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Biography
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I cannot remember anything other than having a bright singing-voice, of course initially trained in the church-choir where I, when I was very young, sometimes had to do solo-(soprano)performances. At twelve I was totally knocked off my feet when I heard a friend of my cousin play the Beatles-song "All my loving" at a party. I was particularly struck by the happy atmosphere it generated. I knew this was the thing I wanted to do.
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At thirteen, I bluffed to a couple of friends that I would be performing at a school fest - actually not being able to play a note on any instrument at all. To meet my bluff I bought an old jazz-guitar and worked very hard and performed another Beatles-song "You've got to hide your love away" before an audience of 600. That was the beginning of many performances in folk clubs and on student-parties with many more songs of the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Paul Simon and an increasing number of self-written songs. I did more and more prize-winning appearances on talent contests, alone or in cooperation with others.
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In the early 1970s I released two singles with my group Breeze, followed a few years later by an album with the two hit singles "Gypsy Woman" and "It's Only A Matter Of Time", with of course a number of performances at the Dutch television program TopPop. In 1978 I did the support-act in the Don McLean tour through Holland and Belgium. Now I myself was performing in those big concert-halls (a.o. Concertgebouw and De Doelen) where I always used to go and see my favorite artists. Renowned for my vocal efforts, I did guest appearances on albums of various other artists, such as The Surfers and the world famous series of Stars on 45.
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In the early 1980s, I stopped making full-time music, but kept on writing, performing and recording - which became easier and easier with the progress in digital technology. Together with a musical friend, I released an album called 412nd (for one second) by EUMETRIS in 2005.
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Another friend from the seventies approached me in early 2013 and asked me to do some performances with him. For two years we toured through The Netherlands with our program "Back to Scarabee" (Scarabee was a café-chantant from way back where we did a lot of gigs together) and during those performances I always did a series alone. I had built up such a large repertoire that it was not easy to make a choice from so many songs to fill just half an hour. This gave me the idea to do solo performances as well. Especially the new trend "home/living-room concerts" with an almost guaranteed intimacy of an always interested and listening audience was a great setting for my program "Songs That Linger".
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In 2019 we released our second EUMETRIS album. With the recording of the first album in 2003-2005 we lived only 50 kilometers apart from each other and we met weekly, in 2019 this had become 150 km and we met three times that year. With sending music files back and forth and consulting via WhatsApp, this time we recorded 15 brand new songs which ultimately resulted in the album " The Midnight Laundrette".
And then came corona ........
About 20 of my scheduled performances were cancelled. Keeping my voice in shape for a "two hour gig" unfortunately became more and more top sport for me at a certain age. That is why I decided to stop doing live performances at the end of 2021. But looking back on a repertoire of 150+ songs gathered in 60+ years, I thought it would be a shame not doing anything at all with them anymore. That's why I decided to record all the songs that are close to my heart on both audio and video. These songs are gathered on several albums and playlists on my channels on Spotify and YouTube.
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| First gig ever, Marcantie Amsterdam, 13 years old, before audiance of 600. |
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With Gijs Smit in Oneofallofus participated in several talent contests.
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| In a time frame of 2 years I did 13 weekend gigs (Fri-Sat-Sun) at Scarabee, Leiden. |
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I met Eddie van Toorenburg with whom it clicked (musically) immediately. Played in various clubs under the name Breeze and sent various tapes around. Frits Hirschland brought us to the attention of Eric Boom with his Hatafa Management. First have photos taken by Paul Huf for the press and later (together with Kayak) on the beach of Scheveningen for spreading photos. In the end we signed a record deal with Purple Eye Productions, but we first had to participate on 24-11-1972 with a talent show of Radio Noordzee presented by Tony Berk and Ferry Maat, because there they needed a winner and that winner got a record deal which we already had in our pocket. So it can go that way.
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Eric Boom produced our single Talkin 'About (released by Ariola) who spent weeks in the 'Troef 20' (tipparade) at Radio Noordzee. But yes, if Radio Noordzee wanted to work for a certain artist, you could forget it at Radio Veronica. And if Radio Veronica didn't play your record, it wouldn't be sold.
