History & Stories

Histories

In the year 1986... Ives Mergaerts (founder) left high school to attack 'real life'. Having started at very young age to play the organ, struggled through the typical youngster-bands, and been a roadie in the famous Belgian rock temple " Vorst Nationaal", it was time for him to combine knowledge and ideas to create the first version of the company..

The early years... of the company started off the same way like we know many stories. A house in a row in the town of Herent near Leuven, two garages and a small yard. And soon the car had to stay outside of the garage. Then the living room was turned into drums storage. The first bedroom became the keyboard room. The second bedroom became the recording studio... etc etc...

Moving to Werchter... made a first real change. The company was housed in a former garage and gas station. Car lifts were turned into rising platforms to get a second level storage platform, real gates made it possible to buy that first real truck and park on our own driveway. The former tire repair stock became the atelier for flight cases, the former bureau was turned into cable factory, and still there was space left. What a change!
This was the time that Geert, Ineke and Rui all settled down in the big house. While busy doing their own creative things as musicians or road managers, the activities in the rental and service company slightly started taking form, and created the need to expand a level.

Aarschot became the final location... after a long search. The plans for our own building, designed towards the needs of having a real storage place for the rental equipment, offices, recording studio and private areas, were taken out of the drawer again, and put into reality. While the typical delays in the construction business tried to stop us, we still moved to a new building without windows, water, heating,... On May 1st 1996, the communion party of our neighbors 'son was entertained by the last 30 vans and trucks moving equipment, and around sunset we all sat down in the middle of a big empty floor, surrounded by instruments and equipment. Rock And Roll!

The second decade of KICK... was characterized by very fast growth, lots of changes, growing of from childhood to become an adult. In the mean time all people had gone off to take other opportunities, and key person Bruno had made his entrance. Organization and structure tried to keep up with growth, and in the year 2000 the new Millennium brought us a new building next-door. The well known 'Kick Backline' was turned into ' Kick Artist Services' grouping all relevant services in music industries while Ives Mergaerts started focusing slightly more on production work. This produced companies like 'The Production Office' and 'Red tape Recording Studios' that still exist today in their own ways.

The year 2009 became the last big turning point... in the long search to refine the quality and intensity of the specific services KICK stands for. After many years of dedication it was time for Bruno to move towards another direction in life, and the banner was taken over by Martine, Karel and Ruben. Today you will find them heading a team of inspired and motivated young crew all working together to offer solutions for any kind of artistical or productional challenge in the range of the specific services KICK aps stands for.