ROGER-MARC VANDE VOORDE INTERVIEW. Part 2: 1982-1987

D = doro
RM = Roger-Marc

D : Why is there 2 different picture sleeves : the Goya painting for the Sandwich records pressing and the blue/yellow one for the New Rose LP ?
RM : I don't know. It was their idea. I guess New Rose had their own graphic team, and they wanted a certain kind of sleeves.
D : ZAS is the very first track, and it will be the last one on Prime Story.
RM : Luc Van Acker wrote it. Too bad JJ never got along with Luc. He could be very exclusive sometimes…
D : Does JJ sing Winston & Julia ?
RM : He does. We did several takes before, but we couldn't make it. So JJ said : can I try ? And it was really perfect, we kept it just as he did. And JJ said : are you sure ? and we said oh yes yes yes yes !
D : Did he also sing Je T’ai Toujours Aimée ?

WINSTON & JULIA (12" remix)

D : I don't think the Winston & Julia remix is as great as the original version.
RM : That's right. JJ wasn't very good in remixes. But Lark, the record label, wanted one, so he said OK.
D : Parties Dance is really an extraordinaire piece of music.
RM : Yeah ! Actually, it was based on the same rhythm track as NBCGmbh, but we played it slowly. We did it in one take. JJ improvised things from Bubu's lyrics : balancez les couilles, agitez le zizi… (laughs). I was playing keyboards.

LIVE

(Listening to Le Rabatteur des sectes).

RM : It was really great live on stage. Much more stronger. We used to close the gig with that one.
D : But I really like this version a lot. I don't understand why you don't… Do you listen to this album sometimes ?
RM : never. Sometimes, a couple of songs from The Prime Story, but it's pretty rare.
D : You were touring a lot after the album recording. Kloot left in 1984. Who was in the band at this time?
RM : Martine and I were left alone, so we put adverts in the music press. We wanted a real drummer, and a keyboards player, and a bass player. My little brother (Glen) took the bass. We found a drummer and a keyboards player, but it began to sound like electro jazz funk rock… nothing really interesting got out of this…
D : As soon as 1984 ?
RM : no no, after 1986. In 1984, we did the album promo tour. Kloot played some gigs. We did the Paris Forum des Halles, les Nuits Bleues in Lyon, Strasbourg…
D : But, didn't you have the feeling that, with this new album out on Virgin records, everything would be OK for you from now on ?
RM : no, I thought we made a bad album, and miss our chance… Beside, we had many problems playing the album on stage. Kloot didn't know the songs, because he didn't work on them.

D : Irrigation is a real great track. Did you play it live ? It sure wasn't easy to play.
RM : it wasn't… They did'nt like it very much in Belgium. Some people said we were getting sexist. A couple of newspapers killed us… (laughs).
D : were you supposed to make a second album with VIRGIN records?
RM : we did sign for 2 albums. So, we began to write some new songs etceteri etcetera, but…. we didn't know what our contract really was … There was a small line at the bottom of some page, saying that our records compagny could ask for a single instead of a second LP. Which means that if our first LP didn't sell enough, they could switch to a 7" single. And that's what happened.
D : and the single was L’Amour, two years later?
RM : right. When we brought them the second LP demos, they said « yes but blahblahblah... » and they showed us this contrat clause to make a single instead. They fucked us over. Our publisher did too, who was supposed to read our contract closely.
D : and that's the time when they suggest Jay Alanski producing ? Well, why not ? I really love Lio's first album, it's a kind of masterpiece.
RM : yes, but we found him much too pop, we wanted something more british.
D : and what about JJ BURNEL? they didn't want him on production?
RM : Well, to be honest… After the album, and the troubles with Kloot, JJ and I weren't in such good terms anymore. We didn't want to try the same experience. It was over. I mean… I'm not angry. He really brought a lot to the band. But I think he was too… maybe too inflexible. Acting like a star… saying : I don't want Kloot around. It was a mistake.
D : but after Kloot was gone ?
RM : I was a little bit angry with JJ.
D : don't you think Polyphonic Size was a kind of second band for him ? A band were he could work on his european concept, and sing in french ?
RM : definitely. I think that if they were no Stranglers, Psize would have been the best band for him. There was no comparison with the Stranglers, mais JJ was really very very close to us. He always wanted to get involved in the band. And if somebody else wanted to bring something different, he didn't like it.
D : but he only appears as a producer on the sleeve credits, though he practically was a member of the band.
RM : JJ got totally involved. JJ is a true person. Somebody real. When he loves a music, he gives the best he can. But he was a Strangler first. And when we wanted to go on tour, we had to manage to do it by ourselves… Things would have never been the same without him, but we didn't always succeed in doing the same thing on stage...
D : did he get on stage with you ?
RM : yes, 3 or 4 times, I think. Two times in Brussels, one time in London, in 1988…
D : did he play the whole concert, or just a couple of songs ?
RM : just 2 or 3 songs. Winston & Julia, Je t’ai toujours aimée…

