Kloot Per W

KPW's Musical Life
Rock'n'Roll 's birth in 1955 just had to coïncide with baby Claude Perwez', on october 19 th of the same year - of this the formerly composed family Perwez can testify. Young Claude, early on grasping that no one seemed able to pronounce his first name correctly for the benefit of all changed it to Kloot. Sucking his mothers milk along with early Rock'n'Roll such as Elvis, Little Richard and especially Gene Vincent, Carl Perkins and Eddie Cochran, he developed a devoted love for his aunt, and her record-collection. His fathers sister, living just two doors ahead, spoiled him moreover with the likes of Merrle Haggard, George Jones, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Harry Belafonte, Louis Armstrong, John Lee Hooker, Django Rheinhardt, Ray Charles and Sydney Bechet.
Growing up in the sixties Kloot became obsessed with every detail concerning popmusic. The tunes of the Beatles, The Stones, The Who, The Small Faces and American Bubble gum made him a fervent collector of chewing-gum-images of the Beatles and other Merseybeatgroups. Thanks to a small transistor he secretely enjoyed under the blanket (clichés DO oblige) the popular Radio-Luxemburg (Kid Jensen Show) and Europe1 emmissions. Aged 10 Kloot felt ready for action. THE WALRUS, his first semi-fictive skiffle group, featured Kloot and the neighbourhood kids. Gigs on an array of toy-instruments, soapbarrels and a real melodica were performed, a two-track recording was made. Just about enough to get the flavour of things to come. 1966- A new year, a new group. THE LAMENTATION greatly benefacted of Kloot's Holy Communion (a rite of his native catholic tribe involving lots of presents) by the contribution to the boys' ardour of a real-scale guitar. There was no stopping him now. KPW was to be a popmusician!
The first tune he managed on one cord was The Equals riff "Baby come back". Lots of tunes later Concordia Mail provided (owing to his very first pay-off) KPW's very first electric guitar. Inventive as ever he discoverd pretty soon that pushing the volume of the tape-recorder (there was no other amplificator) to it's limit he got this mighty burning distortion. Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Ten years After all played the same game. KPW wouldn't stick to the neighbourhood, soon playing in schoolbands such as BUTTERFLY CHILD and MADE IN BELGIUM (with Jan Hautekiet). Even church wasn't safe for him, with psychodelic sounds TRIP OF A SHIT adorned the oh-so-typical youth-sevices of the time. Among other creations KPW remembers AMEN (Black Sabbath meets Elmore James), THE ROCK'N'ROLL HIPPIES (twelve of them, so far out no one remembers what was played) and FLEGM (Yes meets Genesis meets lots off bullshit). Flegm played at the 1973 "Ontek de Ster" Competition - among the jury we find folks like Will Ferdy and Guido Cassiman. Must be clear that by then KPW's musical universe was so crowded it just had to give birth to a unique an individual sound.
Along with Walther Van Schoote (father of Lama- saxophonist Hellisa) KEIZER KLOOT EN MIJNHEER WALTHER was founded. Dutch glamrock, to be enjoyed in its native province Brabant, and crossing those borders to remote places such as Antwerp, Geel, Aarschot and Oostend! Other try-outs, KPW EN DE SPAGETTI ONDERGROND (dutch New York Dolls), the duo SEX AND DRUGS (acoustic Beatles covers with Luc Van Rumst) LONG SLIM SLENDER AND THE FAT FREDDIES (Graham Parkerish pubrock) gave way by the end of the seventhies to bigger things: THE MISTERS
The name of this band, composed of Velvet Underground, Lou Reed and Bowie adepts (Jay Bass: drums, Bert Decorte: vocals and guitar, Luc Van Rumst: vocals and guitar, KPW -then Klaus Wagner-: bass) had to be changed twice. "The Kids wouldn't do, in this early punk area some guys in Antwerp were rumourded to claim it. Next choice "The Boys" might have caused problems with their U.K. namesake (another link with this band: The Misters' cover of their "First Time"). Choosing the right name prooved harder than finding the right image. Black suit-white shirt-black tie did it.
Good looks proved bad luck: two tiny pictures in weekly Télémoustique and Humo made their participance at Belgium main starters contest, Humo's Rock Rally, unwelcome.. No matter, The Misters' appeal anyhow gained them contact with Wilfried Brits (Vaya Con Dios, Blue Blot), at the time manager of Kleptomania (with Herman Brood and Radio's guitarist Dany Lademacher). Wilfried Brits did a lot for the group, and introduced them to Jan D'Haese (ex-bassist of Carriage Company) who offered them a record-deal with EMI-Publishing. Through Jan D'Haese they met the later desrepute D.V., their own private Colonel Parker. D.V., driving a Rolls Royce, owning (or so it seemed) a P.A. system and a VW-tourbus, payed The Misters' first demo's and arranged frequent concerts for them.
The Misters were unaware of his shady deals and D.V. wasn't bothered by the results of these any more than by deceived creditors. In the ninethies he's said to have exchanged rock'n'roll for women-trade and XTC-labs and is still wanted.
