Anouk News and Reviews

Important News

And second: The title of Anouk's second CD is going to be called "Urban Solitude". The planned date of release is November 12th 1999.

Anouk's New Album

Anouk's second album will be named "Urban Solitude" and will be released late November as things are looking now.

Anouk's New Single

Anouk made this public during the Plaspop festival in Elst.

The single will be released in September and is the first song off the new album.

Anouk Photo Wins Award

Peter was awarded first prize in the "Silver Camera Award 1998" in the "Art, Culture, Architecture, and Technology" category. His award winning photo of Anouk live in concert in Rotterdam can be seen here.

Congratulations Peter ! Keep up the good work !

European Woodstock 99 Postponed

Michael Lang, one of the original Woodstock '69 partners and organizer of both the 1994 and 1999 festivals said, "We are postponing the European Woodstock because of insurmountable logistical difficulties relating to hosting two festivals of this size within one week of each other and over 3000 miles apart. It became clear that for Woodstock to be a safe and successful event in Europe more time was needed. We are currently considering whether to reschedule the event for the summer of 2000 or 2001. The American Woodstock is going full strength with the line up to be announced at the beginning of April."

Ticket holders in Austria are advised to return their tickets by post with their name, address, telephone number and bank account number to Osterrich Ticket, Heumuhlgasse 11, 1040 Vienna for a full refund.

All other ticket holders should return to their point of purchase for a full refund.

Carlos Goes Solo

The successor of Carlos has already been named... it is Michel van Schie. He is one of the studio musicians that played on the Together Alone album.

For those that wish to catch Carlos, he will be in the well known Cafe de Paap in the Hague on March 22 - 99. Guest performances will include Bolle and Sven and Andre Kemp of Billy the Kid.

We wish Carlos the best of luck in his choice to go solo, and we say Hello to his successor Michel van Schie.

'Best of the Dutch' CD

There are only top hits on the CD's with bands like Blof, Van Dik Hout, Junkie XL, Golden Earring and many others, including, of course, Anouk.

Woodstock '99 in Europe

Never before was there such a massive and unorganized mega-concert. Joe Cocker and Jimi Hendrix made fame there. A few years back the festival was done over again for a bit, but the commercial idea was dripping all off it. So it was no success.

In spite of it all, they decided to do Woodstock over again. This time not in America, but in the European 'kakkenballen' city Vienna. In the summer of this year, from July 16 till 18 to be precise, there will be a new attempt to bring back that ultimate atmosphere from then. The "make love not war" motto stands fully central again.

Iggy Pop, Zucchero, Metallica, Skunk Anansie and Faithless are already contracted to play. And our own Anouk will be there too! But there will also be acts that performed at the '69 Woodstock festival. There are 250.000 tickets available for the festival.

Anouk Rules the Dutch Hitparades in 1998

And she is the absolute number 1 with Nobody's Wife if it comes to the number of weeks that the single was in the single-charts, not less than 40 weeks.

Also in the album-charts Anouk scores a number 1-notation over the year 1998 with Together Alone. She got the most points and had the longest notation.

As you probably already know, this is the debut-album of Anouk and is also now available in a special edition!

Convincing Start of her 'First Real' Tour

Armed with a bottle of whiskey and still with her make-up on, Anouk turns the world around in the lobby of theater Vredenburg in Utrecht and it is her who is asking the questions: "Did you like it? Really? And that acoustic performance of 'Time is a Jailer'? No? No?? Why not??? I can't stand it! I think that it's beautiful and I want you to think the same way!"

From the outside the 23-year old rocksinger has changed a bit. With a shorter, tighter hairdo she looks like a woman of the world these days. And in a certain way she is: she was, after Marco Borsato, the best selling Dutch artist of the year and ended with a big American publishing campaign success.

In a metaphorical way she fortunately didn't lose her wild hair yet. From the stories of the members of the band she comes forward as someone who is living a pretty disciplined life; tonight she really feels like performing. "You will have to drink a bit faster", she says in a reckless punishing way. But why again was she so nervous earlier this evening? "Nighttown," she replies, referring to the try out of one week ago, "I blew it there as far as I'm concerned." Pointing to a few members of the band further on: "For the first time I had the feeling that I let the boys down. Sometimes I sang too hard; then I was out of tune. At a certain moment I even forgot my text. A number that I even wrote myself!" Uncomfortable with a new monitor-system was the cause of all that trouble.

