FUEL

FUEL was a band from Herentals, in the province of Antwerp. They were around in the early to mid 1980’s and their first line-up comprised of Peeke (vocals), Jan Van Springel (guitar), Jan Wouters (bass) and Marco Van Houdt (drums). When vocalist Peeke left FUEL, drummer Marco switched to vocals and became the band’s frontman. As a result, ORACLE drummer Luc Van Roy became FUEL’s drummer for a while as well.

Although FUEL never released anything properly, the band did compose original material. On March 23rd 1984 FUEL were the opening band for ORACLE and TAILS BLUE at the Shock festival, which was held at the Polyvalente Zaal in Voortkapel. In fact, FUEL’s live performances were always a mixture of own tunes and covers. One of those covers being SAXON’s Princess Of The Night.

During the Spring of 1984 vocalist Marco Van Houdt joined ORACLE, and FUEL fell apart as a result. Bassist Jan Wouters (then on guitar though, as he was a gifted guitarist as well) was one of the instigators of BOOGIE CLOWNS, one of the many sidekick (cover) bands of TAILS BLUE. Eventually Jan was asked to join (once again as guitarist) country band STAMPEDE STRINGS later on in the 1990’s, in which he teamed up with Luc Van Roy and Jan Boogaerts (both ex CEMETERY, ORACLE, WICKED MAIDS ) again. Together with Luc and Jan Van Dessel (TAILS BLUE) and Wim Wouters (CEMETERY, ORACLE, TAILS BLUE), Marco Van Houdt and Jan Wouters (still on guitar) were also part of a Classic Rock band named BITTER SWEET in the mid 1990’s. BITTER SWEET never recorded a thing and only played live once, at the Crossroads Café in Olen. Guitarist Jan Van Springel was one of the instigators of BOOGIE CLOWNS as well. Jan would join KILLER later on as well, and record the Fatal Attraction LP/CD (released in 1990 on Mausoleum Records) with them. This KILLER line-up was rather shortlived though, and I have no clue as to what Jan did afterwards. Neither do I have a clue as to what happened to vocalist Peeke after he had left FUEL.