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July 2006

Haven't had a Rah Rah Band rehearsal in God know's how long... do we still exist? I wonder. All the others seem too pre-occupied with other business: girlfriends, other musical projects, working out, working, watching other bands... dunno what else...

Well, on the bright side, Vicious Visjes are meeting up again - hopefully with a bit more continuity than last time around...

June 2006

*Yawn*

February 2006

Not much to tell really... hardly any Rah Rah rehearsals, and only one or two VV meetings not even including all 4 of us. Went to see Radius play live including new drummer, which was a bit weird.

January 2006

No second rehearsal booked for Vicious Visjes, but we did start recording some of the stuff we've been playing. Recording in a totally different way this time around tho; so far, everything midi!

December 2005

Wow - I already managed to organise a gig - for my birthday in a little pub, I know, but still good to be back on "stage" after 3 years! Did two fun sets with the Rah Rah band including Kim, who is back from Germany for now, but without Sidsel and Jeroen unfortunately. The reason they did not participate was tbat they didn't feel ready to do they gig. We did get into something of an argument over this, which unfortunately did take away much of my motivation to continue playing with the band. I will see what I'm going to do...

And... first time back in the rehearsal room: Vicious Visjes can still rock!!

November 2005

Well, Radius seems to have found a new drummer already.... bummer... got here just too late. The Vicious Visjes have also met up a few times by now, just jamming away in our living rooms, seeing if we could recreate some of the old chemistry. Seems to be working fine, but only time will tell... and we do need to find ourselves a rehearsal room!

October 2005

Well, I thought it might be time for an update.. It's been almost 2 years and I actually do have something to say... I've returned to Holland for now and have been looking into starting up some musical projects again. And guess what... The Rah Rah Band is still around of course, no news there.... easy for me to just jump in again. But all the members of Vicious Visjes are also quite eager to reform... let's see if we can make this happen!

And last but not least, Radius is still at it, But Nico left the band, so they don't actually have a fixed drummer yet. And they still haven't finished recording.... slow bastards... Anyway, who knows? They might let me back in again as well?!

30th of December 2003

Right people... first time since I started this that I skipped a month... and 7 immediately... that's what you get when you've changed your life around a bit. Moved country in March, became a father in November.

So, any news on the musical front? Not really on this side of the North Sea... Haven't done anything whatsoever. Vicious Visjes have done a few rehearsals with guest drummer Marcel (of Fatmen), but that didn't result in anything. Michel's also about to become a father anyway...

Reinder has recorded some guitar parts for the Rah Rah band recordings and Radius (with Nico on drums) have gone into the studio to record a few songs. The result should be out soon. Otherwise, they've done a few gigs and moved their web site.

Otherwise, seeing that I have not much to tell, for now I'll just update this section when I feel like it or have something interesting to share with you. For now I'll just end with wishing you all a happy new year I guess...

May 2003

Vicious Visjes: "Nothing Going On In The City" is a book that was released about Groningen's pop scene. Vicious Visjes is also featured in the book. For more information, check out Koen van Krimpen's website.
Radius: The gig Radius did was recorded. Another gig will follow in June. Recordings for two songs ("The Sea" and "Next To Me") are finished. They feature me on drums still, but need some more mixing.
The Rah-Rah Band: During a short stay in Holland, I attended one more rehearsal with the group. Just a few songs, but it was nice to be back for a bit. No news on the recordings, but it does seem that after being ill for the best part of six months, Stijn is no longer in the band.

Otherwise, I'm looking around for new musical projects in England. No luck so far.... :/

April 2003

Radius: Radius managed to secure another gig in May in Leek. This will be the band's first performance without me... Feels somewhat weird. Guess I'm gonna have to get used to it, seeing I live in England now.
The Rah-Rah Band: The group's been very quiet this month from what I've heard. Danny's recorded a few bass parts, but otherwise they didn't do much.

March 2003

Radius: Radius is going for a package deal with Monarchy and Corvus; our new manager Fokke van der Leest will try to sell all three bands to halls and clubs. Unfortunately, this is gonna have to happen without me. Nico Plantenga has been named as my replacement during my absence.
The Rah-Rah Band: The cover band also wants to start recording again. Will see how long this is gonna take this time...

February 2003

Radius: Started working on a new song; a very long one this time, called Plastic Dreams. And we decided we're gonna do some more recordings - this has also to do with the fact that I'll be leaving for England at the end of March.
The Rah-Rah Band: Not much news here.

