The Flemish parliament is planning to give a kind of medal to a couple of musicians including Raymond van het Groenewoud , Will Tura, Dirk Brossé and Tom Barman. Vlaams Belang has objections to the medal of Tom because he has been acting against the party that is representing 24 percent of the Flemish people.

A small update on the new album: the recordings are almost finished. They are more or less focussing on 12 songs. The mixing will start somewhere in november. Release is scheduled for February-March (although Christian is still clearing things out with Universal and V2). I'll keep you posted when I have more news.

(btw: sorry for the lack of updates the last weeks, but I've been in bed most of the times. I have a rupture of my achilles tendon and working on a computer is still very painfull)

Christian wrote a letter to Flemish newspaper De Morgen after Sam Valkenborg (Fixkes) said dEUS has not that much success outside Belgium. The letter mainly states that they are making profit from touring (as already mentioned before).

Ik snap niet goed waarom Vlaamse rockartiesten in de pers toch zo graag het buitenlandse succes van dEUS willen minimaliseren. De eerste tien jaar was iedereen nog fier en kregen we zelfs felicitaties, de laatste vijf jaar gaat er geen maand voorbij of ik lees wel ergens een interview waar iemand het weer eens nodig vindt om onze verkoopcijfers en/of de opkomst bij onze concerten in het buitenland in vraag te stellen. Normaal laat ik zoiets passeren, maar nu wordt het toch wel wat gortig.

Naar aanleiding van recente uitspraken van Sam Valkenborg (Focus, De Morgen) wil ik jullie lezers graag juist informeren. Ik zal me beperken tot de feiten.

Tijdens de laatste tournee in 2005-'06 speelden we 150 shows, waarvan 6 in België. Dus 96 procent van onze optredens is in het buitenland. We hebben 27 landen aangedaan. Optredens in het Postbahnhof in Berlijn (capaciteit 1.200), de Olympia in Parijs (2.500), Shepherds Bush Londen (2.000), Aula Magna in Lissabon (twee avonden, 3.000), om er maar enkele te noemen, waren allemaal uitverkocht.

Er waren een 40-tal festivals waarvan we ruim de helft co-headliner waren. Roskilde, Sziget, Electric Picknick... Zeg maar de Pukkelpops van die landen. Tel daar nog eens 110 andere clubshows bij, waarvan de 12 in de VS de enige verlieslatende waren, en dat hebben we nooit onder stoelen of banken gestoken.

Wat ik wil zeggen: op tournee gaan (met 15 mensen, in prima condities, zonder toersupport van de platenfirma) kost ons geen geld, maar brengt op.

Tot spijt van wie het ons benijdt.

Christian Pierre, manager

You can still download the gig at the dEUS Podcast.

The profits from 0110 (about 175.000 euro) has been donated to 15 projects in Flanders, 11 in the French speaking part of Belgium and 2 in Brussels. Listen to Tom talking about it in De Ochtend on Radio 1.

(thx to Gilles)

At least, somebody on Myspace is saying so. Do you agree? Which Tom do you like the most? The one from the time before Magnus? Or the other one?

Tom is talking about Luc Tuymans in De Standaard today. He also says art references are in some of his songs.

• Great American nude was referring to a piece by Tom Wesselman.
• Opening Night is inspired by the movie Opening Night by John Cassavetes
• The architect (a new song?) is about architect Buckminster Fuller

Universal Music has opened a clipzone at Garagetv (a Belgian Youtube) and look what I've found: a video by a band called dEUS for a song called Nothing Really Ends. I haven't seen it before (it's even not on the official site)

Knack has an interesting article about Belgian bands having succes in other countries. There's a small interview with Christian Pierre about the subject. Most of the story is probably known by all of you, but i'll repeat it anyway.

• In the early 90's only Bang! was interested in dEUS
• They arranged a showcase in Londen (dEUS as a support act for Girls Against Boys)
• At the showcase they were discovered by Island Records
• They've started touring without loss at the The Ideal Crash-era. The earlier tours cost them between 1000 and 5000 euros for each show.
• By touring as much as possible at that time, they've built up someting
• Playing in small towns as Staffordshire wasn't a lot of fun, but they knew it was necessary to get to the point where they would like to be

dEUS appears 10 times in the Kink FM 1212, a list of the 1212 best songs ever voted by listeners of Dutch alternative radio Kink FM.

• 52. Hotellounge
• 105. Suds & Soda
• 158. Instant Street
• 201. Roses
• 333. Nothing Really Ends
• 465. Little Arithmetics
• 598. 7 Days 7 Weeks
• 801. The Ideal Crash
• 851. Via
• 1054. Theme From Turnpike

Entertaining story (in Dutch) from two girls on a mission to kiss Tom.

According to an item on the blog of Michael Ilegems, Dave McCracken will be producing the new album. He worked as a producer for Ian Brown, Depeche Mode, Faithless, Paul Oakenfeld and James Lavelle.

Humo had a small interview with Tom about the first anniversary of 0110.

Tom will be replaced by DJ Stijn at the opening party of Cultuurcentrum Mechelen next saturday. Christian Pierre told newsagency Belga that Tom will not be deejaying the next few months. The new album will probably be released at the beginning of 2008.

Hearing problems forced Tom Barman to cancel several Magnus/DJ dates, including Mechelen, Liège, Brussels and Roeselare. Hopefully this won't delay the new album's recording sessions, which should be in full swing by now.

[thanks to disappointed Marshall on the ISR]