Genk/Heusden-Zolder –
Regi lost his heart to a man from Genk, but his love for music was also nurtured in the mining town. In James the musical, the producer from Heusden-Zolder looks back on his time at the Genk computer club. “Without that club I probably would never have done what I do now.”
His parents wanted to call him Regi, but a clerk at the registry office changed him to Reginald. He has never heard the sentence ‘Where are those hands?’ outspoken and when he flies, he always wants to sit in seat 1A. These are just a few facts about Regi Penxten that are discussed in the musical that James Cooke has put together about him. A musical in which his Milk Inc companion Filip Vandueren, friend and colleague Jaap Reesema, Pauline Slangen and fiancée Kristel Hubeny should not be missing.
© Thomas Geuens
Magical things
But James Cooke starts in Genk, where it all really started for Regi on a musical level. He knew from a very young age that he wanted to make music and be on stage. While he was putting together his own studio at home in Heusden-Zolder, he wanted to gather as much information as possible together with his classmate and friend Filip Vandueren. “It was a combination of real instruments and technology. At that time, no one was connecting computers to synthesizers, at least not at our age. Once we realized that these two work together and you can do magical things with them, a whole world opened up for us.”
© Thomas Geuens
And so the two ended up in the Atari Computer Club in Genk in 1988. As young guys among all the “old men”. James ensures a happy reunion in the NT Ghent between Regi and two of those men who are now slightly older. “All my youth is coming back,” he exclaims when he sees Frans and Erno, the club’s founders. “At that time we all had Atari’s (American brand of arcade games, game consoles and home computers, ed.). There was no internet yet, so the only way to exchange information was to get together or read books. Getting together was the cheapest option,” Erno laughs. “That’s how the club came into existence and everyone was welcome,” says Frans about the meetings in Genk’s town hall.
© Thomas Geuens
Illegal
“Without that computer club I would probably never have done what I do now. That was one of the building blocks,” Regi reveals. Just as he admits that not everything was legal in that club. “I couldn’t possibly afford the software I needed to make my very first record at that age. That was a very expensive program. Let’s just say there was someone in the club who could help me with a copy of that program,” he laughs.
© Thomas Geuens
Enough material for a first musical scene full of floppy disks, computers and neck tapestry to the sounds of Smooth criminal by Michael Jackson. After the Genk town hall, there will also be singing and dancing in Regi’s room, his second home the Sportpaleis and on the plane to South Africa.
James the musical: Regi, 9.15 pm on Play4 and GoPlay
2024-02-08 19:13:07
#started #Regi #Genk #town #hall #club
