February 27, 2000

ZAMU-AWARDS : THE NOMINEES
Zamu (vereniging van zangers en muzikanten) announced the winner of the design contest for the trophy that the "musical personalities" can win (see poptelex January 9) : the statue on the right was designed by Russian asylum-seeker Victor Verkhozine, an inhabitant of a refugee-center in Kapellen. These statues will be handed out for the first time to winners in 14 categories in the 6th Zamu-awards ceremony, to be held in the Ancienne Belgique on March 7th.
The nominated artists are :
- best singer : Stef Kamil Carlens, Laïs, Marie Daulne or An Pierlé.
- best artist/band (dutch language) : Noordkaap, De Mens, Raymond van het Groenewoud, Gorki.
- best artist/band (all languages) : Soulwax, Zita Swoon, dEUS, Axelle Red.
- focus (best new artist on the Belgian music scene) : Arid, Think of one/Marrakech Emballages Ensemble, Laïs, Novastar.
- Live act : Soulwax, Arno, Clouseau, Zita Swoon
- Best musician : Steven De Bruyn, Bart Maris, Michel Bisceglia, Wouter Van den Abeele.
- Author/Composer/Arrangements : Piet Goddaer, Daan Stuyven, Marc Vanhie, Tom Barman.
- Best producer : Olivier Adams & Maurice Engelen, Alex Callier, Jo Francken, Jean-Marie Aerts
- Musical happening (festival / concert /project) : De Nachten, Jazz Middelheim - De nomaden van de muziek (aka Roland & Wannes van de Velde-tour), Rock Werchter.
- Best recording studio : ICP, Galaxy, The Groove, Motormusic.
- Press (magazine / journalist / radio / tv / website) : Pili Pili, Plastiks, Belgian Pop & Rock Archives (!!!) - Gonzo Circus.
- Best dance-act : Dj Jan Van Biesen, Buscemi, Dj Geoffroy, Praga Kahn.
- Best album : this is handed out on the basis of sales figures
- Lifetime Achievement Award (this remains a surprise)
- Best single (voted on by readers/listeners of Radio1, Studio Brussel, P-Magazine and Tijd/Cultuur from a shortlist of 40) : Novastar "Wrong", dEUS "Instant Street", Zita Swoon "My bond with you and your planet: DISCO!" or Praga Khan "Breakfast in Vegas".

BERT DE CONINCK VERZAMELD.
Eind deze maand wordt er een cd voorgesteld met het werk van Bert De Coninck, wellicht het bekendst als zanger van de gefluisterde vreemdgaan-song "Evelyne" (suiker, zegt ze, en ze lacht haar tanden bloot).
Op deze cd zal het grootste deel van de nummers uit de (onvindbare) Parsifal-LP's "Enfant Terrible" uit 1975 (samen met Jean Rousseau, Firmin Timmermans en Mich Verbelen) en "Crapule de Luxe" (samen met het zangeresje Fran) komen te staan. Bruggeling De Coninck maakte nadien nog een Engelstalige LP als "Crapule de Luxe", en verdween daarna naar Portugal. Het is de bedoeling dat hij deze zomer voor enkele concerten -met een trio begeleiding- naar België komt. Er zijn zelfs plannen om dan een nieuwe Nederlandstalige cd op te nemen.

February 23, 2000

RAYMOND IN VERSE
Now that he has seen Abraham (has become 50), Raymond van het Groenewoud has been honoured with a book. This luxurious hardback (with a cover made out of pluch) entitled "Je veux de l'amour" contains an intro written by Boudewijn de Groot, a story of his career, a complete discography and more than 139 lyrics to the songs that have made him such a unique figure. Moreover, the book comes with a cd, that contains 10 songs recorded acoustically at home. (Btw : it sure are busy times for Raymond-collectors, as there was also a cd with live-songs on only 2,000 copies that was handed out to those present at the Valentine's Day-gig at the AB).
The book is part of a series by editor Van Nijgh & Ditmar. In the same series, there has also just been a release about the lyrics of the dutch Drs.P. In the double cd accompanying that book, there is another Raymond-related item : Jean Blaute's "Bananen".
Order "Je veux de l'amour" at Proxis

O BOY, TOUCH OF JOY
Bad news for people who are allergic to Sergio (now that he is omnipresent on Flemish TV these days), since he is returning to the music.
Bad news for people who thought that Touch of Joy had broken up (both Sergio & Sandy have had solo-singles in the last 2 years).
Bad news for people with a coronary disease, as Touch of Joy has a new single, called "I can't let you go (no!)". As an extra, the single contains the videoclip-for-TMF-purposes. Later on in the year a full-cd should follow.
More info : Arcade

February 22, 2000

FERRE TOTAL EXHIBITED
"Captain Disaster" Ferre Grignard, the bohémien-musician who put Belgium on the international rock-map in the sixties with "Ring it" and "What shall we do", has been honoured with an exhitbition in Antwerp. Place to be to discover rare photographs, album sleeves and paintings of this wonderful artist and the Antwerp scene in and around "De Muze" in the sixties is CC Luchtbal, each day between 10 AM and 5 PM until March 19th.
At the opening night of the exhibition Hans Kusters, in those days the producer of Ferre, presented the cd-re-release of a rare (french) LP of 1972 (Ferré Grignard), now out on his own label HKM.