Anyhow Misters-Mania (as put by Marcel Vanthilt in Rockmagazine Riff) couldn't be stopped. They played support-acts for Gruppo Sportivo in the Beursschouwburg and for Fisher-Z in Leuven. Thier flashy plastic garment gave them genuine rock-star allures. Their rehearsal-room (the since sadly demolished swell sixties ballroom St-Hubert in Tervuren) got crowded with record-company people. Among EMI, Ariola, Bassart, RCA, WEA and Dureco they were to choose Ariola.
Promotion-interviews, tour-busses, up to four concerts a week, fanatical groupies, TV-shows, jealous reactions - The Misters sure had it all. So they went abroad, highlights were tours with Gruppo Sportivo (including Paradiso), Herman Brood, AC/DC, Tjens Couter, Joe Jackson, The Undertones and an impressed Siouxie and the Banshees.
An even tougher exploit: The Misters crossed Belgium's linguïstic border, playing festivals in the Walloons and descended to the north of France, to support mega-metal-band Trust. With all this fun and fame it was about time to record. Some tumult was caused by the exchange of drummer Jay Bass by swedish Roy Harlington. The Misters recorded two L.P.'s and three singles. The first, "Change Partners" was recorded at Reward Studio in Schelle, with technician Ronny Brack (ex-Joker), the next "Greatest Tits" was recorded and mixed in three days in Brussels and produced by Alfie Falkenbach (later founder of metallabel Mausoleum). PDW (Humo, Skyblasters) drummed on the second album.
The Misters, by then a power-rock trio succesful in France, had weird plans to record with actor Gerard Depardieu. Apart from a photo-session with nude women nothing came of it. After all they'd had it, and The Misters' star slowly faded. KPW didn't fade. Much impressed by Kraftwerk and German Disco he experimented with tape-recorders, sound-on-sound recordings, rythmboxes and synths, resulting in some solo-cassettes wich gained aknowledgement everywhere, including abroad.
Peter Hammill responded favourably to KPW's first demo's and there was quite some press-interest for this wayward guy who outplayed record-companies, by recording at home and by himself, duplicating and selling his tapes by mail.
Pretty obvious today but at the time it shook boundaries.Weekly's Humo and Knack and holland's magazines Oor and Vinyl had quite some positive attention for KPW's doings (lo-fi avant la lettre). You might easily put KPW as a pioneer along this road. Meanwhile several pop polls listed KPW as best bassist and his K7's got into favourite - lists, Knack's Peter Cnop lists "Murder Music" among the best releases of 1982. Next were radio-interviews and - sessions. Ironically, KPW found a record-company (Paisley, see TC Matic, Luna Twist..) ready to publish his next project "Sex Wars" only on cassette. "Male Feminism", "Alcohol" and "Songs in disguise" will soon be available as a CD-box.
Exit The Misters KPW became guitarist of The Employees (Geert Vanroelen: vocals; Dirk Debraekeleer: guitar; Karel Thys (Clouseau): bass; Zen: drums, and later Michel Decoster (De Mens): bass; Jo Moens: drums). Well selling singles and an L.P made the band one of the main festival-acts. KPW wrote the second single "Do the standing still" that made the lower regions of the top-20.
Meanwhile KPW played with Polyphonic Size, a very cherished polyglot electroband. Produced by ore-punkrocker Jean Jacques Burnell a load of singles, maxis and L.P's were published by Virgin France.
Concerts and TV-shows were mainly abroad (Germany, Austria, France and Holland), where Polyphonic Size enjoyed a kind of cult-status, for instance having Fat Gadget for support-act in Switserland. KPW, realizing that half of the live-material was his, where only a live-version of "Why Do All Those Men" and "Happy Couple" (B-side of "Walking Class Hero") got recorded, decided to do his own thing,creating the KPW group. KPW trimmed to one person and one taperecorder (thus preceeding all live dance-acts such as The Prodigy, Orbital and the The Orb). At the same time we find KPW under the name of REL REX on "B9", the first compilation album by the young Pias-label.
With the crazy Captain Beefheart meets PIL foursome 'De Minz', studiorecordings were made that finally came out on the legendary No-Big-Business-compilation. De Minz is also the first and only group ever to performe life in FM Bruxel's studio for Marcel Vanthilt and Dominique Deruddere's 'Met Een Stijve Naar Het Front'. Tektonic music, so is said.
Still, KPW solo-exploits gained him most attention. he was moral winner of Humo's '86 Rock Rally. Sabam elected his "Why Do All Those Men" as best song. Being the only Rock Rally-finalist ever to win this Sabam-Award (and money) it remains a mystery why he didn't win the Rock Rally. Next were innumerable concerts, both solo and with Mich Van Hautem, a deal with Emi/Colour for a first solo-album (actually the release of the demo), a load of singles got lots of airplay and brought "Sidewalk Blues" for five weeks in Studio Brussels' "Afrekening"- top three. Accompanied by THE MASSAI KPW tours and plays festivals (Mallemunt, Gentse Feesten, Marktrock) and does TV-shows (Rondom Daniel, Bingo, Kilimangaro, Boeketje Vlaanderen and Roodvonk). Home made low-budget videoclips found their way te MTV, Sky and Super Channel.