Before the premiere she was in a serious dip for that reason. For a moment she felt herself put in her place. It explains why she is so relieved about tonight's performance, where she was communicating with the audience better then ever and where she treated the 2100 excited fans with a few nice surprises. Whipping up was her version of 'Nobody's Wife', with a rap-act from the duo D.o.o.A. put in halfway. Goose bump causing was the performance of 'The Other Side of Me', like calling the musical payment with her demons. "I'm a beautiful creature - yeah that's what I am!" she sang as an encore. And you could hear the approval from the audience waving through the hall.

The audience had all the reasons to go home with a satisfied feeling. The individual qualities of the musicians that in the past were criticized are noticeably improved. It's still a shift when it comes to the making of reggae-rhythm music for the band that is used to playing rock ('It's a Shame' - that's how the song is called), but nobody can say that there is not a real band standing on stage.

"Here, have some of mine." Without waiting for a reaction, Anouk brings her almost filled glass of whiskey in balance with an almost empty glass. The artist is feeding the journalist a drink instead of the other way around. Sometimes it is not so unpleasant if the world is upside down for a while.

From the Algemeen Dagblad of Wednesday November 25, 1998 about the Bennie & Ballie tour, the performance in Vredenburg, Urecht

By Albert Kok

Concert Review: ANOUK in Vredenburg, Utrecht

At the "Bennie & Ballie Tour" (named after her cats), Anouk makes use of a decor for the first time. With two huge cat heads on the sides of the stage, a few big vases with shining tulips and the support of a simple but very effective lightshow, she keeps it modest but at the same time stylish and cozy. And hereby it must be mentioned that the location, de Grote Zaal van Vredenburg, is an exceptionally beautiful hall (experts say it's one of the most beautiful music halls of the Netherlands)... that you would associate with, for example, Pavarotti instead of a rough popconcert. In "t' Paard" even a blind horse can't do much damage but that is much different in Vredenburg... It gives evidence of lots of guts from the board to let a 'rockbitch' lose in this environment (unless they had a proper renovation in mind...)

After the standard warming up from Billy the Kid, who since our first meeting in "t' Paard", has become considerably better and less earsplitting loud, (however, that last thing was more thanks to the excellent hall strengthening and the perfect acoustics).

Then the real party begins. The shows starts with a long intro of a trumpet player who is standing in the back of the hall between the audience. (The audience is sitting on luxurious chairs covered with corduroy.)
You have to see this to believe it: ANOUK with an audience that consists of three quarters of the spectators sitting ... Even Anouk herself is, as she gets on stage, staring around with her mouth open for a little while.

Around nine o'clock the real kick-off follows. "In the Sand" is a nice number, that without any doubt will be on her new album. After that Anouk takes some time to welcome her audience. She looks around, so we notice, still a little amazed, points at two gigantic signs at the left and the right of the hall with the text "NO SMOKING" (the audience directly after entering the hall interpreted this as "NOW SMOKING") and invites the crowd with a sarcastic laugh to light another cigarette. "No smoking at my concerts? That is not going to happen!" Meanwhile, the place was looking blue from the smoke of more than two hours.

Anouk knows, as always, to create a nice atmosphere during her concert but unfortunately, there are always some insane people from behind the stand- and -dance part of the arena fighting there way to the edge of the stage. Two meter high (6ft), and weighing a hundred and fifty kilo's (300 pounds), coming in as the last person and just walking over a bunch of smaller girls. I wouldn't start a fight, for the atmospheres interest, but I really would like to give them a deathkick. And I'll be damned if it isn't true, but it will happen one of these days. These kind of "fans" succeed every time to ruin the atmosphere for other people, but fortunately Anouk is so fascinating onstage that you take this behavior for granted.

By the way, it seems like she is singing better and better every time she performs and this continuing chatter in the media about her band refers to nothing: There is nothing wrong with these guys.
Anouk has grown too big to make her the subject of ridicule or to put her down, so an experienced critic looks for someone else in her environment to take out their frustrations. So that's how it works these days in the "better journalism"...?

