NIEUWSARCHIEF

Periode :20-25 juni 2000
In dit deel : Praga Khan, El Fish, Wawadadakwa, Liquid, Silvy Melody, Mauro, Novastar, Gert & Samson, Rock Herk.

25 juni 2000

PRAGA KHAN TOPS TOPAWARDS
Last Friday, the very first handout of the Topawards (awarded by the radio chain "Topradio") was held in Ghent. Taking home most awards was the Belgian act Praga Khan, since they were chosen in no less than four categories : "Best Dance Album" (for 21st Century Skin), best Producer (to Olivier Adams), Best video clip (for "Breakfast in Vegas"), and even received a "lifetime achievement award" on top of that. It was at the announcement of the Topawards, a few month ago, that Praga presented their newest album "Mutant Funk" from the roof of the VTM-building (a show you can still watch in realvideo from the Topradio-site).
Other Belgian winners were Joost Zweegers of Novastar (Best male performer), An of Milk Inc. (Best female performer), Da Boy Tommy "Halloween" (Best dance single), Yves De Ruyter (Best DJ), Da Rick (Best live dance act) and DJ Loony Tune (Best young DJ). International winners were Jennifer Lopez, Robbie Williams, Britney Spears, Armand van Helden, Chemical Brothers and Scooter.
Full list at the site of Topradio, who have also released a double CD with most of the nominees.

2nd WISTERIA SINGLE FOR EL FISH
El Fish are getting rave reviews for their recently released album "Wisteria" all over the place. To promote the disc even more, they are now releasing a second single of the album (after "Black Olives", which was released as a promo-single). The choice made was "Strange Situation" , the opening track of the album.

22 juni 2000

WADISDANA : WAWADADAKWA
"Zwaaien met die heupen" wordt u op niet geheel vrijblijvende manier aangemaand op de debuutsingle "Emilio" van het Antwerpse Wawadadakwa. Niet geheel vrijblijvend, omdat het er ook muzikaal ook bijzonder swingend aan toe gaat : de groep is immers ontstaan als straatorkest rond de Antwerpse Bourlaschouwburg en ging zich in 1998 in Cuba bijscholen. Zoals ze het zelf zeggen "wawadadakwa brengt feest- en dansmuziek voor iedereen, op improvisatorische wijze en gekruid met de nodige dosis theatraliteit en kinderlijke gekte". Dat het daarbij ook nog goed en aanstekelijk vrolijk is, werd al onder meer bewezen tijdens Club Brussel en Levende Lijven.
De single "Emilio", opgenomen met Staf Verbeek, werd vorige zondag in 't Oerwoud in Antwerpen voorgesteld, uitgebracht bij het illustere Catamaran Records, en is vooral geheel gratis en gratis geheel te krijgen in verschillende formaten via de eveneens prettig gestoorde website van de groep www.wawadadakwa.com.

THE RETURN OF SILVY MELODY
She was born in Lier as Silvy De Bie in 1981. She was elected "most beautiful kid in Belgium" in 1987. She won the mini-playbackshow with Henny Huisman doing an impersonation of Liza Minelli at the age of 9. Her career in Belgium was launched by Walter Capiau. She made her debut record in 1990 with a dutch translation of "Ben", the tune that Michael Jackson made famous. Her biggest hit was "De telefoon huilt mee", a duet with Danny Fabry and a translation of the song "Le téléphone qui pleure" (and the telephone surely wasn't the only thing that this song caused to shed a tear). She dissapeared out of view in 1993, and was never heard of since ...
Yes, we're talking about Silvy Melody, of course. And She ... Is ... Back ... She has dropped the "Melody" and is now launching a career as vocalist of a dance act, together with Regi Pinxten (Milk Inc. etcetera) and Wout van Dessel (eurodance remixer and DJ at the Illusion in Lier) as Liquid feat. Silvy. The first single "Turn The Tide" went to n°1 in the Belgian dance charts already, and is now aiming for the regular hitparades. Out on BYTE-records.

