Captain Cheese-Beard & The 7 Sisters Of Prevention reside in Brussels. As the name suggest, this is not just another Zappa coverband. The Captain (and his 7 sisters) pay tribute to the late Frank Zappa and have made it their goal to keep FZ's music alive.
I've seen the band perform live a couple of times, and I must say that they succeed in bringing their fun and their joy from the stage into the audience.The band's MySpace corner:
http://www.myspace.com/captcheesebeardthe7sistersofprevention
The United Mutations entry: http://www.united-mutations.com/c/cptcheesebeard.htm
The band will be opening the actual festival on Friday the 14th of August, on the main stage, at 13:00 h
UniMuta: Hello Johan,
I'm glad to hear that Captain Cheese-Beard & The 7 Sisters Of Prevention are scheduled to perform at the Zappanale festival. How does it feel?
Johan De Coninck: Great! The band's really exited about the fact that we'll be playing this year. We're going to do our best to come up with the best show possible and we'll try "not to mention the war ;-)"
I am also kinda glad to open on the Main Stage on day one. It's an honour and it gives you the advantage of getting a proper sound check which is important for this outfit.
UniMuta: When did you get to hear your first Zappa record? Do you conscider yourself addicted?
Johan De Coninck: I started to listen to Zappa when I was about 15. I took some albums home from the local music library . I liked it a lot but also realised I needed some musical growing up to do in order to fully appreciate the spectrum of sounds and harmony in Zappa's music. By the time I was 19 I really got into it. Am I an addict? You bet I am!!! Only an addict would get into his head to play Zappa's music.
UniMuta: I've been fortunate to have seen you guys and girls on a couple of occasions. How difficult is it to find concerts for a Zappa tribute band? You're having another gig scheduled in Melsele pretty soon, right?
Johan De Coninck: I must say that I knew that it wasn't going to be easy finding gigs for a project like this but even I was surprised about how much of a hard sell it was turning out to be. Especially here in Belgium and even more specifically in Flanders.
You have to realise that the bulk of the industry is controlled by clear channel / Live Nation and that every product needs to fit nicely in a marketable sellable package and of course we don't fit in anywhere. We don't play our own compositions but we're not your traditional cover band either. Zappa's music has Jazz influences but it's not Jazz enough to be booked on a Jazz festival like Jazz Ghent for example (Never mind that Lady Lynn, who I have no problem with but who doesn't sound Jazz at all, plays there) As soon as you speak to promoters and they hear the name Zappa, you can immediately feel how confused they get and it always ends with that it's not really their cup of tea. Of course 90% of them have never heard a Zappa track in their lives. All in all, Belgians have always been totally crap at recognizing their own talent. Most bands that have made it outside the Belgian borders were puked upon by the industry in their own country so I guess that in that respect, "We're doing just fine" ;-)
About Melsele; yes, we will be playing there next week on the 30th of July and I would like to thank Wuff Maes for organising this event. He's one of the only concert promoters in Belgium who consistently believed in us. It's a free, open air event so put you knickers on and join us for some fun!
UniMuta: Entering Bad Doberan during Zappanale is like entering another planet. It's a life altering experience. For a couple of days, Bad Doberan is the Home of the Freaks.
If I'm not mistaken this will be the first visit of The Captain & His 7 Sisters of the Zappanale festival, well, maybe with the exception of one little saxophone playing Sister.
Will you be able to take the entire band with you? Will you be staying the entire festival?
Johan De Coninck: Ha-ha,; you're referring to Ludo who played there with The Wrong Object a few years ago. Actually Ludo was scheduled to play the Zappanale with us but unfortunately he got another assignment which he could not refuse which is kinda sad because your testicles shrivel when he plays a solo but hey, You can't have it all. Anyway to answer you question; if we play in Germany on a festival like this, than of course I will bring the whole band along. "We're not in it for the money!" so we're blowing the whole budged on getting everybody there. In other words, we'll have about 10 people on stage. Most of us will stay at the festival to see some of the other acts. I think that they have a really strong line-up this year!
UniMuta: Yes, the list of bands that will be playing at the festival is very impressive. You're in good company. Are you familiar with some of the bands? Anyone you want to see?
Johan De Coninck: Of course bands like the Grande Mothers, Project Object, Terry Bozzio and so on but also bands like Gong. I also hope to maybe discover one two things but most important is to play a good show ourselves and once we've done that I have the whole weekend left to see some great bands, hear great tunes and soak in the atmosphere! OUTSTANDING!
UniMuta: Excellent. Thank you for your time.
Have fun & see you in Zappa-City Bad Doberan !! (& in Melsele tomorrow !!)
you read it right : thursday july 30, 2009, Captain Cheese-Beard & his 7 Sisters of Prevention in concert in Melsele. (Nearby Antwerp, Belgium)
at 20.00 h - in the centre of town
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