Notes

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Brussels band Kleptomania are still fondly remembered as having been one of Belgian’s most highly-regarded live-acts in the seventies.
The first version of the band was put together in 1968 by Charlie Deraedemaeker (bass, “ex-les eagles”) and John(?!?) on drums. They recruited both “ex-Liberty Six” members Francis Goya (on guitar) and Lou Deprijck (on vocals) to complete the line-up.


Soon after, Charlie decided to continue with Wim Hombergen (guitar / vocals) and Roger Wollaert (drums), both “ex-Four Of A Kind” instead of the above.
Initially they continued as a trio, till they met Dany Lademacher at a gig organised by manager Wilfried Brits. He played guitar in a “Hendrix-like” band named “Les Shakes” and even managed to release two singles with them in 1967. When the band jammed with this guitar-wizard everything seems to fall in place and Dany was asked to join.
With Kleptomania’s vinyl debut single being issued in 1970 , the tracks (“Kept Woman” & “Out Of A Nightmare”) featured, appeared to be quite heavy and comparisons of the then popular Black Sabbath came to mind. On stage things did work out fine as could be seen at the Puzzle P festival in Brussels (in june with Wallace Collection headlining) and especially on the Bilzen rock & jazz festival (in august along Badfinger and Screaming Lord Sutch) and even some concerts in Congo. The setlist wasn’t only dominated by their own songs but it included also some ever-popular songs from Led Zeppelin and Rory Gallagher’s Taste.

Later in 1970, they released their second single, coupling the fast “I’ve Got My Woman By My Side” with a strong ”Lovely Day”. A flattering piece of vinyl indeed, but without any real commercial success although they were quite popular then, with a lot of nominations in a leading music paper’s (Télémoustique) pop-poll.
As the recording contract only lasted for two singles, Kleptomania signed to the new Dutch record company Flame and were soon up to Holland (at Hilversum’s Sound Push studio) to record their first album. Unfortunately bad luck struck as Flame records went bankrupt and the boys had to stop recording. They remained quite popular in the concert-circuit (they managed to open for Warhorse and Gong at a festival in Séloncourt France on September 19th,1971) but failed to have a proper vinyl released.
In 1972 Patrick Gyssen joined the boys for a short period, but the songs recorded during his stay didn’t saw the light of day. It wasn’t until the cd-compilation in 1995 we could hear a band with a less heavy guitar sound but with improved songwriting ability.
Not that much was heard about the band until a single was released in 1973 under a new name: Lee. Singer Wim Hombergen seemed to be replaced by Michael Fowler. A-side “Come On Back To Me” turned out to be a more polished and commercial affair (with handclaps!) while flip “From L.A. To Chicago” was a boogierocker with piano.
Once again sales were disappointing and Fowler left soon to be replaced by original singer Wim Hombergen and restart under the original moniker. The boys recorded demo’s (also the sixties Byrds classic “So You Want To Be A Rock And Roll Star”) and promoted themselves further by playing shows (with another appearance on the Bilzen festival in 1974; supporting Humble Pie and the Alex Harvey Band and even a club-show at London’s Marquee) and things seemed to be going reasonably well at that stage.
They also recorded another two-tracker who came out in 1975 on the English Kingdom label. “Mean Old Man” backed with “Back To The Country” (indeed country!) generated only a hint of the power and energy of their concerts and therefore failed to make much impression.
Two more singles released the next year, this time as Klepto, proved the band to be moved on even more from it’s heavy roots. Probably disillusioned by a lot of bad luck, they had all fallen apart in 1976 when everyone involved decided to throw in the towel completely.

Nevertheless,1979 saw the unfinished album from 1971 receiving a posthumous (white-sleeve bootleg on 500 copies) release as “Elephants Lost”.
Only four songs were finished but they showed a capable band playing good heavy rock (“Moonchild” & “Stop”) with sometimes more subtle organ playing (who?) on it (“Travel” & “Visit For Above”). All other songs were improvisations and studio-jams.
In 1977 Dany teamed up with Walter“Paa”Paduwa to write an album for EMI records under the name T.U.S.H.(Charly Deraedemaeker plays bass on it), but an offer the same year to join Herman’s Brood Wild Romance was the breakthrough he finally needed. He played till 1981 (on three albums) with the band and wrote a lot of hit-singles. Between May and July 1980 Dany produced Machiavel’s hit record “New Lines” (he can be heard on the cd-reissue playing a long jam with the band) and in the same studio he also worked on songs of his own.
Another successful production of his was the album “Black Out” from Belgian rockers The Kids in 1981.
1983 saw the release of Dany’s real solo album: “Lademacher’s Inner Sleeve” with Wollaert on drums, turned out to be a mainstream-rock lp.
Another Dutch rock band who asked Dany to join was Vitesse in 1984 and he also can be heard on their 1985 album “Keepin’ Me Alive”. (During the nineties Lademacher played with The Radio’s (4cd’s), Xander De Buisonjé and Paris Dandies)
In 1983 Roger Wollaert managed to release an album together with some members of the Dutch band Kayak (“Europe” on CBS records), while a few years later (1987) he also played on Machiavel’s “The Cry Of Pleasure” and drummed also a handful of gigs with them, to replace Marc Isaye.
Hombergen and Deraedemaeker failed to resurface in later years but manager Brits started working with new band The Misters in 1978.
Still, the once-revered name of Kleptomania had also been kept alive by the release of a double compilation cd in 1995. It contained all recordings (many unreleased!) the band made between 1970 & 1976 with the exception of the Lee single. But it’s fair to say that this well-intentioned release served its purpose and would surely had made a lot of people happy.

To promote a record fair in Brussels (in October 2004), a Kleptomania cd-single with “Kept Woman” & “I Got My Woman By My Side” was given away for free, while in march 2006 Elephants Lost was re-released on (quality-)vinyl by the German label Amber Soundroom, this time as a beautiful double album with bonus tracks from the singles.