an anonymous article
22 Jun 2008 Leave a Comment
St Kobe’s Day, Year 36:
So I saw Rainbows Unescapable the other day in a venue in Amsterdam. You know, the coverband of Lianne Brantley from the 10 dB’s? It was fun enough, I suppose. She’s still enthusiastic and endearing on stage, that Lianne, and she’s good with that base guitar… never mind her singing – now she’s doing lead vocals we can suddenly notice what a lovely voice she really has. The songs were recognisable, sing-along-able. I had a pretty good time. But as I was exiting the venue, I overheard two girls saying to each other: “I liked her better when she was with the 10 dB’s. She seems so lonely on stage!”
And that was exactly what I’d felt during the concert. Oh, she’s still a stage animal. You do fall a bit in love with her when she smiles at the crowd, and she knows how to get a crowd to sing along with her… and when she cranks up the volume it’s as if we’re back in the old days. But yes, it’s not the same. This girl belongs in a band. She needs to share brilliant grins with the drummer, she needs to bounce around during riffs. She needs to high-five the guitarist after a particular intricate solo. This was just so much more subdued and low-key, that she seemed a bit of a shadow of her former self.
With the pictures of her in the media these days, walking around with two adorable toddlers and engaging in family life, one would almost wonder if mothership hasn’t changed the blond bassplayer. But then again, during the last tour of the 10 dB’s she had her eldest already, never mind the children of Stephen Leece which she had adopted years prior.
So it has to be the loneliness on stage. Thinking back, bandlife is pretty much all that we’ve seen of Lianne Brantley before. The first thing we’ve seen of her is during their breakthrough, goofing around in the video of ‘If You Wanna Play My Cover’. By that time she was already pretty much a socialite, dating Stephen Leece and partying with the bigger names in the music industry. The debut album ’10 dB’s… more!’ was a huge success, followed by the Back to Basic tour in which the band proved itself as one of the new hot things in the Modern Rock genre. We heard stories about 10 dB’s liveshows, we’ve read reviews. And finally, we got to see them live. It was a party on stage. The 10 dB’s never took themselves too seriously, and their songs were mostly about partying, about boozing it up with friends. There was the occasional lovesong in between, but the most heartbreaking ballad they ever wrote was not about a relationship woes… it was about running out of booze and having to be sober.
The rumours of a breakup were already in the air for the better part of two months when the media found pictures of Lianne crying in the back of a taxi on the way to the airport, of Isa Birnie sitting outside a jamstudio, hands on her pregnant belly and as pale as a ghost, staring into nothing, and Walter Lay behaving like an ass to anybody who dared to come too close. There had been an argument, that much was obvious. Pictures of the weeks afterwards showed all bandmembers walking around looking miserable. When the news finally came, it wasn’t a bit surprise for anybody… sad however it was. The 10 dB’s was a lovely uncomplicated party band, with music to enjoy and gigs to rock out at, the likes of which you don’t see all that often anymore. What they did, they did really well.
And these days the band’s all but split up. Walter Lay is a busy CEO and teacher in Los Angeles these days. Daniel Flood and Laura Pelletier are making quite the name for themselves in the Country & Western scene with their Bridgeburners project. I don’t know if you’re into that kind of music, but they’re doing some pretty interesting stuff. When they were said they were ‘looking into something new’ they sure as hell weren’t kidding.
Isa Birnie has formed a metal band with a few other well-known metalheads (including her husband and Derrick Watson), and Lya van der Meer (from Summer and, more recently: Showroom). They’re currently songwriting and jamming, and pretty much gearing up to rock the metal scene. Leadsinger Forest Wilson seems to have faded into anonymity – there are pictures of him in grocery stores in Amsterdam, but nobody knows what it is that he’s doing exactly these days. It would be an eternal waste for a angelic voice like his to disappear from stage completely, but that’s exactly what is happening.And as for Lianne; we all know what the plan is. She’s planning to join up with her boyfriend’s band, Rebel Justice, one of these days. It’ll be interesting to see her pick up the bass guitar that was lost with Darlene Votruba. When asked if she was going to be Votruba’s replacement in more ways then one, Lianne is on record commenting: “I’ll bring the bass back to Rebel Justice because I happen to be pretty good with a bass. But I bring my own sound, my own songs and interpretations. The comparison with Darlene Votruba is getting really old, to be honest. I’ve been hearing this since Stephen and I started dating… and this was a musical decision as much as a personal one. Yes, it will be great to have the family reunited under one band, but we do it for the music.”
Lianne has a long history with Rebel Justice. She met up with Stephen Leece because she asked for an autograph, as a fan. He gave her a t-shirt instead, and signed a cd afterwards. They reportedly had a good chat – as we all know Rebel X is good with the girls – and kept in touch. And during one of those phonecalls there was suddenly a spark. Through Stephen Lianne met and befriended Jean van de Pol and Anna Morgansson. She produced a few of their songs in the studio and played along on a track, but as often as she could she was in the crowd during their concerts as well. It was a fangirl’s dream when she was asked to join up with them, in the wake of the end of her own band.
“It’ll take some getting used to,” she laughed when a reporter inquired her about it. “Rebel Justice is a completely different way of making music than the partycrap that I’m used to. I’ve always seen them as much more talented and professional than my own band… so it felt like an honour to be invited to join. But yeah, it’s going to be wildly different. It’s a good thing I know all their songs by heart like a true fangirl.”
Oh, we don’t doubt that Lianne will make herself at home within Rebel Justice. She was practically furniture already anyway. I think it will be good for her to have a band again to play with. Even though her rainbow act is pretty amusing, the fact that she invites her friends to play on stage with her as often as possible (most notably Isa Birnie, Clayton Hilliard and Lya van der Meer) is a definite sign on the wall.
Give this girl a band. She’s lonely!
But next time she’s in Amsterdam, I’m going to see her show again anyway.
