N° 128 EVIL SUPERSTARS - SAD SAD PLANET

A quadrupple link this time. Haley was named after a comet, the name of Bill’s band, star in this band’s name and planet in the title.

A true Belgian rockband who, unfortunately as it is, doesn’t exist anymore. The split was pushed through by their record company A&M  because their second album Boogie Children R Us wasn’t the big commercial success as hoped. This is why they seized to exist after a 6 year legacy between 1992 and 1998 although they said afterwards the split was because of artistic disputes between the different band members.

In 2004 though they re-appeared on the scenes for a one time reunion. Apparantly Mauro Powlowski, the front man of the band, had told the press whe the band split up they would only be re-united to play Jerusalem by the doomrockband Sleep, whis is a legendary one hour during song. They did so at the La Belgique 666 Point festival in Brussels.

Fortunaley for music lovers we can still see Mauro perform since he joined dEus after the Evil Supersars split. Also Tim Vanhamel can still be seen on the music scenes since he’s a founding member of Eagles Of Death Metal (he quit after the first album though), Millionaire and Broken Glass Heroes. Tim joined the band after they won the 1994 Humo Rock Rally contest at the age of 15.

Evil Superstars won Humo’s Rock  rally in 1994 which meant the real start of their careers quickly followed by a first CD called Love Is Okay. The second and last CD was recorded in 1997 and released in 1998.

N°127 BILL HALEY AND THE COMETS - SEE YOU LATER ALLIGATOR

Since the previous band released an album by the name of ‘Alligator’ the link was easily made with Bill Haley and his Comets and the song posted. It’s been a while though since I posted a classic song so there’s another good reason for the choice I’ve made.

Bill Haley died at the age of 55 when I was only 4 years old. We’re situating ourselves in 1981 then so you might wonder how I’ve got to know these songs. Well back in third grade I play backed him once with this song. Not a very good play back though but it got me to listen to some real old classics and that love for good old music never left.

It all started when Bill recorded the song Rock Around The Clock in 1954. Rock ‘n Roll was a very popular music and dance style in the fifties and Bill Haley would become one of the trendsetters of that genre. It wasn’t the biggest hit at first but when a dance movie with the same title was shown in all the movie theatres in 1956 his song was on the track list. It spread out around the whole world together with the increasing popularity of rock ‘n roll itself.

 

Bill was born to play music with a banjo playing dad and his mom being a pianist. With this musical influence he started his own band halfway the 1940’s. The band’s name would be Bill Haley’s Saddlemen but they changed the name at the recordings of their first album in 1951 into Bill Haley and the Comets.  At that same time he was known as one of the best yodellers in America and he performed as Silver Yodelling Bill Haley. He also lead a radio station in the 1940’s, all a continuation of his love for music.

With the success of songs such as ‘Shake, Rattle and Roll’, ‘Rock Around The Clock’ and ‘See You Later alligator’ came the downside of success. Haley fought a long battle with alcohol and in the 1970’s he’d admit on national radio to be an alcoholic. This would nowadays probably mean the break-up of a band but The Comets kept touring and playing with Bill. While he and his environment coped well with his alcohol abuse it didn’t cause his death. A brain tumour did, diagnosed only weeks before his late 1980’s tour which got cancelled. His drinking problem got worse in the last few years of his life causing family problems.

Although his troubled life he was granted a star on the Hollywood walk Of Fame and he got post mortem ignaurated in the Rock ‘n Roll Hall Of Fame.

The Comets are still touring in their original form tributing Bill Haley and their successful music.

Enjoy the song and see you later alligator!

N°126 THE NATIONAL - ENGLAND

From a poppy boysband to some real indie music with the American band The National. When the success from East 17 dropped from the late nineties on, The National only began to dream about international success since they were founded in 1999.

The base of the band is formed by a double pair of brothers: Aaron and Bryce Dessner and Scott and Bryan Devendorf. The last one plays the drums while the rest of them all play guitar (or bass guitar). The only one who hasn’t got any relatives in the band is songwriter, frontman Matt Berninger. He’s also the only one who doesn’t play any instrument.

It took them quite a while to finally break through with their fourth album Boxer; release in 2007. The big success came even with the follow up album High Violet in 2010. One of the hits on this album is ‘Bloodbuzz Ohio’ while also ‘Is There A Ghost’ and ‘Terrible Love’ reached the top of the charts.

Before the Boxer album they started with an album in 2001 named after the band. I’ll also mention the other two albums: Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers (2003) which was named by Chicago Tribune as album of the year and Alligator (2005). In between they created the studio EP Cherry Tree and after their first break through in 2007 they released a second EP The Virginia which contained some older work and B-sides. This EP was accompanied by a band documentary shot by Vincent Moon. Touring with Editors after the Alligator album helped their popularity amongst indie music lovers.

Personally I picked them up after their fourth album and I got to know them on their combined tour with Editors. I saw them perform at Pukkelpop festival and loved their work so very much I instantly became a bit of a fan. Good luck for me since East17 is a quarter in London, capital of the UK (England), and England is my favourite The National song.

Enjoy it.

N°125 - EAST17 - STAY ANOTHER DAY

I’m back after being gone for a while. Renovating a house apparently drains a lot of energy and time so apologies for all of you who actually missed the music link. But from now on we’ll get back to it on a regular basis. And not a better continuation with an old school boys band from the nineties.

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East17 was formed in 1991 and they mixed rap with nineties pop music. Just listen to their songs such as ‘Steam’ or Let It Rain’. Formed by front man Tony Mortimer he sought a few fellow band members after signing his first record deal for London Records.  London Records? Yes the band is British. He name of the band was quickly chosen since Tony came from a small town called Walthamstow which postal code starts with E17… Brian Harvey sings the more r&b vocals while Mortimer  takes care of the songwriting and the rapping parts. Other members were John Hendy and Terence Coldwell. Since were talking nineties here it needs to be mentioned they were mainly rival for that other boys band Take That.

Their first album named after the town Mortimer grew up in shot to the number 1 place in the UK charts in no time bringing forth a number of hits such as ‘House Of Pain’. ‘Stay Another Day’ was a single from their 1994 second released album named ‘Steam’.  Stay Another Day is, until today, still their only number 1 UK hit single whilst all of their other singles made it at least to the top 20. ‘Up All Night‘ was their third album in consecutive years but it would never top the previous successes.

News appeared that Harvey was engaged in an affair on taking drugs and with Mortimer leaving the band in 1997 the split op East17 was final. The split would only last a year when all but Mortimer gave East17 a new kick start. The renamed themselves to E-17 and released a fourth album in 1998 called ‘Resurrection’. The only single making it to the top would be ‘Each Time’. Apparently Mortimer’s songwriting skills had a huge input in the band’s success. It would be a very short comeback since they split again in 1999.

In 2006 all four original members performed a one-time comeback on a gig in London but this would only result in a re-launch of their careers as a three piece band. Again Mortimer would leave the band after a fight with Harvey. One last setup change would happen in 2009 when Mortimer took Harvey’s place as the band thought Harvey’s drug abuse once more disturbed the band’s commitments.  This final comeback resulted in the singles ‘Secret Of My Life’ and ‘I Can’t Get You Off My Mind’ together with a fifth album in 2012 (14 years after the fourth !) titled ‘Dark Light’

I never have been and never will be a fan of boys bands but I’m sure you’ll admit East17 have their place in music history so here they are with their only number 1 UK hit.

Talk to you soon.