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In early 1974 our second single 'Do it i fit tickles you fancy' was released which we had to record when no one actually liked it. I didn't like Breeze anymore so before the record was released, Breeze no longer existed.
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In 1976 Breeze got back together with the third man Fred Jansen. In early 1977 we recorded the single Gypsy Woman in 'Frans Peters Studios' with the B-side Never let you down. When this single was released for not even a week, it was voted 'trotary disc' by the DJs of Hilversum 3. We went completely crazy. So much recognition was locked in this. It was difficult to keep our both feet on the ground. If we had not succeeded, we would be thrown back to the ground without mercy within a few weeks. If you are a trotary disc you will be played almost every hour of the day for a whole week. But after that week, every DJ thinks, "that record has now had its chance.". After that the record is rarely played. Especially if there is also a disaster somewhere in the world in which the Dutch are involved. As in this case, the plane crash in Tenerife. After which adapted music was played for several weeks. Understandable of course, but if you have set your sights on this single as a starting group and it ends like this for various reasons, it is difficult to understand at that time. Two weeks after the week of trotary disc it was still in the tipparade and only then entered the top 50 (Hilversum 3) and a week later in the top 40 (Veronica). Done various radio performances. 'Between twelve and two' (Hans van Willigenburg), Los vast (Dick Bicker) and a number of them, including several with only an interview (Edvard Niessink, Frits Spits, Krijn Torringa). And of course the trotary disc included Toppop, the only pop program on TV.
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In late 1977 and early 1978 we recorded the album 'It's only a matter of time', which was released in early February, along with the title track as single. The single was voted 'trotary disc' again within a week of its release'. And after declaring Gypsy Woman's trotary disc we were still in seventh heaven, this time it was only curses and rants. In this way our second single was probably also destroyed. Back on TV with Toppop and Veronica had broadcast on TV once every three weeks on Wednesday evening and then had the "choice top 5". We were also shown for a minute and you could call to indicate which 'clip' (I don't think it was called that at the time) you wanted to see completely. That became Rod Stewart's Hot Legs.
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Our record company had arranged for us to be the opening act for Don McLaen when he came for a tour to the Netherlands and Belgium. Performance in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, De Doelen in Rotterdam, De Vereniging in Nijmegen, at Philips in Eindhoven, Concertgebouw in Brussels and the theater of fine arts (or something similar) in Antwerp. After I met Loes in 1989, we figured out that she, as a big Don McLean fan, must have been there on the same evening that we performed in the concert hall in Amsterdam.
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After my move in early 1991, I gave housewarming in June of that year and immediately blessed my studio PONR'91, which I had built in my attic the months before. Because I had burned quite a few ships behind me because of my divorce and problems with my job, the name PONR'91 seemed to apply to me. PONR stands for 'Point of no return'. Spent daily (especially at night) in the studio until 1993.
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In 2003 I started our EUMETRIS project together with Hans Lamboo and in December 2005 our CD 412nd was released. Received many good and encouraging reactions, especially from the music world. But from radioland, the reactions were more conservative. The songs were often too long to be played on the radio.
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15 years later, when we both had the time to ourselves, we revived EUMETRIS through the album The Midnight Laundrette. We lived 50 km apart in 2003-2005, now it had become 150 km. Not an option to meet weekly. This album was created with the reciprocal transmission of music files and consultation via WhatsApp. The title song in particular has produced very positive reviews everywhere.
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Beaux Jardins album 'Like Everly' with The Everly Brothers songs. |
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Beaux Jardins album 'Can't Rewind' with original songs. |
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So proud of this original song 'Dream Your Fairy Tale'. |
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Beaux Jardins album 'Like McHaStLe' (McCartney, Harrison, Starkey, Lennon) with The Beatles songs. |
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Beaux Jardins album 'Like Simon' with Paul Simon (and Simon & Garfunkel) songs. |
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Beaux Jardins album "My Early Recordings (1970-2000)" with originals from a distant past. |
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Beaux Jardins album "The Dragon You Chase" with original songs. |
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