Revenge 88, 'As High As Low Can Be'

By Thomas Goze & Dubbe
Copyright TG & Revenge 88

-WARNING-

THIS ARTICLE IS ONLY A ROUGH DRAFT.

I'M CURRENTLY WORKING ON A FULLY IMPROVED VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE.

THE MAGAZINE 'MAXIMUMROCKNROLL' WILL PUBLISH THE IMPROVED VERSION OF THE ARTICLE.

'MAXIMUMROCKNROLL' IS A WIDELY DISTRIBUTED ZINE, THAT CAN BE FOUND WORLDWIDE.

I'M ALSO PLANNING ON WRITING A FULL BIO OF DUBBE AND HIS BANDS.

You certainly never saw kids wearing their shirts, you didn’t see their records at your local shop, and you didn’t read about them either.
Well…there’s no justice in the rock’n roll world.

Revenge88 is not a new band. Actually its origins date back to the early 70s, in Belgium.

After starting his first band, Revenge88’s frontman Dubbe and his pals were going to get famous as fast as the Sex Pistols.
In the blink of an eye they recorded a couple of 7inches that got released worldwide by EMI.
Their songs Belgium and Neonlights became bootleg favourites of all time, showing up all over the world but leaving them the poor boys of rock

If there was any justice in the rock’n roll world, Revenge88 would be as known as their English & American counterparts.
Just like people always talk about bands like the Ramones for the US, or the Pistols for the UK, they should talk about Revenge for Belgium. That’s the way it should be.
Maybe that’s why I’m writing this article. At least that’s the way I see it.

If you ask me, I’ll tell you I knew about them because of their song Neonlights.
A fast- guitar filled- street tough punk anthem that could have made them rich if they had been paid for everytime it appeared on those Punk Compilation bootlegs.

But when I received the promo version of their As High As Low Can Be Live album & DVD, I had a lot to discover.
And what I discovered can stand the comparison to most of the Top bands that are around/or still around, these days. And when I say Top bands, I’m not talking about sales.

The music scene of the 2000s bores me.
Rawk is as fake as it can be. All you have is MTV-like produced shit. Music wise, and image wise it totally sucks. Its made to make millions of dollars.
Those so-called bad asses were all born in rich suburbs, or in the Californian sun…capitalist rawk.
When I listened to Revenge’s Live album I wondered how come they didn’t have a Record deal yet. Then I remembered the sad truth…Who cares about rawk anymore ? Who wants to put money in that ?
People are more concerned with what they know will sale, nu metal, rap, hip hop, techno, stuff like that.
Maybe that’s why Revenge88 choose to cover Demolition23/Micheal Monroe’s Hammersmith Palais as their last track.
The song speak for itself « I had no fun in London since the Hammersmith palais, New York City’s boring since the punks all went away, Tokyo’s gone techno, and Berlin’s goin’ crazy. No I had no fun since Hammersmith Palais ».
It makes sense, and Revenge manages to make it sound even better than the original recording.
On the other hand, and despite the growing disinterest in good music, I know that many people over the world would love a band like Revenge88. So I start to day-dream about a world tour, and I know how crazy people would be about them.
The 14 Tracks on this Live album are like a lesson in rawk & punk. I call it punk because it has the punk spirit, but its not minimalist like many punk bands. Guitars are used with talent, there’s not too much and not too little. What you have is great music, and a variety of styles.

If Dubbe is the only original member of Revenge88, he picked up his favorite bandmates of all time and Revenge became his own ‘all star’ band. They were all involved at one time or another in the Revenge story.

Now you might have caught a glimpse of what Revenge88 is about.
And now you certainly understand that there is quite a story to tell.
No one could tell it better than Mr Dubbe himself.
The man agreed to talk honestly about his career… so fasten your seatbelts, here comes Revenge88.


SUCKING THE SEVENTIES

Like most kids, it’s through his mother’s records that the young Dubbe discovered music.

« My mom used to listen to the BeeGees. I really liked songs like World & Words, but the fact that my mother liked them made me choose another direction. »

Kids will be kids, and Dubbe had to get his share of rebellion.

« The yelling at the end of Barry Ryan’s Eloise made me aware of the power of Rock as rebel music, soon I discovered that bands like the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin were walking different paths than my mom’s favourites.
Whole Lotta Love made my mothers hair rise up, and the bad boy behaviour of the Stones made her pray I wouldn’t walk that direction. Soon, I got interested in that darker side of Rock »

Dubbe’s mother was far from imagining what her son’s future was holding, and all her prayers were not going to stop what had to happen.

