Tom Barman & Stef Kamil Carlens were among the invited friends. How did the evening go ?

Arno and his musicians started playing at 8.30, when I started recording. They played a few Arno songs, and then Liège-based hiphop combo Starflam did two songs, the first one with Arno, and the second song was their hit single Ce Plat Pays (which I really like).

Arno introduced Stef as "a great entertainer" : he brilliantly covered two songs by Bruce Springsteen, singing and playing the guitar with Arno's musicians. Axelle Red was the next guest, she sang Que Pasa and, well, she can't really compete with Arno's energy ... After which another female singer was introduced : a black American called Reggie, who sang with Indeep and later with Technotronic in the early 90's. Too bad you were not there to see how she was (un)dressed. Arno was obviously charmed :) She sang something I didn't know.

Then came Tom's turn (a very important character in our music, Arno said). Here came a surprise : I expected Tom to sing I'm Not Myself with Arno & Stef. Instead, we had two reggae songs and a disco cover, all with Reggie ! The first one was Bob Marley's War, and I must say hearing Tom on a reggae rhythm is a wonderful experience. He sang along on Cold Sweat and came back again on Indeep's Last Night The DJ Saved My Life, on which Arno also eructated (Arno tended to vanish when his friends were on stage). Of course, I ran out of MiniDisc space while Tom was on stage, but he wasn't singing when I changed discs.

The other guests were Stephan Eicher and a woman from Morocco. Wasn't impressed by Eicher, unfortunately. But the Moroccan singer was great, she sang on Elle adore le noir.

All in all, this was a very satisfying evening. Arno still rocks, perhaps even more than ever. I can't say, I was only 4 when he became a rock star ;)