Irish Coffee - Live Rockpalast 2005 (2008)

IRISH COFFEE officially started in 1970, originating from another band called "The VooDoo". In the beginning they played only covers from British & American bands, such as Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, The Who , The Kinks etc... For more than a year they rehearsed and played in a club near Aalst, Belgium, called "El Gringo". That's where they put their act together, and were they were loved by so many. Also Louis de Vries (manager of The Pebbles and Middle o/t Road), who one day visited the place, was immediately convinced that this was a unique band. He contracted the boys and asked them to write a new song. So they wrote "Masterpiece" & "The Show", they changed their name, and "Irish Coffee " was born. He presented the single at MIDEM (a music fair in Cannes) and there was a lot of interest, also from American side. They wanted to release the band in America but then they would have to make an album. The boys worked hard and after a few weeks they had enough songs to record. They went to Antwerp to a small 8-Track studio and put their work on tape in 4 days. "Masterpiece" became a small hit in some European countries, as did the album, but unfortunately in America they never released any of them. Nowadays it has become become one of the most collected albums of the 70s, around the world. Not only the album, but even songs like "A day like today" or "The beginning or the end" are most surprisingly very wanted collectors' items. Irish Coffee did a lot of live-gigs those days and were a support-act for bands like : Focus, Dr.Feelgood, Yes, ChrisFarlowe and many others. They made also some appearences on TV shows in Belgium and France with Jacques Dutronc & Golden Earring. Someone wrote : "This was one of the best hard rock groups to ever come out of Belgium". Unfortunately, due to several reasons, the band split-up in 1975.
Album Picture30 years later, in 2005 to our surprise there was a comeback at a Rockpalast gig in December 2005. From the old personell there are still 2 musicians on stage : William Souffreau, the main songwriter and singer and Luc de Clus, the genious Solo-Guitarrist. This music is timeless and the three other younger musicians don't let you think that this is an Oldie event; we listen to modern rock that has it's roots deep in the seventies - from the altogether 14 tracks 8 tracks have been released in the seventies on singles and on the one and only LP. It was a fantastic Rockpalast gig that was aired from German Television WDR in January 2006 for half an hour.
SECOND BATTLE now releases as a limited 1000 copies edition both on CD and DoLP the whole concert that lasts for almost 64 minutes. The recordings have been especially remastered once again for CD and vinyl and have now a much better "Power-sound" and will bring to smile all rockfans that like early seventies rock to listen to in top quality.