"Melody Sound"
59 sec. - 117 Kb.
song : Loos/Schildermans
Produced : Martin Rushent
Year : 1993
Record co. : EMI
from "The Return of Telly Savalas"
"She's So Easy"
52 sec. - 102 Kb.
song : Ronny Schildermans,
Carlo Van Baelen
"Starchild"
57 sec. - 113 Kb.
song : Loos, Schildermans,
Van Baelen
Produced : Staf Verbeeck
Year : 1997
Record co. : Rowyna
The Beautiful Babies were formed on the ashes
of a previous band, named The Wild Bunch, whose only release is the single
"The Only One", a production of Kloot Per W in
the year of our Lord 1989. The Beautiful Babies did get further than this, at
first instance through a very succesful participation in Humo's Rock Rally of
1992. The quintet from Overpelt managed to get a second place in the final of
that talent contest (behind Charlie 45, but in front of bands with later reputation
such as dEUS, Nemo, Orgasmaddix,
Jef Mercelis and The Sideburns, a precursor to Novastar).
On the Rock Rally CD of that year, they ended up with the track "Rain",
a sturdy cover of a Lennon & McCartney song.
With the money of the Rock Rally, they immediately headed for
a recording studio and delivered an EP (Burn Fire Burn), in a production
by Werner Pensaert (see The Scabs), from which they cut
also two singles ("My Supreme" - a modest radio-hit - and "She's
Untrue"). Meanwhile, they also started touring, which earned the the
following review in the magazine Humo "Springsteen in Ghent, The
Sands & Aroma di Amore in Grimbergen, so there
were only about 25 men and women to see The Beautiful Babies in Humbeek. Albeit
25 satisfied men and women: the Babies have clearly been working a bit less on
their image, and instead more on their mostly very fine songs ... The boy's-room
pop of the Beautiful Babies sounds a little bit monotonous for our adult ears,
but they write nice songs and Ronny Schildermans has a voice that makes teenage
girl's hearts melt".
It certainly was enough to attract the attention of the major
EMI, which signed the band a record-deal. The Babies were matched with producer
Martin Rushent (earlier accomplishments include work for bands such as
the Human League, Go Go's, the Stranglers, Buzzcocks, Visage ...), and were sent
into the Jet-Studio in Brussels, from which they emerged sometime later with a
few excellent singles ("Melody Sound" and "The Painted
Room", both of which with Ronny Mosuse in the
backing vocals) and the full-cd "Serenade". This CD was released
with no less than 4 different CD-sleeves, according to a somewhat mysterious marketing
concept, which provided however also for promo-gigs from London to Amsterdam.
As a reviewer wrote later: "on 'Burn Fire Burn' they gave evidence of
the fact they are capable of producing a fine popsong for the first time. The
successor 'Serenade' made this even clearer, but did not become a major success
because the music-loving world was fighting with lumberjack shirts, the back-catalogue
of Nirvana and a pack of Gitanes without filer" After an impressive number
of single-releases with songs from the album, it became very quiet in and around
the Beautiful Babies.
It
wasn't until 1996 that the Beautiful Babies resurfaced, with a new rhythm section
(Bart Jansen was replaced on bass by Wim Lemmens, and Roland Duchateau on drums
by Gert Pauwels) and a new single "She's So Easy", a production
of Staf Verbeek (see for example Aiming Dishes,
Candy Dates, Romans, Metal Molly
...), in search of a record firm to put out the entire album. This was quickly
found in Rowyna Records, which released "The Return of Telly Savalas"
in the beginning of 1997.
Again, the reactions in the Belgian press were quite positive
("A good production of Staf Verbeeck. Radiohead with a few distorted vocals
à la dEUS and the guitars of Crazy Horse",
said Jacky Huys. "With the single "She’s so Easy" the laureates
of the RockRally '92 re-emerge on the scene. In this fine popsong, the band from
Limburg sounds like new British heroes such as Radiohead, Kula Shaker and - why
not - Oasis." said Gunther Jacobs. "TBB listen to Radiohead and
make guitarrock with an edge that is capable of breaking some hearts and doing
some damage" said Tim Coene), but still the band did not go beyond a
place in the "subtop" of Belgian rock at the time.
At this moment (2000) a number of ex-Beautiful Babies have started
a new band, named "Lester", but this one is still in the initial
demo- & try-out-stage of its (possible) career.
Band members :
- Ronny Schildermans (vocals)
- Ivo Loos (guitar)
- Carlo Van Baelen (guitar)
- Roland Duchateau / Gert Pauwels (drums)
- Bart Jansen / Wim Lemmens (bass)
Buy CD's of this band at
Releases :
- Burn Fire Burn (EP, Antler, 1992)
- My Supreme (S, Antler, 1992)
- She's untrue (S, Pias/Antler, 1992)
- The Painted Room (CDS, EMI, 1993)
- Serenade (CD, EMI, 1993)
- Melody Sound (CDS, EMI, 1993)
- Drown (CDS, EMI, 1993)
- Angelina (CDS, EMI, 1993)
- White Pigeon (CDS, EMI, 1994)
- She's So Easy (when she sleeps) (CDS, Great Music, 1996)
- The Return of Telly Savalas (CD, Rowyna, 1997)
- Starchild (CDS, Rowyna, 1997)
Websites :
- a review of "The Return of Telly Savalas" at Uptomusic
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