« As bands like the New York Dolls and the Stooges passed the revue, it was clear I would follow their path towards Rock’n Roll destruction. Although Rock music changed my world, I didn’t thought of starting a band or getting into the music buiseness. I was far too lazy at that time. »

Its in front of a mirror that the young Dubbe started to rehearse an act that was still to come, imitating T-Rex and Iggy Pop. That’s when he thought about getting money for a first guitar.

« I had to work on the weekends in a dark restaurant to make enough money for a guitar. As soon as the guitar was there I quit the stinky job. Now I still had to learn how to play, and my mother sent me to the Music Academy, but when I destroyed the guitar with a painting of a burning flag they threw me out.
In 72 I had a band called the Roots but it was a dead born child, the time wasn’t right yet. I couldn’t play any song but I performed anyway.
Luckily enough, I met some guys who were into Zep and who showed me my first chords. Song writing efforts could finally begin.
At that time I used to work as a postman, but the thought to be one for the rest of my life haunted my dreams. I would live fast, die young, so I didn’t have to be concerned too much with future. Like the Who said- Hope I die before I get old- but it isn’t that easy. »

By 1977 bands like the Sex Pistols and the Clash took London by storm.

« I didn’t really like them but the attitude of punk music turned me on. By the time their American counterparts hit New York’s CBGBs I discovered the more poppy side of punk rock, the Ramones »

While punk rock was spreading over the world like wild-fire, Dubbe was more & more influenced by the punk scene.

« I met another loser called Willy Willy. He had a lot of those Punky jewels Lps to listen to. I took my guitar, and forced him to sing. We became soul and drinking mates, and began a crusade against the established music scene, terrorising local pubs with bad behavior and punk records.
By the time there was another wacky guy called Jules who opened a Pub called Bruxelles. He thought he was Rod Stewart but only had his nose. Jules forced us to play a gig as a duo. »

Who could have known that this gig was going to be the start of everything for Dubbe & Willy.

« The date was set, and we had to work against a deadline. A week before the gig Willy Willy and I changed roles. He took the guitar, and I had to sing. We didn’t worry about it, our big aim was fun. We wanted to make music like we lived our lives, did I mention that Willy Willy walked the streets in his pyjamas- people thought he was advertising beds ! »


THE STAGEBEAST YEARS

After a few weeks of rehearsal, they were ready for a gig that would be a lot more important than it looked like at the time.

« It was on a sunny Friday in August, by the time we hit the prefab stage the place was packed…people couldn’t get in, but because they could see us through the window a large crowd filled the streets.
A local friend, Eddy- Lemmy fan, and Hells Angel- came to see the gig with some fellow Angels.
The scene was set for a violent night, and we were amused by the thought that those bikers had come to support us. We described the thing as our little Altamont..
It became indeed a first step in our Rock’n Roll way to fame. As we crawled our way through the rawly constructed set-list, the sound was loud and the Police Office shaked on its basement. Soon, sirens filled up our raw sound and the cops rolled in. People were forced inside, which was quite impossible because there was no space…so when they pulled the Angels wings, the immediate reaction was that the bikers started hitting the Police, and hell broke loose.
…The traffic was hold up for about half an hour, and I was caught with many others by the police. And put in the back of their van.
An Angel smashed the rear window and I escaped, but the funny thing of this all was that Willy saw me in the back of the van and hit a policeman in the face to join me in there. Soon I was off to tell those heroic tales of drunk and roll. »

When, the next day, Dubbe arrived at the post office where he was working, everybody was looking at him weird.

« The thing had been all over local radio and TV. Me and Willy had set our mark on Ostend Rock’n Roll »

Later in the year, they kept hanging out with Arno and Paul Counter (both of them got famous in Europe) who were also doing duo gigs.

