Review
Performance at "Nieuwe Maandag" TV show
Brussels, Belgium 31 March 1999
by Luc Ghys
Monday, March 29th, 1999 : I was watching a live talk-show called “Nieuwe Maandag” ( New Monday ) on the Flemish TV 1 channel. At the end of the show, Ben Crabbé, the talk-show host and former drummer in a rock band, announced that Texas would be in the next show to present their new single. Tuesday morning, I was already on the phone trying to get an invitation for the recordings as I thought that this could be a golden opportunity to meet Texas. I’d already met the boys, standing in the middle of the public whilst checking out a band called Herbaliser at the ’97 Axion Beach Rock-festival in Zeebrugge and after the last concert of their European Tour in Leuven ( 13/12/’97 ), I fought the cold and rain with Claudy and could only take a picture or two of Sharleen who was obviously very tired after being on the road for such a long time.
After a while, I got through to a certain Linda who, so I’ve been told, handles all the invitations and she explained to me that because of Easter Monday, they were exceptionally going to tape the show on the evening of Wednesday the 31st and that all seats were already taken. I then told her about my passion for Texas and I must have been very persuasive because all of a sudden she said : O.K., I’ll manage to find a way to get you and your wife in and you can pick up your invitations at the reception desk, just be here at nine o’ clock.
I was very exited of course and all kind of the worst scenarios of things going wrong ( sickness, car accident, flat tire etc… ) were flashing through my head. So the evening of the 31st, I decided to use the highway to drive more safely from my home to Brussels and from the moment I saw the TV 1 building in the distance, I felt relieved. I parked my car and went to the reception desk to pick up my invitations. Panic, cold sweat ! There were no invitations. After some phone-calls however, the matter was solved and we were in. We still had to wait in the lobby and saw that the guests featuring in the show arrived one by one. I had my camera ready but there was no sign of Texas. Some half hour later we could proceed to studio 1 where the show would be recorded. I found a great seat and found myself closest to the stage where I saw that all the instruments were already in place but I ignore whether they all belonged to Texas. There were keyboards for Eddie, two turntables for Mark One, drums for newcomer Mikey Wilson, a black Fender bass for Johnny and a red Gibson semi-acoustic guitar for Ally. No sign however of Sharleen’s Fender Telecaster ( for your information : she had a brand new 12-string Telecaster ). I asked one of the public animators if there was some kind of a chance that we could meet the band. The answer was a firm “no” as the Polygram / Mercury Management was afraid to run into troubles. It seemed that the day before, Texas had left a program in Switzerland in the middle of a recording. I immediately thought to myself : somebody must have asked a wrong question. Then our host showed up and told us what to expect during the next hour. As usual, some instructions were given like : don’t take pictures and don’t use cellular phones inside the studio.
Finally around 10 o’clock, the show started. It ran like a live program with no interruptions whatsoever. We were told to set our minds on next Monday evening. First came interviews with Jean-Marie Pfaff, our world famous goal-keeper, followed by a female politician ( in view of the coming elections ). Then there was a video-taped interview with Bridget Fonda promoting her latest film and during this interview, Texas was invited to take place on the stage. By the way, Sharleen was dressed in a dark blue jeans & dito shirt ( Calvin Klein ? ) with a white T-shirt underneath it and short, brown boots. Then followed the introduction in which Ben Crabbé told us that Texas was on the very first show with “Black eyed Boy”( September 1st 1997 ). We saw a fragment of that show while Ben walked up to Sharleen and said :“Hello, how are you doing? Glad to have you back. Do you remember anything from the last time you were here?” Sharleen said ( in her typical Scottish accent ) : “it was all so fast and exiting and I can’t remember a lot but now I remember we were doing it, yeah!” Ben : “You can remember doing it, O.K., because I saw you guys on the Gala van het Gouden Oog ( The Gala of the Golden Eye is a yearly Gala organised by the Belgian commercial T.V. channel V.T.M., where all kind of T.V. celebrities and programs get a golden eye-shaped award ), do you remember that? Sharleen replies “the whaaat?” so everybody gets hilarious. Ben turns to the camera and says in Dutch that Sharleen can’t remember being on the Gala of the Golden Eye but that she definitely remembers being here in September ’97 as if it was only yesterday. For your information : there is a lot of rivalry between the commercial channel V.T.M. and the official channel T.V.1 and so it was meant as a dig at V.T.M. Ben : “This time you will come to the Werchter festival, will there be any specific new things that we can expect?” Sharleen : “Well, you’ll hear a new album!” Ben : “An old album would be stupid…” Sharleen : “Well you know, you’ll hear bits of the old albums as well but you know, we will be performing the new stuff with some old stuff as well and we’re looking forward to come and it’s been a long time so it will be one of the ( and here I have to guess because I really can’t understand what Sharleen says ) highlight dates. Ben : “Thank you Sharleen for saying this so I can translate it, I’ll try it anyway because...( continuing in Dutch ) : “Scottish is their mother tongue and it is very hard to understand but I believe she said that there will be a new album, that’s when I said that an old album would be stupid, and that they will be playing some old numbers too”. Turning to Sharleen again : “I’m just translating it O.K., in my dialect O.K.?” Sharleen, amused, replies with a “Yeah-Yeah” whilst shrugging her shoulders. Ben continuing in Dutch, says : “that they will be playing some old numbers too but now we are completely ready for "In Our Lifetime", the very brand new single of the fantastic band Texas!!!