January 2003

Radius: Last month's interview can be found here. Not much news otherwise, except that we're working on some new songs and that Johan's brother-in-law is planning to set up some kind of booking agency; and he wants to help us getting gigs too.
The Rah-Rah Band: Been working on a whole bunch of new backing tracks which we started using now. Still more in the making.

December 2002

Vicious Visjes: Ok, so we totally fucked up the two songs we did at the Sinterklaas party - and we got it on video tape too! Good stuff! Bummer I lost my bag with drum sticks and other stuff at the party - still trying to locate the damn thing. Anyway, it was nice to play live again with the guys of Vicious Visjes. Now if Michel would just start working on those damn songs we're supposed to be recording!!
Radius: Johan F. did an interview for studenten.net, a student web site. This interview will be on their site shortly. In the meantime, he's busy trying to get us more gigs and exposure!
The Rah-Rah Band: So, I managed to secure a spot at the same Sinterklaas party we played at with Vicious Visjes for my cover band (sans Stijn). We played two songs: Sinterklaas (of course) and It's A Sin(t). I have the latter on video tape and I must say that it was definitely an improvement compared to our previous gig. Weird thing is that my CD player refused to play track 13 at first though, which happened to be the backing track to 'Sinterklaas' - the player just skipped from 12 to 14... superstitious machinery? What is the world coming to...

November 2002

Vicious Visjes: Wow, we're actually gonna do another performance! For fun, we applied for a spot at the Sinterklaasparty (5 december) organised in Simplon. At this party we'd have to play 2 songs of another band, and they actually asked us to perform. So, right now, we're rehearsing 2 songs by local band Podgy, which actually means our first rehearsals since April or so! During the same night, local band Blunt is gonna perform 2 of our songs... should be a lot of fun!!
Radius: The CD is finished! Sleeve and all! We called the demo CD 'Venus', after the first of the four songs on the CD. I'm happy with the result for sure! We're also thinking of making some t-shirts and maybe some other merchandise... we'll keep you all posted! Another thing is a short performance we did on the 30th, during a talent competition called Goudzuiken. Especially for this night, we translated our song 'Next To Me' to local dialect Gronings, as there was a price for best dialect song, besides there being one for best act. Again, this gig was videotaped (the one in Simplon on the 15th was not, unfortunately), so this one-off version of the song was recording for posterity! :P
The Rah-Rah Band: We decided on a new bunch of songs we want to do, and at the same time decided to ditch some other ones, just to keep things fresh. Right now we're working on getting the new backing tracks ready.

October 2002

Radius: Wow... I finally got Danny and Johan to get off their lazy butts and finish their parts of the songs for the demo recordings! So, I've been very busy mixing the 4 songs for the CD we're gonna release. They're almost done now. Also, we managed to secure another gig in Simplon; they actually called US!
The Rah-Rah Band: Not much news here... thinking of expanding our repertoire some more, and in the meantime rehearse with microphones some more.

September 2002

Radius: We did another two gigs in September, and both were video taped! Good response from the audience at both gigs, and we're starting to play better and better, so everything looks good. If we could just get the damn demo CD out in the open....
The Rah-Rah Band: The first rehearsals in a real rehearsal room (read: with microphones) in the new line-up are a fact; hopefully this will helps us getting the vocals right!

August 2002

Radius: I've got the videotape of the gig now and it wasn't all as bad as I expected, so we're going to continue working with the midi. Also, we're working on new material and a few cover tunes for our next shows. There are quite a few gigs being planned, so... No news about the demo recordings unfortunately. I have been waiting for some recorded parts from both Danny and Johan for ages already... lazy bums... :P
The Rah-Rah Band: The kei-week gig was a lot of fun, but it also showed us we need to practice more with microphones, something we will start doing for sure! The gig was also video taped.

July 2002

Vicious Visjes: Four weeks of holiday in Portugal for me, so not a lot to tell...
Radius: Just before leaving to Portugal, we had the gig in Niekerk which was a lot of fun, despite many technical difficulties that were caused mainly by the midi files we'd never really tried before. Again, the gig was videotaped, so I'm eagerly awaiting to see the tape!
The Rah-Rah Band: During my holidays the rest of the band actually tried out another recruit, Stijn, as an additional singer. We'll be doing a gig during the kei-week in Groningen as well!