February 19, 2000

NATHALIE SORCE IS THE BELGIAN EUROSONG-CANDIDATE
14 years after Sandra Kim, Belgium has again selected a singer of italian descent as the representative to the Eurovision Song Contest, to be held in Stockholm later in the year.
Nathalie Sorce's "Envie de vivre" (longing for life) received more votes from the tele-voting public than Frédéric Reynaerts (pop with oriental influences), Sabrina Klinkenberg (redhaired singer from Verviers) and Mezzo Mezzo ("The Belgicanos" - à la Gypsy Kings).
Nathalie Sorce (blessed with an organ that Barbra Streisand would envy) is a 21-year old student history & french from La Louvière. She was discovered 2 years ago in the tv-show "Pour La Gloire" (a talent-contest on RTBf which she won in the category "Chanteuse"). Since then, she has recorded a cd with gospel-songs and has sung at the "SOS Kosovo"-benefit and the Paralympics.

February 17, 2000

LIFE SUCKS ACCORDING TO ZAKFORMAAT XL
Kris de Bruyne (one of the founding fathers of quality songs sung in Dutch), Wigbert Van Lierde (laid-back backing guitarist for the entire scene, and an on/off solo-career as well) and Patrick Riguelle (singer of Kadril or with Jan Hautekiet in Riguelle & Hautekiet, now to be seen on TV as the singer of "De Laatste Show-band") have teamed up to form "Zakformaat XL".
On February 26 (during the festivities of the opening weekend of Brussels 2000), the group will present their first album (out on Arcade-records) "n°1" to the press and public. For the moment, there is already a promotional single, provocingly called "Het leven is kut" (which translated would be something like "life's a cunt", or "life sucks!", despite the agressive title a gentle country-song.
The band will start a tour in selected theaters in Flanders, starting on March 17 in St-Genesius-Rode. More info at Garifuna.

STARFLAM IN VORST NATIONAAL
Due to the fact that Asian Dub Foundation cannot make it to Brussels this Saturday, the rapcrew from Liège Starflam has been asked to open for Rage Against The Machine, in Belgium's biggest concert hall.
This means that Starflam will play three gigs in two days this weekend, because they had already scheduled two gigs at the AB, in promotion of their current maxi "Bled Runner". On Saturday, they will first do the gig at Forêt, and then come swiftly to the center of Brussels to do their solo-gig.

LUC ALLOO & HERMAN SCHUEREMANS JOIN BID FOR NEW RADIO-STATION
Since the Flemish minister for media has declared that there has to be room for three more frequencies for nation-wide radio-stations, a number of initiatives have been popping up : a relatively new player on the cable-radio (S&Si - essentie, the station of eighties radio-icon Gust De Coster) has now changed course to get a hold on one of the coveted broadcast-permits : S&Si will become a pop & rock radio station, and change it's name to Roxy.
Luc Alloo (enfant terrible of TV) and Herman Schueremans ("Hermans Sherman", concert-promotor with as main accomplishment the internationally acclaimed Werchter-festival), have now given their full support to the new radio station.
S&Si had a website, where you can find the press-releases of this project.

THOU SIGNS WITH PIAS
The strategy of playing at "de Nachten" in order to get some attention from A&R people for the album Thou had recorded with John Parish in Bristol has now been proved worthwile : the band has signed a deal with record firm Play It Again Sam, who will release a first single "Weak Lady" in March, and the cd "Put Us In Tune" in April. The band was previously on the Dutch label Brinkman (as Metal Molly, Nemo ..), which stopped all activities last year.
Now that that problem is solved, the band has lost it's drummer and is urgently looking for a new one (preferably in the region of Ghent, and with enough time on his hands to do a lot of rehearsing and touring). Contact : +32/(0)9/226.51.01.

MORE BRUSSELS 2000
Our message of last Monday with the musical programme of the opening-weekend of Brussels 2000 (European cultural capital) turns out not to be very complete. At least one major musical event had been overlooked.
The Ancienne Belgique has set up a mini-festival "Het huis van La Chanson" (the house of the song, but bilingual), which you can enter with the same ticket as all other cultural activities that day. The artists performing will be :
- Peter Van Laet (of Mama's Jasje), presenting his solo-cd "Autrement"
- Zakformaat XL (see above), the new band of Kris De Bruyne, Wigbert & Patrick Riguelle
- Vera Coomans (Rum, Madou) & Tom Theuns (Ambrozijn, Olla Vogala)
- Marc Lelangue
- Koen De Cauter with his show "Chante Brassens"
- Wannes Van De Velde & Roland "De nomaden van de muziek"
- Johan Verminnen with songs about "Brussel, mijn stad"
- Philmarie, Zoé & Daniel Hélin
- Willem Vermandere & Julos Beaucarne "Où deux chanteurs du terroir se rencontrent"
- Philippe Lafontaine "Jusqu'à maintenant"

February 14, 2000

THE SEATSNIFFERS GO GOSPEL
Seatsniffers, the bluesy rock'n'roll band from Antwerp, will be releaseing their third cd "Born Again" on Rowyna Records, later on this week. The inspiration for this album came from high in the sky, as it's full of gospel-songs, such as "Jubilee".
The album was produced by Thomas Yearsley (formerly in one of their examples The Paladins), and (re)mixed by Stef Kamil Carlens (of Zita Swoon). There are even more Zita Swoon links, as Bjorn Erickson plays dobro on some of the tracks, and both bands appeared recently on the Dutch TV-show "Paradiso-Life".
As usual, the Seatsniffers will start a tour of the clubs after the release of the cd, this time called "Born Again (Free From Sin)". One of the first concerts will be at the Ancienne Belgique on the 10th of March. Tickets are still available. Praise the Lord.