Everybody was screaming, shouting or whistling when Texas started to play. Soon there were 3 cameras rolling from one side to the other, sometimes taking away my view so I had to look to the monitor. I’d seen the new ( fantastic ) clip just a few days earlier on MTV and therefore already knew the song very well. I liked it from the start, which wasn’t the case when I first heard “Say What You Want” in the beginning of ’97. I probably wasn’t prepared for the new sound of Texas at the time ( Hey, I’m being honest here !! ). We were told that Texas was going to perform “live” but it all sounded a little bit too perfect for me so I think they probably had some technical support. When Texas finished “In Our Lifetime” under loud applause ( of course ) the camera focused on Ben again so that they could leave the stage. Ben informed the viewers about the release dates of the single and the new album and invited them to go and see Texas in Werchter on Saturday, 3 July. In the mean time Texas was disappearing backstage but somehow, I managed to draw Sharleen’s attention by showing her a picture ( a portrait taken at a press meeting in a Brussels hotel back in ’97 ) and a pen. Without hesitating, she came my way, kneeled down and before I could even ask her to dedicate the autograph, she asked my name. I showed her the last issue of “What Goes On” and my name underneath an article that I’d translated. She wrote on the picture : “to Luc, lots of love, Sharleen ‘99”. It felt just great, I can tell you that! It’s always a very special moment when you get some attention from someone you look up to. I want to share this moment with all of you, after all that’s just what this fanzine is all about, isn’t it? Needless to say that all the fans behind me were asking for an autograph too. Pictures, magazines and cd’s appeared from all sides and Sharleen was amused by it also because the animator was in panic telling everybody to be quiet because the cameras were still running. Sharleen then proposed to give her all the stuff so she could sign everything backstage. “I’ll see to it that everybody gets his things back after the show” she added and then, with her hands full, she disappeared.
The rest of the show was merely a detail and I was already thinking of writing a story for the fanzine. After the show we were invited for a drink in the lobby and indeed, somebody was waiting with all the stuff Sharleen took with her to sign. I asked one of the security agents if Texas was still around but he told me they’d already left in a limousine. I felt a little bit sad about it as I’d been hoping that maybe I could have taken some photographs of the band. On the other hand however, I felt happy with the dedicated picture. We talked to some other fans for quite a while, swapped addresses and all of a sudden, one of the security agents told us that Sharleen had just passed by and was on her way out of the building. It was just like someone had shouted “fire” as everybody who was still there, ran out. I took the time to get my camera and flash out of my wife’s handbag and off I went too. My wife, who was on rather high-heel shoes couldn’t follow my pace as I was probably flying. While I was running down that long corridor, I mounted my flash and charged it. I noticed that Sharleen was already signing autographs and that photographs were taken. When I finally got close, I waited until she was free and asked her if I could take a portrait for the fanzine. “Sure” Sharleen said and while she posed like a pro, she gave me a wonderful smile. Being quite an experienced photographer and loving portraits, I remember thinking to myself that this was an easy job as Sharleen looked so natural and full of confidence, completely at ease with herself. After I took the picture I asked her if my wife could take a shot of the both of us. “Of course” she said, after which she came standing close to me so I could put my arm around her. Although my wife’s a good photographer too, I was praying to ‘whoever up there’ to stand by me at that moment. As you can see, it worked out very well. I was on a cloud from then on. I also took a picture while she was posing with Wim, a guy I had just spoken to at the bar, and then I followed her to the mini-bus that was waiting in front of the entrance. I remember telling her that I loved the new video-clip and its computer techniques, that it’s very special and she replied that it took a lot of work to make it and that she felt glad I liked it. Meanwhile I’d noticed that the rest of the band was waiting in the black Volkswagen bus. As she was climbing in, I asked her if they still had some other promotion engagements in Belgium in the coming days but Sharleen, sitting next to Johnny, told me that they were going home now, only to return in July for the Werchter festival. I took the opportunity to take another picture and yet again I got that big smile. Just before they closed the slide door, I said : “see you there!”. Everybody was waving them out as the bus took off in the night and along with the other fans, we went to the car park. There were a lot of positive vibes in the air, we all felt it I guess. We all agreed that Sharleen lived up to our expectations, that she’s a beautiful and charming person and that it was really nice of her to give us all a little bit of her precious time. I truly believe that these were some unforgettable moments for all of us and that we will cherish them forever. As I would like to share a piece of that magic evening with all of you, I decided to send a copy of Sharleen’s portrait I took to all of the “What Goes On” readers. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it! My fondest gratitude however goes to Sharleen for making it all happen, you’re forever in my heart and I wish you and the rest of the band all the best!
Luc Ghys
Originally written for the What Goes On fanzine
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