Irish Coffee are a

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

band from Aalst,

East Flanders , native_name_lang = , settlement_type = Province of Belgium , image_flag = Flag of Oost-Vlaanderen.svg , flag_size = , image_shield = Wapen van O ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, that officially started playing in 1970. They are best remembered for their

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

"Masterpiece" which made it to the Belgian charts. The band's music was a combination of

and

blues rock Blues rock is a fusion music genre that combines elements of blues and rock music. It is mostly an electric ensemble-style music with instrumentation similar to electric blues and rock (electric guitar, electric bass guitar, and drums, sometimes w ...

, with searing

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

parts and strong vocals. The band broke up in 1975 but reformed in 2002 with a new

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

and

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a Bass (instrument), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboar ...

History

Irish Coffee's origin can be traced back to another band called The VooDoo, which was formed in 1969. Before the band was called Irish Coffee they were known as The Voodoo .... 4 members came out of a band where they played with

Rocco Granata Rocco Granata (born 16 August 1938) is an Italian-Belgian singer, songwriter, and accordionist. Granata was born in Figline Vegliaturo, Calabria, southern Italy; but his parents immigrated to Belgium when he was aged ten. Rocco's father was a ...

...remember "

Marina A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : ''marina'', "coast" or "shore") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships o ...

"! In the beginning they played only covers by bands such as

Deep Purple Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock music, but their musical style has changed over the course of its existence. Ori ...

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...

The Who The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered ...

, and The Kinks, in a club called "El Gringo", near Aalst, Belgium. There they met Louis de Vries,

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

of The Pebbles, with whom they signed a contract. They changed their name to Irish Coffee, with the band at this time consisting of

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

and singer William Souffreau, guitarist Jean Van Der Schueren, bassist Willy De Bisschop,

keyboard player A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instr ...

Paul Lambert and

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...

Hugo Verhoye. The band went to

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

to record their first single, "Masterpiece" (b/w "The Show"), in an 8-track

recording studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for sound recording, mixing, and audio production of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large enoug ...

. "Masterpiece" achieved success on the Belgian charts, reaching number 5 on '' HUMO'' magazine's Single National list and was played during

concerts A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or musical band, band. Concerts are held in a w ...

and on television shows across Belgium and France. Since they shared the same manager, Irish Coffee played many gigs with The Pebbles, and they also supported well-known bands and artists such as Dr Feelgood,

Colosseum The Colosseum ( ; it, Colosseo ) is an oval amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheatre in the world to ...

, Chris Farlowe, Uriah Heep, Focus, and

Chicken Shack Chicken Shack are a British blues band, founded in the mid-1960s by Stan Webb (guitar and vocals), Andy Silvester (bass guitar), and Alan Morley (drums), who were later joined by Christine Perfect (later McVie) (vocals and keyboards) in 1967. ...

, among others. In 1971 the band's self-titled album was released on Triangle Records, with all the tracks on the LP having been written mostly by Souffreau and Van Der Schueren. In September 1971, a single coupling the songs "Carry On" and "Child" was released, again on Triangle Records, and these songs were later added as bonus tracks to the 1992 reissue of the ''Irish Coffee'' album on the Voodoo label. The band went on to play so many concerts that Hugo Verhoye decided to leave, and he was replaced by Raf Lenssens before the song "Down Down Down" was released as a single at the end of the year. In the spring of 1973, Jean Van Der Schueren left the band to continue his

classical guitar The classical guitar (also known as the nylon-string guitar or Spanish guitar) is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor o ...

studies, and he was replaced by Luc De Clus, who had been playing guitar since the age of five. In June 1974, "Witchy Lady" (b/w "I'm Hers") was released on the

Barclay Records Barclay is a French record company and label founded by Eddie Barclay in 1953. Eddie Barclay was a bandleader, pianist, producer, and nightclub owner. With his wife, Nicole, who was the vocalist in his band, he started Barclay. The catalogue inc ...

label and received quite a large amount of radio airplay but unfortunately failed to reach the charts.

