"Great lightshow" - Kayak and Queen in 1974

 

On 8 december 1974, British rockband Queen -my alltime favourite band, by the way- played at the Congresgebouw in The Hague, Holland. Kayak were support act (although some people say it was in fact a 'combi-concert', organised by EMI Records).

Queen were a relatively new band at the time. Like Kayak, their first album was released in 1973. At the end of 1974 they had just had their first European hit with "Killer Queen". Of course, later Queen became one of the biggest bands of all time. But at the The Hague concert in 1974, probably more people were there for Kayak, and not so much for Queen...

The members of Kayak don't really have special memories of this gig, although Max Werner does remember getting some 'presentation-tips' from Freddie Mercury, and Johan Slager seems to recall that Queen-guitarist Brian May watched part of the Kayak show backstage, and complimented Kayak afterwards. Ton Scherpenzeel mainly remembers Queen playing 'loud and not quite subtle'...

Ton also remembers that he had a very short talk with Queen's drummer Roger Taylor after the show. When Roger asked Ton what he thought of Queen's performance, Ton -not too impressed by the concert-  could only say 'Great lightshow'. End of conversation...

(the photo shows Johan Slager in action at that concert, with Queen monitors in front of him)

Road manager at the time was Hans Kloes. He recalls a bit of commotion about Kayak using Queen's PA or not. In the end, Kayak played with their own equipment, and they were quite satisfied with the sound.

Ton Scherpenzeel Solo Albums

As a solo-artist, Ton Scherpenzeel made 3 albums. The first one was "Le Carnaval Des Animaux", in 1978. This was an adaption of the famous classical piece by Camille Saint-Saëns. On this album he was assisted by (amongst others) Theo de Jong on bass and Max Werner on drums. The original LP was released by Ariola Records. Years later, www.fonos.nl took care of a re-release on CD.

In 1984, Ton was a member of British band Camel. For his second solo album "Heart Of The Universe" he worked with singer Chris Rainbow (Camel, Alan Parsons Project), and Camel-guitarist Andy Latimer played on one track. The original LP and CD were released by CNR Records. The CD has been unavailable for years, but some time ago Ton re-released it independently.

Under the pseudonym "Orion", Ton released an instrumental CD called "Virgin Grounds" in 1991. The music on this CD was composed for a TV documentary called "Conquer The Arctic".