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W Festival 2022Klein Strand, Oostende, Belgium
24th to 28th August 2022
W-Fest 2022 Day 2 T’Pau, The Animals, Soulsister, Paul Carrack, Lightning Seeds, xPropaganda and Squeeze

Back on the festival ground for the second day. The day did not start too early at 13:00 with good weather and we were already eager to see lots of cool bands, most of them I haven’t seen so far at all. Highlight was probably the concert of XPROPAGANDA. Opener of the Thursday were T’PAU. Luckily, it stayed dry during the whole day, even though it became quite windy and chilly at the evening. Jacket was a good idea.

Opener T’PAU is a British Pop band led by singer Carol Decker. They had her greatest successes between 1987 and 1991. The group reached number one in the British charts in 1987 with their hit ‘China in Your Hand’ which of course could not be missed during the W-Fest show and was played at the very end of the set. To mark the 25th anniversary of the band, the mother of two (Carol) released a DVD retrospective and demo CD of the songs from the debut album ‘Bridge of Spies’ together with her former bandmate Ron Rogers in 2011 entitled ‘The Story Behind the Tracks’. In very good mood, Carol and her band entered the stage and she asked the audience which language they understand and if the speak English well enough to understand her jokes and that they should song along if they know the words. Highlights were ‘Heart and Soul’ and of course ‘China in your hands’ at the end of the concert when people loudly sang along and applauded loudly. Very good opener of the day. Setlist T’PAU: 01. Sex Talk / 02. Thank You 4 Goodbye / 03. Island / 04. Valentine / 05. Secret Garden / 06. Whenever You Need Me / 07. The Promise / 08. Read My Mind / 09. Bridge Of Spies / 10. Heart And Soul / 11. China In Your Hand

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Featuring the original drummer and founding member of THE ANIMALS, John Steel, plus Danny Handley on guitar and lead vocal, Barney Williams on keys (Milltown Brothers) and Roberto Ruiz on bass, this critically acclaimed combination of musicians was performing at W Fest 2022. With over 20 global top ten hits, THE ANIMALS remain a seminal rhythm and blues band who still command great respect. The concert included such classics as ‘House Of The Rising Sun’, ‘We Gotta Get Out Of This Place’, first song of the set ‘Baby Let Me Take You Home’ and many more. Right after the first song, Danny introduced the band and especially funding member John Steel behind the drums and that he was admitted into the Hall of Fame. The songs were very bluesy and something to whip along. The mood during the show was relaxed and there was a certain Country feeling in the air. The perfect sound on this early hour… something to get into the right festival mood. If you were not familiar with the band, latest ‘Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood’ should ring a bell… you automatically sang along and recognized “Well, I know that song!” People were of course singing along when singer Danny commanded them to sing the refrain on their own. Great! American Folk song ‘House of the rising Sun’, which became famous in THE ANIMALS version, ended the concert at W-Fest.

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SOULSISTER is a Belgian Pop formation formed by singers Jan Leyers and Paul Michiels. Their biggest hit was 1988s ‘The Way to Your Heart’. By 1995, five albums with soulful and funky tracks were created. Other well-known tracks by the band include ‘Ain’t That Simple’, ‘Through Before We Started’ and ‘Sweet Dreamer’. They were still successful in their home country until 1999, when Michiel and Leyer dedicated themselves to solo projects. SOULSISTER reunited in 2007 and performed at the Nokia Night of the Proms that year. For this concert, the stage was crowded. The two singers Jan and Paul were accompanied by a big band with guitars, keys, bass, wind instruments and backing singer. Third song if the show ‘Ain’t That Simple’ made people sing along. Anyone in the crowd knew the lyrics. ‘Locks and Keys’ came along with long guitar solo parts bringing some kind of SANTANA feeling to the festival. The song anyone knew, ‘The Way to Your Heart’, was presented nearly at the end and surely was the highlight of the show. And of course, the audience had to sing the chorus on their own. Setlist SOULSISTER: 01. Through Before We Started / 02. Facing Love / 03. Ain’t That Simple / 04. Something I Need to Know / 05. Changes / 06. Locks and Keys / 07. Like a Mountain / 08. Company / 09. Sweet Dreamer / 10. The Way to Your Heart / 11. Tell Me What It Takes / Encore: 12. Broken