« As they suddenly got backed by a band, we decided to do the same. Johnny and Danny Markey, both postmen rockers, joined us. By the time Willy had to go to the Army. I was backed up by local musicians who were old age players.
Danny was doing all the buiseness stuff, the perfect drummer & perfect drinking mate. He decided we should play at the first Humo’s Rock Rally in 78. I didn’t like the idea because Belgium was a Hippie-scaped planet, so we decided to do that contest more as an attack on those people than to get the prize.
We went to Brussels and first hit the local pubs. We bought a dozen creamy cakes and made them look bigger with shaving cream. By the time we went onstage we were all punchdrunk, and I started throwing the cakes in all the bands faces, which became a funny mess. We had a song called Belgium Ain’t No Fun No More, and I screamed it out.
As the 15 minutes performance was over we thought of leaving because we thought we couldn’t have a chance against the more technical bands. We were getting off when we heard our name through the speakers. We were 2nd, and won a record deal with EMI.
We had Mike Butcher, who worked with Rod Stewart, as producer. Mike was used to the drinking methods of the Faces so we were no match for him.
The single Belgium went N°1 Single of Humos list of 78. »

Stardom was there, and Dubbe was ready for the path he had chosen long ago. Rock’n Roll destruction.

« We did a gig in Ostend and threw into the crowd parts of dead animals, livers and chicken feathers and heads, after leaving them the whole day in the back of a car, soaking in the sun.
We attracted people more for our behaviour than for our songs… »

Soon a lot of gigs followed. StageBeast had to play for a crowd of 6000 people in Blankenberge. They also had to playback the single for a contest.

« The guitar player- Danny Bossear, who later went on tour with Marvin Gaye and Rufus Thomas- couldn’t come. A funny boy, Luc, would replace him on guitar. Luc never had had a guitar in his hands.
Stars like Plastic Bertrand and others were arriving by Limo while we were backstage enjoying our free drinks. On our way to the stage Danny wanted to jump on a little boat which was floating in a pool of water.
He missed his jump and got stuck in the mud. We had to hurry cause the crowd was waiting so we all jumped in there to pull him out.
When we hit the stage we looked more like mud-monsters than musicians. We played our single, destroyed the set, and went on to the drinking session backstage. »

StageBeast made quite an impression on the audience. Dubbe using the wire of his microphone as a lasso, swinging it around the jury’s neck and pulling him towards the stage. Newspapers said there were also ‘druken muddy clowns’ on stage.

« When EMI called us up to do the second single, we were dazzled by the taste of stardom, acting like the Sex Pistols. We placed notes with words like bastard and scum all over EMIs manager office..with the wrong results.
It was indeed very stupid but at that time we found it very amusing.
The record deal was gone with the fun. »


REVENGE YEARS

When Willy’s Army service was done, Dubbe decided to split the band as he was getting bored with the old style rock of the boyz.

« Punk ruled and we were changing our looks like our English counterparts. Hells Angel Eddy opened his punk-pub and we had our headquarters. We threw all our old records in a pool of water and new age was set…later we bought back all those records. »

It was time to start a new thing, to write new songs, to change everything.

« We took some songwriting time, and found a bassplayer, Luc Bollock, who was a friend of Willy. Danny joined the band again, and I choose the name Revenge. But Willy wanted something like Sham69 and added the 88 in our name. »

Humo’s Rock Rally had a second edition and Revenge88 became finalist again.

« At least this time we could play and we didn’t need so many gimmicks. We had much more fun with this band because now we were all the same breed.
Our roadie, Luc, would lead us in heroic drinking sessions. One day we found a violin in a second-hand shop and Luc offered to open for us on the violin. The thing was that he had to go onstage and play the violin until people started yelling and throwing at him everything they could find.
The reward for our opening act was 24 beers, and if Luc was supposed to be our roadie, it was more like most of the time we were his roadie. We had to carry him around everywhere, but he was the funniest guy we ever met and we had a good time with him.
Later he became the best drummer from the westernfront. »

Dubbe and his bandmates did a second single on their own label. They recorded Neonlights and it became a hit.

« Nothing like Belgium was a hit, but finally we could get on TV..which was rare those days »

When Revenge88 had to shoot the music video for Neonlights the money was quickly used in a pub in Brussels.

« We had to hurry so we had to drink expensive stuff and payed drinks to the local workers from the unconstructed building which was the set of our video.
When we finally hit the set the crew was already there, waiting for us. Not only that but the bassplayer fell in a hole from a open duct. »

After the success of Neonlights, Revenge88 put out another single 1000 years, and later recorded a 3rd one which never got released. « I think it was named Babylon ». The band went on gigging.

« Bollock opened a pub called the 88. I left my job and opened my own pub. Then trouble started between me and Bollock . »

Revenge88’s success was not to last long, and drugs were not going to help any better.