June 2002

Vicious Visjes: The basic tracks (drums and bass) that we still had lying around were transferred from ADAT to my PC now, so we can now continue working on the 10 or so songs that we were planning to record for our next CD.
Radius: We've decided we're gonna try using more midi during our performances, so Johan F. will not have to play keyboards and guitars at the same time anymore. Not much time to practice this new set up before our gig in Niekerk, unfortunately...
The Rah-Rah Band: We actually got to do two performances! During one, Sidsel was unfortunately missing, but luckily Kim was there to fill in for her. The 2nd of the two gigs was recorded. Crowd reception was pretty good. :)

May 2002

Vicious Visjes: Not much going on here... taking a short break from it all, before we will continue recording our next CD.
Radius: We have another gig on July the 6th in Niekerk! Work on the demo songs is progressing.
The Rah-Rah Band: Sidsel's boyfriend Jeroen has also joined our gang! This means we now have 4 guitar players! Also, we actually recorded our first LIVE drum tracks during our first rehearsal-room-rehearsal (so, not at Danny's place ;) this in addition to the 50+ midi and drum computer tracks we're already using.

April 2002

Vicious Visjes: Our gig in the USVA was a lot of fun; too bad there were a lot of things going on in Groningen that evening, so we didn't attract as much audience as we had hoped for. At least the gig was taped. Looking forward to hearing these recordings!
Radius: Our first gig in Simplon was a success! Despite the fact that the performance wasn't flawless and we didn't win the festival, there were still a lot of positive comments about the music and performance! We were told we created a nice 'new-wave' atmosphere (although I think we did that with a little help from the people who did the lights and the controlled the smoke machine). Our 20 minutes were recorded by Nico from Goldfish. Thanks for that! The video tape was a lot of fun to watch! And we also started work on recording the next two songs for our planned demo CD.
The Rah-Rah Band: We found a new recruit in Sidsel, taking over a lot of the vocals (the ones that my poor untrained voice cannot handle for sure! :) We'll see how this works out!

March 2002

Vicious Visjes: Some sad news this time. Jan Heddema, the man who produced our latest CD Not For Sailing, died March 9th. His life was celebrated by many people from the local music scene on March the 15th.
Radius: We've been selected to play at the Groninger Popprijs on April 7th in Simplon! Our first gig is a fact! And we also have a website now; you can visit it at http://flying.to/radius

February 2002

Vicious Visjes: The Grover-Pop CD, the compilation CD of bands from the city of Groningen, released in co-operation with Vitaminic is finally for sale on the Vitaminic site. Track number 3 on this CD is our very own Looloo's Revenge! Go to http://www.vitaminic.nl/vita/compilations/grover.jsp to buy your very own copy for just 9 Euros!
On a happy note, Kiep's girlfriend Natasja gave birth to a healthy baby girl on February the 8th. She goes by the name of Djuke Agnes.
Radius: We've immediately started to record two songs for a demo and they turned out pretty nice.
Misc: For fun, I've started work on a nice family tree of all the musical projects I've done. It's getting quite complicated already... :) But then, since I'll be unemployed after April 1st, I'll have all the time in the world to work on this....

January 2002

Vicious Visjes: The appearance at Eurosonic was a lot of fun; we played well. Afterwards we were told that we created a dEUS-like atmosphere (y'all know the Belgian band, right? :) Well, we DID try to put down a different set from usual. I guess it worked. We also got a very nice review of our new CD in Freeze, the Frisian magazine. Vera magazine also did another poll, where you could vote for the best gig of the year 2001. We didn't do very well in the poll, but that was to be expected, as the only gig we did was a very short one for the Grote Prijs region final. Furthermore, no rehearsals for a while, as Rodney was SUPPOSED to be in Australia for a month and because Kiep is expecting to become a father any day now...
The Rah-Rah Band: We might be doing a gig in april, expecially for Kim's birthday.
Radius: I've joined yet another musical project called Radius, which features both Danny (how many bands does he have by now??) and Johan Faber (singer of Awake). We're going for a spot at this year's Groninger Popprijs in March/April.

December 2001

Vicious Visjes: We're gonna be featured on the 3rd Dutch Region CD produced by Vitaminic. Our song Looloo's Revenge will be track number 3 on this compilation CD featuring bands from the city of Groningen only.
The Rah-Rah Band: No news here, although I've been actively looking for replacement female singers...

November 2001

Vicious Visjes: We're playing at Eurosonic next year, for the second time!
The Rah-Rah Band: The gig was great! We didn't play very well, but so what... we had fun, the audience had fun, and we were all drunk, so... :)
Misc: Michel is thinking of starting a punk band? Hmm... Danny's other band (no, not Awake, but Swansdown, his other metal outfit) is about to become world famous in the province of Brabant, or so I've heard....

October 2001

Vicious Visjes: Not much happening
The Rah-Rah Band: We actually arranged our first gig! We're playing at and 80s party in De Walrus halfway November! I hope I'll not be too nervous, seeing this will be my first concert as lead singer and guitarist!

