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Simon
COATES: guitar, vocals |
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Simon
started playing guitar in a rock group in the early 1980s, when he was
about 15 and living in a depressed and depressing town on the wrong
side of the river Mersey. For a short while he kept it strictly rhythm.
He became a singer by accident. The band's lead vocalist didn't always
come to rehearsals (and, even when he did was not always able or
willing to sing). After getting rid of the lead vocalist and changing
drummers, the band achieved some sort of cohesion and played in a local
pub and a hard rock club ("Stairways") as well as at Simon's school
(where, for some strange reason, he thought it would be cool to play in
dungarees…) Soon before his 19th birthday,
Simon moved back to his birth place, London, where he formed a new
band. He and the drummer, Ben Colomb, played together for some four
years, with the rest of the line up, the name of the group and the
style of music evolvin over time. They played several concerts,
particularly for student events and private parties. In 1988, Simon
went to Paris for a year. There too he started up a new band, "les
Fireflies". They played at the "Foyer de jeunes travailleurs"
d'Epinay-sur-Seine, at the Gibus and at the Troupeau. He then got
married and had kids and more or less dropped out of the music circuit
for several years, even to the point of selling his amps. Soon after
arriving in Belgium at the dawn of the new millennium, he answered a
small add from a group looking for a lead guitarist. The rest is
history... |
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Henri
VAN DURME: guitar |
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Henri
often says
that he decided to drop his classical piano lessons and to take up the
electric guitar when he saw the Rolling Stones play in Brussels in
1976. A few months later, "Keep Cool" played their first concert in a
school. They played together for two years. Henri then accomplished a
radical change of musical direction by joining the group "Velvet
& hi 45% of Matières Grasses", which had its own repertoire
(French pop-rock) and in which he played keyboards.
The group split up in 1981 when Henri started working
at Studio Katy in Ohain as a tape operator. He took advantage of his
job to record some numbers, returning to a more Stones-like sound. He
later totally gave up on rock groups and spent several years writing
and recording songs in French at home. In 1993, he was part of a folk
duo performing a traditional French repertoire (Brel, Brassens,
Vian...). In 1995, he returned to rock as guitarist in the group
"X-Band", but after two years he encountered health problems and, tired
of drink and personality problems within the band, dropped out of the
music circuit all together. Once he'd got himself back together, he
decided to get back into the saddle and joined Nicotine in 2003... |
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Dany
OMLOOP: bass |
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When
he was 14, Dany decided that he
wanted to become a professional guitarist or bassist. He had classical
guitar lessons (which wasn't exactly what he wanted) and then moved on
to the electric guitar and bass. He started playing in a band at 15,
first with various young pop and blues bands. At 18, he started playing
with his first real group, with Guy on drums, and played his first
concerts. After other experiments, including some with Guy, the two got
back together, at the end of 1975 and the age of 21, in the group the
"Lonely Rockers". They played regularly at the Florio near the Grand
Place in Brussels and won a competition before splitting up at the end
of 1976.
Dany then formed the group "Highway" a few months later. They rehearsed
for a year (only original material a part from a cover of "I'm a man",
although sometimes inebriation came before inspiration) and then played
several concerts before the group (which its members liked to call
"highrock") broke up. Six months later, they tried again for a few
months, with more graft and less beer. Dany then gave up playing at
Jack
Bruce and, thinking that he would never play again, sold his Fender
Jazz Bass and his Bassman. Ten years later, one of his former brothers
in arms got back in touch. This phone call changed his comfortable
bourgeois existence and led to the creation of "The Little Big Chiefs"
(covers of rock from the 1950s and 60s). A little later, they did the
good deed of recruiting Guy and played together for seven years. It was
difficult to start, with butthey were soon gigging regularly and had
many fans. They finally went their separate ways due to boredom…
Dany decided to have another rest cure until 2004, when Guy invited him
to replace Nicotine's singer/bassist... |
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Guy
VANSNICK: drums |
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Guy
first started playing drums around 1975 in a group playing 1950's
rock'n'roll. This group already included Daniel Omloop. They played
regularly in various bistros in Brussels, including the famous Florio.
Following the departure of the vocalist, the group split up and Guy got
together with Dany Dumitru-Joan to form Nicotine mk I. In 1978, he
collaborated with Kengen on his project RAXOLA. They recorded an album
in a few hours, but Guy quickly left what he saw as a phantom group. He
then got back together with Dany and both took part in the recording of
Hubble Bubble's second album. A number of epic concerts with Alain Buro
followed. In 1980, Dany obtained a recording contract and recorded his
first single as Bucks Danny. His second single, "Another weekend", was
a success in Flanders and they were on tour for several months,
including a date at the Golf Drouot in Paris. At the end of 1980, Guy
and Dany decided to go their separate ways. Guy played with several
different bands before deciding to pack up his sticks! In 1989, Dany
got back in touch to form a bread and butter "bal-rock" band, which
nevertheless gigged regularly for 6 years. The group stopped playing in
1996, but in 2001 Guy and Dany got back together once again to form
Nicotine mk II. |
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