THE ULTIMATE DREAMERS In addition, you resuscitated the group. Two of the former band members join you with a newcomer to promote the record live. How did you manage to bring these people together? Bertrand and I still saw each other regularly and I still had contact with Joël and Laurent. Initially, we discussed the record. Then the idea for a release concert came up. Finally, we quickly found the pleasure of playing together. After a few weeks, I contacted Sarah, whose keyboards I had really enjoyed in the Brussels post-punk band The Panties.She agreed to participate. We rehearsed together and the chemistry was there. The Ultimate Dreamers were back. The sound of the record is very 80's. Did you update some songs to give them a more modern sound live? Our current repertoire is made up of our old compositions. Some are present on the record, others not, because the sound was not good enough. By recreating these pieces, they naturally evolved with a more modern sound,without it being a real purpose.But it’s the reality and it’s pretty good. Today, you are mostly known as the organizer of Fantastique.Nights concerts and Club New Wave parties.Was it a natural evolution to go from musician to concert organizer? May be. Like I said before, I started organising concerts early on. I continued when I was a student in Mons and then in Brussels. After a few calmer years, I resumed around 2000 when I joined the team of the fanzine Khimaira and the webzine LeFantastique.net (hence the name Fantastique.Nights) as a columnist and then as music manager. Concerts have always fascinated me. The parties mainly have a financial interest, which makes it possible to continue to organize concerts. During the pandemic, you also became a public figure as a professor and director of the ULB's medical chemistry laboratory. How did you experience this? We have all lived through an incredible period that has www.peek-a-boo-magazine.be - 6 - Photo © Xavier Marquis rocked the entire planet in many ways. As a health professional in academia, it has been very stressful at times but also very intense.At one point, faced with the repeated mistakes of certain ministers, I felt the need to react. I wrote an opinion piece in the newspaper Le Soir which made a lot of noise, especially on the Frenchspeaking side, and I found myself projected onto the media scene. This is a situation that brings a lot of problems, ultimately. It’s not just Van Ranst who has attracted dangerous lunatics. Finding The Ultimate Dreamers allowed me to escape the stupidity of conspirators of all kinds (unfortunately quite numerous in the dark scene). If we combine your experience as an organizer and your medical expertise, you must have an opinion on the resumption of concerts and nightlife while the virus is still active. Tell us about it! As an organizer, I was very careful because the successive waves were predictable. Cancellations are demotivating and costly. Now, I am more confident because the general population has good protection thanks to the vaccination. But the crisis is not over. Too many people still refuse useful measures with often stupid arguments. We may still see small waves but nothing comparable to what we experienced in 2020. Temporarily, the Covid Safe Ticket or the COVID Certificate can still be very useful. Xavier KRUTH www.the-ultimate-dreamers.com https://www.facebook.com/theultimatedreamers
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