TRILOBITE-HOUSE

MUSIC

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Born in 1961 (November 25th), I had the good fortune of having parents with quite differing tastes in music : while my father was into Rock’n’Roll, my mother’s musical leanings were originally in Classical Music, with Tchaikovski as main beloved composer. Weirdly enough, it would be Mom who’d bring into the household, around the end of the ‘60’s, beginning of the ‘70’s, records performed by alternative Rock bands from the New York “Theatre” scene.

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Came the ‘70s, with first Pop Rock, Glam Rock, and eventually Hard Rock actually getting into the Pop Listings…and I took it all in, mainly listening to the radio. Around the middle of ’78, I went into an active search for radio stations which specialized into Hard Rock and Psychedelic Rock, and in the Summer of ’78 I bought my very first album (Genesis’ The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway). Later the same year, a turning point came in my life, when my younger brother brought home Kiss’ Alive II album. He already had albums by AC/DC and Scorpions…but those did not really tempt me when played on the small trunk disc player he had (you know, the sound was simply too shrill and sharp). I found myself standing outside his room (luckily, there were no doors) whenever he played that album, and after two weeks I simply entered his “sacred place” with a cassette for him to record the thing on (at that point, I didn’t even have an idea about the band’s facial antics). Two weeks further, and I found myself so lost in that band that I decided to spend all my weekly allowances on whatever albums I could find by those wacky dudes.

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This obviously brought me into all of the record stores of my hometown Leuven and I soon learned that I could get second hand albums by many of the other bands I’d heard on the radio…and so a collection of albums was begun. Obviously, 1978 was the start-up of what would be called The British New Wave Of Heavy Metal…It was also a time when Punk reared up its head, the combination of which would result into Thrash Metal. From America the first Hardcore bands would come to the front. And I took it all in, loving every new addition to the musical array, while never forgetting the bands/music I grew up with.

 

For some reason (we’re talking 1984), I was very much liked by a group of young Metal fans (they were just turning 18), who not only were active in a band, but also wrote for Leuven’s Whiplash magazine. One of ‘em had lent me the Leather ‘Till Death demo by Metallica, and we all agreed that was one helluva band. When their debut album was finally released in Europe, I happened to encounter the group of youngsters in one of Leuven’s streets, exhuberantly demanding my opinion on the album. Great was their consternation when I gave it a thumb’s down. Indeed, the sound quality of the album was rather bleak, when compared to that of the demo.

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Fast-forward to early 1985, when one of the youngsters approaches me to start up a new Hard Rock and Metal magazine (he’d grown annoyed with the way his editor-in-chief was handling things). He would bring in a friend of his whom was still going to art school at the time, and there was another friend whom also seemed interested, but whom declined at the last minute. So we would be four (including my then girlfriend and me) to start up the ‘zine, for which I already had the name Metallised. A mere 3 months later, a first issue of that magazine was issued, and others would follow at equal intervals, at least for the first two years. By the end of ’87 the youngster who’d originally contacted me was getting real serious with his girlfriend, and wanted to be bought out of the ‘zine. Which was fine by me because, having set footsteps in Belgium’s Hardcore world in late ’86, I had wanted the ‘zine evolving to include more than just Hard Rock and Metal stuff. Enter a couple of new co-writers and, after another issue printed in the Dutch language before turning to English, and Metallised become “Europe’s most extreme crossover magazine”. Regretfully, this would also bring my longtime relationship to an end (emotionally, it was over after only half a year of marriage). After that, the cost of living (I was still on the dole) made for issues to take more and more time to be released (until #10, I had always needed to insert extra finances), and a final issue was released late 1990.

 

I got into my current job in December 1991, and was finally earning money. Just in time too, because buying new music had become increasingly difficult. The Nineties were rather interesting, musically. On the one side the ElectroRock scene had just started, on the other hand Grunge came into being. Death and Black Metal had its high days as well, and there was a thriving Alternative Rock scene. Totally unrelated to the guitar-oriented styles of music, the electronic scene was equally coming into live, with New Wave in Europe and House in the US. 

