BETTY GOES GREEN

Rock-group from Halle with international potential.

Betty Goes Green was founded in 1990 (at first under the name "The Killer T-Bag"). After a few years of rehearsing and playing live, they debut in '92 with the album "Hell of a show". The press reactions are good and the gigs keep start pouring in. They sign with BMG/Ariola for the next album.

The group has a lucky break when, searching for a producer for the second album, they manage to convince Mike Rathke (producer and guitar player of Lou Reed) of the qualities of the band. He produces "Hunuluria", of which two good singles are taken : "Cold by the sea" and "Life Long Devotion".

The album is well-received by the public, but the press dumps Betty Goes Green. "We were looked at as if we had forgotten who we were", recalls keyboard player Nathalie in an interview with De Morgen some years later "although we never started with the idea : "we'll ask Lou Reed's guitarist, so everybody will like us". We just wanted to do things differently. Don't forget : this was long before the current wave of Belgian Pop groups - before dEUS and K's Choice. Nowadays you have to have a Big Name on your record, otherwise it won't even get noticed anymore."

Rathke also produces their third album "Hand Some" (singles : "I love it", "Go to hook her"), on which Lou Reed also sings on one song. On the album, the guitars are being played by Tjenne Berghmans (Clouseau), due to a fatal illness of their original guitarist Pieter De Cort. He dies of cancer in 1994.

In 1996, the group decides to take a step down : they sign up for a smaller record label (B-Track) and record a new album, self produced this time. There are almost no reactions to the album. Only their devoted friend Lou Reed is still enthusiastic and takes the group with him on his European Tour.

This changes completely when they are signed by major Sony for their next album. There is a big promotion campaign and the single "The Well" suddenly becomes a huge radio hit. The Betty's have regained their "credibility".
The group members are somewhat bitter about this : "Now they are going "Betty Goes Green" makes a nice comeback". As if we have been doing nothing for the last couple of years." Yet the consensus among the record-critics seems to be this is finally an full-grown album, the songs are much better and consistent, and the voice of Luc Crabbé finally sounds how it's supposed to.

In 1998, singer Luc Crabbe en Tony Gezels also take part in a new project of Kloot Per W called "Zen-On".

Despite the fact that "The Well" was - for Betty Goes Green-standards - reasonably succesful, the record company didn't quite agree with that so that for the next album - launched at the time of the 10th anniversary of the band in May 2000 - the group had left Sony and had gone back to the more modest B-track. "Dreamers & Lovers" was recorded in the bands own homestudio, with only a brass-section with Bart Maris coming to the aid of the band. Luc Crabbe about this in Rif-Raf : "I think it's the best record that we have ever done. It's the most coherent one, there is a unity, and there is more melody in it then ever before ... We have never been part of any trend or group, and that has maybe also been our problem. In the early days, the record company tried to sell us as the Belgian Nirvana, but we had nothing to do with that. We just keep on doing our own thing ... to make songs in an arts-and-crafts way".
"Dreamers & Lovers" should also get an international release in the Fall of 2000 (France, Germany, probably the UK). Moreover, it seems that the singer-guitarist (and now also mixer, producer and studio-technician) Luc Crabbe is planning to record a solo-album, and that the next Betty Goes Green is probably gonna be a live-CD.

Band members :
- Luc Crabbé (vocals, guitar)
- Joe Bacart (drums)
- Nathalie Duyvert (keyboards)
- Tony Gezels (bass)
- Johan Ancaert / Pieter De Cort / Tjenne Berghmans - guitar

Buy CD's of this band at

Albums :
- Hell of a show (Boom! - 1991)
- Hunuluria (BMG - 1993)
- Hand Some (BMG - 1994)
- Hedonic Tone (B-Track - 1996)
- The Well (Columbia/Sony - 1998)
- Dreamers & Lovers (BTrack - 2000)
Other :
- The Killer T-Bag song "Out of my hands" is featured on "Belgium Garage Mania 5" (Boom, 1989)

Websites :
- my review of Dreamers & Lovers
- Official site of the group at Sony Music (dead and gone now).
- Interview (in French) with the band at 6Bears
- Fansite in French.

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