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After leaving school aged 15 PAUL CARRACK had one aim in life, to be on the road, playing in a band. In an astonishingly varied and fulfilling career the Sheffield born singer, songwriter and self-taught multi-instrumentalist has covered hundreds of thousands, if not millions of miles in pursuit of that dream. Paul’s “Golden Voice” is renowned for such global hits as ‘How Long’, ‘Tempted’, ‘Over My Shoulder’ and the Grammy award nominated ‘Living Years’. Paul was accompanied with great musicians on guitar, bass, keys/saxophone and even on two drum sets. Paul himself switched between stage piano / Hammond and guitar accompanying his vocal performance. ‘Silent Running’ opened the set and you could immediately sing along… “Can you hear me, can you hear me running?” After finishing the first songs, Paul announced ‘Tempted’ with a short story. He once sang this song when he was on tour with SQUEEZE we would see later and would present it now in a special version. My personnel highlight was ‘Living Years’, a song probably anyone knows. Love it! Paul hit any note, great vocal performance. ‘Over my Shoulder’ was another sing-along song anyone should know. Setlist PAUL CARRACK: 01. Silent Running / 02. Don’t Shed a Tear / 03. Tempted / 04. Eyes of Blue / 05. Bet Your Life / 06. Living Years / 07. You Make Me Feel Good / 08. How Long / 09. Over my Shoulder / 10. Walk In The Room

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British Rock Band THE LIGHTNING SEEDS was formed by Ian Broudie (singer, songwriter, keyboardist and guitarist) and some session musicians. In the 1990s, THE LIGHTNING SEEDS were among the better-known Britpop bands. After the initial success of the single ‘Pure’ (1989), two more successful albums were created, whose singles ‘Life of Riley’, ‘Sense’, ‘Lucky You’ or ‘Change’ with very catchy melodies are still part of the standard repertoire of radio stations today. Finally we had a band on stage, where parts of the line-up were visibly younger than me. Joke aside… now we got something different compared to the other music we listened to so far. Light Brit-Pop for some foot tipping. Setlist LIGHTNING SEEDS: 01. Marvellous / 02. Ready or Not / 03. Change / 04. Sense / 05. All I Want / 06. Feeling Lazy / 07. Lucky You / 08. Perfect / 09. Whole Wide World (Wreckless Eric cover) / 10. You Showed Me (The Byrds cover) / 11. Sugarcoated Iceberg / 12. The Life of Riley / 13. Pure

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XPROPAGANDA are the brainchild of ex PROPAGANDA members Claudia Brücken and Susanne Freytag, and producer Stephen Lipson. While Claudia Brücken and Susanne Freytag played W-Fest as D:UEL last year, now it was time for PROPAGANDA. Formed originally as a trio in Dusseldorf, West Germany in 1982, PROPAGANDA emerged from that city’s thriving Post-Punk Avant-Garde music and arts scenes. Founding members included vocalist Susanne Freytag, established industrial musician Ralf Dörper (DIE KRUPPS) and visual artist Andreas Thein, later expanding to a five-piece with the addition of classically trained musician Michael Mertens and a second vocalist also from the Dusseldorf scene, Claudia Brücken.

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After the original line up split in 1987, the individual band members of PROPAGANDA pursued various solo projects and musical adventures. Fast forward to the spring of 2018 and Claudia and Susanne reformed as XPROPAGANDA to play two sold out headline shows at The Garage in Islington, London. Having felt creatively inspired by the experience, the duo then reconvened with ‘A Secret Wish’ producer Stephen Lipson to write new music… Very unexpectedly, XPROPAGANDA started with a real highlight, the old gem ‘Dr. Mabuse’, much to the pleasure of the audience. Soon after, with ‘Don’t mess with me’, a song from the new album followed. The set was ending with two more highlights, the classics ‘Duel’ and ‘P:Machinery’. Setlist XPROPAGANDA: 01. Dr. Mabuse / 02. Sorry for Laughing / 03. Don’t mess with me / 04. Murder of Love / 05. Dream within a Dream / 06. Beauty is Truth / 07. Frozen Faces / 08.The Wolves are returning / 09. Duel / 10. P:Machinery

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While W-Festival could experience an extraordinary sunset, the stage was set up for the final band of the day. English rock band SQUEEZE, that was considered New Wave in the late 1970s, was ending the festival day. The group formed in London in 1974 and are best known for their 1979 hits ‘Cool for Cats’ and ‘Up the Junction’. The band’s founding members were Chris Difford, Glenn Tilbrook, Jools Holland and Paul Gunn. The band name came from a 1973 album by the group THE VELVET UNDERGROUND. Lots of lights, a crowded stage and good-mood music - that was the end of the second festival day. For me, the headliner were XPROPAGANDA though.

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Setlist SQUEEZE: 01. Take Me I’m Yours / 02. Up the Junction / 03. Hourglass / 04. Slap & Tickle / 05. Cradle to the Grave / 06. Is That Love? / 07. Labelled With Love / 08. Pulling Mussels (From the Shell) / 09. Annie Get Your Gun / 10. Tempted / 11. Cool for Cats / 12. Goodbye Girl / 13. Another Nail in My Heart / 14. Black Coffee in Bed

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All pictures by Dani Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com / http://www.facebook.com/blackcatnet)

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