ANGELICO

Rockband with a Garbage-like appeal.

The band AngeliCo was founded by Martine Van Hoof (short but spectacular female singer) and Ruben Block (guitarist) realised that their band Sin Alley was headed for a dead-end alley. They wanted to get away from the surf-rockabilly that band had been doing, and their proposal for a new band was "something that held the middle ground between Sheryl Crow, Blondie, & country music". The other musicians that responded to their proposal were Axl Peleman (bass, of Ashbury Faith, and with the Paranoiacs at that time), Mario Goossens (drums, ex-Hoodoo Club, ex-Noordkaap ...). Although neither of these were really super-wellknown, Universal signed the band promptly and started promoting them as a "Belgian supergroup".

During the rehearsals, the band's sound got defined a little more, and the country aspect of the initial setup was dropped, making way for some loops and other electronics. One of the other initial members, Tom van stiphout, left because this was not really his cup of tea. The resulting band sound was close to what Garbage were doing on version2.0, popsongs in a rock coat and a contemporary sound.

A first single that was release in the Spring of 2000, was a cover "Good About You", a song originally written by The Wilsons (half of Wilson Philips, and the daughters of the main Beach Boy). It got really good radio-airplay, and even earned the band a place at the Beach Rock festival as being the "Belgian People's Choice". This festival was the introduction to AngeliCo for the general public, who discovered the impressive stage-personality of the vamp Martine Van Hoof. As one reviewer gasped : "Martine got the look: a blinding sensual and naughty Lolita-version of Debbie Harry. The beautiful girl is small of stature, but she grew to be a true rock-princess thanks to her rock&roll-presence and golden voice that stood her ground in the storm Ruben & Axl were generating on their guitars". De Morgen also listened to the band : "the band has a sound that is both firm and subtle and is aiming unashamedly towards tours in big stadiums. As fits a band with potential".

To create an additional buzz about the band the band let the audience of Studio Brussel choose what song would be the next (promo) single. The public chose "Wrong side of right" over "Matter of Time". However, a setback came when Mario Goossens was asked by Hooverphonic to join that band on the tour they were planning in the States to promote "The Magnificent Tree". Because Mario had also joined Monza (the band that Stijn Meuris was setting up to do something usefull with the Noordkaap legacy), he left AngeliCo. The others about that in Gazet van Antwerpen : "We felt as if someone had taken away one of legs. Although you can't blame him for taking that chance". His place in the band was temporarily taken by Michael Schack (Blue Blot etc).

The album they recorded immediately was produced by Jo Francken (Noordkaap, Janez Detd., Ambrozijn and more). All the songs on the first album "No rest for the wicked" were written by Ruben Block & Martine Van Hoof. To Gazet van Antwerpen, Axl said "It's a relief, really, not to be frontman of a band. That brings so much responsability, and you're always the one to blame. I found it really difficult writing for a female voice, when we were still in the country fase with this band. In the style we're doing now, I would be able to do "my thing". But before I realised that to the full, Martine & Ruben had already written the entire album". Meanwhile, another band he was trying to get off the ground, Camden Slide Store, was also signed at the same label.

The release of the album was accompanied by another single that got some decent airplay: "Freak You Out". The band also got scheduled as an opener for the massive K's Choice concert in Vorst Nationaal, and were dropped at the Pepsi Pop Festival. The plans : "they'd like to live off AngeliCo at some time in the future, and play a number of the festivals next summer."

Buy CD's of this band at

Albums :
- Good About You (CDS, Universal, 2000)
- Wrong Side of Right (promo-CDS, Universal, 2000)
- No Rest for the Wicked (CD, Universal, 2000)
- Freak You Out / Wrong Side of Right (CDS, Universal, 2000)

Websites :
- my review of "No rest for the wicked"
- www.angelico.be, the official website.
- Angelico at Axl Pelemans bass-site (with bass-tablatures of the songs)
- Lyrics on Waltertje's Lyrics site

Forum :
- Read the messages/questions about AngeliCo
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