Edward (and Syb): Best Of Britain

Date: friday 27 january 2012. Location: Goudse Schouwburg, Gouda, Holland. After their previous collaboration in "Motel Westcoast", Edward Reekers and Syb 'Scaliger' van der Ploeg joined forces again for a journey through old pop hits. This time it was the great British pop history that was in the picture.

Apart from Syb and Edward, singers were Maarten Peters and young Brenda van Aarsen. They were accompanied by a great band, with a fabulous saxophone/trumpet/clarinet/flute/violin player called Hubert. Syb and Maarten also played acoustic guitar, and both Edward and Brenda played a nice bit of piano!

I must say that I enjoyed Motel Westcoast, but "Best Of Britain" was even better! Mainly because of the chosen songs, but also thanks to the complete lack of weak spots, both vocally and instrumentally. Of course Edward was great, but it's also thumbs up for the other singers. Syb was great in the Rolling Stones songs, Brenda was a very good Adele, and Maarten showed his love for the Beatles in a beautiful way. The sold out theatre had a ball!!!

On the setlist, amongst others: Beatles medley, Stones medley, Kinks medley, Who medley, Old And Wise (Alan Parsons), Don't Stop Me Now (Queen), Clocks (Coldplay), Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pink Floyd), A Salty Dog (Procol Harum), Don't Give Up (Gabriel/Bush), In The Air Tonight (Phil Collins), Sweet Dreams (Eurythmics), Roxanne (Police), Dreadlock Holiday (10cc), Music (John Miles)

1972-2012

Kayak was founded in 1972, which is 40 years ago. Plans for the 'jubilee year' 2012:

* a couple of concerts in february ---> may
* a theatre tour after the summer
* a mini-album with 2 new tracks
* (hopefully) a book about the band...

Kayak in Toppop

From 1970 until 1988, "Toppop" was a wellknown music show on Dutch TV. Comparable to the English "Top Of The Pops", the show had artists in the studio as well as showing videos. Over the years, Toppop hosted many famous artists. In fact, some Toppop footage is unique as it features yet unknown artists that became famous later. David Bowie, Queen, The Ramones, Cliff Richard and Elton John are just a few of the artists that came over to Holland to appear in Toppop.

Kayak were regular guests. Here is a list of Toppop appearances (dates are the first dates of broadcast):

16 september 1974 Wintertime (studio)

4 october 1974 Wintertime (studio)

13 june 1975 We Are Not Amused (studio)

14 november 1975 Chance For A Lifetime (studio)
23 november 1976 Do You Care (studio)
1 october 1977 Starlight Dancer (studio)

8 february 1979 Ruthless Queen (studio)
17 may 1979 Phantom Of The Night (studio)

31 march 1980 Anne (promo)
19 may 1980 Periscope Life (promo)
20 march 1981 Seagull (studio)
Kayak in the Toppop studio







Max Werner also appeared as a solo artist:
??? 1979 Rainbow's End (studio, not broadcast)
24 april 1981 Rain In May (studio)
And Pim Koopman appeared a couple of times as a member of Diesel (1980/88) and The President (1983/84).

Kayak and ELO

In one of my older blogs, I mentioned the Queen/Kayak concert in 1974. In April 1975, Kayak supported another (future) famous band: The Electric Light Orchestra, or ELO.

(www.jefflynnesongs.com / Raul Monclus)

This tour poster mentions 4 dates, 3 of which with Kayak. However, the list of old live dates on the official Kayak website only has the concert in Arnhem on it. For whatever reason, Kayak did not do the other dates...

Thanks to Inge Jagt for this picture!