September 2001

Vicious Visjes: The GPNL region finale turned out to be a big disappointment. Again, despite the clear choice of the audience in favour of us, the jury chose to appoint two other bands to go through to the national final... oh well... This was definitely our last shot at playing there...
The Rah-Rah Band: We've actually started recording a selection of the songs we play. Very curious how they'll turn out...

August 2001

Vicious Visjes: Lots of last moment gigs this month. Working on a presentation of the promo CD in Amsterdam.
Misc: The Rah-Rah band it is, I guess... Although Kim is going to move to Germany, so we lose yet another of our female vocalists. Anyone know of any possible replacements? In the meantime, Awake have finished a video for their song Don't Stop.

July 2001

Vicious Visjes: YEAH! We made it through the selection of the Grote Prijs!! We'll be playing region final north in September!! Great news!
Misc: Seeing there was a chance we were gonna do a gig with the 80s cover band we started talking about a name for the project... think we narrowed it down to either "Ooh To Be Ah" or "The Rah-Rah Band"... the gig itself was cancelled, but hey, at least it got us to think about our future, and we're actually doing something again; practising an even bigger selection of songs and trying some stuff with midi and drum tracks to compensate for the lack of drummer and keyboard player... In the meantime, Danny has also started yet another project with two other blokes playing some very heavy metal, called Swansdown...

June 2001

Vicious Visjes: Kiep finally bought himself an amplifier! About time! Also this month will be the first time we'll be playing Huize Maas! Should be cool!
Misc: Awake lost in the finals of Plug-In Talents... too bad...

May 2001

Vicious Visjes: Not much news here; doing only one gig this month, but at least we're also working on some new material! It's actually being discussed that I will play keyboards and drums at the same time in one of those songs!
Misc: Very few rehearsal for the 80s cover band lately... hope this doesn't mean the end... On another note, Danny's other band, Awake, won their first round in the Plug-In Talents competition! Congratulations!

April 2001

Vicious Visjes: Hard work seems to be paying off; we managed to get gigs at several festivals. Otherwise not much news...

March 2001

Vicious Visjes: Wow! We had our first gig in ages! Good to be back in Groningen. The CD is finished as well! We decided to not really present it to the audience yet, although it will be available at gigs. It's mainly for promotion purposes. Also, we're trying to get a spot at the region finals for the Grote Prijs van Nederland once more!

February 2001

Vicious Visjes: Working hard on getting spots at festivals. Mastering for the new CD is also finished. Expect it to be released soon!

January 2001

Vicious Visjes: Working hard on getting more gigs...
Misc: The Epsolutely gig was a lot of fun. We didn't win, but who would've expected that from a band that has only been together for 3 weeks! :)

On the 80s band - we're working hard on creating a bigger repetoire. Now, if we could just enter the rehearsal room once, instead of just playing acoustically and drinking wine at Danny's place.... :)

December 2000

Vicious Visjes: Finally mixed the fourth song and mastered the first...
Misc: Danielle is back for Christmas, so we're doing a reunion of the original 80s band bunch already! Also, Michel has finally finished his solo project! I wonder when this will be released - if ever! :)

Furthermore, I was asked by Egbert (ex-singer of Awake) to play drums in his band Epsolutely so he could participate at the Rode Oortjes Festival 2001. I agreed and we'll be playing January 14th at the Platform Theater...

November 2000

Vicious Visjes: Finally some more gigs! And our first in Germany! We're doing some additional recording for 2 of the mixed songs (mainly some extra scratching by DJ Geranium, who might be joining us a lot more often on stage in the future) and are redoing the vocals for the fourth song as well.

October 2000

Vicious Visjes: Mixing for the first 3 songs is finished, but only after we re-recorded all the drum tracks (again, sound quality wasn't good enough). Didn't get around to the fourth song to be included on the EP, but we did some fun work on a fifth song which might end up on the CD as well.
Misc: Are Archie and Suzanne joining us? I have no idea as they haven't showed up at rehearsals yet... Danielle has left us, however, as she's gonna study in York...

September 2000

Vicious Visjes: Finally some plans to start mixing the new songs! We got together with Jan Heddema who urged us to re-record all the guitars (because sound quality wasn't good enough) which we did. We were also featured on Radio 3FM for a contest between 2 acts (NCRV radio's Popslag). We lost, but it was still fun to be on national radio again! Otherwise, it's pretty quiet...

August 2000

Vicious Visjes: Holidayzzzzz....
Misc: Archie and Suzanne are joining us in our effort to ruin 80's classics!

