Red Zebra

Started out as a band of four sixteen-year-olds in 1978 under the name of The Bungalows. After learning to play some instruments and a name change to Red Zebra, they debut with a self-produced, self-written and self-sold EP. 

On this EP figures the song "I Can't Live in a Living Room". This biting indictment of bourgeois society became a radio-hit and is considered one of Belgium's finest cult classics. After another single ("TV Activity") they record the mini-album 'Bastogne' in 1981. Riding on the "cold" and "new" wave, this record has quite an impact. 

Their first full-length album 'Maquis' of 1983 (which is preceded by the singles 'Lust / The Beauty of the Beast' and "Polar Club") gets received with mixed feelings, after which the group goes into a lull and splits up completely in 1986. 

In 1990, most of the original members get together again to play a number of live gigs. In 1992 then release 'From Ape to Zebra', a very well selling "Best of". After this, there was some demand for live-gigs of the group, of which a number of songs were released on the live-CD 'A Red Zebra is not a Dead Zebra'. In the meantime, all of the members of the group had also done solo-projects. 

Guitarist Bruno Melon, who was part of The Strings before joining Red Zebra, ventured out to The Wolf Banes and later on to La Fille d'Ernest. Pip Vreede also joined The Wolf Banes and toured with Whim Punk after that. A few of the other Zebras (Patrick Provoost, Geert Maertens and Johan Isselee) formed His Royal Fume. Peter Slabbynck had developed his own career with the band The Boy Wonders and enjoys/suffers success and devastating critics with the group De Lama's, but decides to come back to the band after a 1994 live-album by the group does surprisingly well. 

In 1996 they even decided to reform the band completely (although without Melon and Vreede, who were replaced by Jurgen Surinx and Nicolas Delfosse). After a single 'Sanitized For Your Protection' they released the second full-length Red Zebra album, over 14 years after the first LP.

In 2000, the band was celebrating the 20th anniversary of the legendary "I Can't Live in a Living Room", with a special 2-hour performance in front of a seated audience in the Stadsschouwburg of their hometown Bruges (October 28th). This performance was also captured on CD, and released on the Belgian Parsifal label in 2001 with the title 'Last Band Standing'. On it, there were 13 new interpretations of the songs that made their fame. [SOURCE: THE BELGIAN POP & ROCK ARCHIVES]