Originally formed in 1970, the ensemble who went by the name of Vacation, was one of many blues-influenced bands in Charleroi.
After a few line-up changes the band had Alain ‘alan’ Wery on drums, Luigi Collu on guitar, and Sonny ‘Bono’ Ignoti on bass and vocals. They were mainly influenced by heavy acts as Blue Cheer, Cream and Jimi Hendrix and played their own compositions along an occasional cover-song.
In 1971, this Belgian power-trio already began attracting a healthy following at their local shows and obviously they began thinking about the possibility of getting some vinyl product into the shops. The band had already a live-registration done by the Belgian national radio (RTB) and those reworked tapes finally ended up on the self financed lp “Resurrection Of Vacation”. The album sounded extremely raw; Sonny’s vocals were Hendrix-like while Luigi’s guitar improvisations and solo’s defined the bands general sound.
Highlights were opening instrumental “Vacation”, the heavy riffing in “No War Any More” and the dynamic “On The Day I Die”. It didn’t quite stand up as the definitive blues-rock release (the sound wasn’t that good ), although it sounded extremely energetic.
Everything went well on stage and besides the usual line-up problems, the band build themselves quite some reputation as a hot live act. Record-wise things didn’t go as planned as it was already 1975 (although in 1974 rumours were spread that a second lp was on it’s way) before another Vacation vinyl, the single “I Can’t Bear Pain / I Wake Up” saw the light of day.
Although the A side was a slow song with great guitar playing, it seemed as Vacation had evolved into a less Hendrix-inspired band, while also two extra musicians had been attracted; new singer Georges Bona and piano player Christian Deblanc. Two years later a second single was released (“Watch What You Do” backed with “Don’t You See”; both catchy rock songs) and again some new members were introduced: Alain Capitte (drums), Richard Karla (2nd guitar) and Adriana Mouccilli (piano).
Both were already left, when in 1979 “Bad Holiday / No Change” was released.
The band hadn’t been seen on stage for some years now, but continued as a studio project with a lot of musicians who came and went.
Some more songs were recorded in 1981 with yet another line-up.
Steve Kengen was the singer now, while Tony Castellucci played drums and Claude Podgornick piano, but these recordings remained in the vault until the release of the compilation album in the nineties.
Last sign of life in 1983 was “With My Blues / I believe It Could Be” a 7inch without original guitar player Collu (who only engineered), being replaced by Jean-Claude Manderlier & Vincent Catala while original drummer Alain Wery returned for a brief stay. After this last release founder member Sonny Bono decided to put the band on hold as the music scene was changed and didn’t seem to bother anymore about Vacation.
In 1991 manager Philippe-Henri Coppee decided to release a compilation album entitled “Long Vacation 1973 / 83” as a tribute to the band and his members (guitarplayer Richard Karla was found dead that same year). Most remarkable inclusion was a real heavy medley (“Try To Be Strong/On The Day I Die/Vacation”) recorded live in 1973!
Everyone seemed to be delighted with the release and encouraged by this, Sonny decided to give the band another go. He started playing concerts with Alain Capitte on drums and two new members; Fabrice Carloni (on vocals) and Thierry Limette (on guitar, keys and vocals), as Luigi Collu had now his own studio to take care of.
This time they wanted to focus on the more heavy side of Vacation and the cd “Sad Strange Man” who came out in 1993 turned out to be a real hardrock album. “Tough Guys” was a slow groovy song that reminded the old days, but also the final 3 bonus songs were recently recorded live versions of “When The Someone Else Is Me” ,”Vacation Opus 2” and “Sad Strange Man” in the finest blues rock tradition.
Sadly, the record failed to win the approval of the fans who seemed to been split up, in either rockers or blues-men. For some reason Vacation consistently failed to build upon their early popularity and therefore had definitively called it a day in 1995.
Due to great demand along collectors the first album got a (bootleg) re-release on vinyl only as a limited edition of 300 copies; needless to say they sold out immediately.
Last bad news flash was heard in 2003 when Sonny ‘Bono’ Ignoti died.
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Lp RESURRECTION OF VACATION (Majestic 1020 — 1971)
-Vacation
-No War Any More
-Improvisation (Blues In A Chapel)
-Now I Know
-Try To Be Strong
-Never Mind
-How Can I Go On This Way
-On The Day I Die
-When The Someone Else Is Me
7” I Can’t Bear Pain / I Wake Up (Sandro SD 506 — 1975)
7” Watch What You Do / Don’t You See (Sandro SD 508 — 1977)
7” Bad Holiday / No Change (Sandro SD 510 — 1979)
7” I Believe It Could Be / With My Blues (TLP V 1001 — 1983)
Lp LONG VACATION 1973-1983 (Dexon 1001 — 1991)
-With My Blues (83)
-Baby, Please Don’t Cry
-No Change
-I Wake Up
-Vacation-medley (live)
A) Try To Be Strong
B) On The Day I Die
C) Vacation
-With My Blues (73)
-Blues, Blues, Blues
-Don’t You See
-Bad Holiday
-With My Blues (81)
-I Believe It Could Be
Cd SAD STRANGE MAN (Dexon 4996 — 1993)
-Fly Away
-No More Tears
-Angel Don’t Cry
-Let’s Talk About Me
-Missin’ You Again
-Nobody Cares
-Tough Guys
-When The Someone Else Is Me(live)
-Vacation Opus II (live)
-Sad Strange Man (live)
Lp RESURRECTION OF VACATION (VAC 654231 — 1999) -Bootleg!-
-Vacation
-No War Any More
-Improvisation (Blues In A Chapel)
-Now I Know
-Try To Be Strong
-Never Mind
-How Can I Go On This Way
-On The Day I Die
-When The Someone Else Is Me
Belgian Metal History 