N°104 GEIKE - ROPE DANCER

Let’s stick with the solo project of Geike Arnaert, stage name Geike, who left Hooverphonic in 2008. As mentioned in my previous post she wasn’t even eighteen when auditioning for Alex Callier’s band Hooverphonic. Her sweet soft voice won the heart of Alex and she became lead singer for Hooverphonic between 1997 and 2008 and started touring and recording with the band at a very young age. Later, when leaving the band for a solo career she stated she had a great time but looking back she missed a part of her youth. Also being settled in the music business and being rewarded several times for Best Female Belgian Singer over the years made her decide to try it on her own.

The same day she decided to leave the band her last Hooverphonic single was to be released called Mijn Leven. This single was released to raise funds for a patient suffering from terminal cancer. He also appeared on the single. A last good deed with and for the band that was.

The same as Hooverphonic it remained silent around Geike for a very long time. She took a three year break and worked on a first solo album as well on the soundtrack for the Belgian movie Adem (Breath). For this project she shook hands with Erik De Jong from the band Spinvis and when performing together they do it under the name Dorléac. Both of them state that Dorléac still exists but there’s no rush in composing new material quickly. They do perform from time to time in small clubs whenever the both of them find the time.

At the end of 2011 Geike released a first single Rope Dancer under her own name. This first single didn’t take a high flight although it’s not a bad song. Her second ‘Unlock’ and third single ‘Blinded’ also didn’t make it high in the charts. Again not bad songs but also for the Hooverphonic fans amongst us it’s not the same as before. When Hooverphonic found a new strong lead vocalist, Geike is a little bit struggling to make it by herself although I’m pretty sure she’s happy doing so. And you must admit that a result after a long hard fight is more rewarding than when success is simply thrown at you.

I normally don't stick with the same vocalist (although the Hooverphonic song at 103 was sung by another girl) but I needed the 'Rope' to bring you 3 very very very great bands and songs which will all be intertwined. That'll be something for next Friday or Saturday. See you then.

N°103 HOOVERPHONIC - 2 WICKY

Normally it takes a band a few good songs to be promoted as a movie’s title track but not so for Hooverphonic. Founded as just plain ‘Hoover’ they produced their first album in 1995 with a spinning title like A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular. 2 Wicky, one of the singles became a hit and got promoted as main theme for Bernardo Bertolucci’s movie Stealing Beauty. Right after the release of this album Hoover needed to change their name into Hooverphonic because of author rights on the name Hoover. Since then their climb up the international music ladder began.

At the moment Hooverphonic exists of musical genius and fifties and sixties lover Alex Callier, guitar player Raymond Geerts and a stunning Noémie Wolfs on vocals. Noémie is actually the band’s fifth female vocalist. After short periods with three singers Hooverphonic performed with Geike Arnaert between 1997 and 2008. She started with the band after auditioning at the age of seventeen. Later she’d say she had a great time with Alex and Hooverphonic but after ten intense years of success in the business she wanted to go her own way and went solo. It took Alex almost two whole years to find a decent replacement in the person of Noémie Wolfs. With the change Hooverphonic becomes less static on stage with the more extravert Noémie instead of the introvert performances of Geike.

In 2000 the band stands before it’s international breakthrough with the album The Magnificent Tree. It became successful throughout Europe and the USA also helped a hand with their performance during the opening ceremony at the European Football championships in Belgium and the Netherlands that summer. Best known song from that album is ‘Mad About You’. The Magnificent Tree got a pretty good follow up with Jackie Cane in 2002. The title track is also the biggest hit from that record and the album still is my favourite.

Since Alex always tries to re-invent himself their 2005 album (No) More Sweet Music was a bit special. This double album had the same songs twice on each CD but each with a different music style. From this moment on troubles began when they break up with their music company. Alex finds he’s being held ransom when Sony/BMG only wants to release the double CD if they sign up for two more albums. Alex refuses and the international release of No More Sweet Music is being stopped by Sony/BMG. Hooverphonic signs with PIAS and Alex keeps full creative autonomy about the band.

Again a style change for the band in 2007 with the album ‘President Of The LSD Club’ which is a more psychedelic pop album. It would be the last with Geike as lead vocalist. On this one I also have a favourite song called ‘Bohemian Laughter’. After the break up with Geike, Hooverphonic is silenced for quite a while until the release of a new single in October 2010. ‘The Night Before’ with Noémie Wolfs becomes a hit and so does Noémie who skyrockets to stardom. It took Alex two years he said because he wanted a vocalist as strong as Geike and someone who could reach the limit he always sets when performing or producing. It must be said that Noémie easily caries the old songs as well as the new ones into a new Hooverphonic era. Let’s hope she also stays with the band for at least 10 years so Hooverphonic remains a big band as it is now with appearances on CSI Miami, La Femme Nikita or Sex And The City.

If you read the text carefully then you'll know that 2 Wicky is not sung by Geike Arnaert or Noémie Wolfs. This song features one of the three elder vocalists Liesje Sadonius. Wicky by the way is the link with the Wickie The Viking song.

