The late 70's

In the late 70's a lot of Dutch bands began to sing in Dutch rather than in English. The most popular band from that era is DOE MAAR.

In 1978 Ernst Jansz, bass-player Piet Dekker and Jan Pijnenburg (drums) played some songs written by Ernst. Ernst and Piet wanted to form a band, but Jan did not feel like playing in a band. Via via the guys knew Jan Hendriks: he wanted to play the bass-guitar. Carel Copier (a friend of Hendriks') wanted to play the drums.

These four guys were asked (together with a few other musicians) to form the Foolsband. This band took care of the music for the Festival of Fools (inspired by Jango Edwards and organized by pop-temple Paradiso). After the festival the four guys formed a band, which they called "DOE MAAR" (in English: "Just Do").
They played four to five gigs a week and they earned about Hfl. 100,- per person per week. Ernst took care of all the gigs: he made the necessary phone calls, he sent demo tapes etc. But after a while he thought it was too much work, so he asked Frank van der Meyden to be their manager. Frank accepted on the condition that tha band would stay small. The band asked just a small favor of Frank... "get us a record deal!"

So Frank sent a tape to the record company Telstar. They wanted to give the band that record deal right away. The band didn't even have to negotiate for the contract, the deal itself was the most important thing. Now they could make a real (vinyl) record.
During the summer holidays the band and it's manager decided not to take any promotional activity. They wouldn't play for nothing and not under X guilders. Because the band thought they should stay small, the members of the band did anything themselves. The band just wanted to make some music.

During the first six months after the release of their first LP 'Doe Maar', there were only sold 2,000 copies. Nevetheless the song 'Ik zou het willen doen' appeared in the Tip-Parade (for five weeks), which was a big surprise for the band.

The early 80's

In February 1980 Piet Dekker left the band, because he and Ernst couldn't cope with each other anymore. The remaining three guys decided to put an end the band, but they had to stick to some concluded contracts. So they went looking for a new bass player. Henny Vrienten, a friend of the band, didn't want to join them. Joost Belinfante liked the idea of playing the bass, even though he had never played a bass guitar. In the summer of 1980 the band decided to continue playing. Jan, Carel and Ernst asked Henny Vrienten again. He finally said yes, just before the recordings of their second LP 'Skunk'. Henny was a star in writing songs and improvising. He wrote three songs for the remaining space on the album in just one day and he brought some ska- and reggae-influences into the songs. The other band members were thrilled about these songs.

Nevertheless, it went downhill with the band and the record company was careful with the release of their second album. It couldn't be released in December, because of the holidays (St. Nicolaas and Christmas) and not in the next months because of Carnaval. It was decided to release the album after Carnaval, but due to a mistake the DJ's heared the album before Carnaval and they loved it. The DJ's (under whom Felix Meurders and the famous Frits Spits) played several songs from the LP. They played the song 'Sinds een dag of twee' a lot, but one DJ (Frits Spits) got a lot of calls from the listeners who couldn't remember the title of the song. So Frits suggested to rename the song in '32 Jaar', but Doe Maar didn't like that idea.

The record company did change the name of the song and it seemed to work. During the year after the release there were sold 20,000 copies. As a Dutch band, you should be delighted if you sold 10,000 copies in that time. The band was going wild and even more... their fans. Shortly after this huge success Carel quitted the band and René van Collum took Carel's place in November 1981. René joined the band for about one and a half year. With their fourth album 'Doris Day En Andere Stukken' and the single taken from that album: Doris Day, a hype broke out under many of the Dutch teenagers. Many girls fainted at concerts in sold-out sport centers and cattle-halls.

In January 1983 René was replaced by Jan Pijnenburg. Their fifth album '4US (Virus)' went platinum even before the LP was in the store. On this album the band integrated eastern and modern pop music of Joe Jackson and Madness. The merchandisers made large profits by selling headbands, T-shirts, buttons and posters of the band. There were sold half a million copies of their second and fourth album.
At the beginning of 1983 there was a publicity-stop and there were less concerts hoping that it would decrease the frightening popularity of the band. This resulted in even more attention from the media and during the recording of a new album the band decided to quit. Only a live double album 'Lijf Aan Lijf' appeared. During the following years four compilation-albums were released and the four man didn't perform together anymore.

Exactly ten years after the first Doe Maar success the single '32 Jaar' reappeared in the charts. Tens of thousands of Doe Maar compilations were shipped to the stores, waiting for a new Doe Maar hype. But this hype never came again.

In 1996 there were two artists who recorded an old Doe Maar song. First there was Tim Immers (a former soap star) who recorded 'Liever Dan Lief'. Later that year 'Rock 'n Roll Junkie' Herman Brood (a famous Dutch painter/artist) recorded the song '50 Jaar' ('32 Jaar' with some altered lyrics) in a duet with Henny Vrienten for the occasion of Brood's 50th birthday.

© 1995-1999 MaSa D-Sign, A.R.M. van Ketel