To add to the confusion: there are also advertisements that state a different support act: a band called Chopyn. All in all, it is certain that Kayak performed on 19 april 1975, and not on the other dates. But who replaced them, remains a mystery...

www.jefflynnesongs.com

High Tide Formation

Some real Kayak history now: High Tide Formation. This band was formed in Hilversum, Holland, in 1968. Members were Chiel van Praag (piano), Ron van der Werf (drums), Pim Koopman (guitar) and Ton Scherpenzeel (bassguitar). In march 1970, they released a single. The instrumental "Fluffy" was written by Chiel van Praag. "White Walls" was a Scherpenzeel-penned track, with drummer Van der Werf on vocals. Chiel van Praag plays the piano, but Ton Scherpenzeel does the solo. The single made it to the Dutch "tipparade", a list of singles that were 'bubbling under' the real top-40.
 

It was also released as a promo ('Not For Sale')

And to my surprise, this single was also released in Germany!

High Tide Formation also played live. Here are some pictures from a concert at a school party in 1969, where HTF played together with Pepper 'n' Soul.

 

Balderdash (1968)

Before Kayak, old friends Ton Scherpenzeel and Pim Koopman already wrote and played music. Around 1968, they formed a band called Balderdash: Pim on drums, Ton on bass and Fons Disch on guitar.

In the last picture, there is a 'typical' Balderdash setlist visible behind Ton. Confirming the fact that Balderdash played mainly Jimi Hendrix songs (but also that they were already writing their own songs!) here is an overview:

HEY JOE (JIMI HENDRIX)

PURPLE HAZE (JIMI HENDRIX)

SUNSHINE OF YOUR LOVE (CREAM)

LA-LA-LA-LIES (THE WHO)

STONE FREE (JIMI HENDRIX)

COME ON UP (YOUNG RASCALS)

FIRE (JIMI HENDRIX)

THE WIND CRIES MARY (JIMI HENDRIX)

STRANGE BREW (CREAM)

£SD (PRETTY THINGS)

ME NEEDING YOU (PRETTY THINGS)

BLUE CONDITION (CREAM)

CAN YOU SEE ME (JIMI HENDRIX)

OUT IN THE STREET (THE WHO)

MANIC DEPRESSION (JIMI HENDIRX)

BACK HOME (CUBY & THE BLIZZARDS)

RED HOUSE (JIMI HENDIRX)

FOXY LADY (JIMI HENDIRX)

SWLABR (CREAM)

WHEN PEOPLE TALK (ROB HOEKE)

COLLISION (BALDERDASH)

EVERYBODY NEEDS SOMEBODY TO LOVE (SOLOMON BURKE, ROLLING STONES)

HIGHWAY CHILE (JIMI HENDRIX)

MAY THIS BE LOVE (JIMI HENDRIX)

COME AND SEE ME (PRETTY THINGS)

Kayak meets famous film director!

In my blog of september 28, 2009, I mentioned the Kayak/Jan Akkerman tour of 1977. I included this picture from the tour programme:

This photo was taken in a session with photographer Gijsbert Hanekroot. Another picture from that session is this rather special one:


picture: Gijsbert Hanekroot

Please note that there are not five men (the amount of Kayak bandmembers in 1977) present on the stairs, but six! The sixth person, at the very back, is Anton Corbijn. Nowadays a world famous photographer (for U2, Metallica and Coldplay, to name just a few...) and film director, back in 1977 he was a 'pupil' of Gijsbert Hanekroot... (and 'ghost member' of Kayak...).

I got in touch with Gijsbert, and he told me that the original photo (not a re-print or so) is for sale. Mind you, if you are interested: you are not buying a lucky shot by some amateur photographer. Hanekroot is a respected Dutch photographer, who worked for various magazines since the 1960's. That, and the ghost appearance of a future worldwide celebrity, makes this a valuable piece of work!

Old magazine adverts

Not much new Kayak-activity at the moment, so let's focus on some Kayakhistory again: a couple of advertisements from the Dutch "Veronica" magazine. The first one is from March 1973 (!), the second one is from May 1975.

Some more adverts from the very beginning, published in magazine "Muziekkrant Oor":

An advert from the UK, around 1974/75:

And this one is from 1981: