Irish Coffee (band)
Encyclopedia
Irish Coffee are a hard rock
band from Aalst
, East Flanders
, Belgium, that officially started playing in 1970. They are best remembered for their single
"Masterpiece"
which made it to the Belgian charts. The band's music was a combination of hard rock
and blues rock, with searing lead guitar
parts and strong vocals. The band broke up in 1975 but reformed in 2002 with a new organist
and bassist
.
They played only covers
by bands such as Deep Purple
, Led Zeppelin
, The Who
, and The Kinks
, in a club called "El Gringo", near Aalst, Belgium. There they met Louis de Vries, manager
of The Pebbles, with whom they signed a contract. They changed their name to Irish Coffee, with the band at this time consisting of guitarist
and singer
William Souffreau, guitarist Jean Van Der Schueren, bassist Willy De Bisschop, keyboard player
Paul Lambert and drummer
Hugo Verhoye. The band went to Antwerp to record their first single, "Masterpiece" (b/w "The Show"), in an 8-track
recording studio
. "Masterpiece" achieved success on the Belgian charts, reaching number 5 on HUMO
magazine's Single National list and was played during concerts and on television shows across Belgium and France. Since they shared the same manager, Irish Coffee played many gigs with The Pebbles, and they also supported well-known bands and artists such as Dr Feelgood, Colosseum
, Chris Farlowe
, Uriah Heep
, Focus
, and Chicken Shack
, among others.
In 1971 the band's self-titled album was released on Triangle Records
, with all the tracks on the LP
having been written by Souffreau and Van Der Schueren. In September 1971, a single coupling the songs "Carry On" and "Child" was released, again on Triangle Records, and these songs were later added as bonus tracks to the 1992 reissue of the Irish Coffee album on the Voodoo label. The band went on to play so many concerts that Hugo Verhoye decided to leave, and he was replaced by Raf Lenssens before the song "Down Down Down" was released as a single at the end of the year. In the spring of 1973, Jean Van Der Schueren left the band to continue his classical guitar
studies, and he was replaced by Luc De Clus, who had been playing guitar since the age of five. In June 1974, "Witchy Lady" (b/w "I'm Hers") was released on the Barclay Records
label and received quite a large amount of radio airplay
but unfortunately failed to reach the charts.
, and while returning from one of De Craene's gigs in November 1974, they had a car accident. Paul Lambert died and Lenssens was badly wounded, resulting in the end of Irish Coffee. In 1975, the band changed their name to Joystick with the addition of new keyboard player Luc Coppens but this configuration of the band did not release an album. Some of the recorded Joystick material was included on the Irish Coffee reunion album that was released on the Fuzzy label in 2004. In the 1980s, Souffreau did a lot of performances with his cover band
Oh Boy, and in 1990 he went solo as a
singer and songwriter, releasing several albums. At the end of the 1990s, he formed the rockabilly
band Blink It and released two albums with that band. Hugo Verhoye and Luc De Clus were both members of Oh Boy and Blink It.
and Chris Taerwe on keyboards
. The reformed band started playing concerts and clubs in 2002 and had new songs by the end of 2003. "Brand New Day" was released as a promotional single
in 2004. Their self-titled album was released by Fuzzy Records in 2004, and is dedicated to Paul Lambert.
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
band from Aalst
Aalst, Belgium
Aalst is a city and municipality on the Dender River, 19 miles northwest from Brussels. It is located in the Flemish province of East Flanders in the Denderstreek. The municipality comprises the city of Aalst itself and the villages of Baardegem, Erembodegem, Gijzegem, Herdersem, Hofstade,...
, East Flanders
East Flanders
East Flanders is a province of Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders on the Netherlands and in Belgium on the provinces of Antwerp, Flemish Brabant , of Hainaut and of West Flanders...
, Belgium, that officially started playing in 1970. They are best remembered for their single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
"Masterpiece"
which made it to the Belgian charts. The band's music was a combination of hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
and blues rock, with searing lead guitar
Lead guitar
Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
parts and strong vocals. The band broke up in 1975 but reformed in 2002 with a new organist
Organist
An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...
and bassist
Bassist
A bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...
.
History
Irish Coffee's origin can be traced back to another band called The VooDoo, which was formed in 1970.They played only covers
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
by bands such as Deep Purple
Deep Purple
Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertford in 1968. Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock, although some band members believe that their music cannot be categorised as belonging to any one genre...
, Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
, The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
, and The Kinks
The Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in 1964. Categorised in the United States as a British Invasion band, The Kinks are recognised as one of the most important and influential rock acts of the era. Their music was influenced by a...
, in a club called "El Gringo", near Aalst, Belgium. There they met Louis de Vries, manager
Talent manager
A talent manager, also known as an artist manager or band manager, is an individual or company who guides the professional career of artists in the entertainment industry...
of The Pebbles, with whom they signed a contract. They changed their name to Irish Coffee, with the band at this time consisting of guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
and singer
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
William Souffreau, guitarist Jean Van Der Schueren, bassist Willy De Bisschop, keyboard player
Keyboardist
A keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instruments with keyboards have come into common usage, requiring a more...
Paul Lambert and drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
Hugo Verhoye. The band went to Antwerp to record their first single, "Masterpiece" (b/w "The Show"), in an 8-track
Multitrack recording
Multitrack recording is a method of sound recording that allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources to create a cohesive whole...
recording studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
. "Masterpiece" achieved success on the Belgian charts, reaching number 5 on HUMO
HUMO
HUMO is a popular Belgian weekly radio and television magazine, written in Dutch.Originally the magazine was titled Humoradio, a portmanteau of 'humor' and 'radio'....
magazine's Single National list and was played during concerts and on television shows across Belgium and France. Since they shared the same manager, Irish Coffee played many gigs with The Pebbles, and they also supported well-known bands and artists such as Dr Feelgood, Colosseum
Colosseum (band)
Colosseum is a pioneering British progressive jazz-rock band, mixing progressive rock and jazz-based improvisation.-History 1968 - 1971:The band was formed in September 1968 by drummer Jon Hiseman, tenor sax player Dick Heckstall-Smith and bass player Tony Reeves, who had previously worked together...
, Chris Farlowe
Chris Farlowe
Chris Farlowe is an English rock, blues and soul singer. He is best known for his hit single "Out of Time", which rose to #1 in the UK Singles Chart in 1966, and his association with Colosseum and the Thunderbirds.Outside his music career, Farlowe collects war memorabilia.-Career:Inspired by Lonnie...
, Uriah Heep
Uriah Heep (band)
Uriah Heep are an English rock band formed in London in 1969 and regarded as a seminal classic hard rock act of the 1970s. Uriah Heep's progressive/art rock/heavy metal fusion's distinctive features have always been massive keyboards sound, strong vocal harmonies and David Byron's operatic vocals...
, Focus
Focus (band)
Focus is a Dutch rock band which was founded by classically trained organist/flautist Thijs van Leer in 1969, and is most famous for the instrumental pieces "Hocus Pocus" and "Sylvia"...
, and Chicken Shack
Chicken Shack
Chicken Shack are a British blues band, founded in the mid-1960s by Stan Webb , Andy Silvester , and Alan Morley , who were later joined by Christine Perfect in 1968.-Career:...
, among others.
In 1971 the band's self-titled album was released on Triangle Records
Triangle Records
Triangle records was a bootleg recording company.It ran out of business in 1998.Records stocks and corporate office were located in Singapore, while graphic department was located in France. European distribution was located in Russia...
, with all the tracks on the LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
having been written by Souffreau and Van Der Schueren. In September 1971, a single coupling the songs "Carry On" and "Child" was released, again on Triangle Records, and these songs were later added as bonus tracks to the 1992 reissue of the Irish Coffee album on the Voodoo label. The band went on to play so many concerts that Hugo Verhoye decided to leave, and he was replaced by Raf Lenssens before the song "Down Down Down" was released as a single at the end of the year. In the spring of 1973, Jean Van Der Schueren left the band to continue his classical guitar
Classical guitar
The classical guitar is a 6-stringed plucked string instrument from the family of instruments called chordophones...
studies, and he was replaced by Luc De Clus, who had been playing guitar since the age of five. In June 1974, "Witchy Lady" (b/w "I'm Hers") was released on the Barclay Records
Barclay Records
Barclay Records is a French record label founded in the mid-1950s by Eddie Barclay under the alias, Edouard Ruault. Eddie Barclay also founded the Riviera label in the early-1950s....
label and received quite a large amount of radio airplay
Airplay
* Airplay is the amount of time a song is played on the radio.It may also refer to:* AirPlay, an audio & video streaming technology from Apple Inc.* Airplay , Foster & Graydon music project from 1980* Citroën C1, Citroën C1 Airplay...
but unfortunately failed to reach the charts.
Break-up
Along with their involvement with Irish Coffee, Lenssens, Lambert, De Bisschop, and De Clus also backed the singer Wim De CraeneWim De Craene
Wim De Craene was a Belgian singer. His most famous songs were Rozane and Tim.-Suicide:In 1990 De Craene died. He committed suicide...
, and while returning from one of De Craene's gigs in November 1974, they had a car accident. Paul Lambert died and Lenssens was badly wounded, resulting in the end of Irish Coffee. In 1975, the band changed their name to Joystick with the addition of new keyboard player Luc Coppens but this configuration of the band did not release an album. Some of the recorded Joystick material was included on the Irish Coffee reunion album that was released on the Fuzzy label in 2004. In the 1980s, Souffreau did a lot of performances with his cover band
Cover band
A cover band , is a band that plays mostly or exclusively cover songs. New or unknown bands often find the cover band format marketable for smaller gigs, and these bands may be known as a wedding band, party band and function band. A band whose covers consist mainly of songs that were chart hits is...
Oh Boy, and in 1990 he went solo as a
singer and songwriter, releasing several albums. At the end of the 1990s, he formed the rockabilly
Rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
band Blink It and released two albums with that band. Hugo Verhoye and Luc De Clus were both members of Oh Boy and Blink It.
Revival
In 1992, the former band members released Irish Coffee recordings on CD on their own Voodoo Records label and they played a reunion show on July 9, 1993 in Aalst. The line-up for this concert included Souffreau, Verhoye, and De Clus, along with Geert Maesschalk on bass guitarBass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
and Chris Taerwe on keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
. The reformed band started playing concerts and clubs in 2002 and had new songs by the end of 2003. "Brand New Day" was released as a promotional single
Promotional recording
A promotional recording, or promo, is an audio or video recording distributed for free, usually in order to promote a recording that is or soon will be commercially available...
in 2004. Their self-titled album was released by Fuzzy Records in 2004, and is dedicated to Paul Lambert.
Original line-up
- William Souffreau - lead vocalsLead vocalistThe lead vocalist is the member of a band who sings the main vocal portions of a song. They may also play one or more instruments. Lead vocalists are sometimes referred to as the frontman or frontwoman, and as such, are usually considered to be the "leader" of the groups they perform in, often the...
, guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with... - Jean Van Der Schueren - guitar
- Willy De Bisschop - bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
- Paul Lambert - organElectronic organAn electronic organ is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from the harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally, it was designed to imitate the sound of pipe organs, theatre organs, band sounds, or orchestral sounds....
- Hugo Verhoye - drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
- Luc De Clus - guitar on the "Witchy Lady" single
- Raf Lenssens - drums on the "Down Down Down" and "Witchy Lady" singles
- Dirk Dierickx - backing vocals on the "Masterpiece" single
Current line-up
- William Souffreau - guitar, vocals
- Luc De Clus - guitar
- Stanny Van Veer - pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, organ - Franky Cooreman - bass
- Hugo Verhoye / Stef Van Straelen - drums
Singles
- "Masterpiece"/"The Show" (Carabine 66411) 1971
- "Carry On"/"Child" (TriangleTriangle RecordsTriangle records was a bootleg recording company.It ran out of business in 1998.Records stocks and corporate office were located in Singapore, while graphic department was located in France. European distribution was located in Russia...
BE 61574) 1972 - "Down Down Down"/"I am Alive" (Triangle BE 61766) 1973
- "Witchy Lady"/"I am Hers" (BarclayBarclay RecordsBarclay Records is a French record label founded in the mid-1950s by Eddie Barclay under the alias, Edouard Ruault. Eddie Barclay also founded the Riviera label in the early-1950s....
BE 620044 ) 1974 - "Brand New Day" (Promotional single) 2004
Albums
- Irish Coffee (Triangle BE 920321) 1971
- Irish Coffee (Fuzzy 5411499 04702) 2004 — reissue with bonus tracks
- Irish Coffee Live (Rockpalast 2005) (Second Battle SB CD 069) 2008
External links
- Irish Coffee 1971 Album Review at Allmusic
- Irish Coffee 2004 Album Review at Progressive World