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the movers and shakers Behind the Bands
05
Bernard Moisse has a different, less utopian
view of the scene. A promoter with ten
years of experience working with everyone
from home-grown acts Ghinzu and Montevideo
to international ones such as Robotsin-Disguise
and Erinn Williams under his
belt, Moisse has a more pragmatic outlook.
“I have regular contact with Le Soir, (Belgian
magazine) Télémoustique, with Bang,
with lots of labels and managers but it is
not really a connection,” he says. “It is normal
and it is necessary to have contact with
these people when you work in the music industry.
They are the players and if you want
to play too you have to work with them. You
don’t have a choice. It’s like family – you
can choose your friends but you can’t choose
your family. They are there and you have
to be with them. You may not like it all the
time but that is how it is.”
Thierry Coljon’s network of industry
players has changed over the years but the
teams have stayed the same. He still deals
mainly with the promotional managers of
the record companies who set up interviews
with him and provide material for reviews,
although most of those he started out with
are no longer in the game.
“I’ve been in this business for 25 years, I
36 — THE THIRD WORD
was the fi rst full time rock critic at Le Soir
and all the promo guys I worked with in
the 1980’s have since been fi red,” he said.
“Record companies these days see this job as
a young man’s game so I now deal with a lot
of fresh faces. Trouble is, some of these guys
may be able to speak three languages but a
few know absolutely nothing about music.”
" There is an established
scene in Belgium which
is archaic and doesn’t like
change "
Coljon now works in closer contact with
the bands in Belgium. “This is a small country
and you get to meet the bands more” he
said. “After forming initial links with the
artists, I now work more directly with them,
but only the Belgian bands – similar to those
signed to majors in the UK and US - are
harder to get in touch with.”
Francois Fabri, manager of up-and-coming
bright young things The Vismets, has
06
François Fabri
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had many positive experiences working in
the multi-layered Belgian music community
but while he speaks glowingly of the advantages
of networking, Fabri also believes that
there are cliques within the wider community
which actually oppose collaboration
and create barriers.
“There is an established scene and
network in Belgium which is archaic and
doesn’t like change,” Fabri says. “There are
some people in this established circle who
criticize new bands openly without justifi -
cation. This is a group of guys from the generation
before us who are protecting their
status, their acts” he claims. “But they are
eventually going to have to let go. There are
so many young managers, bands and promoters
coming through, that in fi ve to ten
years this old guard are going to have to step
aside. You have to give these guys credit because
they really pushed Belgian music forward
but now they have to make way for a
new generation.”
Bernard Moisse agrees. “There is some opposition,
yes. Sometimes someone will say, ‘I
work with this guy and no other agency’. They
have their own people and they have built a
relationship and trust with this agency, and
that’s cool, but that sometimes stops bands