Various

Besides the bands who were known for playing hard music, there were also quite a lot of heavy songs recorded by bands that were not considered as tough rockers. Some of them are really worth listening, so that’s why they’re listed here…

Psychedelic but yet catchy is DEVIL’S POWER song “Le Monde Etrange”. Entirely build around an organ tune and resounding drums;they managed to get people in a real trance when playing this one on stage. Mostly it was brought in a stretched out version that lasted for about fifteen or twenty minutes. The flipside “Poussiere” is way less interesting, being slow symfo with flute playing. (Robar n1059)

CLEE’S FIVE was just another cover-band as every town used to have one, except for the fact that they released two albums with these covers. On one of them “Top 15 Hit Parade 1968” (Fontana ACY 846.004) was the Cochran tune “Summertime Blues”, made famous by the American trio Blue Cheer.

Another two years later Recreation produced a second album “Music Or Not Music” (Barclay 920.356 T) leaving the ELP sound behind in favour of a very weird and experimental jazz-rock approach. Thanks to the addition of guitar on some songs (f.i. “Nothing’s Holy”) this lp was much more interesting for open minded rockers, than that one-dimensional first lp. The German label Bellaphon released both albums in Germany while in 2003 the Australian record label Progressive line gave them a cd release (PL 590).

Really tired about certain aspects of the music industry, Fernando & Anthony were on the lookout for a new sound when in England they met Stu Martin and Scott Bradford. The music these four came up with, was sometimes pretty heavy (“Mrs. Davis” or the long “James Stuff”), along the lines of Hendrix or Deep Purple (mk 1).Despite the single release of “Mrs Davis”, their fans weren’t blown away by the group latest new style and refused to pick up the record.

After a final single the next year they returned in 1971 with a 45rpm as JESS, DENIS AND JAMES.
“A Man’s Symphony Parts 1-2” (Palette 2021 030) was a long composition split over two sides.

Instead of guitar solo’s they used Denis Van Hecke’s cello playing to ad something extra to this psychedelic blues. Right after this release the Wando-brothers left the rock’n’ roll behind and moved to Holland where they, to this day, continued making music.

By the end of 1969 the Belgian pop-group THE NEW INSPIRATION released their third album “Vol 3.” (Decca SSS557) Once more it didn’t seem a special event for rockers although the last two songs on this lp deserve a listen.  Firstly there’s “We Never did, We Never Will” a song that’s clearly inspired by the rawness of British band The Who. The final nine minutes long “I Fell Flat On My Face” was inspired by Iron Butterfly, an American band who had quite a lot of success around the world with their second album In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. “I Fell…” started with a calm psychedelic sound followed by a drum-solo. A few minutes later the music re-explodes, including screaming guitar-solo. These songs created high expectations for their fourth album, but unfortunately by then they had a huge hit with the pop-song “Rainbow”. So the band continued in this commercial vain and left those psychedelic influences behind, right until their fifth effort in 1972 “New Inspiration” (Decca SSS 594-X 636). Half of the album were older recordings, but the last five songs showed a band on the look out for a heavier sound. Highlight is the Eddy Vanderlinden-composition “Hustler”, a heavy piano boogie, totally in the style of good old Elf.

They came up with soft progressive rock; highlights were the nine minute opener “Sad Stone” and the Yes-like “Ugly Dirty Man”. In general this lp proved to be much too soft for rock’n’roll ears, although it contains some rich arrangements (with flute), but more important, great songwriting (“Deborah”!) by Raepsaet and Vion.

Not tragic but strange was this S.K.B.L’Z single “Dies Irae” / “Jane” (EMI Columbia 4C 006-23 194) from 1970. The thing is that no one seems to have seen this band or musicians in Belgium. And even when nowadays collectors are tending to say that this is 100% Belgian, I’m rather sceptic when seeing songs written by Sean/Mos/Stevenly.

THE VIPERS, a pop group from Gent had a hit in 1970 with their third single “Looky Looky”. Nobody expected them to come up with a real rock song for their next release, so they did! Unfortunately “The River” (Discostar DST 2039), a catchy tune based on heavy guitar, had not the same commercial impact than his predecessor. In 1971 for their fifth release they returned to a pop tune “Reflections Of Charlie Brown” (EmI Parlophone 4C006-23277) on side A but for the backside they recorded an even greater song: “Watching The World Pass By”. This was hardrock that sounded completely like those great British sounds that came from over the sea. When later in the nineties The Vipers reformed as a cover-band, “Watching…” was one of the songs they re-recorded for cd release.

