April 20, 2000

ROBERT MOSUSE DIES AT 30
Singer Robert Mosuse died yesterday night at a hospital in Antwerp. Robert Mosuse was one of the talented Mosuse-brothers who made their way into Belgian pop music with their crystal clear vocals as the B-tunes (Rock Rally final in 1980, with three Mosuses : Robert, Ronny & Jean-Paul), the Radio's (the band of Bart Peeters, who recruited two of the brothers for "Lucky Day" and then went with great success & the hit "She goes Na na"), The Big M's (with Paul Michiels & Hervé Martens), a solo career (with blue hair, as Robbie Crown, with an album in 1995 "Scared Memories" and thirteen soul-inspired songs) and a Party band (Plane Vanilla, with Vincent Goeminne, William Reven, Raf van Brussel, Isabelle A ...). His brother continued as RonnyMo' and nowadays has a radioshow on Studio Brussel.
The young singer died at such a young age of a brain tumor. Few people knew that he had been diagnosed with this severe disease already ten years ago, and gradually suffered more and more consequences of it (exhaustion, epileptic fits ...). The last months, the singer had retreated almost completely because the disease was getting much worse.
More info : report in Gazet van Antwerpen.

April 17, 2000

PUT THE BLAME ON MAME
- CD-singles sales in Belgium went down 33% last year, according to IFPI. On VTM-news, Marcel Heymans blamed the internet and CD-copiers for these sloppy figures, and threatened to start confiscating PC's of users suspected of running Napster.
- VIA Records in Holland has gone bankrupt. They blame a crumbling market for CD's and the stark competition of the internet. Not very clear if this bankrupcy will also affect the Belgian branch, with artists such as dirk Blanchart, Guido Belcanto, A Group, Riguelle&Hautekiet ... The main area of work of the label was Jazz.
- Beginning belgian bands can get a free page & disc space for MP3's at a new site called Devhaus, where they can count on the benificial effect of the internet for new bands (free giveaway of their music in the hope of being discovered).
- At Popverdorie, the musicians day that was attented by some 500 people, one of the most boring moments was the debate on "how to promote your band on the internet". Pop-professor Gust De Meyer drove the point home that the impact of the Internet is seriously overrated and will not destabilize cd-sales.
- The announced initiative of Telenet & TMF to broadcast the 15 most requested video's of the music station on the internet, has gotten into dire straits just before the launch : almost all record companies have refused to grant permission to stream the broadband video's. Telenet blames the companies for not understanding the true possibilities of the Internet.

FESTIVAL FEVER
These are hectic days for concert organisers who want to gather a substantial amount of music-loving people on their turf this Summer, but for some the hectic search for the most interesting bands is already over now :

- WERCHTER has added 11 new names to the billing : Methods of Mayhem, Praga Khan (as last year), DJ Jan van Biesen (as last year), Metal Molly (as four years ago, in their orange line-up then, now with "The Golden Country"), Him (current hit "Join Me"), Bomfunk MC's (current hit "Freestyler"), Elliott Smith (great singer songwriter), El Tattoo Del Tigre (de Kakkewieten + Flowers for Breakfast + Wawadakwa + W.A.C.K.O. + ..., a thirty piece band that brings a mix of mambo, merengue & wacky humour), A Perfect Circle, Nitin Sawhney, Gomez, Eels and Lamb. With the belgian bands that were signed earlier (Gorki, Dead Man Ray, Laïs, Arid, Soulwax and An Pierlé, this makes 10, and with the big names that were revealed earlier (NIN, Oasis, Macy Gray, Eurythmics, Texas, Counting Crows, Paul Weller, Pearl Jam, The Cure, Moby ...) this makes a pretty impressive line-up once again.
Tickets for Werchter can be found at Orange Music.

- COULEUR CAFÉ (which will be held on the same days as Werchter this year: June 30 and July 1st & 2nd) has concluded it's line-up with international headliners Alpha Blondy, Youssou N'Dour, the Afro Cuban All-Stars, Me'Shell Ndegeocello, Asian Dub Foundation, Candy Dulfer and Massilia Sound System. Belgian names are the Belgo-American funkrock of PPz30, the belgo-moroccan raï of Mousta Largo, and the Brussels-based reggae of Panache Culture. All in all, there are 30 bands that will perform, with each night devoted to a "theme" : reggae on Friday, Funk on Saturday and World Music on Sunday. Ticket info : 0900/80.800.

