NEWSARCHIVE

Period : April 28 - May 5th, 1999
In this issue : Marka, Reiziger, Nerorock, Werchter line-up, Torhout plans, dEUS, Dildo Warheads, Praga Khan, Grascutters, Black Book, Helmut Lotti.

May 5th, 1999

MARKA, "L'HOMME QUI AIMAIT LA SCÈNE"
Marka, the popular walloon singer with a past in Belgian pophistory as the bass-player of Allez Allez, has recorded a live-cd containing some memorable moments of his tour in Belgium & France of last year. "L'Homme Qui Amait La Scène" (The man who loved the stage) is also sort of a "Best Of", since most songs come from his two solo-albums ("Merci d'Avance" and "L'Idiomatic"), such as "Le pays de la pluie", "Elisabeth", "Terre d'Asile" etc ... Besides those there are also a number of nice surprises, such as a raï-version of "Accouplés", a hilarious "Sans Pareille" in a duet with his wife Laurence Bibot (a well known "comédienne"), a cover "I fought the law" etc.
On May 8th, Marka'll give a free concert at the Forum of the FNAC in Brussels (located in City2). At that occasion, people who buy the cd, will also get a free photo-book "Le Petit Marka Illustré".

REIZIGER PRESENTS SECOND ALBUM
Reiziger, the emo-core group from Limburg previously known as Kosjer D, presents - not so long after their "Our Kodo" - their new cd. "The kitten becomes a tiger" is published on LP and CD and is released again on Genet Records.
On friday May 14th, they present the cd with a free concert at the Muziek-O-Droom in Hasselt (Bootstraat 9, near the canal). "Bring your friends. Entry is free ! Starting at 20h30. Hope to see you soon !" as they say themselves.

NEROROCK
The yearly free festival in Hoeilaart called Nerorock (named after the comic book character that lives in the station of that village) is starting to take shape. On the line-up (for September) are bands such as Golden Green, ABN, the omnipresent Jane's Detd, and the well-established groups Gorki and De Kreuners.
One group that will be added to this bunch will come from a talent contest. This takes place on Saturday May 8th at de Eekhoorn in Hoeilaart. Will be competing for the honour : Scarrots (Bunsbeek), Hubbub (Brussel), Penny's Pidgin (Overijse), Postpone, the Eloquent Farmer (Kampenhout), Mindless (Merchtem), Keen-Eyed (Leuven), Asrai en A Daisy Fish (Overijse).
The festival of course already has a website : on http://web.wanadoo.be/nerorock you'll find more info.

April 30th 1999

WERCHTER COMPLETED, TORHOUT GOES "WORLD"
The line-up for Belgium most famous summer music festival has been completed : among the new names are quite a few Belgian bands again :
- Arid (opens in the tent on Saturday)
- De Mens (on Sunday in the tent)
- The Flying Dewaele Brothers (2/5th of Soulwax who not only get to open on the main stage on Saturday, but also get to close the joint with a DJ-set).
- Noordkaap (opens the main stage on Sunday)
Other new names are Green Velvet, Basement Jaxx, Gus Gus, The Roots, Tin Star, Cree Summer, Wilco & Bjorn Again, who join the already impressive list of Mercury Rev, Pavement, Blur, Praga Khan, Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, Soulwax, Monster Magnet, Anouk, Everlast, Live, Marilyn Manson, Suzanne Vega, Skunk Anansie, Zita Swoon, Texas, Bryan Adams, Metallica, Stereophonics, Heather Nova, Placebo, Manic Street Preachers, Robbie Williams, Faithless, Lenny Kravitz and R.E.M.
For an hour-to-hour overview, tickets & other info, on adress : On Line With Rock.

A day earlier, plans were revealed for a summer festival in Torhout (the former half of the Torhout/Werchter pair). These plans go in a very different direction : Noël Steen of Rock Torhout helps to organise a festival with world music on July 17 & 18th. Have singed : Mary Black, Nena Venetsanou, Boudewijn De Groot, Mari Boine, Antonio Placer, Carlo Rizzo, Iva Bittova, Catherine Delasalle, Balkanto Vero en Maria Farantouri. For six groups a day you'll pay 1.150 fr, quite a bit more than for the 25 or so at Werchter. The organisation wants to guarantee a optimal listening comfort, by letting in only 3000 listeners per day. All this doesn't mean that the plans for an alternative festival in Torhout have been buried: July 24th will also see a festival in Torhout.

April 29th 1999

NEWSBITS & BYTES
- dEUS are ready to launch a new single : the choice this time has gone to the beautiful & quiet song "Sister Dew" . They have shot a video on a Swedish peninsula. Apparently there's some pressure on the group, since a concert in Sweden was cancelled to do this shoot + for the first time an "external" director was asked to do the clip : Adam Burgh (known from his work Cardigans, Kent).
- Frontstage-Magazine, the information-part of the cd-store Frontstage, brings the news that Dildo Warheads, just recently with a new single & plans for a full-cd in the autumn, would've split up.
- Grasscutters, a grunge band from Verviers, launches their second cd "On your head", on May 1st at the "Spirit of 66" in their hometown. What are you waiting for .
- The Scabs, who were on top of Belgian rock for years & years until they split up some three years ago, will NOT hold a reunion. Although Fons Symons seemed to be ready for the idea, Guy Swinnen & Willy Willy were quite firm during an interview on tv-show "Wijlen de week" : it won't happen, 'cause it would be sad.
- After writer Kristien Hemmerechts had a go at interviewing Tom Barman a few weeks ago, the interchange literature-music will be reversed this week : Frank vander Linden, the baldheaded singer of de Mens, will have the honour of interviewing Salman "Satanic Verses" Rushdie about his newest book. In "Spraakmakers", on Canvas.
- Praga Khan not only has a new album ready for take-off, he also has refurnished his dutch website quite a bit (and he hasn't been cheap on a few Kb's more or less). You can already hear some realaudio bits of the new album and read all about the careers of Praga, Jade 4U & Oliver Adams.
- Tomorrow : more ( unless it'll be less ofcourse).

April 28th 1999

DE DAG DAT HET ZONLICHT NIET MEER SCHEEN
The title above ("the day the sun stopped shining") wasn't only the title of a punky eighties song by Arbeid Adelt (free after John Terra), it now also is the title of book written by one Kurt Ingels. The subtitle "Wave in Belgium" tells a bit more about the subject : it tells the story of wave in our country, from the early eighties (starting from De Brassers or so) to current events (vb. D.I.V.E.). The author wants to show that there's still an active - albeit small - "wave"-scene in the regions of Ghent & Bruges.
The book, in an edition of 500 copies, costing 800 belgian franks, is not for sale at Amazon or your local bookstore, but can be ordered through "Boogie cd-store" from Bruges. Their telephone number is +0032.50.34.04.08.

PUKKELPOP IS NOT GONNA MOVE
So that's no news then.

BENEFIT - A-GO-GO
The big fundraising action in favour of the victims of the war in Kosovo that was held yesterday has already raised over 650 million, yet there are already some initiatives on the way to raise even more :
- Helmut Lotti will give a concert in Antwerp (at the Elisabeth-hall) of which the proceedings (an estimated 3 million) will go to the aid organisations. Tickets can be ordered at 0900/00.311 and cost between 1200 and 1950 fr.
- The plans to organise a big musical happening at Vorst Nationaal (Forêt National) with the same aim also haven't been buried : there are now rather substantiated plans circulating that people and groups such as dEUS, Clouseau, Will Tura, Helmut Lotti, Arno and K'S Choice would perform there on May 17th and 18th. No definitive arrangements are made yet, though.

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