The Newspaper Sessions were performed in 1992. ( Here's a 2.592 K QuickTime movie). After Guy c Jules Van Belle and Herbert Van de Sompel had finished their compositional workbench they felt like harassing an unprepared audience. The Green Frog, an artistic bar in their hometown, Ghent - where they had created some chaos before, performing as Stellingname - seemed to be a willing victim. Jamming with their computer keyboards and mice, they composed the Newspaper Sessions' music in no time. The lyrics were controversial issues taken from newspapers, adapted for performance.
After a while, Markest Tate joined the duo as a talking head. Meanwhile, Asbach 1920 was hiding from the sun somewhere in the Los Angeles area and so the Farmers sent her a tape by Federal Express, hoping that she would start rehearsing the lyrics on her own. The Farmers arranged for T-Shirts, leaflets and posters to support their re-introduction into the Flemish arty society. Asbach 1920 flew over from the States and proved unable to overcome her jetlag.
Everyone was there - that first night - when Guy and Herbert installed the panicking Asbach and Markest on stage and hid themselves and their computers in a backroom. The video-cameras, mounted on top of the machines, captured their facial expressions in close-up. The images were sent to old black & white televisions standing on top of the 2 by 2 meter stage, where Robin and Markest were trying not to show the audience they were reading the lyrics from sheets.
The performance turned out to be a gigantic success. The Farmers were very pleased with the result of their real-time computer-based composition tools that failed to crash during the gig. The befriended artists in the audience were relieved, because - aware of the politics of Belgian Art Centers - they knew this band could hardly be any competition to them. The manager of The Green Frog was pleased because at last his bar had become what he had always wanted it to be: an ordinary Bierßtube.
Note: most people in the audience had not understood that the Farmers had been playing live from the backroom. They thought it had all been taped. Remote performances - from 10 meters away in this case - are not a hot topic in Belgium. Moreover:
Why Don't They Sing In Flemish?
All this material is property of Young Farmers Claim Future and may only be abused with permission:
Young Farmers Claim Future
Herbert Van de Sompel & Guy c. Jules Van Belle
Herbert.VandeSompel@rug.ac.be