- SUIKERROCK in Tienen (where else could you call a festival "sugar-rock"?) has signed Beverly Jo Scott, Gorki, Eden, and eighties glories Heaven 17 and Howard Jones for Saturday July 29, and Blue Chevy's, Mozaiek, Sarah, The Clement Peerens Explosition, Johan Verminnen & Mory Kante for Sunday July 30. On a smaller stage, there will also be gigs of The Rosswells, 10000 Women Man, Looplizard, Chrysalis, Mint, Freestyle Fabrik, Anarcoustic Sound Club, Soul Sucker & The Rough Cuts. Contrary to the three aforementioned festivals, this is a free one.

April 16, 2000

EVERYBODY FAMOUS ...
... is the translated title of the new Flemish film "Iedereen beroemd" of Dominique Deruddere (Crazy Love, Wait until spring, Bandini, Suite 16, Hombres Complicades) about the desires of a rather chubby young lady named Marva (after the seventies' singer, who refused to do a cameo in the movie though) to become a star.
The film also has a soundtrack, which features mostly intrumental material written by Raymond van het Groenewoud, the pathetic version of "Lucky Manuelo" that Marva sings in the film, and two songs sung by Dutch acress Thekla Reuten (who plays the successful star in the film that is kidnapped by Marva's dad). Another version of her "success-song" "Alsjeblieft" is also out as a single.
Order the O.S.T. on Double-T-music from Frontstage (529 fr).

THE WEATHERMEN'S OUTLOOKS ARE BRIGHT
About twelve years after the terrific intro "Hi, my name is Suzanna Stammer, I'm going to make your life miserable", the Belgian-American electronic duo The Weathermen is assembling the best tracks from their four albums (with the emphasis on "The Black Album"). A 12", with a 2000 re-recording of "Poison" - now she threatens to "spam your Mailbox" instead of "gonna scratch your daddy's Bruce Springsteen Records" - is planned for May, the compilation - a CD-extra containing lots of pictures and more, should be out at the end of Summer.
After the Weathermen, Jean-Marc Lederman has continued in music, composing themes for games, and he currently also has a project with Julianne Regan (once singer with acoustic goth-band All About Eve). Bruce Geduldig has been acting and directing afterward, and has been doing a project with Luc van Lieshout (another former member of Tuxedomoon).

April 13, 2000

RIGUELLE & HAUTEKIET & ...
Two years after their first artefact, the austere album "a minor thing" with covers of songs of Costello, XTC, Dylan, Richard Thompson etc..., Patrick Riguelle and Jan Hautekiet will hit the road together again this year. There will be a new album in 2000 of the duo - also known from the TV1-programme De Laatste Show - that will be called "Red Harmony".
Unlike the first cd (that contained only voice & piano), the offer will be somewhat more "electrified", since they have recruited a bass-player (Werner Lauscher from Aachen, who worked with Jo Lemaire and Zakformaat XL before) and a drummer (Joost Van den Broeck, known from his beats for De Mens, Soulsister, My Velma) into the group. According to the bio, however, the goal remains "to put their teeth into a timeless repertoire with only one aim : to please the players and the audience".
Booking : Lipstick Notes.

NO LONGER BORN TO BE ALIVE
Few people know this, but one of the main men behind one of the best-known disco songs ever, sung by the tiny Frenchman Patrick Hernandez with a teenage Madonna in the backing vocals, yes we're talking about the immortal "Born To Be Alive"here, well, that the driving force behind that single was Belgian: Jean Vanloo, a Belgian music fan who produced the song that was sold 25 million times in 1979 and after.
Jean Vanloo was a noteworthy figure in Belgian music for better reasons as well: this ex-swimmer started a rock'n'roll club in 1961 in the far from "hip" Mouscron, and steadily managed to get a lot of American and English greats to perform in his "Twenty Club" (eg The Animals, Gene Vincent ...). Legendary is the tour in Europe that he set up in 1967 for an unknown guitarist with one single "Hey Joe", Jimi Hendrix. Jean Vanloo also was a manager of local rock'n'roll bands, such as the groups Chocolate and The Sunlights.
So far so good in this newsitem, but the reason for all this is somewhat less good news : this Jean Vanloo passed away last friday, at the age of 61.