20 juni 2000

FIRST MAURO RELEASE AFTER THE SUPERSTARS
Almost two years after the demise of what is usually referred to as the brilliant but insane rockband Evil Superstars, there is finally a new release by the frontman of that late but great band Mauro Pawlowski, or simply Mauro as his new band is called. "A Faint Smile" is a 2-track single, out on his new record label [PIAS] Recordings, in the shops from June 26th.
He has assembled an all new backing band that is made up out of Herman Houbrechts on drums (he left Dead Man Ray to join this outfit), Jan Weygers on bass and Anton Jansen (ex-Noordkaap) on keyboards. After a few Summer festivals (eg. Pukkelpop), the band will normally be travelling to LA in September, to record a full album with the technical assistance of Dave Sardy.
Somewhat but not totally related is the news that another Ex-Evil Superstar, Marc Requilé, has joined the duo Ultracowboy (ex-Nemo's Peter Houben and Remo Perotti, debut single "The song that says fuck you" out couple of months ago) on the bass guitar.

NOVASTAR IN SEARCH OF A WEBMASTER
Joost Zweegers of Novastar is needing a little help in his quest to convince the world that his debut album was something quite extraordinary, and you there, nerd, can be of some assistance. To make sure he has the best website around, he is organizing a contest to locate a Novastar webmaster. The purpose : to find the one that can make the nicest, most beautiful, graphically most refined, or technically most sound set of pages, with some restrictions on the used technology.
To participate, the best thing to do is buy a copy of the most recent issue of Computer Magazine for June, since that contains a CD (CM-ROM) with all kinds of materials (logo's, artwork, scans, photo's, soundbites) that can be used in the website. More material will be provided at the webpage about the contest at the Magazine's site. The contest runs until August 31.
Prizes are kind of cool : the winner gets a trip to Silicon Valley (US) for two. He also will become "webmaster of the official Novastar website" for one year, and will receive 100,000 Bef. for that afterwards. There are prizes for 9 other entries as well (soundcards, digital camera's, cd's ...).

ONE MAN AND HIS DOG, PART 10
Samson & Gert, an incredibly popular infants-tv-programme featuring a grown-up man and his speaking puppet bobtail, have just released their 10th CD. 10 years after Samson got his own show, the new album is a mix of the best tracks of the previous 9 editions (eg. de "Samsonrock" , "Samen op de Moto", "Wij zijn bij de brandweer", "Wie gaat er mee" and 16 track you'll probably know by heart if you have children under the age of 10), mixed in with 8 new songs on the double-cd.
The albums of Gert & Samson usually feature songs written by more or less well-known artists (eg. Ivo de Wijs, Stef Bos) and usually finish in the top rankings of best-selling albums in Flanders (eg. Samson 8 was 13th in 1998, Samson 9 became 16th in 1999), although Studio 100 (the company behind it) have given themselves some competition with the advent of Kabouter Plop and Big & Betsy, who are equally succesfull on the children wishlists.
Pictures of the Cd-presentation at the Showbizzsite.

ROCK HERK
They won't have competition of the Belgian soccer team, since that has eliminated itself from Euro2000 yesterday, so Rock Herk won't need the fifteen tv-screens they had ordered in order to get some people to next Saturday's festival. As always, the usually very cosy festival is totally free and features groundbreaking bands from the local talentpool and far abroad. The line-up has undergone a last-minute change, and consists now of Zornik Breknov (the RR-finalist from Limburg), Karoshi (electroduo with a lot of decibels), Skarhead (hardcore), Reiziger (emocore), Osdorp Posse (hardcore rap from Holland), Groop Dogdrill (sixties punk), Arab Strap (emotional ), Environmental Science (they come to replace Hardknox) and dj Lowdown (techno with a little bit of Brazil).
Place to be on Saturday June 24th : Olmenhof, Herk-De-Stad. Info at 013/55 44 20 or rockherk@lol.be.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Naar de inhoudsopgave van het Nieuwsarchief.
Naar het meest recente nieuws.