These Gentenaars have a certain aura about them, perhaps passed down from the time the mediaeval canal water was too infected to drink and all they consumed was beer, including the babies. Only the age limit has changed, and the pub has become Kinky Star.
The upstairs windows are covered in Johnny Berlin posters, CDs are piled up against a decrepit structure and, across from the battered beer fridge, is a wall covered in bands signatures and stickers. Dead centre stands the scrawling of the likes of The Strokes. It feels like anyone worth mentioning from New York City to Brussels has been here.
The seemingly calm Waegeman is a non-stop productivity power machine, which means that Kinky Star isn’t just a club. There is the club, with bands and beer, the record label, the radio station, youth programmes and even a Kinky Star Academy. Having studied social work, Waegeman is a master at receiving government funding to keep all of this in motion. He even started a programme for seniors who want to learn guitar. Waegeman is welcome proof that we never have to grow up.
Waegeman started out his musical life in a hippy bar in his home town of Antwerp. At school, he played the drums for theatre, a youth centre and for his first band, Possible Noise. He was also a roadie for well-known Flemish band Gorki and worked at a record store. All very High Fidelity.
In 1988, Waegeman headed to Ghent. A couple of short years later, he was working for Bang Records, searching out Flemish music talent. He started from the ground up, learning everything he could, including promoting for Belgian superstar band dEUS. Based on their success in this period, he must have been doing something right.
From there, he wanted to produce his own records. Kinky Star was born. Together with then partner Dani Mommens, he exclaimed: “Let’s be as independent as we can!” They formed it into a music non-profit organisation.
“All the money was spent on drinks and promoting young bands,” says Waegeman, “If we needed money we got it from the bar.” The bar is still running 70% of the business, along with help from the City of Ghent and the Flemish Region. To this day, Kinky Star is still supporting young bands and new music, having become a miniature department of culture for Ghent.
Apparently, it all wasn’t enough. Waegeman began working with Ghent radio station Urgent FM to vigorously pull in other small labels and bands from all over the world. He started live programming with presenter Greet De Vleeshouwer and the digital promo-master Pieter-Jan De Coen. You guessed it – Kinky Star Radio was born. Play lists include anything from Radiohead to boyShouting to Brutal Orgasm, which are all available on podcast and can land in your email inbox if you wish.
Take a deep breath. Now for the Kinky Star Academy, which is surely the most social of all Waegeman’s projects and truly impressive in its heart. It is open to everyone, from the guitar player wanting to hone his or her skills to the mentally challenged kid who wants to play the drums. The students go to the teachers’ homes to learn their craft. The teachers don’t lose out either; they are officially paid. “We are a go-between. We just get the benefit of seeing it happen and making sure it’s done efficiently and within the budget and benefits the teacher, as well,” smiles Waegeman with a shy pride.
Jongeduld, meanwhile, is a programme for teens only. Here, they can learn stage, studio, radio and can even get instruction in making their own demo. How cool is that? On top of the mile-high stack of what Kinky Star can offer, add rehearsal rooms on the Leopold Kazarne Military Site. They have four spaces, and when they’re full, they help set bands up in other practice rooms.
Fans can go to the Kinky Star website and pick up the latest releases. Recommended CDs are Lady Cop, Kaptain Korsakov and Luc’s own band, Needle and the Pain Reaction (see below).
Kinky Star is a complete music package, with a non-commercial and all welcoming approach. It is what everyone who has ever worked in the business wishes it was all about, and Waegeman does it in the right way, from the side of good. It is no wonder Ghent has a name for being the alternative music Mecca of Flanders, with people like the Kinky Star crew behind them.
“There is no ‘music business’ side at all,” he smiles, as if being asked the silliest question of all time. “We don’t plan ahead more than a month or two and survive on the goodwill of apprentices and volunteers.” His eyes fall to the table after a six-hour interview.
Flanders Today: “Do you sleep?”
Waegeman: “Not that much.” [Laughs] “I’m exhausted, but music is the food for our souls.”
Needle and the Pain Reaction is not just a name on the coolest band T-shirts and stickers around (sporting a charming impaled voodoo doll), it is also bass player Luc Waegeman’s umpteenth reason to avoid sleeping.
Another of the “three-man-Belgian-band movement and proof the locals know how to make noise in small numbers. The other two Needle boys are Wim Deliveyne (guitar/vocals), a intense, sweating front man, and the happiest long hair around on drums, Peter De Bosschere.
The band started 10 years ago when Deliveyne came to Waegeman, director of Kinky Star Music Centre, asking if he knew any available musicians. He offered himself, even though he had never really played bass. You wouldn’t know it now as he pounds the strings, head moving wildly in rhythm.
Needle rock, punk and pop, keeping it all under the alternative groove umbrella. The catchy lyrics from the last albums are so well known the crowd can’t help but sing along. More is coming: Deliveyne is (re)writing the lyrics and recording the final guitar and vocals for their third studio album, Stains, which should be in stores by May.
Needle and the Pain Reaction is an out-and-out enjoyable night of head banging and grooving. A “no-pain reaction” guaranteed until the morning after.
Next gig: 1/3, 21.00, Krawietelke, Graaf Arnulfstraat 1, Ghent Luc Waegeman
Flanders Today is a 
-10°C / -1°C
