THE PEBBLES

Belgian band who had some enormous international hits in the sixties.

Group formed by Fred Bekky and Bob Baelemans, initially called "The Fredstones". Their "orchestra" played in a club in Hoboken (Antwerp) for 5 to 6 hours in a row ("otherwise the audience would leave and go across the street"). The group almost had a breakthrough in 1965 when they met producer Norman Petty (Buddy Holly, Jimmy Gilmer & The Fireballs). It was him who changed their name to "The Pebbles".

In 1967 they signed up with manager Louis De Vries (who had just had a hit with his "poulain" Ferre Grignard). De Vries got them a record deal with Barclay Paris. One year later, the single "Get around" was released. The single was picked up on radio Free Veronica and was an instant success.

The successor to the single "Get Around", namely "Seven Horses in the Sky", became an even bigger international success. Nowadays it is considered an evergreen and is probably the best song ever to be made by a Belgian band.

They were "this" close to singing a record deal with Apple after that. Eddie Barclay wouldn't let them go, otherwise the Pebbles would have figured on the label instead of Badfinger (!)

Other noteworthy numbers : "Incredible George" (a song that was about and got them a congratulations telegram from George Harrison), "Mackintosh" (enormous hit in Spain).

Their first album (entitled "The Pebbles") didn't sell very well abroad and caused havoc between the members of the group. Some changes in personnel were made, but from then on it went slowly downhill for the Pebbles. Still, there were some good singles ("Down at Kiki", "Mother Army") and a reasonable album ("Close up" of 1973) to come.

In 1974, the activities of the group came to a virtual halt. Still, the remaining group members perform together on occasion (night of the Proms, Swingpaleis, Golden oldies ...).

Fred Bekky became a succesful producer (e.g. Trinity - with Sofie) and songwriter (e.g. Yasmine), and is still a well-known public figure (e.g. soundmix-jury ...)
Luk Smets was part of jazz-formation Shampoo, formed a disco-band Hearts of Soul (with three dutch girls) and was part of The Dream Express (the Belgian entry to Eurosong in 1977 with "A million in one, two, three). Later on, he took a more background role (e.g. musical writing, soundtracks ...)

Members :
- Fred "Bekky" Beekmans
- Bob "Bobott" Baelemans
- Miel Gielen / Axel Van Duyn / Patrick Wijnants(bass)
- Louis de Laat / Cel De Cauwer / Johnie Verhas (drums)
- Luk Smets / Tim Turcksin (keyboards)

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Albums :
- The Pebbles (Barclay - 1969)
- Close Up (United Artists - 1973)
- The Story of the Pebbles 1964-1994 (Indisc - 1994)
Singles :
- Let's say goodbye (CBS, 1965)
- It's alright with me now (CBS, 1965)
- Huma la la la (Canon, 1966)
- Someone to love (Arcade, 1967)
- I go to sing / You better believe it (Barclay, 1967)
- Get around (Barclay, 1967)
- Seven horses in the sky / The verger (Barclay, 1968)
- Incredible George / Playing chess (Barclay, 1969)
- Mackintosh (Barclay, 1969)
- 24 hours at the border (Barclay, 1970)
- To the rising sun (Barclay, 1971)
- Down at Kiki (Barclay, 1971)
- Beggar / Amontillado / Fire (Barclay, 1971)
- Mother army (United Artists, 1972)
- Jan, Suzy and Phil (United Artist, 1972)
- Some kind of joker (United Artists, 1973)
- No time at all (United Artists, 1974)
- The kid is allright (United Artists, 1974)
- Figaro (Killroy, 1980)

Websites :
- none whatsoever