Sushi succeeds Mich van Houtem; Jan Van Eycken's (De Kreuners) guitar, Johnny Bessemans' keybords, Bruno Melon's (Red Zebra, Wolbanes) bass and Dany Hoedemakers' (De Kreuners) drums replace the tape recorder - later: Erik Sterkx (Noordkaap) plays bass, Jean-Paul Mosuse drums and Catherine Mys sings). Besides this KPW is a member of the Sam Cooke Singers (later: THE SUNRIDERS)- remember their concert on the main Marktrock-stage and tours with Aorta (with The Romans and The Spanks), the very heartbeat of Belgian Rock.
A radical twist in 1989: KPW puts all machinary aside and goes unplugged for some sixty ultra-extended (up to three hours) concerts with guests: Rudolf Hecke, Meredith, Peter Slabbynck, The Romans, Wimmeke Punk, Luc van Acker, Catherine Mys, Mich Van Hautem, Hans Stevens, Jean-Paul Mosuse, Cas Vandertaelen, Mieke Delanghe, Sushi and Geert Vanroelen.
Highlights were support-acts fot Luca Bloom, Loudon Wainwright III and the Marktrock-concert. Still, missing noise KPW plays smashing concerts at Cactus in Brugge and Grensrock in Menen with drummer Jean-Paul Mosuse, bassist Stekke (Noordkaap), guitarist Kelst and Sushi and Catherine Mys (Blue Blot).
While joining De Kreuners for about a year, KPW still needs to do his own thing. Owning to their collaboration in the unplugged-tour, he and Peter Slabbynck found De Lama's: vocals: Peter Slabbyck, drums: Peter Decort (Mama's Jasje), bass: Karel Theys (Employees, Clouseau) and later, vocals: Mies Meulders as Lolita Lama; Bass: Joris Decaestecker; Keybords, samples and mixing: Serge Feys; sax: Helissa Lama). De Lama's release "Hier waken wij" (already a collectors item), the legendary single "De ideale penis" and the CD "Edele delen". The singles "De ideale penis", "Breinstorm" and "Elke vierkante cm" are largely acclaimed by media and a young audience.
Every single gets into Studio Brussel's Afrekening. Hundreds of packed hilarious shows and loads of stage-divers proove them right. De Lama's palmares includes concerts - de Brielpoort Christmas show, opening Marktrock, Rock Besselare, The Marlboro Live Clubtour; TV-shows Tilt, Prettig Gestoord, Rock Rapport and appearances at about every local chain. A tour in Holland with the still obscure bands Heideroosjes and Osdorp Posse gets cancelled, owing to De Lama's split.
Despised by press and adored by public, they play their final concert on october 21 th, giving rendez - vous for december 31 th of 1999 - to be heard of pretty soon. Next KPW decides to release his previous vinyl on CD. His collection CD "The XXXX of Kloot Per W" includes duets ("Candy with Isabelle A, "Betrayal" with Bea Vandermaat) among others, work with Mich Van Hautem, dirk Blanchart, Jan Van Eycken, Ronny and Robert Mosuse, Laurens en Kris Leurs, Erik Melaerts, Kelst, Jean Blaute and Serge Feys.
The CD is a good collection of singles and other vinyl-rarities, including "L'Europe" sung by Geert Vanroelen on the 1982 Easter Rising Compilation "Den Delper". Varied and intriguing. "Kopen die hap" (Buy this lot) as Humo put it. Zyx music released the CD in Holland and Germany. After a still-born "project with women" KPW starts working wit serge Feys (TC Matic, Noordkaap) on the to be KLL PRETTY WEIRDO. At the press presentation in Brussels' A.B. the audience bodes full house, alas no press around. Same story for the CD. Nevertheless, there are great live-concerts with Serge Feys and Catherine Mys. Meanwhile KPW is to be acclaimed in theaters and cultural centra where he accompanies Luckas Vandertaelen's one man show "Uit de hemel gevallen". They release a single "Horen, Zien en Zwijgen" - hear, see and keep silent- which is mostly what happened to the single.
Recently KPW founded ZEN ON with (De Lama's) Steven Decort on drums, (Betty Goes Green) Tony Wizzard on bass, Jan (brother of Mama's Jasje's Peter) Van Laet on guitar and vocals. They got into the semi-finals of Humo's 1998 Rock Rally - acclaim of De Morgen and Humo itself failed to take them to the finals. Kind'a weird to overrun five other Rock Rally finalists at "De nacht van de Zottegemse Rock". The group is now working (ata snail on valium's pace) with mister Pro Tools Help on a first maxi. Currentely KPW has a new and secret musical project with some reknowed others, recorded and live work to be expected by the end of the year, along with the release of a Ramones tribute-tape. Look forward to a sequel to the Sistah Cath Reggae project, now with reggaesinger Mika. August 1999 KPW, Jan Van Laet and star-producer jean Marie Aerts dive into the IPC-Studio to proudly emerge with a full CD by Stricktly Rockers. By commision of the Tropical Institute KPW will make music for an educational film on vereral diseases, t'Hof van Commerce provides sharp raps.

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The Employees
Old Bastards

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