« Around 82 we went into darker music like Bauhaus stuff, and some of the bandmembers took over the drug taking Keith Richard Lou Reed lifestyle. This soon took its toll on us »

All of a sudden, everything was falling apart. It looked like fate was coming in the way of a band that had everything to be one of the major punk rock act of the late 70s/early 80s.
The StageBeast days were not that far, but the fun and innocence was drifting away.

« Bollock left the band and started something on his own. Johnny joined the band again. We gigged a lot and were introduced in the Belgian scene. Willy thought about leaving Ostend to hit the big city, just like Arno had done before him, and the days of Revenge were counted.
Stardom was over, and it wouldn’t come back»

Dubbe found himself abandonned by all his pals… all but one.

« My only buddy left in this mess was Luc the wicked drumboy. He thought his roadie career was over and started playing drums, but we didn’t talk about starting a new band. We were too much into gaming on the C64.
We even became blood brothers on one crazy night…but that’s another story. »

It might have looked like the end of Revenge88, but the ghost of the band was not ready to vanish that easily. There are some things that you can’t stop.

« By the end of 83, I was fed up with the pub, I decided to retire for a while. Willy Willy, and a bassplayer from Brussels joined the ranks again as we headed off for another offensive »

MOONLIGHT CROW

The band was now called Moonlight Crow. It was 86 and punk was dead. It was way too late for one of the best Punk rock band of the late 70s to get recognition. Punk had come and go, leaving Revenge88 almost un-noticed…the lost boys of rock’n roll.

« We digged up the sounds from the old pool and created a harder form of rock. Maybe the fame years were over but the funniest years were yet to come. »

Luc had a job at the local ferries and they were rehearsing day and night.

« Many nights Luc slept in the big tom of his drum before getting back to work again. In those days we used to go to a place called Tipsy to do some managing stuff.
We did a successful gig in Zandvoorde, tried Brussels but Willy fell in love with Danni Klein from Vaya Con Dios. He joined Arbeidt Adelt- the Scabs and Vaya Con Dios. The song was over.
He asked me to come to Brussels to record some stuff, but it was bad because of my lack of interest. I didn’t feel at home in the Brussels scene. There were a bunch of cocaine sniffing weirdos and the only good ones were the Vaya Con Dios people and Marcel Van Tilt who supported us a lot. So Willy was gone forever now.
Bollock joined the band again with a guy called Kenny. Kenny was a Sisters Of Mercy clone, he used to keep his sunglasses on, and kept all windows shut- some kind of modern Dracula.
We did an Ostend gig on the Paulusplein, but it was really one of the worst ever.
By that time another guy- Rolle- would pay us recording sessions. We went over the budget and couldn’t mix the rest of the songs, so we put out a mini album- CrowMoon- with the best tracks instead of a LP.
The songs were good but the punky punch was gone, this was too dark for Belgium. More influenced by T-Rex and Bowie than ever before.
We rehearsed above a whorehouse, and the hotel next door lost all customers. »

Humo’s Rock Rally was on its way again. StageBeast had played there, Revenge88 had played there. Now Moonlight Crow was going to play there, and success would follow once more.

« A guy named Bruno joined the band to replace Bollock for the second time.
We were back in the Top 10 of the best Belgian bands, I never expected this because during the pre-selection of the contest Luc was so drunk that he lost his sticks and played with his barehands. After the gig we carried him to the van- just like in his roadie days- and while driving home he asked me at what time we had to go onstage. I could have killed him, but news that we were in the finale solved the problem.
Only this time I aimed for success and not for fun. So we didn’t win the contest and it became a bloody Brussels night.
Everyone went back home and Luc, Bruno, and me stayed in Brussels dwelling the streets like frustrated rats. We got into a fight and I got kicked in the teeth. Had to borrow money from miss Klein.
This was the end of the Crows. »


THE MOONLIGHT YEARS

« Just when I thought Rock’n Roll was over, I met a guy from a band called Ginger Morris. He was a guitar player and was in much cleaner music than I was, but I could get along very well with him. He reminded me of Ian Hunter from Mott The Hoople. Finally there was someone to fill the gap Willy Willy had left. We carried on under the Crow banner and Misten became one of my most reliable friend and guitar player. His sound became the benchmark of the band.
We recored two decent singles, Pussy- an ode to porn star Traci Lords, and The Storm Is Over- who was a good effort to storm the hitparade, but radio didn’t air it a lot and it didn’t do what we hoped. So, again, the band lost grip. Changes had to be made »



THE MOONBOYZ YEARS

« So we were planning accoustic gigs with our backing female singer Inez. I started playing more and more guitar and the voice of Inez became a household part of the band. »

One more time the band played at the Humo’s Rock Rally.

