Earth & Kayak & Fire

Members of Earth & Fire (accompanied by Ekseption-keyboardist Rick van der Linden, with kid on his lap) wave Kayak goodbye as they are about to leave for America, to record Periscope Life. Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam.

The members of Kayak always got along well with another famous Dutch band: Earth & Fire (E&F). That band from the The Hague area started in the late 1960's, and they were famous for their combination of progressive rock albums and high-charting pop singles. They scored several number one hits in Holland, and were famous in other countries too. And they had that lovely singer, Jerney Kaagman...

There are quite a few links between Kayak and E&F. First of all, for some time they had the same producer (Gerrit Jan Leenders) and manager (Frits Hirschland). And in 1981, they released the 'Rallye Monte Carlo'-single together. But Kayak members also contributed to E&F albums, and Ton Scherpenzeel and Johan Slager can even be considered 'real' band members of E&F!

E&F's most successful album "Reality Fills Fantasy" (1979) featured Ton on accordion and, Max, Edward and Johan on backing vocals.The follow-up "Andromeda Girl" (1981) had guest appearances by Edward and Max.

Jerney, Johan and Max at the presentation of "Rainbow's End"

Ton Scherpenzeel officially joined E&F in 1989 and made a big contribution to the CD "Phoenix" and the following tour. A tour, on which they played 'Ruthless Queen' regularly, by the way.

Ton (along with Irene Linders) was also heavily involved in Jerney Kaagman's  solo album "Run". Jerney, on the other hand, contributed vocals to a track on Max Werner's solo album "Rainbow's End".

With Ton

With Johan (Copyright www.earthandfire.nl)

Johan Slager was a vital part of the 'in concert'-lineup of E&F. When guitarist Chris Koerts left E&F because of his studies, Johan joined the band for a Dutch/German tour in 1979/1980.

Thanks to Frank Lieffering

As a tribute to the "Reality Fills Fantasy"-album, Peter Scherpenzeel made a stained glass window of the album's sleeve photo.

(Many of the pictures in this entry are stolen from a great E&F website!)

And look what I found in the attic... A couple of pictures that I took myself. Ton Scherpenzeel in action, at an E&F-concert in Alphen aan den Rijn. I guess it was 1990??? You can also spot singer Jerney Kaagman and guitarist Age Kat.