t the end of '95, I did my first surf on the net. A music lover for many years, I'd always find myself going through some kind of Heavy Metal site. In the spring of the following year, I got my computer scientist diploma but we only had taken a peek of what Internet was all about. Considering that, I decided to subscribe to the net and learn its language being the HTML. Building a Web site, I wanted to talk about something I love and something that would be useful to someone. The band Hanker immediately came to mind considering that they didn't have a Web site and that these guys live in Quebec as I do. Therefore, I sent a letter to the band explaining my project. Quite frankly, I thought that I had no more than a 20% chance for an answer. But no more than a week later, I got a call from Patrick telling me that the band was thrilled by the idea. «The Official HANKER Web Site» was net-born June 19, 1996. I immediately saw the enthusiasm surrounding the band receiving e-mail from all over the world particularly from Quebec (not much of a surprise there) , Brazil, Greece and of course, good ol' Metal land Germany!

I became a Hanker fan when I first saw the band in 1994. I was immediately taken by their energetic yet melodic music influenced by Metal bands of the 80's. Furthermore, I like the band's lyrics which are about the terrible problems of our society; but they finish with a message of hope. I was impressed to see fans singing along with the band's songs especially Staring At The Rain. Those fans knew all the lyrics! After the show, I went to see Pascal to congratulate him and to buy the In Our World CD. Unfortunately, it was not available at the time. Two months later, I finally went to my music store to get my hands on the CD. I was stunned that Hanker was not signed by any music label and could not understand why. Fortunately, some months later, the band was signed. This was the long awaited reward for more than 10 years of hard work without any musical compromise! They're now signed in Canada with Skyscraper Music.

Since I've put the Hanker Web site together, I have met the band many times. I can assure you that these musicians are really nice guys and, that they are as down-to-earth as it gets! They came to our rehearsal room (yes, we too, used to play music and we made covers of Staring At The Rain, Holy Screen and On The Verge Of Tears) and we jammed until early in the morning! We had the chance to see them jam at their rehearsal room, we also heard The Dead Ringer, Snakes And Ladders and Web Of Faith albums in sneak preview and they invited us to their own home!!!

Speaking as a big fan of Hanker, I really consider that the time and effort we have put on this Web site have been given back to us WIDELY by these great musicians!

Long live Hanker!

Pierre Bégin