Midnight Love
Marvin Gaye, Casino, Oostende, Belgium, 04/07/ Getty Images Ostend looked half empty and haunted, but my view of the city was slightly tainted because I knew a lot of its turn-of-the-century architecture was funded by King Leopold II, who loved to holiday here. Six thousand one hundred and five kilometres lie between Washington DC and Ostend. The Atlantic Ocean and a cultural chasm separate the urban slum where Motown icon Marvin Gaye grew up from this quaint fishing port and former pleasure resort of the Belgian royals. The Healing Years
The Atlantic Ocean and a cultural chasm separate the urban slum where Motown icon Marvin Gaye grew up from this quaint fishing port and former pleasure resort of the Belgian royals. Both of these were crossed when the singer made the journey from America to Belgium in February What was he looking for?. Even the Belgians I spoke to gave me strange looks. Why would anyone go out of their way to visit the faded Flanders seaside town of Ostend? Marvin Gaye
But now the BBC can disclose the intriguing possibility that Marvin may have recorded previously unheard new music in the same period, which has lain hidden in Belgium for more than forty years. Arrive at Ostende's grand 19th-century railway station and you'll be greeted by a sign advertising day trips to Ramsgate. For me, that billboard immediately robs the city of any mystique. 
How A Belgian Coastal Town Drove The Comeback Of Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye was addicted to drugs and in debt when he moved to Ostend. He cleaned up and wrote hit song Sexual Healing during his 18 months there. The Belgian town is celebrating the star with a. Marvin Gaye moved to Belgium in , where he recovered from a cocaine addiction and later recorded Sexual Healing. For the last 40 years Marvin Gaye has enjoyed a level of enduring fame which he shares with only a handful of other artists - like Elvis, or the Beatles.
How Ostend, Belgium almost rescued Marvin Gaye from tragedy
Not many people know that, 30 years ago, Marvin Gaye lived in Belgium while recovering from depression and his addiction to pretty much most things. Sexual Healing himself. When a fractured Marvin Gaye arrived by ferry in the sleepy coastal town of Ostend one winter day in , the soul legend was battling a cocaine addiction and teetering on the edge of financial ruin. 
Marvin Gaye
“I’m searching for the ghost of Marvin Gaye” I would tell people, wondering what excuse Marvin himself gave to his LA in-crowd friends, when, on a wintry day in , he found himself on a ferry leaving Dover to cross the English Channel to live in Belgium. .
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Twenty years ago, a Belgian coastal resort became the unlikely residency of one of the world’s greatest soul singers. Jeremy Duns went searching for the spirit of Marvin Gaye Embed from Getty Images see more Marvin Gaye, Casino, Oostende, Belgium, 04/07/ (Photo by Gie Knaeps/Getty Images). .
The Belgian town that inspired Marvin Gaye
MARVIN GAYE IN BELGIUM A collection of clothes, musical tapes & documents, that belonged to Marvin Gaye. He gave it to the family Mestdagh when he left their house where he lived for 6 months in It was the place where he created new songs and rehearsed with his band when living in Belgium. .