NEWSARCHIVE

Period : February 28th - March 5th, 1999
In this issue : Arno, Vanessa Chinitor, Debuutrock 1999, Flexa Lyndo, Beyond The Labyrinth, Humo's Pop Poll, Culturele Ambassadeurs, Eddy Wally, Eurosong.

Friday March 5th, 1999

ARNO
Today the first date was disclosed of the tour that Arno will be undertaking, surrounding the planned release of his next cd, scheduled for May 18th. The records will btw be called "Le European Cowboy", in the best Franglais tradition.
The first concert (dixit OLWR "exclusive") will take place at "Les Halles de Schaerbeek" (Brussels)on June 12. Tickets for the concert are 670BEF. in presale and can be reserved at the website of On-line With Rock.

VANESSA CHINITOR
Vanessa Chinitor is allowed to represent Flanders at the Eurosong-festival in Jerusalem with "Like The Wind"and isn't forced to come up with a Dutch version of the song. The VRT has reached this decision today - as was asked by the artist & her management.
Following her election on Sunday, there was quite a bit of pushing & pulling going on about sending in a Flemish entrance to the Eurosongcontest with a song in the English language (something that the regulations allow for the first time this year). The "reader's letters" of the newspapers were filled with arguments pro & contra ("we want to win" versus "we want to export our culture and stop the English hegemony" - both a lost battle IMHO).
The "Flemish side" wasn't the only to try and make political gains from the song though : the mayor from Dendermonde, Norbert De Batselier announced there will be a big happening in the hometown of the singer ... on May 29th ... purely coïncidental the week before the national & european elections.

DEBUUTROCK 1999
On April 17th, the 1999 edition of Debuut-rock 1999 will be held (a live-gig for new groups in front of the assembled Belgian record-firms + a place on the debuutrock-cd).
From the demo-tapes that were sent in 9 groups were selected : Freestyle Fabrik, Zornik Breknov, Venus in Flames, BAR 8, Vliegend Wild, Zodar Orchestra, Sunscape, Poseydon, Etronic. Possibly the names of these debutants will sound as familiar to us within a couple of years as earlier debuutrock-laureats such as Metal Molly or The Nothing Bastards.

Thursday March 4th, 1999

FLEXA LYNDO
Since March the 1st in the shops (on the 62TV-label) : the debut full CD "45 minutes" of the group from Namur Flexa Lyndo, previously known as "De Profundis" (a name that was abandoned because of the goth- a black metal connotations that were raising false expectations for their gigs).
The music can be classified in the "Lo Fi"-corner, with a definite pop/rock twist (genre Pixies, Yo La Tengo, Sebadoh ...) The single "Girls on the screen"already is receiving quite a bit of airplay on Studio Brussel & Radio 21, where the CD was introduced today during "Rock à Gogo".

BEYOND THE LABYRINTH
Geert Fieeuw, webmaster and guitarist of the band Beyond the Labyrinth, lets us know that from today onwards the group has a fixed spot on the web.
The group has yet to release their first recordings, but is distributing a single "Shine" that was release by Geert solo last year. Coming from all kinds of metal, AOR & symphonic backgrounds, (o.a. Hellfire, Midrange, Faith, Infinity ...) the group is into a "mixture of sympho metal and A.O.R. - call it progressive if you like. Influences range from Dream Theater, Savatage over Saga and Bon Jovi to Marillion." If these examples don't make you run to the toilet, do pay a visit to http://users.skynet.be/Beyond.The.Labyrinth/btl.html.

Wednesday March 3rd, 1999

POP POLL
If you would like to be present at the award ceremony of Humo's Popularity Poll, you can get free tickets for next weeks performance by phoning in on the (special rate) telephone number : +32/900.20.886 (only on March 3rd till midnight). The award ceremony (always a pleasant mixture of humour, rock & beer) will be held Tuesday March 9th from 19:30 at the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels.
Already announced to appear are : Soulwax, Rob Vanoudenhoven, Stereophonics, Kamagurka, and an afterparty with DJ's Jan Van Biesen, Tom Barman & Deep Danny.

CULTURAL AMBASSADORS
Last Friday, the Flemish Government announced this year's "Flemish Cultural Ambassadors". No less than four artists who feature in this webarchive were awarded this title (for some of them it isn't only a title, but also a sum of money) : Zita Swoon (who find their way to the money vault for the second time in a row), DAAU (also known as Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung), Peter Vermeersch (X-legged Sally, A Group, Flat Earth Society, ballet music ...) and the brilliant Wim Mertens (minimal composer known from many radio & tv-jingles, the soundtrack for "The Belly of an Architect", etc ...).
On the award ceremony, Zita Swoon performed some bits of music together with "Les Ballets C de la B", another ambassador, for their joint project "Plage Tattoo" that will debut at the "Holland Festival" next June.
Earlier Cultural Ambassadors from the pop-world include De Nieuwe Snaar and last year's dEUS.

EDDY WALLY
Big news for the Flemish internet-community : no, we're not referring to the plans of the Flemish government to apply for an independent .vl-domain (who cares), but to the arrival of a Flemish phenomenon on the net : Eddy Wally heeft een eigen website (in dutch only, sadly). For the rest of the world : Eddy W. is a flemish singer (biggest hit : Chérie) & market vendor , sort of a Engelbert Humperdinck-type, kitsch to the bone.
The amount of woman's handbags is rather thin (a missed e-commerce opportunity!), but the all-around-the-world-I'm-a-superstar -boasting is very prominently present. The section of the site called "Sucessstory" is rather hilarious. Also fun is the section "Realaudio", where you can download a few soundsamples, featuring his contribution to history "Wow, Geweldig!", according to himself "ideal as the startup-sound for your PC". In the section "Guestbook" there's also room for laughter because of sincere fans mingled in with ironic contributions.

Sunday February 28th, 1999

EUROSONG
Tonight the Belgian participant for the Eurovision Song Contest of 1999 was selected in Brussels by the Flemish Televison VRT.
After a - not too - exciting final with Wendy Fierce, Natural High, Voice Male, Medusa, Alana Dante, Petra and Sarah, most of the public- & professional jury's thought that the Vanessa Chinitor was the best. This girl from Dendermonde, a protégé of procuer John Terra & manager Ilia Beyens, will represent Belgium in Jerusalem with the song "Like The Wind", although the VRT will possibly try to insist on bringing a Dutch version on the festival night itself.

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