Machiavel (band)

Machiavel, named after Niccolò Machiavelli, is a Belgian rock group founded in 1974 and still recording and touring today. Its first few albums are typical of the progressive rock movement while the later albums were more in a new-wave rock direction.

Machiavel
Background information
OriginBelgium
GenresRock
Years active1976 (1976)–present
Websitemachiavel.be

History

The first years

Machiavel is a Belgian rock group formed in 1976 by Roland De Greef (bass) and Marc Ysaÿe (drums and vocals) then playing with a group called Moby Dick and Jack Roskam (guitar) and Albert Letecheur (keyboard). They released their first eponymous album in 1976 and gained some attention with the song "Cheerlessness" displaying Marc's high pitch voice and Albert's heady keyboard line.

Jack Roskam (who moved to Yugoslavia, where he played in Peđa D' Boy Band and Galija) was soon replaced by Jean-Paul Devaux and Mario Guccio joined the group as lead vocalist and showman. This new team released Jester in 1977, a wonderful album totally in line with the so-called Eurock production of the time (Genesis, Supertramp). Jester featured attractive tunes like "Moments" with complex and ambitious creations like "Rock, Sea and Tree".

The release of Mechanical Moonbeams in 1978 confirmed the group's musical maturity and made them absolute rock-stars in their homeland. The album featured melodic songs like "Rope Dancer" or "Mary", much harder tunes such as "Beyond The Silence", complex, typical Eurock songs such as "The Fifth Season", but also some complex songs like "After The Crop", which evolves from acoustic-melodic to punk-like via Eurock and pure-rock, all in the same song. The cover was in the same line as Jester but this time in colour.

Urban Games was probably the band's most successful album. It attempted to move away from the Eurock style and proposed songs leaning on disco ("Dancing Heroes"), hard-rock ("The Dictators"), reggae ("Over the Hills"), and Eurock still ("City Flowers"). The rift between the tastes and ideas of the different members of the group was all too apparent in the group and Albert Letecheur and Jean-Paul Devaux left the group in 1979.

New directions

The aptly titled album New Lines, with Thierry Plas on lead guitar, was released in 1980. The single "Fly" was an immediate success but the group's next attempt with the album Break Out produced by Derek Laurence in 1981 did not meet success and the group went undercover for a number of years, if one excepts the album The Cry of Pleasure in 1987.

Rebirth

The rebirth happened in 1999 with Virtual Sun followed by Welcome to Paradise in 2003 and 2005 in 2005. Although live performances have been promoted the band fails to recapture its former glory after such a long absence. In 2010 Thierry Plas left the band because of musical differences and went in search of other projects. A new album Eleven was released featuring new guitarist Christophe Pons.

Members are active in radio and promoting and supporting new acts, especially in the Belgian market, which has become two markets due to schisms among the two major linguistic groups in Belgium, which operate separate radio and television systems.

Death

Their lead vocalist since 1977, Mario Guccio, died at the age of 64, on 21 January 2018.[1]

Band members
1976
  • Marc Ysaÿe – lead vocals, drums
  • Jack Roskam – guitar
  • Albert Letecheur – keyboards
  • Roland De Greef – bass
1977–1979
  • Marc Ysaÿe – lead vocals, drums
  • Jean-Paul Devaux – guitar
  • Albert Letecheur – keyboards
  • Roland De Greef – bass
  • Mario Guccio – lead vocal
1979–1983
1987
  • Marc Ysaÿe – lead vocals, drums
  • Thierry Plas – guitar
  • Paolo Regatzu – keyboards
  • Roland De Greef – bass
  • Mario Guccio – lead vocal
1997–2010
  • Marc Ysaÿe – lead vocals, drums
  • Thierry Plas – guitar
  • Roland De Greef – bass
  • Mario Guccio – lead vocal
  • Hervé Borbé – keyboards
2010-today
  • Marc Ysaÿe – lead vocals, drums
  • Christophe Pons – guitar
  • Roland De Greef – bass
  • Mario Guccio – lead vocal
  • Hervé Borbé – keyboards

Discography

Initial release are in bold. Compilations are in italic. Re-release are not highlighted.

  • Machiavel (EMI, 1976, LP Vinyl)
  • Jester (EMI, 1977, LP Vinyl)
  • Mechanical Moonbeams (EMI, 1978, LP Vinyl)
  • Urban Games (EMI, 1979, LP Vinyl)
  • New Lines (EMI, 1980, LP Vinyl)
  • Break Out (EMI, 1981, LP Vinyl)
  • Valentine's Day (EMI, 1982, LP Vinyl)
  • The Cry Of Pleasure (INDISC, 1987, LP Vinyl)
  • The Best of Machiavel (EMI, 1991, CD)
  • Machiavel (EMI, 1993, CD)
  • Jester (EMI, 1993, CD)
  • Mechanical Moonbeams (EMI, 1993, CD)
  • Urban Games (EMI, 1993, CD)
  • New Lines (EMI, 1993, CD)
  • 20th Anniversary Machiavel – The Very Best Of (EMI, 1996, CD)
  • Virtual Sun (CNR Arcade, 1999, CD)
  • Machiavel Live (EMI, 1999, CD)
  • Break Out (Hans Kuster Music, 2000, CD)
  • Original Hits (EMI, 2000, CD)
  • Anthology (EMI, 2001, CD)
  • Welcome to Paradise (CNR Arcade, 2003, CD)
  • The Essential of Machiavel (2003, EMI, CD)
  • Mechanical Moonbeams (2005, EMI, CD)
  • 2005 (2005, Bang, CD)
  • Best of Machiavel (2006, More Than Télémoustique, CD)
  • Acoustic (2009, Moonzoo Music, CD)
  • Eleven (2011, Moonzoo Music, CD)
  • Colours (2013, Moonzoo Music, CD)

See also

References
  1. "Zanger van Machiavel overleden". Focus.knack.be. 21 January 2018. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
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