LP "Fake youth culture" and "A tribute to Nino Ferrer" are still available through Soundflat Mailorder (www.soundflat.de) real editor best profile tools real editor best profile tools
.On September 4 2005 Catacombo played their final gig at the "Battle Of The Bands" organized by Ungawa and Grow Your Own, two leading radio shows on Radio Centraal involved in 60s influenced music.
Catacombo won the first Battle Of The Bands and proved to be the best garage band in Belgium. Two new brilliant combos shared the second spot: The Gonks from Antwerp and Secret Agent Men from Ghent.
It took 333 weeks to win the cup... and then stop at the top...
The next question is: who's going to be the winner of the second Radio Centraal's Battle Of The Bands?.
Catacombo would like to thank all the fans all over Europe for those 6 fabulous years.******************************************************
THEE HANGMEN become CATACOMBO
This tale takes off on March 31 1999 when three guys from Radio Centraal decided to start their own band. Fed up with all the dull bands they constantly hear, they thought the world was ready for a new combo. Only after one rehearsal they were given the opportunity to play a gig. A name had to be chosen instantly; being Billy Childish fans they went for THEE HANGMEN. And played their first gig in 't Geniep in Kortrijk as support for Los Putas.
Within three months Thee Hangmen played 4 gigs. After a mere 4 months' existence the threesome went into the recording studio for the first time. It was about time to choose a proper name and they changed their name into CATACOMBO after considering names such as PENTHOUSE PLAYBOYS.
Who were those 3 mystery men of CATACOMBO?
Singer and guitar player was LAURENT aka Jacques Dutroux aka Frank Sinistra, active in a dozen bands before (including The Amazing Transplants, The Invisible Men, The Inner Circle, Thee Headphones, Les Rasoirs, ...). He wrote most of the band's material. Laurent is the Belgian Billy Childish.
Bass player and occasional yeller was DIRK aka Didi d'Anvers aka Dirk Ungawa (no previous bands known). He's the guy behind Ungawa, the best rock 'n' roll related radio show in Belgium. Another passion of his is deejaying at various swinging parties all over this globe. Dirk, a Cramps fanatic, used to play his bass wearing gloves.
Drummer was POL aka Pol de Luxe. He had a one of a kind style of drumming suitable for this unconventional combo. His roots were not to be found in The Cramps nor Billy Childish. Jazz, funk and electronic music were the keystones of his deranged vision on how to bash his toms and cymbals. Every other Sunday at midnight you may hear his plethora of weird sounds on Gallery on Radio Centraal. Paul is Bruce Brand's younger brother.
On July 30 1999 they locked themselves up in the recording studio for the very first time and the result was a collection of nine songs two of which are available on a 45 rpm seven inch record on Catacombo's own record label CALTIKI. That 45 sold out in a very short time. A year later they recorded enough tracks for a full album. Title of the album was 'Fake Youth Culture'. Some lucky ones were able to get the very limited 5-track CD "Catacombo in 2000" as a preview of the album. One outtake also appeared on a Luxemburg 7"EP.
The Catacombo playlist was immense. Besides the forty-some own compositions their set was like an unusual encyclopaedia of songs from 1950 till now. Their interests could be found in Sun, spacey novelty, Jungle Exotica, lounge music, Blue Note, blacksploitation, nudie-cuties, punk & new wave, garage, Medway beat, etc. What bands do you know that can play a cocktail of songs made famous by Thee Headcoats, Thee Milkshakes, Thee Mighty Caesars, Link Wray, Bo Diddley, The Cramps, The Equals, The Eyes, Elvis Presley, Alternative TV, Buddy Rich, The Standells, The Romantics, Kim Fowley, The Rolling Stones, Spencer Davies Group, Bauhaus, No More, The Champs, The Vistas, The All Night Workers, Davie Allan, Buzzcocks, The Saxons, Grauzone, Bernie Spellman, Bob Luman, Them, Department S, Warsaw, Frankie Laine, The Make-Up, Dave Pike, The Mummies, The Seeds, Rodney & The Blazers, The Sonics, DAF, Bob Luman, The Panics, The Ventures, Gene Vincent, and this list could go on and on and on...
Because of their vast set of songs Catacombo could play for hours and hours. They have played with many great foreign bands including the inimitable Andre Williams in September 2000 in Brussels, also the Cynics and The Satelliters, but The Fuzztones as well at Hof Ter Lo in 2003. Their hottest gig undoubtedly was a 150 minutes burning set in the middle of Antwerp's red light district.