N°102: KAREL SVOBODA - WICKIE THE VIKING THEME SONG

The secong theme song in the list and this one is from the hand of a man with world fame in this genre. He scored the title tracks af many children's th series succh as Wickie The Viking or Maya The Bee. Also he created the music for one of my childhood's favourite tv cartoon series, The Wonderfull Adventures Of Nils Holgersson. My God I was fond of that show.

Karel was born in 1938 in the former Chechoslovakia, in Prague (later Czech Republic) and started composing songs while he was studying medicine at the Prague University. He also started to write quite a few pop songs for many Czech singers but as mentioned above he's best known for his various theme songs for series, movies and tv shows.

What many people don't know is that he also wrote the music for four musicals performed in Czech Republic and these musicals have names such as Dracula and The Count Of Monte Christo. Both of them you should at least have heared of. 

His death in 2007 untill today is still a bit of a mystery because Karel was found dead in his back yard with multiple gunshot wounds. It is said he committed suicide although some of his family still denies he had any kind of mental problems. 

N°101 LUCY LOES - MIN ZEEKAPITING

Let’s stay in Ostend, Belgium and pick another one of their world famous artists: Lucy Loes. Who? Lucy Loes! She’s world famous in Ostend and a few miles abroad. She’s that famous she has a statue standing before the fisherman’s stairs at the Fisherman’s Quai in Ostend. She was a performer of old Belgian fisherman’s songs such as ‘t Visscherslief’, ‘Min Zeekapiting’ and ‘Onk ‘soavonds nor min bedje goan’. Translated: The Fisherman’s Song, My Sea Captain and If I Go to Bed Late at Night. I did say was a performer since the Lucy died of cancer in 2009 at the age of 82.

She started to gain interest in old fisherman’s songs because her father was an emergency sea captain and when she was a little girl she heard all the great stories he used to tell her. Yet she never produced a single or an album before the age of fifty. At fifty she took over a pub at the Belgian coast and started her career in the back room for all who wanted to listen to her songs. She sings in Dutch but is better known for her songs in her local dialect. She also had a brother who died at a young age at sea fishing.

In 1970 she had the opportunity to produce an LP with nothing but her most famous fisherman’s songs. She later would produce 3 more cd’s with her best songs and one with ambi music. Although she never got famous outside her home town and surroundings she did achieved to reach national television in 2000 after her song ‘Min Zeekapiting’ was sung on television by Betty Owcziarek, a contestant in the Belgian Big Brother series.

I’ll slip the curtain a little bit aside so you can take a peek into the next song. Off course it’ll have to be linked with the sea and sailors so the next song is about a Viking.

N°100 T.C. MATIC - OH LA LA LA

T.C. Matic is a band which existed between 1980 and 1986 and is a Belgian rock band which produced quite a few hits. The best known founder of the band is Arnaud ‘Arno’ Hintjens who produced numerous albums with bands such as T.C. Matic, Tjens Couter, Freckleface and under his stage name Arno. He and Jean-Marie Aerts composed most of the T.C. Matic’s songs which was a bit normal since they continued from their former band Tjens Couter. 

Tjens Couter stood for Tjens from hinTJENS and Couter from Paul DeCOUTERe, a two man band from Ostend who continued the very first band both played in: Freckleface. But since the two of them didn’t get along very well over the years the Couter part of the band left and Jean-Marie Aerts joined in Tjens Couter, later reformed to T.C. Matic. They decided to use the initials of their old band’s name and add Matic to it so they could make a clean restart. Matic is for a mutual interest in the Serbian poet Doosan Matic. Three more musicians completed the setup: Serge Feys, Ferre Baelen and Rudy Cloet.

At the time in the early eighties T.C. Matic was mainly influenced by new wave and rock and the lyrics varied from the local Ostend dialect to the global English and French. They were a unique band with a unique style and a unique frontman and in six years’ time they produced four studio albums starting with T.C. Matic in 1981 (hit: Oh La La La), ‘lApache in 1982, Choco in 1983 (hit: Putain Putain and If You Wanna Dance, Dance, If You Don’t, Don’t) and Yé Yé in 1985. Although having a pretty strong live reputation it seized to exist after a final tour with Simple Minds in 1986. After T.C. Matic, Arno chose a successful solo career. He still performs the old T.C. Matic hits on all his shows. I believe his fans would be mad at him if he didn’t.

I’ve seen him live once at Werchter Rock festival in 2004 and at the time I wasn’t fond of the performer Arno Hintjens but I can remember that he ruled the crowd. Unfortunately for him he was warming up for the final act of that night: Metallica. And I’m a huge Metallica fan and it would be my first show of them so did I care about Arno? Nope. Next time I’ll pay more attention and enjoy more. That’s a promise.

Oh the link with Shakira is a personal one. I still remember me and Jim, a friend of mine, standing in a video rental store and watching one of Shakira's first music video's on one of the tv screens hanging there. We looked at each other and both thought the same: 'Oh la la la, she's yummie'