FILM

D : You wrote a soundtrack in 1985, for a movie called Brussels Center of Europe.
RM : well…. I'm not sure I still have the tapes at home. I made several musics for Eric Peereman. He did all our video clips, but he also used to shoot ads, industrial films… And if he needed some music, he used to ask me. I wrote 2 soundtracks for him. One was in the Nagasaki days, I think I still have the tapes somewhere... The Brussels movie was a European Community order. Twenty minutes of Polyphonic Size soundtrack. Instrumental, full électronic ! I'd like to hear that again.

THE BAD YEARS

RM : in 1984, we blew the Virgin check in 3 days to buy some new equipment. Then we went on trial against them until 1986. Eventually, they released only one single, L’Amour, which they didn't help very much.
D : it wasn't a very good record…
RM : well, it was something different, but it was their choice. They wanted a pop song, a real pop song with a real pop producer. If things worked out, let's go! They would sign us again. If things did not work…. In 1987, they kindly said bye-bye. So we said OK, but we didn't give it up.

TRANSIBERIAN

RM : it was a great experience. A cultural exchange project between Belgium, China and USSR. There were 2 bands : Polyphonic Size, and the Gangsters d’Amour. We suggest to build a studio in one of the compartments, so that we could work on the Overnight Day recording in the train. And we really wrote a couple of songs that way, but it never really worked out because… First, because, when we crossed the DDR border, we fell down to 110 volts (laughs)… We didn't expect that ! But we found out that electric razors could work with 220 volts in the train toilets, so we took an extension and connected all the equipment on the little razor socket !!! Of course, the whole mess fucked up every 4-5 hours ! (laughs)… There were all kind of events in the train, fashion shows… 320 Belgians out of their mind. Great !

D : but, how did things worked ? Could people get on the train ?
RM : no no, the train was full sold out. We got on train in Brussels, had a little technical stop in Warsaw, and then played live in MOSCOW. There were 3 of us playing. Martine, Glen and I. Pierre, our keyboards player, couldn't be with us, so we had all the stuff programmed on the Atari. We spent 3 days in Moscow, then went along through Siberia. It was great. And we arrived in Irkoutsk. We did an improvised gig there. We took out all the guitars, the amplifiers.., and at night, began to play in some kind of big city square, close to the train station. Russians got out of their homes, to see what was going on, and at night, we played. An incroyable mood… And suddenly, some russian guys hit the stage, asking if we could lend them our equipement, so that they could play some music too... We said OK, of course. An awesome moment, right in the middle of Siberia, in front of 200 people…
Then it was BEIJING… 17 secondes. The Chinese ambassador in Bruxelles has asked for a translation of all our lyrics, to be sure there was nothing subversive with them. Of course, we didn't give him all of them, just the soft ones. So, we arrived in Beijing… did the soundcheck… and here comes the organizer. No rock in China, he said! That was really absurd, because, just before us, there was a fashion show, with half naked girls and music like Front 142… One hundred times more subversive than us ! But seeing young people with guitars in their hands was something they couldn't stand ! So we put all our equipment behind a curtain, and at the end of the fashion show, the sound engineer did a fade in /fade out, the curtain opened and… waaaaaah here we are with our guitars… ! Forget it, 17 secondes later, the chineses cut off the power, and the cops kicked all the chinese people out of the room. There were only 2 ou 300 belgian guys left, playing accoustic stuff in a 8 ou 9000 seats venue. That was our concert in China. An incredible experience. Chinese people are great, but the politicians…. Forget it.