For the first time here in Belgium, 1971 was the year were a lot of rock-bands got offered a recording contract for a single.

The psychedelic beat band CRASH existed since 1968, the year they also supported British Pink Floyd in Brussels. They released their one and only single “Touching Me, Touching You” / “Just Passing By” on the big EMI Parlophone label (4C006 23313M).
Two years later this great A-side was featured on the compilation lp “Roots Of Belgium Rock” (EMI/MFP 4M046-23436), who also had SWEET FEELING’s “Rock Me Baby” on it.

The single “Ain’t Got Time” / “The Spinster” (Pipe P3004) was already the second release from BRAINCANCER. On a first 7” for EMI records a year earlier, this trio from West-Flanders showed they were looking for a sound of their own. This time it was clear that Braincancer really pulled the card of psychedelic heavy rock. Especially on “The Spinster” it was great to hear both sax & guitar take the lead.

Finally a long player from MALACHI : “Return Of A Stranger” who was totally rejected by rock fans in Belgium. With the use of organ and flute instead of guitar the overall sound refers more to strange psychedelic, halfway sixties flower power than 1971 (symphonic-) rock…. Though the rest of Europe did liked their music… In 2008 this pretty rare and expensive record was finally re-released on cd by the Spanish label Picar. (PIC 812008-2)

One of the bands who played a lot around Brussels was HIROSHIMA, a band who’s style could not really be categorized. On their only recording, “LA Town” / “One Ride” (Decca 95/23.932X), they tried to capture their more radio friendly music. But both songs were still to weird and progressive for radio listeners while on the other hand these recordings were not raw and complex enough for psychedelic rock-fans.

In 1973 a nice debut 7” was released from a band called TRUST, on a private label from southern Belgium (Venus records V10.500). “At The Mississippi” was heavy bluesrock while flip-side “Help Me” was way more psychedelic, like the music played at the end of the sixties. Strangely this was the kind of music they would hang on to for the following releases.

Only the back-side of the third single “For Yourself” (Venus records V10502) was a fantastic piece of heavy rock. Later on with the release of a fifth single, record company Fly records took both those heavy songs together and released them in a nice sleeve. (Fly records F.20.739)

This instrumental has yet more guitar extravaganza in it and was referring a lot to British rockers Hawkwind. It’s really a pity that when this band got signed, it became just one of those average rock-bands…. Needless to say that composer Jaques Smeets had already left the band when they released both their lp’s.

Big Bill was one of those artists who turned every single place he played upside down with his blues-, rock- or heavy boogie songs, sung in his own native (“Leuvens”) dialect.
He already had a hitsingle (“Ene me hesp”) a year earlier but when his first album was released in 1975 (Parsifal KLE 4000-231) it was welcomed by all rockers in Belgium, either if they liked it heavy or slow. Songs as “Pirre for President”, “Vismarkt Boogie” or even the Wishbone Ash-like instrumentals “Vossegeg Tune” and “Space Caca De Toro” have certainly stand the test of time.
His second album “Sit On It” (Polydor 2926110) was recorded three years later in London but disappointed most Big Bill fans as besides “Hot Spots” and “We Vliegen D’er In”, there was simply nothing left of the old boogie-rock style in favour of a more commercial sound with lots of horns.
He kept on playing during the years, but it wasn’t until 1995 that a live cd “Allee Live + 3” (Alora 2105004) exposed some of his old glory on record.

Just as many glam-rock bands from that area ROYAL FLASH saved up their serious rocking songs for the B sides of their singles, leaving the handclaps for side A. Despite these handclaps “Patty Baby” / “The Shelter” (EMI Best Seller 4B00698698) from 1975 and “Everyone Is Gonna Sing Along” / “Don’t You Hurt Me Again” (EMI Best Seller 4B006-23606) from 1976 never made it to the charts.

DESPERATED COMPANY from the north of Antwerp released two singles in 1977 but it was only with “Can Somebody Tell Me”, the back-side from “Higher” (Foon records F4535026) that they pleased the fans of traditional boogie rock.The same year “The Way You Live” / “Daddy” (RCP Int. S131305) from LIVING THINGS was in the shops, being only interesting for “The way You Live”; an up-tempo boogie rocker with a good guitar solo. The flipside was a mellow slow tune but in general the sound of Living Things should have been similar to Scotsmen Nazareth.