Their last performance was in September 2005 at Radio Centraal's Battle Of The Bands, which they won, being called Antwerp's best ever and only garage band. So sad that winning the cup and the "battle" also included losing their own battle... It was their final gig.
These guys were red hot and ready to party ...
Aloha from hell...
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DUTRONIC
Named after their French 60s beat hero Jacques Dutronc, this band consists of 5 Antwerp music lovers, three of which already have been together since early 1999 in Catacombo.
The idea of starting a French vocal group was born in June 2000. The first performance as Dutronic was on the French national holiday July 14 at Scheld'Apen . Soon other gigs followed, in Holland, Germany and even in the center of London.
As the two initial Dutronettes, INGE and GITTE left in March 2001 (Inge moved to the south of France, but right now (2007) they're restarting their band Triskell), Dutronic had to find two other chanteuses. Their search wasn't difficult at all: two friends (and first day fans) were eager to give it a try: INA & WENDY. And after their first gig with Dutronic, it seems that they've been hiding their talents especially for this band. After the London gig Wendy left with pain in the heart, but soon after she was already replaced by SAS, after a short stint with Juliette (see later!). The new line-up was a huge success in Antwerp and in Ghent where hundreds of new fans gathered to have a real cool time. Because of professional reasons Sas left the band as well and after going through a lot of candidates they've decided to go on with only one chanteuse INA. Dutronic has become even stronger, wilder, more swingin' and sexier than ever! The Italian audience enjoyed this line-up so much, that they decided to carry on as a foursome. The Dutronic set consists of own songs mixed with French hits and obscure nuggets from the 60s till now, going from Gainsbourg compositions to Jacques Dutronc classics. Also English songs were transformed into "des chansons sauvages". Listen to French garage punk versions of Lio, Sex Pistols, Les Lutins, Claude François, Brigitte Bardot, ...
Larsen Records released a tribute album for Nino Ferrer. Dutronic has especially recorded Nino's "Isabelle"; a song he wrote in 1964 already. He didn't record it though until 1971 for his "Métronomie" album. Other bands on this comp are the crème de la crème of the European yeye pop psyche punk garage scene.
Dutronic is a cocktail of every good music you know, but sung in French.
A new French combo was founded at the end of June 2008, especially for the 14Juillet party of Radio Centraal, exactly 8 years after the birth of Dutronic. The name is Juliette & Ses Baguettes. Band members are Dirk Ungawa, Philippe Golbert (ex-Gonks, ex-Beat Set,...), Sébastien (from the Lille band Osni) and of course Juliette who once almost was a Dutronette and in the mid-90s already sang with Les Rasoirs, another Antwerp band singing in French. On July 13 2008 they will perform for the first time!
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THEE AMBASSADORS
Catacombo and Dutronic played all over Flanders and Brussels, but never in Wallonie! Other countries they played were Luxemburg, Netherlands, England, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, France and Spain. 9 countries... not bad for this little known band.
After winning Radio Centraal's Battle Of The Bands there was no longer Catacombo. One year later Thee Ambassadors were born. Only two more gigs would follow in 2006 and in August 2007 it was all over.
One more spasm would follow in September: a 2000 recording being released on Radio Centraal's compilation CD.
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RELEASES:
45 "Down in Honolulu"/"Are you being surfed?" (Caltiki CTK001 '01)
CD "In 2000" (Caltiki PRO-2 '01)
(Fake youth culture / Down in Honolulu / Theme from "Penthouse Playboys" / Child of the night / Outro)
45 v/a sampler "Motormadness" track="Drink and drive" (Hell On Wheels '02)
LP Fake Youth Culture (Caltiki CTK004 '03)
(A: Fake youth culture / Female trouble / Alone / Down in Honolulu / Sticky / Child of the night. B: Sonic fever / Enemy in me / Conquer and conquest / Cheap / Theme from "Penthouse Playboys" / Outrophonic)
LP v/a sampler "A tribute to Nino Ferrer" track="Isabelle" (Larsen '05)
CD v/a sampler "Radio Centraal:Complicatie 1" track="Do you believe" (RC001 '07)
unreleased recordings include "Is Vic there?" and a couple more
old website: htt://www.geocities.com/catacombo
