Big in Belgium » FFWD to the Past

K’s Choice and Channel Zero announce reunion

JayAre — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:31:55 +0000

Reunion announcements are hot. At least, that’s what K’s Choice and Channel Zero must have thought last week. Both bands announced they will be teaming up again for a small comeback. K’s Choice will be playing live at the Dranouter Festival in August and Channel Zero will be performing live at least once in January 2010 in the Ancienne Belgique (Brussels).

Sarah and Geert Bettens, original founders of K’s Choice and brother and sister, have both been working on their own projects for the last six years. Sarah went solo (and moved to the U.S.) and Geert tried to conquer the world with his band Woodface. Rumours are they are also working on a new album that will be released in 2010. Watch them perform their biggest hit song so far, Not An Addict (live at Pinkpop 1996 with Skin from Skunk Anansie):

Click here to view the embedded video.

Franky DSVD and his Channel Zero metal compadres will play one concert in January after 12 years of inactivity. They were the one-and-only big Belgian metal band for several years, but after five succesful albums they decided to call it a day in 1997. Maybe Channel Zero didn’t get the public attention they deserved, but other metal bands enjoyed taking them on tour as support act. Among others Channel Zero toured with Biohazard, Bodycount, Napalm Death, Life Of Agony and Danzig. Hope they will be playing this song in Brussels, Black Fuel:

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Lady Linn & her magnificent hit single “I don’t wanna dance”

JayAre — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 21:33:25 +0000

This is without any doubt the most frequently played song on Belgian radio at the moment: Lady Linn & her magnificent seven with I don’t wanna dance, an Eddy Grant cover.

Enjoy a live version (with just one of her magnificent seven) from the Canvas show Lux:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Who needs Amy Winehouse when we have our own Lady Linn in Belgium?

FFWD to the past: The Kids

JayAre — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 23:17:19 +0000

The Kids were the first Belgian punk band ever. Formed as Crash in 1976, they quickly changed their name to The Kids under influence of the punk movement in the UK. Lead singer Ludo Mariman was responsible for most of the songs and still is the face of The Kids.

During the last years of the seventies, the band had achieved a cult status in Belgium and during the early eighties, they managed to catch some international attention. A nice to know fact is that the bass player Danny Dehaes was only twelve when the group started an still needed to attend school every day. So after a gig, the other Kids just dropped him off at school. Now if that isn’t rock-and-roll…

Most of the LP’s The Kids released are now real collector items. Especially in the US, their albums are much sought after in the punk scene. Every once in a while, a real The Kids LP is sold on eBay and most of the time the new owner needs to pay a significant ammount of money for it.

The band split up in 1985, but decided to give it another go in 1996. After the reunion, The Kids became pretty famous in the US, Japan and Canada.

Most famous and classic The Kids song is There Will Be No Next Time:

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But Fascist Cop is without any doubt a little more punk:

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And to finish, the Kids’ first television appearance in 1978:

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The Kids discography:

The Kids (1978)
Naughty Kids (1978)
Living In The 20th Century (1980)
Blackout (1981)
If The Kids… (live) (1982)
Gotcha! (1985)

Watch the complete The Kids discography here.

Listen to The Kids on Last.fm