The Flat Earth Society
The Flat Earth Society is the group that made Big Band music 'hip' again. They simply take the music not-so-serious, but without making a joke of it, much in the same way as El Tattoo del Tigre does with mambo music. The FES is serious about its music, but mingles it with all kinds of influences and plays with it.
The driving force behind the Society is Peter Vermeersch, who plays the clarinet and composes or arranges most of the music.
 The first Flat Earth Society
There used to be another Flat Earth Society music band, in the early nineties, consisting of Peter Vermeersch and two (English) musicians, Gene Velocette and Louis Colan. They did a few gigs but never released anything. Later on, Gene and Louis joined Xero Slingsby to form Xero Slingsby and The Works, a jazz band from Leeds. They have a very small website here.
The new Flat Earth Society
The earliest gig of the 'new' Flat Earth Society happened in 1997 for Oorsmeer, a music festival for children, where they performed with a group of circus artists from De Circusplaneet.
In 1999, the Radio 1 programme Levende Lijven asked them to perform at one of their programmes. The producers liked the show so much that they released it as a cd: Live at the Beursschouwburg. In june 2001 they reappeared on Radio 1 for the last episode of the Levende Lijven programme. This concert, with actor Wim Opbrouck co-starring as a singer, was broadcast live but not released.
Wim Opbrouck performing with the Flat Earth Society
for the Radio 1 show Levende Lijve in 2000.
Around the same time they also had a few live gigs in and around Belgium, performing covers and compositions by Peter Vermeersch and other members. Some of these were released in 2001 on Bonk. A second set appears on the 2002 cd Trap.
Between these 'normal' live concerts, the Flat Earth Society also appeared in Josse De Pauws theatre play Larf and on the soundtrack for the Dutch children movie Minoes.
During the year 2002, the Flat Earth Society was the house band of Brugge2002/Bruges2002, where they participated in the Benenwerk (Legwork) project, turning the centre of the city of Bruges into a large ballroom.
In august of 2002 the Flat Earth Society premiered the Louis Armstrong project at the last night of the free festival Boterhammen in de Stad. This project will be continued later in 2003.
The future...
In 2003 Flat Earth Society will focus on performances of Peter Vermeersch' new opera Heliogabal, written for the Ruhr Triennale. They will also tour with the project "The Armstrong Mutations" which will be recorded and released later in 2003.
Members
The Flat Earth Society is probably the largest band in the scene, with 17 members. Being such a large band, it isn't always easy to get everybody together to rehearse, perform or record, especially because all members are also active in other bands. This also leads to several changes over the years, so forgive me if I forget anyone.
Photograph: Jerôme de Perlighi
Discography
- They also appeared in A Group's song Porque Te Vas.
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