During the number "Time is a Jailer", the trumpeter enters the stage and joins with the two guitarists for a very special accompaniment. Anouk talks always pretty much during her performances and it's not different this time. Before she starts with the beautiful number "Sacrifice", she begins to tell in detail how her fridge and her wardrobe had profited by the proceeds of this single. She does this in a humourous way and with the necessary mock: She is and still stays this pleasant mentally deranged, uncomplicated person without self-esteem. Hähwe zau, wèffie! (Keep it up, girl!) She also discusses how the nonsense story about her operations in the gym to keep her nice body in shape plus the announcement that she tries to get away from the stripping looks of her co-sporters by putting a running-belt at home, are really all nonsense, but she brings it off very nice.

During the number "Together Alone", one of the gentlemen who was fighting his way to the stage earlier climbs onstage (to the jealousy of all the present men) to make an intimate dance with Anouk while she pinches him on his bum a few times. When he wants to go stagediving, all the girls take a spontaneous step aside and he crashes with his mouth on the floor.
Very nice, such a heavy, hard wooden floor...
A little revenge afterall...

During an extra long performance of "Nobody's Wife", suddenly two extremely good rappers come onstage who, together with Anouk, make it so that the audience is going through the roof. I hate rap but my God, these guys are really extremely good. This number done this way absolutely should be on the new cd.
Even better: Anouk, woman, forget this cd for the time being and make a live-CD first please!?! Just wait and see what that would do for your wardrobe...

After an extra long, extra cool performance of "Broken Glass" there seems to be an end to this tremendous concert, but we are not satisfied yet, so we shout and stamp. Anouk is reasonably generous: She does two encores. (although that is eight too few for me, but so it must be.) "The Other Side of Me", that was sung false by everyone and "It's a Shame". During this last number another young man climbs onstage, but this guy's behaviour is annoying and more obtrusive than the first one. Anouk doesn't like this too much and after a short time she makes it very clear to him with an annoyed voice that he should get off the stage now before she kicks him off herself.
Unfortunately, he doesn't make the same mistake as the first one: the coward jumps careful, feet down, back into the audience, but not after he got hold of Anouk's towel. It was a consolation prize because he was going for her T-shirt.

After 90 minutes it is really over and everyone goes, busy talking, searching for liquor, coats and the exit. Because of how nice and intimate it is to be squished between hundreds of people to join a concert of Anouk, you get a very dry throat, and it's very cold outside.

ANOUK: you are the greatest and we enjoyed (again) it very much. But you should come to Amsterdam sometime. There are a few decent halls to find there. And don't fear: you will get Carrè or the Concertgebouw guaranteed flat.
By the way, we are not allowed to smoke in those places and we will have to sit on plush lounge chairs, so everything will be in style anyway... Besides: Mokummers may not be Hagenezen, but they are not too bad in there best days. They will eat you at the most!

Review by: Carolien de Wit - Axel Noor

Anouk in Nighttown, Rotterdam

And the show was different too. There were more light effects. There was a trumpeter at the beginning, Arthur Flink, to turn up the exitement a bit. It lasted just a bit too long, so that it was getting boring after some time. Afterall, we came for Anouk.

But finally Anouk and the band came on stage. They started with that beautiful song "In the Sand". After that: "Fluid Conduction", "My Life", "Cry", "Mood Indigo", "Time is a Jailer" and "Sacrifice". During "Nobody's Wife" suddenly the rappers Blackstone & Stange came on. These rappers were the surprise-act at ParkPop and because of their great success they tour together with Anouk. They also did the number "The Dark" together.

Anouk also did the numbers "Together Alone" (for the first time live together with trumpeter Arthur Flink), "It's a Shame", "It's So Hard", "The Other Side of Me" and the beautiful number "Broken Glass".

This time I brought my photocamera with me again. But, everyone got checked at the entrance and had to hand in their photocameras. I was not very pleased about that. But fortunately they said at the beginning of the show that everyone could collect their photocameras at the door after the show. (...what that was all about??).