NEWSARCHIVE

Period : September 8-13, 1999
In this issue : Blue Shoestrings, Soulwax, Laïs, Clement Peerens Explosition, Peulengaleis, Venus, An Pierlé, El Baroud.

September 13, 1999

BLUE SHOESTRINGS
What have Coco Junior (the singer of the Dinky Toys), Sarah Bettens (the singer of K's Choice), Jan Hautekiet (the capable piano-player and incapable head of Studio Brussel, or what is the other way round), Miss Belgium, Jean-Luc Fonck (Sttellla), Marie Daulne (Zap Mama) and a postman have got in common??
It sure ain't the looks (Hautekiet's and Stellla are out), or the brains (Miss Belgium?? Brains ??), nor the money (the postman is out)... no .. they are are only a few of the "personalities" backing up a campaign against landmines by Handicap International that is getting on the way in Belgium. The theme of the campaign is "blue shoestrings", a symbol of that fight.
More info on the different aspects of the fund-raising campaign can be found at http://handicapinternational.advalvas.be/

SOULWAX HEADS THE BELPOPTOP
Them Dewaele Bro's have dun' it : "Too Many Deejay's" has gotten to the lead in the Belpoptop (the chart with Belgian Pop & Rock Songs for which you can vote here, and you can even win a cd in doing so).
Arno's "In My Bed" is nearing the top 5, newcomers are 't Hof van Commerce "Bol", Kadril "Van Boord" and Venus with "She's So Disco".
There are plenty of new releases you could consider to give a vote this week:
- Esta Loco "Orillas Del Mar" (Rembert De Smet - 2 Belgen - on Spanish guitars)
- Leyers, Michiels & Soulsister "Try not to cry" (new single from an old band)
- 10,000 Women Man "Down and Out" (single from self-titled debut album)
- Arid "Life" (one of their first songs, now a remixed version is the third single from "Little Things of Venom")
- De Puta Madre "Vandal" (single from their 2nd album "Technique Stonic", due early October)
- Zohra "Serious" (Ex-2 Fabiola, she's solo now)
- Clement Peerens Explosition "Asbak" (old song now released as a single)
- Kolk "Uma" (ex-members of Aroma di Amore and Men 2nd, CD "Nachtschade" will follow)
- Philippe Robbrecht "Dwarsligger" (single from the CD with the same name)
- Wizards Of Ooze "Bustin' loose" (album out any minute now).
So whattadyawaitinfor?? Go and vote.

LAÏS ROAD PAVED WITH GOLD
The remarkable and unexpected sales-figures of the debut-album of Laïs keep on getting higher and higher. Last weekend, the band received a gold-album for 25,000 copies of it that were sold, without a doubt a record for a folk-album. (Makes me wonder : have the folkies yet to discover MP3 and CD-burners??)
The three fair maidens are very active : they have assambled a band, will go on tour in Flanders and the Netherlands for a few months now, will try-out new songs during this tour.
The band can also be heard on the current single of Johan Verminnen "De Zomer", and will release a new single "De Ballade van Boon" (from a soundtrack).

September 9, 1999

CLEMENT PEERENS EXPLOSITION GOLD
CPeX are experiencing that the sky is truly the limit : their mini-extended play-with-dozens-of-extra-free-songs-so-that-it-was-a-sort-of-"best of" called "Vindegij mijn gat niet te dik in deze rok" has earned them gold status in Belgium (you have to sell 15.000 of those little discs if you sing in Dutch to earn that). Hip hip hoorray etc. Sensing that "the time is ripe" for some serious getting filthy rich, Clement, Sylvain & Swake have now released a new single : "Asbak" - the sad story of an ashtray (that once contained a butt of Sid Vicious!) and it's encounter with the cleaning cloth of his girlfriend.
The band is getting more famous by the minute, as they have a place in the show "Het Peulengaleis" which will air it's second episode this week. TV-less people can always check out the hilarious website of this show (http://www.peulengaleis.com) that promises Clement Peerens will reveal his 10 favourite rock-chords of all time !!! (!!).

VENUS DEBUT-CD SCHEDULED FOR OCTOBER
Venus, an interesting new band that balances on the verge of music and theather, will debut at the beginning of next month with the full-cd named "Welcome to the modern dancehall". At this moment, there's already a maxi-cd "She's so disco" out in the open, of which we heard the beautiful song "I'm the Ocean".
The band we picked first in Italy (their first EP "Royalsucker" even sold very well there), and the band has honoured that by recording the album in Florence opgenomen. It boasts that it's music is 100% acoustis and they describe their music themselves as "Sensual, poetical, brutal. Dirty chamber music A worn out suit. A forgotten dance hall ".
Venus will also tour this Fall, and will kick off that tour during one of the nights of "Les Nuits Botanique", in the Orangerie on September 22 in Brussels.

September 8, 1999

AN PIERLÉ IN THE MUD.
An Pierlé, the girl who stole many a heart three years ago during the rock rally with her passionate play and her chilling version of Gary Numan's "Are Friends Electric?", is finally ready for new things.
After a few years of hesitating between her acting career (Bernadetje ...) and music (she sang a song on DAAU "We need new animals", kept announcing there would be a record), there's now finally some progress in the matter. Today, the Ancienne Belgique announced that on the 29th and the 30th of November, there will be two concerts in Brussels to celebrate the release of her album. It will be released on Warner, and will be called "Mud Stories".
Tickets for those two concerts can be bought via http://www.abconcerts.be of +32/2/548 24 24.

BELGIAN RAï-MUSIC : EL BAROUD
No genre is safe from Belgian musicians trying to make a living out of it, and certainly no music genre is safe from the eager hands of David Bovée (who is the main man of Think of One and plays with the Vermeersch-project Flat Earth Society).
A few months after he took his band on a trip to Marocco (and returned with the "Marrakesh Emballages Ensemble"-cd), he now has formed a new band, which will be a less "intellectual" project and focus more on party-ing, arab style.
The line-up includes himself on guitar, Benjamin Boutreur (o.a. Flowers For Breakfast) on sax, Thomas Desmedt (o.a. Zita Swoon) on bass, Jamel: zang, Kamel: acoustisc guitar, Marakshi (Ambrozijn) on percussion, Roel Poriau(o.a. Think of one) on drums and Abdel Wahed on violin.
The first gig of the band will be the opening concert of the season at the Beursschouwburg in Brussels (Friday September 17).

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