Biography

In 1976, Yke N. Raxola had just left Bastard (the first “continental” punk band ever, featuring “Damned” Brian James and Elton Motello) and decided to form his own new act. He has written many songs he wanted to sing personally.

What he found was Royal Flash’s bass player Louis and drummer Snikkey.

Songs personality persuaded Alain Ragheno, manager, and Firmin Michiels, producer, to sign the band. As a result, an album recorded in 1978, released by Philips which has become collectors.
Raxola went on a series of gigs and tours with The Kids, The Jam and many others. With songs such as "84 Man", "Who Do You think You Are", "Wildcat", "Wait for the War", Raxola was the first so-called "punk" band in Belgium performing real raw power engaged pop tunes. Their dark side was as much astonishing with hypnotic and evil tunes ("Thalidomide Child", "I Can Sleep")… The cocktail proved to be successful as Raxola gained great popularity throughout Belgium, France and Germany. Their public performances were much appreciated.

In the following years, Yke spent much time in England with his former bandmate Brian James, and met many new wave artists such as Ian Dury. This was going to influence his writing and Raxola’s new material, hot funky influences enlarging the punkpop basis. Too weird for Philips though: they broke up the contract.
Hard days began for Raxolians, playing hot stuff as the “cold wave” rose on. They struggled to survive as they found themselves sent off both the underground and pop circuits. No play, no pay, dire straits and bloody Belgium. That's how the band splitted.

But that was not to be the end of the story. In 1998, Raxola regained fame and international success through the "Bloody Belgium" and "Bloodstains across Belgium" series.
Yke received hundreds of encouraging e-mails and an important interview in "Maximum R'n'R". In 2001, the band performed a surprise gig in Brussels in the original line-up. Snikkey gave up quickly afterwards.

In 2002 and 2003, Yke worked hard with Louis to write new songs and check out how to restart the band. Their debut album was remasterized and re-issued on CD. 2000 copies were sold within 3 months, most in Japan!

End of 2003, Raxola recorded two news tracks in Brussels to release a single. When Louis finally decided to quit, Yke choose to finish the job in Brighton with a little help from Brian James. The single issued in april 2004. The same month, Raxola appeared as a quartet at the Brussels’ Punk Generations Sessions for its first “official” gig since 24 years. Finding hard to blow the guts with a 4 piece, the only remaining original member, Yke N. Raxola, decided to strike back to the power trio line up, with Hadrien Frank on bass and Dave Porzio on drums.

The close encounter between an ol’ punk fox and two young grunge feeded wolves has shown to be successful: they stepped into UK with Chromium Records « Unsung Heroes » compilation and are fully involved within the collective « Punk Against » project launched in may 2005 in London. Raxola is now pushing ahead new material with recording sessions scheduled for summer 2005.