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!