Carriage Company

This Brussels “company” was the first Belgian band who got labelled as a “hard rock” band. Their debut single “The Beast” was a slightly primitive and raunchy affair. It opens with a heavy guitar intro and a speech from a priest. Nevertheless, it sold in good quantities and gave the band along with this new “production company” Raza their first hit-record.

Carriage Company was then: Angelo Antioco on guitar, Francis Soens on drums, Jan D’Haese on bass and vocals and lastly Phil Greenslade on vocals and guitar.

The band remained in the public eye during 1969 as they played a lot of successful shows including an appearance in august at the Bilzen Rock & Jazz festival (with The Moody Blues and Rory Gallagher’s Taste on that bill).

Although not quite evoking the spirit of their live shows, the follow-up single “Sunday Morning/’Cause I Love You” was more consistent although the B-side had a somewhat weak “slow” on it. It was the first one with new drummer Francois Philips.

Philips was the experienced guy from the band as he had already been part of a rock and roll group called “Les Night Rockers” who released four singles in 1965.
It didn’t hold the band from playing as they’ve could be seen on several occasions, like on September 5th 1970 they played the “pop hot festival” in Huy where Yes was headlining. Another big event was the “Ghent Festival” on November 28, 1970 where Stray was headlining.

Their third vinyl appeared in the form of the “Feel Right / In Your Room” single, a highly capable effort not in the first place by the catchy A-side. It was the song “In Your Room” on the B-side who made impression. This was great heavy rock with screaming guitars, great organ and extra percussion. This would be the only single who got a release outside Belgium ( Italy & Germany ) although it was “In Your Room” who appeared there as A-side. It was written by their new singer Leslie Kent (from Luxenburg) who had replaced Greenslade. After this one it was quite a disappointment when in 1971 the new Carriage Company single was released. Both sides from the “Paint The City Red / Jubilee” record were very weak with almost no guitar on it.

It was apparent that they were now making major concessionsto the mainstream market in an attempt to get their music across to as many people possible……with no impression whatsoever on the charts. As usual they still made good impression playing live as proven when they played the “Jemelle Festival” on august 8th,1971 along with Genesis and Golden Earring.

François Philips left the band -to start a new outfit “Crash” who made one single in 1972- and was replaced by American drummer Jerry Jerome. Their fifth vinyl emerged a few months later and wasn’t bad at all. “So nice” on the flip-side was co-written by Jerome and had that heavy “purple-touch” again.

But after all, none of the records had sold as the first one and when the band lost their contract with CBS, they began to suffer internal problems the following months, to disappear silently in 1973.
Jan D’Haese started working for record label EMI , for whom he produced the Blue Rock lp in 1975.

Founding member, drummer Francis Soens had an accident and sadly past away in February 1973 at the young age of 23.