The George Lite Zone

For what it's worth, and before the chimes of Big Ben toll in the New Year, here are my top 12 albums of 2010. 1. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs I first came across Canada's Arcade Fire when I saw the video of Rebellion from their debut album funeral. The Suburbs is a work of genius, hence it hitting the number one spot in my list of the year. 2. John Grant - Queen Of Denmark I saw John at Botanique this year and he was amazing. I defy anyone to find a more beautiful song than Marz and others like Where Dreams Go To Die make this a stunning solo debut. It was a close call between this and Arcade Fire as to which was my favourite disk of 2010. 3. The Young Gods - Everybody Knows On to Switzerland for number 3 and a band that I'd not heard before. A potent cocktail of post-industrial electronica and balls to the wall rock liberally spiced with sound samples, they will take your head for a spin and park it on the dark side of the moon. Thanks Maj for the...

Gentleman Of Verona were amazing tonight. One of the best Belgian bands I've heard for years. Come to think of it, one of the best bands, I've had the pleasure to hear, period. High octane music delivered with cruise missile precision, by a band who were tight as a kangeroo's khyber, and a female vocalist who kicked ass bigtime. Reminiscent of L7, Hole early Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs and Susie And The Banshees this is a band to watch out for in the future. Their new album Brutally Honest is out now on CD and, to be brutally honest, it's bloody brilliant. Their first album, the eponymous Gentlemen Of Verona , is available for download from iTunes and is also of a very high quality. If you like good music, buy them!

John Grant's The Queen Of Denmark is an extraordinary work, melding Grant's wonderful voice and tinkling piano with sublime backing from Midlake. Chicken Bones, Sigourney Weaver, Marz, this has to be one of the finest debut's I've ever heard. Lyrically exceptional, sonically awesome, buy it!!!

So, the Vatican's response to a recent Foreign Office memo regarding his visit is "One has to question whether the action taken is enough.". Is that the same pope who, when a cardinal heading the Vatican office dealing with sex abuses, did not respond to letters from an archbishop regarding a case of a priest thought to have abused some 200 deaf boys? Yes, one has to question whether the action taken was enough. The memo suggested that the pope should officiate over a gay wedding. As Benedict, has stated in the past that homosexuality is an intrinsic moral evil , that would show a tolerance for other people's beliefs which would be commendable. As to the idea of a Benedict condom, brilliant idea, they should ship them to Africa where thousands die of AIDS each year, following the churches misplaced guidelines on birth control. Benedict XVI was heavily criticised after saying that condoms "aggravate" the spread of the disease. Britain's leading medical jo...

Go Nige! Bitch Song launch party at Churchill's bar in Brussels on Sunday May 2nd. Buy one as a present for next Valentine's Day. The Bitch Song and other great Belgian music videos can be seen at Ming's favourite website, Music Brussels . To quote the great Arno, if you go there you'll be "Dancing in the streets of Belgium, Brussels where they eat sprouts, and raw mussels.".

Check out Together Magazine 's interview with Music Brussels. Hard rock, the classiest of rock. Music Brussels, the classiest of music websites. Churchill's, the classiest of bars. Put them all together and you've got class in a glass. Cheers!

Thanks to all you Satan worshiping goat lovers out there who voted for the Narcotic Daffodils in the race for the palace. I'm happy to announce that after a play off today at KultuurKaffee they were chosen along with 2 other Brussels bands, Five Easy Days and OPMOC , to grace the Place des Palais near the Royal Palace on May the 7th!!! It's just as well they won mind, if they hadn't then someone would have had to deal with Nursie from Dr Poembak. The Narcotic Daffodils, space rock fit for a king.

Vote for the Daffodils or the goat gets it! The Narcotic Daffodils, cool for cats, hot as hell for goats.

Now how did those lyrics go again... oh yes I remember "Vote for the Narcotic Daffodils, a better remedy than those blue and white pills, Mr Jacky will cure your ills...". Vote Daffodils, they're just what the doctor ordered to take those winter blues away. Nice gig tonight by the way Scotty & David, the Benito band were awesome again tonight, bloody surreal, but awesome. Thanks for the CD Simon. Listening to it now as I type, cracking stuff, just the sort of songs to grace the palace. I look forward to your album when you release it. Anyone who doesn't vote for you guys should track 6 !

It looks like it could be very popular with the ladies too.

I'm sure they meant "Vote for The Narcotic Daffodils". Don't be a number, vote for the Daffodils!

Photo by Gilles Van Eylen The race to become the play at la Nuit des Lumières outside Place des Palais is heating up. Go to the Nuit Des Lumieres website and vote The Narcotic Daffodils . You know it makes sense! Let's take Mr Jacky to the palace.

Last night, not for the first time in Brussels, I was in a bit of a quandary. Did I go to Beurskafee to see two post rock bands, Belgiums own Cecilia::Eyes and Alkalys from France, or stay in Churchills to listen to the excellent Men In Blue ? On the principal that I'd probably not get the chance to see Alkalys in the foreseeable future, I opted for the former and headed down to Beurs and the Beurskafee. First off, the Beurskafee venue. I must have walked past it hundreds of times and not known it existed, delving into it's murky heart I was mightily impressed. The cavern like quality of its interior has a superb atmosphere and is ideal for gigs. Spacious, but not overly so, and oozes character from every brick. Little touches like the letters WC projected onto the wall on the steps down to the bog, that's bathroom to you Americans out there, and a ladder ascending into the ceiling behind the bar make it feel like a piece of installation art. I didn't see it, but there...

I've not forgotten this blog posting. I just want to do this great night justice.

Check out the full video to My TV Is Dead 's great track Love In Stereo. They lit up the stage at the music Brussels Opening Party and their new album, Freedomatic, is superb. Love it !!! On the subject of cool videos, here's a trailer for the new Slash album due out next month. Aided and abbetted by such rock luminaries as Dave Grohl, Ozzie Osbourne and Lemmy, it looks like it going to rock big time. I can't wait.

Last Tuesday night I was in Bonnefooi bar when I bumped into Madensuyu 's friendly neighborhood sound engineer and pole dancing panda, Tom. "Hey shouldn't you be out in South America with the band?", I asked, to which he replied with a nod in the direction of a chair in which sat the aforementioned bands lead singer and guitarist, Pieterjan Vervondel. Doh! Yet again my powers of observation, and spidey senses, had failed me. Speaking to the guitar maestro, I was told that The Brasilian tour was amazing, with the footage I'd seen of St Paulo typical of the reception they'd received. Tens of thousands of partying South Americans sambaing to the primal rythm of Ghent's greatest export. Now that's mind boggling. I then asked about the prospects for a new album after their outstanding previous release. "D is Done was a deep album, a dark album." I was told, "The next will be deeper, darker.". When will it be released? I asked to which ...

For fans of Taiwan's finest metal band, Chthonic , there's a feature on their bass player and backing vocalist, the delightful Doris Yeh, in the March edition of Neo magazine. I think I'll give it a read while firing up Pandemonium and Mirror Of Retribution on my Sonos box. Also worthy of note on the magazine front is this months edition of Classic Rock which features a CD of collaborations between various rock luminaries including Tony Iommi , Keith Richards , Billy Gibbons and rock god and Bass Assasin Number 1, Lemmy . While on the subject of Classic Rock, the magazines website is currently streaming Aussie rockers Airborne's new album, No Guts. No Glory , in its entirety. I seem to recollect a certain Mr Kiliminster featuring in the video of Running Wild from their first album, I wonder if he'll put in an appearance for their new one?

If you haven't heard it already check out the BBC radio Torchwood episode, Lost Souls , courtesy of BBC's iPlayer. Martha Jones is working on the large Hadron Collider at CERN, and something strange is happening prior to the big turn on. Is Captain Jack about to encounter one black hole too many?

George Lite Zone favourites Madensuyu, in the land of Pelé, playing Lost Jimmy's favourite D Is Done song . Fafafafuckin' awesome!!!

Time to ramp it up at the Music Brussels party, with a bit of glam punk attitude. The Vogues come on like a band that should have been in at least one Austin Powers movie, with 60's sensibilities and a spiritual home of London. Gor' blimey guvnor! They quote their influences as being The Beatles , The Stones , The Kinks , The Stone Roses , Blur , Oasis , Suede and The Strokes which is OK by me. This cocky Belgian five piece consist of Fab on vocals plus the fab four of Nico and Ian on guitar, Guillaume on bass and Denis on drums. Fab comes across like a Belgian Mick Jagger, all swagger and attitude, just what you want for fronting The Vogues. The bands first EP, Fall/Winter 10 is out now and contains the killer track Sunglasses . I'm sure that copies will be available at saturday's MB party. You can here this and another four tracks on the bands Facebook page . Give them a spin. So put on your union jack underpants, come on down to Churchill's bar on saturday ...

Question How do you follow an act like Garner ? Answer With a band guaranteed to rock and bring the house down. That's dIPLOMAT that is. I first came across the band listening to the track Last Disco Bitch , which is the opening track on their cunningly titled album, The Diplomat . Unable to get it's catchy tune out of my head and driving rhythm, I was impelled to buy a copy of the aforementioned CD which proved to be equally memorable. The band were formed by guitarist/vocalist Fabrice Dubard and bass monster Sophie Chiarmonte in 2005. Throw in Pascal Storme who beats the crap out of his skins and you've got a storming group ( cue sound of thunder ) who know how to rock. I met the band briefly in a bar in Brussels a couple of months back, while listening in on an interview with them, and a nicer bunch of people you couldn't hope to meet. Mild, mannered Sophie's transformation into the bass playing rock goddess at the heart of the band is one of the wonders of...

I first encountered Garner's Niko Rambaud and Laurent Stelleman playing in a band with no name, in a bar with no name just off Brussels' Grand Place. Asked by MB's own Suki Jenkins to take some pictures of the gig and forgoing the night's Champions League football, I sat enthralled by an amazing voice chased down by a couple of Barbars. The Band With No Name rattled through a set of bar room standards that night and whetted my apetite for their other band, the illustrious Garner. The third member of the band is the renowned rock drummer Didier Fontaine who includes on his impressive CV the likes of David Byrne and Deus . Saturday's MB party sees the launch of the bands first album, and I've been giving a preview copy a spin for the last week. The overriding impression I've got is that Niko has a fantastic voice, he started voice training from the age of four, and it shows check, out this video of This Is How I Used To Live to get a taste of it. Garner a...