Break-up

Along with their involvement with Irish Coffee, Lenssens, Lambert, De Bisschop, and De Clus also backed the singer

Wim De Craene Willem Marcel (Wim) De Craene (30 July 1950 – 14 September 1990) was a Flemish Belgian singer. His most famous songs were 'Rozane' (1975), 'Tim' (1975) and 'Breek uit jezelf' (1988). Career At the age of 18 he went to Amsterdam because his m ...

, and while returning from one of De Craene's gigs in November 1974, they had a car accident. Paul Lambert died and Lenssens was badly wounded, resulting in the end of Irish Coffee. In 1975, the band changed their name to Joystick with the addition of new keyboard player Luc Coppens but this configuration of the band did not release an album. Some of the recorded Joystick material was included on the ''Irish Coffee'' reunion album that was released on the Fuzzy label in 2004. In the 1980s, Souffreau did a lot of performances with his cover band Oh Boy, and in 1990 he went solo as a singer and songwriter, releasing several albums. At the end of the 1990s, he formed the

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western music ...

band Blink It and released two albums with that band. Hugo Verhoye and Luc De Clus were both members of Oh Boy and Blink It.

Revival

In 1992, the former band members released Irish Coffee recordings on CD on their own Voodoo Records label and they played a reunion show on July 9, 1993 in Aalst. The line-up for this concert included Souffreau, Verhoye, and De Clus, along with Geert Maesschalk on

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

and Chris Taerwe on

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

. The reformed band started playing concerts and clubs in 2002 and had new songs by the end of 2003. "Brand New Day" was released as a promotional single in 2004. Their self-titled album was released by Fuzzy Records in 2004, and is dedicated to Paul Lambert. Irish Coffee started recording again in 2010 and active since then. The band recorded two new albums: ''Revisited'' in 2013 and ''When the Owl Cries'' in 2015.

Band members

Original line-up

*William Souffreau –

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

*Jean Van Der Schueren – guitar *Willy De Bisschop –

*Paul Lambert –

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

*Hugo Verhoye –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

*Luc De Clus – guitar on the "Witchy Lady" single *Raf Lenssens – drums on the "Down Down Down" and "Witchy Lady" singles *Dirk Dierickx – backing vocals on the "Masterpiece" single

Irish Coffee II line-up

*William Souffreau – guitar, vocals *Luc De Clus – guitar *Stany Van Veer –

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

, organ *Franky Cooreman – bass *Hugo Verhoye / Stef Van Straelen – drums

Irish Coffee III line-up

*William Souffreau – guitar, vocals *Franky Cooreman – bass * Kris Van der Cammen – drums

Irish Coffee IV Line up

*William Souffreau - guitar, vocals *Johan Ancaer - guitar *Frank Van Laetem - guitar *Erik Goetvinck - bass *Bruno Beekmans - drums

Discography

Singles

* "Masterpiece"/"The Show" (Carabine 66411) 1971 * "Carry On"/"Child" (

Triangle A triangle is a polygon with three Edge (geometry), edges and three Vertex (geometry), vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, an ...

BE 61574) 1972 * "Down Down Down"/"I am Alive" (Triangle BE 61766) 1973 * "Witchy Lady"/"I am Hers" (

Barclay Barclay may refer to: People * Barclay (surname) * Clan Barclay Places * Barclay, Kansas * Barclay, Maryland, a town in Queen Anne's County * Barclay, Baltimore, Maryland, a neighborhood * Barclay, Nevada, a town in Lincoln County * Barclay, ...

BE 620044 ) 1974 * "Brand New Day" (Promotional single) 2004

Albums

* ''Irish Coffee I'' (Triangle BE 920321) 1971 * ''Irish Coffee II'' (Fuzzy 5411499 04702) 2004 * ''Irish Coffee LIVE (Rockpalast 2005)'' (Second Battle SB CD 069) 2007 * ''Revisited III'' (Nuftone 2012001 2013/01) 2013 * ''When the Owl Cries IV'' (Starman Records – SMR054) 2015

References

External links

Irish Coffee 1971 Album Review
at

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

Irish Coffee 2004 Album Review
at Progressive World

{{DEFAULTSORT:Irish Coffee Belgian hard rock musical groups Belgian rock music groups Aalst, Belgium