Clouseau: end of the road?

Described as "the last round", Clouseau have decided to being their annual Antwerp Sportpaleis December concert series to an end. Over the last 10 years this has become a very popular tradition for Belgium’s top band, as hundreds of thousands of fans flocked to see the Wauters brothers do their thing, however there has been less demand for the shows over the last couple of years. When the band suggested they may do another couple of concerts in February 2011, these were subsequently cancelled due to organisational difficulties and limited interest by the public.

In the meantime, the band were accompanied by some big-name special guests this season: Marco Borsato, Natalia, Bart Peeters and Jan Leyers all took to the stage to do a few numbers with the band.

Check out the very impressive set list with all the hits and more!

Part 1:
Hier bij jou

Swentibold

Gek op jou

Dat ze de mooiste is

Brandweer

Verlangen

Meezingmedley:Altijd heb ik je lief / Laat me nu toch niet alleen / Zie me graag /Ik wil vannacht bij je slapen / Passie

Afscheid van een vriend

Ze zit (a capella)

Binnen (with Marco Borsato)

Je hoeft niet naar huis vannacht (Marco Borsato, Koen Wauters backing vocal

Dansen

Oogcontact

En dans

Part 2:

Daar gaat ze

Nobelprijs

Anne

Fiets

Ik denk aan jou

De perfectie

Leve België

Louise

Casanova

Domino

Zij aan zij

Vanbinnen

Vonken en vuur

De tegenpartij

Encore:
Intro blazers (with The Heavy Horns)

Ik, jij, hij of zij (with Bart Peeters & Jan Leyers)

Crazy in love (with Natalia, Bart Peeters& Jan Leyers)

Into folk (with Natalia, Bart Peeters & Jan Leyers

Like a mountain (with Natalia, Bart Peeters & Jan Leyers)

Geef het op (with Natalia, Bart Peeters & Jan Leyers

Heb ik ooit gezegd
　
full review at http://www.concertnews.be/recensietonen.php?id=866&kop=%20Clouseau%20de%20laatste%20ronde&waar=%20Sportpaleis%20Merksem

The band feel that it’s now time to ‘take the foot off the pedal’ and have a break for three or four years: more immediately, Koen will again be competing in the Dakar Rally in 2011. The break should give the band some much-needed rest, as they’ve released a series of albums and toured constantly over recent years. And of course they’re not getting any younger, but hey, neither are any of us :)))

Good evening everyone...

....got back this morning from a fabulous holiday in Turkey, had a brilliant time although the daytime weather was just a bit too hot, so I'm cooling off now! Spent most of the day catching up with the sleep I didn't get thanks to that night flight, and tonight I've been catching up with everything else that I've missed in recent days.

In the great tradition of this blog, my holiday diaries will be published over the weekend, with lots of very nice pictures of beautiful Turkish scenery and equally beautiful Turkish food :)

Anyway, I go away for a week and come back to discover that last year's X Factor winner Joe McElderry has only gone and covered Donkeyboy's "Ambitions", the original version of which has been one of my most loved and most played tracks of this year. I'm pleasantly surprised by this, as it's a pretty decent version and a vast improvement on the usual r'n'b-influenced dross being churned out at the moment. I recently read that he's been working with Darin too - could Joe become the nearest thing that we have to a Swedish boy-pop star? I hope so!

What else did I miss? Well, Lena Philipsson got married, Reinfeldt got re-elected in Sweden, and 5% of the Swedish voting public are very sick, sad people indeed.

I'm off to bed (again) now for tonight's sleep. Goodnight!

I'm tired of using technology

Just thought I'd check out the German singles chart before I head off to Dusseldorf on Monday.

Yep...it's same-old same-old with Lady GaGa at no. 1 with "Poker Face" and the chart doesn't really look too different from any other European chart, with perhaps the exception of Peter Fox, Silbermond, Polarkreis 18 (and I know they're not German, but it's nice to see that Mando Diao are still very popular indeed in Germany!).

One name which I have seen popping up in various European charts in recent weeks is Milow, whose unusual acoustic-style cover version of the 50 Cent/Justin Timberlake track (which coincidentally was out when I was previously in Germany) is currently at no. 2 in the German singles chart.

So I decided to find out more information about this artist, and he turns out to be a Belgian singer-songwriter (real name Jonathan Vandenbroeck) who has released two albums of acoustic pop - which may appeal to fans of Jason Mraz or James Morrison, for example - and if you want to hear more of his songs then go to his MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/milowbe

Clouseau tribute album released

The very popular Belgian band is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and of course they are also this month's featured act in our European music hall of fame. Koen and Kris are also the subject of a tribute album "Braveau Clouseau" which has just been released in Belgium, featuring some top Flemish singers/bands old and new - and Marco Borsato as well! - doing cover versions of their favourite Clouseau songs. Here is the track listing.

1. Marco Borsato - Cara Lucia
2. Stan Van Samang - Je Bent Niets
3. Natalia - Vanavond Ga Ik Uit
4. Helmut Lotti - Daar Gaat Ze
5. Sandrine - Shaken & Grooven
6. Scala & Kolacny Brothers - Oker
7. Bart Peeters - Domino
8. Udo - Heb Ik Ooit Gezegd
9. Will Tura - Nobelprijs
10. Thé Lau - Sterven Op De Planken
11. Tom Helsen - Altijd Heb Ik Je Lief
12. Gorki & Isabelle A - En Dans

Belgium's TMF Awards coming soon

Just found out that it will soon be time for the annual TMF Awards which the Flemish-speaking half of Belgium gets the chance to vote for their favourite home-grown and international acts.

