THE HOODOO CLUB

Band from Zutendaal who excelled for a short while in Triffids-like swamp rock.

Or, as Jacky Huys wrote in Knack "What an impressive evolution have the guys from Limburg gone through since "Jug Stories" (1994) and the final of Humo's Rock Rally in 1996. Their full CD-debut is produced eminently by Mark Thys. There are references (like dEUS), but it's never imitating, at the most it's being inspired by the same sources. There is heavy guitarrock on the album, some lo-fi pearls, even an occasional roots-track, but what is the main element of the record is the quality of the songs in general and of the more held-back tracks in particular. Strong".

That the path for a young Belgian group doesn't always is a bed or roses is shown by this anecdote from Humo : "A tattoo-convention in the Nighttown in Rotterdam, june 1997. Tattoo Bob is trying to break the word record bellybutton-piercing. On stage : The hoodoo club. Somebody must have thought "piercings and tattoos = hell's angel = dark bluesrock". Somebody made a mistake. Piercings today are something for Spice Girls-fans between the ages of 10 and 14. The tables where the piercing takes place stand 4 meters in front of the stage and it smells like disinfectant. Nobody is interested in the music of the Hoodoo-club or the things singer Harald Vanherf has to say. Not that Vanherf isn't trying : "Too bad there are no genital piercings performed today". No-one looks up. At the most painful it becomes when Vanherf asks "that at least ten people would clap after the next song" and even that goal isn't met."

Although the plans to head for the studio (with producer Jean-Marie Aerts) were quite fixed, it was announced in the summer of 1999 that The Hoodoo Club was no more. Harald Vanherf was quoted as saying "the members of the band just didn't get along anymore".

Mario Goossens, the drummer of the band, would later re-appear in bands such as Trigger Finger and AngeliCo (both with ex-Sin Alley Ruben Block), in the Noordkaap-sequel Monza, and even in the band accompanying Hooverphonic on their acclaimed Magnificent Tree-tour all over the world.

Harald Vanherf found a new outlet for his demons in the formation Wicona Airbag, which made it's debut in 2001 with the CD "Up With People" (on the heavy metal label RoadRunner Records), with a mixture of sweet pop and NineInchNail'y industrial.

Members :
- Harald Vanherf (vocals, guitar)
- Thierry Geens (guitars)
- Luc Schreurs (bass)
- Mario Goossens (drums)

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Albums :
- Jugstories (mini-album) (Gumbo - 1994)
- ... a just temporary lost of masculinity (Rana, 1997)

Websites :
- Hoodoo-club site at Arcade/CNR.