Lots of single releases also in 1978, like UNION JOKE from Mechelen who released their sole single themselves (A.D.S. 1016). “Wanna Have It All” the melodic A-side wasn’t heavy at all despite a guitar-solo. B-side “Bus Rider” was a fast boogie rocker, who makes you wonder how this band sounded “live”… Be sure to grasp your copy of this 7” as it appears to be very rare.

Also in 1978 Flanders music magazine Humo organized for the first time a search for promising new bands under the name of “Rock Rally”. The first three bands from this contest were sure about playing the Bilzen festival while the first two also got a recording contract. The third price was for symphonic rockers Clown and the second for STAGEBEAST from Oostende.

The winner from this first Rock Rally was ONCE MORE who then came up with a single “Blondie” / “Wild Man Jockey” (EMI Bestseller 4B006-23739). Both songs were good and build around a heavy riff but “Blondie” had that special catchy hook to become a small cult hit in Belgium. For their following records Once More still rocked but the heavy aspect of their music was totally disappeared.

A hotchpotch of different styles is what DAYDREAM delivered with the feeble self-titled album (Vogue ASVB 2006) from 1978. Only the album’s last song was a super heavy rocker entitled “Sun Dance” and was sung by bass player John Valcke.
Another interesting release at the end of 1978 was the “Jazz Bilzen” live compilation lp (EMI 4C054-61495). It contained several bands that played at the festival-contest for semi-professionals. Besides symphonic rockers Clown there was also BIG MUFF with their heavy boogie rock-song: “Wake Up”.

After a few singles LUK VANKESSEL released his first album “Ballen”(IBC 1A064-63432) in 1979. Both opening tunes “Jij Bij Mij” and “Al Wat Ik Van Je Verlang” were real hard-rock songs even though they were sung in Dutch.

Also in 1979 SWAY, a group from the southern part of the country released their one and only album “Human Carnage” (GG233227) as a private pressing. The title-song that opened the longplayer was a great piece of symphonic rock in old “yes”-style. The rest of the album was much more keyboard-dominated (with exception for the aggressive guitar solo on “You’ve Gone”) and now and then very experimental; which not always turned out fine.

As well out was an lp from MARIAHVAH, in their proper region Jemeppe they build themselves a reputation of progressive rock-band. It’s not really clear to me where this reputation came from as only a few songs from this album “Les Heures Incolores” (MD 0050), fall under this description (“Trop Fragile” & “Coquillages”). Best song was the title-track with plenty of melodic guitars like Man or Wishbone Ash.

With composer / guitar player Alex Van Hootegem STAGE FRIGHT had only one Belgian member, the others were Dutch. On the only single they released “Just Another You” / “Go to Pieces” (Schell WBS1644) they came up with good symphonic rock, especially on “Go To Pieces” with it’s nice flute solo.

Almost four years later a different line-up would change style to hard rock and released a final song, “Hard Life”, on the “Metalmania” compilation lp (KP 500).But besides symphonic rock, there were also bands who came up with good old hard-rock like SLINKY with the very fast “Run To The Doctor” on their sole single. The flip “How Do You Feel” was far less exciting average rock, released on Panky Records (069).

Another interesting release in 1979 was the compilation album “LOF limburgs orkesten festival” (MIT 086), were all the bands on it had reached the semi finals of a local contest. First there’s AIRQUICK from Kortrijk with “Don’t Try” and “Through The End Time” who delivered good heavy metal, probably one of the first band to have played this kind of music over here. Unfortunately things didn’t last long as songwriter Dirk Vermeulen got rid of all the others to restart the band and to play real commercial pop rock.  The following years they made two singles were they sounded just as so many other mainstream bands….  Also on “LOF” was SUNROCK from Lummen with “Pretty Girl”, up-tempo hard-rock, while IRON FOUNDATION from Bree with “Ways” brought psychedelic rock. Their single released later on was a return to mainstream commercial rock as well. Last songs worth listening on LOF were “Imprisoned” and “The Great Red Bus” also from a band from Bree, G.NIE D. They came up with an excellent mixture of psychedelica and symphonic rock.

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