Vermandere can look back on a richly filled career on stage. In 1968, following he had first gone to the monastery for a few years and had been a teacher, he came with a first record: ‘Liedjes van de Westhoek’. These were the heydays of cabaret and folk.
He travelled through Flanders and the Netherlands with a group of musicians, his ‘henchmen’, who hardly changed over the years: Freddy Desmedt (clarinet, saxophone and harmonica), Pol Depoorter (guitar and mandolin) and Bart Caron (double bass). Together they gave typical concerts with songs and ‘stories’, the stories that Vermandere dug up in between.
Vermandere’s (song)texts are regarding the Westhoek, the war and daily life, but also regarding solidarity and diversity. Sometimes Vermandere also brought instrumental music, with his bass clarinet for example. When he sang, he almost always did so in his mother tongue: West Flemish. In total, Vermandere has released more than 30 records.
“His timbre is very unique,” Bart Caron says regarding Vermandere’s music. “He didn’t care regarding fashions and developments in the music world, and yet his songs remain topical. They have an eternal value. When he sings ‘Duizend soldaaten’ today, it’s not just regarding the war in the Westhoek, but also regarding Gaza and Ukraine.”
