Tom Barman is again -- rather deceivingly -- on the cover of Le Soir, for a tiny quote in their special edition about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. There's also a small article about the "embargo affair" in their "Swarado" kids supplement.

La Libre Belgique, another leading French-speaking Belgian newspaper, has decided not to publish Tom's interview, saying Universal Music's €25,000 fine was a "clunky, useless, inefficient and unacceptable measure". They strongly criticize Le Soir's very ambiguous position.

La Dernière Heure however didn't make a fuss: here's their short interview with Tom. Nothing new, except that Tom describes Alan as a "weird but great guy" ("un peu space, mais c'est un mec super").

The newspapers of the Vers L'Avenir group published the full interview in their paper edition, and excerpts of it on their Actu24 website. A few interesting bits:

• During the Pocket Revolution tour Tom noticed that their drummer Stephane Misseghers could sing, so he thought he should sing on the Vantage Point album.
• Even after Mauro & Alan joined dEUS in October 2004, Tom wasn't sure he would continue with dEUS, until their concert at La Cigale in Paris later that autumn.
• He doesn't think that dEUS are facing competition from bands in Belgium, but abroad.
• When (far-right party) Vlaams Belang scored lower in the elections following the 0110 concerts he helped organise, that was one of the best days in his life.

Vers L'Avenir also have an article about the Universal embargo, and a "blind test" with Tom - check it out in this video:

What Tom says in this video: Zita Swoon nowadays have many songs in French, but Tom says Stef Kamil Carlens couldn't say a word of French when he met him. He loves the voice of Mintzkov's Lies Lorquet, and wished she'd sing more in that band. He says their singer Philip Bosschaerts sings like Tom when he was 21, but that's his voice so he can't be blamed for that. He's amazed by the ease with which Admiral Freebee writes new songs. About Flemish-singing Will Tura: apparently he's going to collaborate with him. Tom was in love with An Pierlé "for about 2 hours in the 1990's." He likes the Arno song, even if he thinks he hasn't written many good songs lately. He also likes the Soulwax remix of The Klaxons, but he thinks their live set is too hard: "a lot of wax, too little soul". About Ozark Henry's Piet Goddaer: he admires him for deciding to live abroad in order to break outside Belgium. And he hasn't had the time to listen to the Blackbox Revelation's debut album, even though they are their support act on the spring leg of the Vantage Point tour.