Here are this year's nominees:

BEST NEW ARTIST (NATIONAL): Fixkes, Dean, Milow, Stan van Samang
BEST NEW ARTIST (INTERNATIONAL): Mika, Tokio Hotel, 30 Seconds to Mars, Air Traffic
BEST LIVE ACT (NATIONAL): Natalia, Zornik, Nailpin, Clouseau
BEST LIVE ACT (INTERNATIONAL): Kaiser Chiefs, Within Temptation, Muse, Justin Timberlake
BEST ALTERNATIVE ACT (NATIONAL): Daan, the Van Jets, dEUs, Goose
BEST ALTERNATIVE ACT (INTERNATIONAL): My Chemical Romance, 30 Seconds To Mars, Fall Out Boy, Muse
BEST ROCK ACT (NATIONAL): Nailpin, The Van Jets, Zornik, A Brand
BEST ROCK ACT (INTERNATIONAL): Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Kaiser Chiefs, Linkin Park
BEST DANCE ACT (NATIONAL): Shameboy, Goose, Milk Inc, Regi
BEST DANCE ACT (INTERNATIONAL): Bob Sinclar, Tiesto, Chemical Brothers, David Guetta
BEST FEMALE ARTIST (NATIONAL): Kate Ryan, Katerine, Natalia, Belle Perez
BEST FEMALE ARTIST (INTERNATIONAL): Fergie, Rihanna, Nelly Furtado, Avril Lavigne
BEST POP ACT (NATIONAL): Kate Ryan, Stan van Samang, Natalia, Clouseau
BEST POP ACT (INTERNATIONAL): Justin Timberlake, Rihanna, Tokio Hotel, Mika
BEST ALBUM (NATIONAL): "Everything & More" - Natalia; "Crosses" - Zornik; "The Bigger Picture" - Milow; "Vonken & Vuur" - Clouseau
BEST ALBUM (INTERNATIONAL): "The Black Parade" - My Chemical Romance; "Good Girl Gone Bad" - Rihanna; "Scream" - Tokio Hotel; "Minutes to Midnight" - Linkin Park
BEST MALE ARTIST (NATIONAL): Milow, Koen Wauters, Koen Buyse, Stan van Samang
BEST MALE ARTIST (INTERNATIONAL): Mika, Robbie Williams, Marco Borsato, Justin Timberlake

Fingers crossed for our favourites Clouseau and Tokio Hotel. Kate Ryan's still around and still doing covers of old French hits (this summer it was "Voyage Voyage"). The Flemish still love her, and even if the Eurovision audience didn't, is it ok for me to say that I quite liked "Je T'adore"?

Clouseau hit the road

Koen and Kris will shortly be heading out on the road across Flanders to promote their latest album "Vonken & Vuur". In addition to their now legendary pre-Christmas Sportpaleis big gigs, the boys can be seen between 15.07.07 and 02.09.07 in various towns and cities including Leuven, Ghent, Kortrijk, Beveren and Ostend. This takes me back to August 1995, when I rediscovered Clouseau thanks to their wonderful "Oker" album whilst on holiday in Ostend. Sadly I missed seeing them at the casino by a couple of days. This August of course I won't be anywhere near Ostend. Guess I'll just have to buy that live DVD one of these years....

Album Review: "Vonken & Vuur" - Clouseau

It’s hard to believe that Belgium’s most popular band have been going for 20 years, yet the prolific Wauters brothers have managed to deliver yet again with their latest album.

Since the release of "En Dans" in 2001, Koen and Kris would appear to have had a musical rebirth, going back to their uptempo roots. The ballad hell of "Adrenaline" (IMHO their lowest point) is long gone. "Vanbinnen" proved that they were still alive and kicking, and "Vonken..." proves that the boys haven’t lost it.
Clouseau’s formula is of course big bouncy anthemic songs with hands-in-the-air choruses.

It all kicks off with "Oogcontact" which, in typical Clouseau style, starts off low-key and builds into a big singalong chorus. Likewise the title track (first single from the album) and the follow-up, the very similar sounding "De Tegenpartij".
"Casanova" is a more mid tempo traditional Clouseau number, the melody is very reminiscent of "I Ain’t Missing You". "Onvolmaakt" finds Koen and Kris in close harmony on an acoustic flavoured number with yet another big chorus. "Erop Los" is very catchy, danceable and dare we say, funky! "Hoe Lang" (not to be confused with another old Clouseau song "How Lang Nog" starts off slowly but soon rocks.

Clouseau being Clouseau of course, there are a couple of typical swaying ballads - "Houvast" and "De Ware".

"Voltooid Verleden Tijd" (not to be confused with another old Clouseau song "Voltooid Verleden" - are K & K running out of song titles??? :-)) is the most rocky song on the album. "Dansvloertherapie" is another nice slice of catchy pop-rock.

"Vonken and Vuur" may not reach the heights of the classic "Oker" and "En Dans", but it’s yet another good effort from the ever-popular Koen and Kris Wauters which has already sold by the bucketload in their native Flanders and will guarantee that they will continue to sell out their legendary end-of-year Sportpaleis concerts for a long time to come.

Clouseau - New Album!!

I should’ve seen it coming, but I totally missed the release of the latest Clouseau album "Vonken & Vuur" at the end of March. Anyway the second single from the album called "De Tegenpartij" sees them continue their currently impressive form with the follow up to the excellent "Vonken & Vuur" and it’s another uptempo pop-rock number. Haven’t yet had a chance to listen to samples from the CD but will review it as soon as I hear the tracks.