Bintangs: ‘Genuine Bull’, a landmark in Dutch pop history...
2008 was a year of celebrations for Dutch music fans. Somehow, somewhere it was decided that the birth of Dutch pop music happened 50 years ago with the release of ‘Rock Little Baby Of Mine’, the first single of Indo-rockers the Tielman Brothers (on a Belgian label!). As always the true heroes, the people that paved the way were grossly over-looked. Hardly a word about legendary bands like Q65, the Outsiders, the Jay-Jays, Cuby & the Blizzards or the Bintangs. An embarrassing oversight, especially where the Bintangs are concerned, as they were founded in 1961 and are still active today. Which makes the Bintangs arguably the longest existing rock band in the low-lands, possibly even in the whole wide world.
In ‘61 brothers Frank and Arthy Kraaijeveld started the Bintangs in Beverwijk, mostly known because of its smelly and smoking steelworks. Initially they were playing Indo-Rock, at that time in the Netherlands a popular form of music styled by expatriates from Indonesia. Bintang means ‘Star’ in the Malaysian language and is also the name of a well-know beer brand in Indonesia, hinting at the star in the logo of Heineken, its owner in the ‘colonial’ days of Dutch East India. The Bintangs soon switched to a raw R&B style, strongly influenced by artists like Bo Diddley and Howlin’ Wolf, comparable to the music of British bands like The Pretty Things and The Rolling Stones. The similarities in their repertoire and in the voices of Bintangs vocalist Gus Pleines and Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger earned the band the nickname ‘The Dutch Rolling Stones’…
Early 1966 the Bintangs released their first single You Can’t Judge A Book By Looking At The Cover, a Bo Diddley song. A series of modestly successful singles followed. All extremely collectable these days for fans of Dutch Garage Rock a.k.a. Nederbeat. The first Bintangs album Blues On The Ceiling got released in 1969. That record was well received, but it was its successor, the LP Travellin' In The USA, that truly established the band and spawned two major hit singles: Ridin’ On The L & N and the title track ‘Travellin’ In The USA. The first peaked at #12 in the Dutch Charts and the second at # 9. Both are now classics of the Nederbeat cannon.
Fast forward to 1974. After a couple of difficult years in which musicians came and went, the, most likely, 29th line-up with Gus Pleines - vocals/harmonica; Frank Kraaijeveld - vocals/bass; Japie Castricum and Jack van Schie – guitars; and Harry Schierbeek – drums, turned out to be the strongest and longest lasting one in a musical history that continues to this day.
At that time CoraZong’ s Evert Wilbrink was overseeing the marketing of the Island- and Virgin Records labels in the Benelux. He was impressed with the work that producer Steve Verocca had done on Kevin Coyne’s Marjorie Razor Blade album, but even more how Verocca had managed to capture that earthy, chicken shack sound of guitarist Link Wray on such albums as Beans And Fatback and Link Wray. Evert sensed that Steve Verocca would be the ideal producer to finally capture the essence of the Bintangs’ sound on tape the way it should be: bluesy; rocking; earthy; and, honest to the bone. Smelly, stinking, full of mud and burps. Wilbrink used his Virgin contacts in London (especially Jumbo van Reenen) to make this happen for his friend Frank and the band he so admired.
Steve Verocca is an Italian who went to the USA in the wake of Volare, an Italian song and world-wide hit record he claimed to have produced in its original version Nel Blu Di Pinto Di Blu with Domenico Modungo in 1958. Steve was living in suburban Maryland (USA) when he happened to catch a Link Wray gig that totally blew him away and he convinced Wray to record with him in the primitive home studio at his farm in Maryland, nicknamed The Three Track Shack. Verocca: I believe The Shack has a soul. You can hear people burping on the (Link Wray) record, and that’s great, that’s real.’
What was needed next for the Bintangs was a studio that had soul. Rockfield Studios, near Monmouth in Wales, had plenty of it. The studios were founded by brothers Kingsley and Charles Ward in 1963, who converted a farmhouse into the now legendary R&R facility. In 1965 it became the world's first-ever residential studio, set up so that bands could also live in the peaceful rural surroundings where they would be recording. The first big hit born at Rockfield was Dave Edmunds’ I Hear You Knocking. It used to be one of Queen’s favourite studio’s too (Queen, Sheer Heart Attack and part of A Night At The Opera, including vocals for Bohemian Rhapsody, were recorded at Rockfield). The studio is still very much in demand: recent guests include Paul Weller, KT Tunstall and Coldplay.
Combining Steve Verocca, the Bintangs and Rockfield Studios turned out to be a masterstroke. When the band returned from Wales with the tapes for the album Genuine Bull they knew that had something very unique. And Genuine Bull became an instant classic. Reviews were great and till this day Genuine Bull is considered to be the best sounding, most energetic album the Bintangs have ever made and a remarkable, ‘genuine’ milestone in Dutch pop music.
"Genuine Bull", a milestone in the Dutch Rock History!
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