Danceobit: Ann Vervoort

Ann Vervoort, the graphic designer and dancer who spent two years as theoretical vocalist for Belgian dance collective Milk Inc has been found dead at her home in Houthalen-Helchteren.

Vervoort was more of a front person for Milk Inc - her vocals on record are widely accepted to have been recorded by Karine Boelaerts; Vervoort was a presence for live appearances. In 2000, she quit the band when she moved to Ibiza and founded Beni Musa Records with her then-boyfriend Pat Krimson.

She returned to Belgium in the middle of the last decade. Reports say Ann had developed a dependency on painkillers after an accident at work and the Belgian press have claimed that alcohol and drugs were involved in her death. Ann Vervoort was 33.

Here's Ann performing with the band at VRT Summer in 1999:

Mercy me, it's Murphy free

Roisin Murphy is playing Brussels tonight; if you can't make it - or won't, or maybe you're just banned from Belguim entirely - her website will be streaming the whole thing for free.

Tarantulla quits web

Belgian based indie mail-order company TarantullaShop is calling it a day:

Dear friends and customers, it is with great regret that we have to announce that TarantullaShop has stopped trading.

New opportunities came along, both on a personal and a professional level which have made us decide that it is time to move on.

We have always tried to deliver the best service for our customers and have always put them first from day one. Although we surely hope that our customers have shared in that positive experience, we are sorry that we are currently no longer able to continue.

No worries though: all ongoing and paid-for orders will be delivered, as from Wednesday 16th of July. (Shipping starts up again on that date, after this weeks' holiday.)

Anyway, all orders that can not be fulfilled, ultimately by the end of July, will be cancelled and refunded.

We apologise for any inconvenience this will cause.

It sounds more like a positive lets-move-on rather than a we've-got-to-stop, which is at least a nice thought as the world loses another small record concern.

SideLine sidelined

PVC and Depeche Mode obsessed Belgian Goth magazine SideLine is dropping its printed edition, following owner Seba Dolimont's heart attack at the end of last year.

The magazine, which had sales of 6000, has been running since 1989, and intends to continue as an online title (don't they all?):

Dolimont says:

"My body has sent me a sign, I can no longer remain a 'super-busy bee' for years any more. So I am forced to make choices in my activities for my health's sake. Music is my sole 'mega' passion, no doubt, but I also have a very demanding full time job with huge responsibilities, a family life with two young sons and I am running a record label next to it all. (...)"

"I consider Side-Line as a baby, and selling it to some stranger or leaving it in other hands is not an option for me. So after a long talk with the 2 chief editors who have been running the mag for the last 7 years, we decided to cancel printing the magazine, and only focus our information duties on www.side-line.com and expand its content in the near future."

The editor, Bernard Van Isacker, reckons that "twenty times" as many readers see the magazine online as in the printed version, which doesn't strike us as an especially large number. And, as he observes:

"also internet offers more flexibility and faster information dispatching."

Which you can't really argue with. We've a soft spot for SideLine, and wish it well in its new incarnation.

Mika: free to travel to Belguim

The ongoing dispute between an act who has been called Mika for twenty-five years and the pop act Mika has had a day in court: The original Mika has failed to get "Grace Kelly" Mika banned from going to Belguim.

Victoria Newton sees this as some sort of moral victory:

Reggae Mika remains adamant that the other Mika should change his name.

She said: “I am not suing him for any money, but for the principle and my name.

“I had it registered in 1983. He is ruining my career.”

I think she’s taking the Mik.

While our Mika — real name Mica Penniman — is a worldwide star, she’s not even a household name in her own country.

Interesting approach to intellectual property from Newton, there: apparently it doesn't matter if you've registered a trademark, what's important is how effective the person infringing your copyright has been. Presumably she'd have been on the side of Goliath, too, on grounds that he was so much taller.

More Eurovision trouble

This year's Eurovision Song Contest has got itself all sticky and messy again, with the Belgian security services outing their contestant Soetkin Collier as a former neo-Nazi sympathiser. The band she sings with - Urban Trad - have, rather oddly, removed the forum from their website, but they promise they're "Shaking up celtic music." Certainly.