position as one of the rising bands in Taiwan.
Viva Love and People Life, Ocean Wild (1999-2001) The band's second album Viva Love was released 7 July 2000. Sales of Viva Love exceeded their previous album, shifting more than 350,000 copies. Additionally, Viva Love won them the "Best Band" award at the 12th Golden Melody Awards. Mayday also held a series of concerts called Hundred Thousand Youths Standing Up in Taipei City, Zhang Hua and Kaohsiung City. The concerts were famous for having the most concert-goers in 2000. In 2001, Mayday worked for the first time, on a movie soundtrack and accompanying score for the movie Migratory Bird which starred Rene Liu and Huang Pin Yuan. Two months later, Mayday released their third album People Life Ocean Wild, sales of which hit more than 35,000 copies after just a month.
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? from 18 August 2001 to 1 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.
Return to the music scene (2004) During their hiatus, Mayday released the autobiographical documentary titled The Wings of Dream, with ticket sales hitting more than NT1.2 million in barely three days. They also released an accompanying soundtrack. On 11 November 2003, the band also released their 4th studio album Time Machine. Sales of the album hit more than 15,000 within two days, 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. 5 November 2004 saw the release of their critically acclaimed 5th studio album God's Children Are All Dancing/Flying Angels With A Falling Soul. This album used the simultaneous recording technique to create the distinctive "band" sound of their past albums and was specially recorded in Kawaguchi-to, Japan. In 2005, they also released a best of compilation album Just My Pride£¬which included six new songs and favourites culled from previous albums.
Final Home World Tour (2004-2006) Near the end of 2004, Mayday embarked on an ambitious worldwide series of concerts called Final Home ¨C When We Are All Together. 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 (or Our Heads Reaching the Sky Concert), Mayday performed at a height of nearly 390.6 metres from the ground.
Born to Love and Poetry of the Day After (2006-2008) Born to Love was released on 29 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 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. Not to be outdone by the previous year, Mayday held a concert "I am suddenly missing you" on 1 January 2008 that lasted from 1:00 am to around 6:00 am. Mayday's new studio album, Poetry of the Day After was released on 23 October 2008. Like Born to Love, the new album had tickets packaged with it. The two "Concert" versions include a ticket for the In the Sky of 100000 You & Mayday concerts to be held at Chung Shan Soccer Stadium, while the "Campus" version includes a ticket for one of the campus concerts that were held around Taiwan.
DNA world tour (2009-2010) On 19 March 2009, Mayday announced their new World Tour DNA Mayday "Creates" Concert, which commenced in Hong Kong on 20 May 2009. For the tour, Mayday released two songs, DNA and Unbridled. They cooperated with transnational teams for the world tour and added Australia as their tour stop for the first time. A concert called A.N.D - Mayday and Friends was held ten days later that included several bands from Taiwan, such as Tizzy Bac, 1976, and The Chairman, etc. to celebrate Mayday's tenth anniversary since Ming joined the band.
2011 On 29 March, Mayday announced the upcoming fall release of their 3D film, 3DNA. On 16 December, Mayday released their 8th studio album, Second Round. The album was highly anticipated with pre-orders totaling 129958 in one week. It has two versions, named Now Here and No Where. They are differed in rendering of themes and ordering of songs, reflecting optimistic and pessimistic sentiment respectively about the fabled end of civilization by the year of 2012. 2013 they are playing the first Live Concert in Germany