« We didn’t make it into the Top 10 so we felt sad about the whole thing. The music was described as too softy, although these were the best songs I ever wrote »

It was the only time the Rock Rally-which had given them their first record deal- hadn’t been of any help for Dubbe and his bandmates.
Misten and Luc had a side project called Pi-Ja. They became more and more busy, and put all their time in that band.

« Misten got me in touch with Tjeppen, a strange guy who drank Jack Daniels onstage. I was really surprised when I went to see him with his band the Refugees, and saw him emptying a bottle of Jack in one hour. And his guitar didn’t sound too bad at all. The Jack was applejuice and the sound was all stones. We became good friends and formed a new band which didn’t do a lot. »

Tjeppen and Dubbe teamed up to start Maggie May- the name was their little tribute to the Faces. Inez became lead singer, and they did some gigs.

« But the records stayed unreleased because of the stonesmix of Mr Richards sound. I don’t blame him for this sound because he did a great job all that time keeping this wacky band together, and we had fun. By that time I was too confused with myself so I left the band. The only good thing was that I met a guy called Glenn in this band. He was really Rock’n roll, and later joined the ranks of Marky Ramone & the SpeedKings. He became my all time favourite bass player. »

Pi-Ja split up after the release of their first and last album.


DUMDUM BOYS

« I phoned up Misten to do some Iggy covers, the band was called Dum Dum Boyz. Danny joined again on drums. We had a lot of fun doing it, but we cancelled the project after a few gigs. Time went by and I did some solo singing on different occasions. Always backed by Misten on guitar. »


THE REVENGE OF REVENGE 88

« When TC Matic keyboards man offered us the chance to re-record old Revenge songs, we raised Revenge88 from ashes once again.
Backed by Luc, Glenn, and Erik- from Gorki- who joined the ranks, we set off again.
The band never stopped, but the gigs did, so everybody went back doing his own thing. »

Things seemed over again, but in the Summer of 2003 Revenge88 got a gig on the mainstage of the Paulusfeestend. Old mate Luc picked up the sticks again.
Revenge performed an amazing gig for more than 1000 people, playing even better than before, as if they had never stopped.
Their set list included songs from their whole career and a couple of covers, like Chinese Rocks, and Hammersmith Palais.
The gig was recorded both on CD and DVD, and entitled As High As Low Can Be.
The homemade DVD also features rare footages, archives, personal footages as well as Moonlight Crow songs, the Neonlights video, and other bonus.

Revenge88 is now trying to find a Record Label to release both their live CD, and DVD.
As 15 gigs are already booked for the year 2005, the guys are about to take another sweet revenge.
From the early 70s until now nothing could stop them, and we can be glad about that.
Revenge88 is one of those bands that stayed underground but that deserves much more recognition than most of the top selling bands around.
They are one of the best band around, no matter if they don’t play in big venues, no matter if you don’t see their albums at your local shop, no matter if kids don’t wear their t-shirts.
And we can only hope that soon the world will know about that, before Revenge becomes history.
But you can bet that Revenge88 will walk on, and I hope neonlights will guide them on their way to what they should have had since a very long time, and that they deserve today more than ever...for keeping that rawk alive.

ROCK ON !

DISCOGRAPHY

STAGEBEAST-BELGUIM-WORKING MAN

REVENGE 88-NEONLIGHTS-ALONE

REVENGE 88-THOUSAND YEARS FROM YOU-UNWANTED SON

MOONLIGHT CROW-EP (TIGERINE , MOONBOYS , CROWMOON ,PLANETSHAKE )

MOONLIGHT CROW-THE STORM IS OVER-HEAVEN AND HELL

MOONLIGHT CROW-PUSSY-CRAZIE BITCH

THE LOST REVENGE SESSIONS 94

AND SOON

REVENGE 88 - AS HIGH AS LOW CAN BE , LIVE

All these items can be ordered on CD.

Surf to www.revenge88.tk