Won Ton Ton - 1988 - Home (reissue 1991) (BE)

Won Ton Ton - 1988 - Home (reissue 1991) (BE)

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Popular group powered by the charming presence of singer Bea Van Der Maat.

Won Ton Ton is the successor to the group Chow-Chow that had a short but beautiful span of new-wave attention in the years 1984-1985.

After the split, Bea had started a career on television and continues to sing in the LSP-band (a changing group of musicians that perform mainly covers). Her popularity gets the group a new record contract. In 1987 the group reforms - under the name Won Ton Ton - and release the single "I lie and I cheat".

This splendid and emotional song becomes a big hit, both in Belgium (n° 10) and in Holland (n° 13). The successors, "Hey Marlene" and the intimist "Can I come near you" fair less well.

As Oor put it "The album debut, very poorly produced by Luc Van Acker disappoints many : weak songs that lack the tension of I lie and I cheat".

The group doesn't let it's spirits drop after that, but continues to record. However, Bea Van Der Maat is only willing to give part of her attention to the band : it is shared by her television career (she makes the move to VTM and presents "Tien om te zien" - a program carrying the more commercially oriented Flemish music) and her personal life (she gives birth to two children). Perhaps it's this that prevents Won Ton Ton from going the extra mile and becoming a big group.

In 1996 Bea Van Der Maat releases a solo album with trip-hop music "Thin skinned" that gets very good reviews but sells poorly. The press on this : "After her job as a presenter of Tien om te Zien Bea Van der Maat has a hard time being taken seriously as an artist. That hurts. Rightly so, 'cause thin skinned is a more than convincing comeback for the former singer of Won Ton Ton. She is closer to Patti Smith than to Dana Winner and she feels her music is more in place on Studio Brussel than on Tien om te Zien. The question is : will she get a fair chance ?".

Why a solo record ? : "Because the songs are mine and mine alone and they had to sound the way I wanted. In Won Ton Ton I wrote part of the lyrics but didn't have an impact on the musical course. Won Ton Ton has never split. Never have I said "Okay guys, that was that, thanks, I quit". I just hadn't the time to record and give concerts when my children came."

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source The Belgian Pop & Rock Archives (link)