 

In 1995 I got acquainted with Leuven’s Alternative Youth Center/Bar Clockwork and having grown weary of not being able to write about music…I suggested, in 1996, to issue their fanzine ‘t Klokje. A proposition which was readily accepted, and for the next two years I would release the ‘zine every two months, paying for it out of my own pocket. Costs of making & printing were higher than what came as return in sales…but I was happy, working with a great group of contributors in different fields of what moved the Youth Center. Gosh…for a year I was even part of a “band”, which was started when good friend Flip (an actual musician, having won the Koningin Fabiola Contest in his youth) was in need for a second act on a “misanthropy”-themed evening (we would perform 3 times, not ever rehearsing). But many good things come to an untimely end, and so it happened that contributors to ‘t Klokje wandered away as the Center was whithering away. The last issues of the ‘zine therefore came in the form of newsletters.

 

And so I again found myself without a way to express myself…a situation which came to an end when a good friend from Hardcore days suggested I take contact with Dirk Vanden Auweele (he was the guy whom did NOT join the Metallised staff back in 1985, and he’d started this website, to which the friend was also contributing). So it was suggested that I make a review of this album by Ozric Tentacles I had just purchased. The rest is history, and I would continue to contribute to Concreteweb.be (one month with no less than 62 reviews) until somewhere in 2015, when changing work situations made it impossible for me to have the research time needed for whatever I had to review. Dirk would pass away two years later, but his website still exists to date.

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PALEONTOLOGY

 

Just like many kids, I had a slight fascination with dinosaurs when I was young…but that’s not what got me into paleontology at a later age. In fact, I have this nephew whom, as a kid, was a somewhat borderline ADHD case. I had been a regular playmate for him when his Mom (my sister) was living in the same street as myself, and had later at regular intervals been asked to entertain him during several summers. My Dad and stepmom have this kid, Marc, who’s about the same age, and around the millennium change they invited the nephew to come along on holidays with them, so that Marc would have a playmate. As the boys grew older, they became quite a handful and, as I was available, I was invited to come along as well. Due to circumstances, those Summer outings had to come to an end, in 2005, I think. 

 

By September 2008, I had decided to take the nephew out on a Summer vacation again…but as I don’t even have a driver’s licence, we would take our bicycles on the train, for a fortnight in the Ardennes of Belgium. As activities, we would not only go biking to visit monuments, ruins and churches, but also go walking, looking up flowered plants (an activity I had done before, at that time including my brother’s 2 boys). Finding the “To-Do” menu a little meager, I eventually decided, “Why not seek fossils?”. After an intensive search on the Internet, I found the ideal site (widest array of fossils possible…and there were trilobites to be found as well), found a camping nearby where I could rent a caravan (as I felt some luxury was needed), and made up a complete program of places-to-visit. First things first, I became a member of Leuven’s nature-loving club HoNa (short for Homo et Natura)

 

As things would have it though…the nephew had gotten into passion of his own : his girlfriend. And as I was prepping everything to get an official permission to go out on the dig, he eventually declined. Well, with that permission coming only in September 2009, my other nephews had gotten wind of the project, and what with my father feeling it was a good idea for a family outing, we immediately had a driver. After a first dig (which was rather unsuccessful as far as finding trilobites was concerned) came another (the oldest nephew had gotten a car by this time), this time with the nephews and my half brother (a year later, we would again have a family “outing”, my half brother and oldest nephew taking along their girlfriends, and also visiting 2 other sites). I myself would return many times to that first site (like about 70 times in all over a period of 4 years, I guess), and even contributed to one of their expositions (for their 50th year of existence) with a case full of fossils from that abandoned quarry.

 

It was inevitable that I would expand my search area when I came in contact with Glenn, whom wanted a traveling buddy for his trips. With him, I not only got to visit several sites in Belgium, but also went out on trips to France’s Brittany and Montagnes Noires, as well as Wales/England. Morocco had always been on my wish list, and that wish came into being after having met my good friend and trilobite-brother Haddach, with whom I went on a first trip in 2018. A couple with whom I’d been on trilobite hunts in Belgium also wanted to go, and with a program already decided, Haddach found a bunch of people from Avignon (France) to join us on the trip. For the trip in 2019, I not only proposed the program myself, but also sought out new people to join us in the adventure. With the couple of last year rejoining, I found an eager duo of Dutch ladies (a mother and her daughter)…making for a 5-person team with whom I shared the info I had gathered on the sites we were to visit.  

 

2020…let’s forget that year, or not! Our trip got cancelled on the Monday prior of our scheduled departure (good thing too, because people who’d just traveled to Morocco, including Haddach, would find themselves stuck there for a couple of months)…and it wasn’t until October 2021 that I could return to my favourite hunting grounds. March 2022 came right after, so it seems…as did March of 2023…and yet I wait with anticipation to return, to the good food, the nice people, and of course…the trilobites!!!