July 2000

Vicious Visjes: Mixing is postponed to somewhere in September most probably. Except for some small things, recording is done however. And we failed to make the selection for the Regiofinale for the Grote Prijs.
Misc: We made a selection of songs and had our first get-together at Danny's place. Lots of fun.

June 2000

Vicious Visjes: In the Lowlands Top 25, our CD moved up one place this month to number 20. The four songs we're recording are almost finished and we found ourselves a producer in Jan Heddema, so we'll do the mixing with him at the end of July.
Misc: Trying to come to a nice set list for the 80s cover band. This is gonna be sooo cool! :)

May 2000

Vicious Visjes: We're having another go at participating at the Grote Prijs van Nederland and doing this by trying to get into one of the 4 semi-finals for the festival... We'll see how lucky we are this time around... And hey, our CD all of a sudden entered the Lowlands Top 25 at number 21! Very cool, especially since we had nothing to do with it!!
Misc: Reinder, Kim, Danny, Danielle and me (yes, the Daniel Ostvold bunch) have decided on starting an 80s cover band for fun. See when this will actually turn into more than just plans....

April 2000

Vicious Visjes: Cool! We came in 2nd in the final of the BotB in Amsterdam! Too bad we didn't win, but hey.... 2nd is cool too! Recording for the 2nd CD are progressing; we picked out 4 songs to finish, because finishing all 15 songs would get too expensive for now...

March 2000

Vicious Visjes: Cool! We came in 2nd in the semi-finals of the Battle of the Bands! This means we'll go through to the finals in De Melkweg in Amsterdam!

February 2000

Vicious Visjes: We booked two days in the studio to start work on the new CD. We recorded about twelve drum tracks and will be doing a lot of recording at home. We also managed to go through to the semi-finals of the Battle Of The Bands, an Amsterdam-based talent competition.

Nevermind Michel's project... still no news.... :)

January 2000

Vicious Visjes: EEK! Rodney cut his hair! Gone are the pony tails! Plans to start recording a new CD pop up...

Michel's project is still nearing its final stages as it only needs some editting and some additional organs...

December 1999

Vicious Visjes: We're entering an Amsterdam based competition called The Battle Of The Bands... Should be fun! Otherwise, I've planned another short trip to Portugal to celebrate the new year! Hope the plane won't crash as I'll fly back january the 1st!

Michel's project is still not finished (this is getting tedious, isn't it? ;).

November 1999

Vicious Visjes: Bit quiet.

Michel's project is nearing its final stages.

October 1999

Vicious Visjes: Promotion for the CD continues, as well as the gigging...

Awake's first album Tidal Wave has been released. Michel's project is still not finished, however.

September 1999

Vicious Visjes: See August. :)

Michel's project is nearing its end and Danny's other band (Awake) has finished recording their debut CD "Tidal Wave" as well. Released end of September.

August 1999

Vicious Visjes: Holidays are over and everything's back to normal. Back to rehearsals, planning gigs and promoting the CD. Reviews of the CD keep popping up in strange places.

Michel's solo project in the meantime is taking up more time than planned (but not more time as expected :) and I just got word that one of Danny's bands (Laat Maar) is no longer...

July 1999

Vicious Visjes: A very good review in Oor (another national magazine) made sure we started our summer holidays in a very cheerful way. Two weeks of Portugal will surely do me good...

June 1999

Vicious Visjes: Lots of CD reviews in various magazines this month; our CD got a very good review in de Fret, the magazine distributed all over The Netherlands by the NPI.

Recordings for Michel's solo project have started as well...

May 1999

Vicious Visjes: We didn't win anything at the Pop=Prima prijs final, unfortunately, despite the fact that the audience present seemed to want us to win. However, a song from the CD was played on VPRO radio. And we're planning an extensive tour through the country right now and closed a small distribution deal with Frisian record label Marista.

Meanwhile, Michel is planning to record some songs of his own, with me on drums and Robert Molema of Goldfish on bass.

April 1999

Vicious Visjes: The CD presentation in Vera was a big success! Also, "Natural High Tide" was CD of the week on EXIT, Oog radio, and Demo of the week on Leidsekade Live, Radio 3 FM! We also won our preliminary to the Pop=Prima Prijs. The final will be May 29th!

The Daniel project is finished as well. Sounds pretty cool too!

March 1999

Vicious Visjes: Mostly planning the release of the CD and the presentation that goes with it.

February 1999

Vicious Visjes: The gig we did at the Rode Oortjes final was a pretty decent one and it resulted in a few more possible gigs. The 45-minute set was also recorded, video-taped and cybercast. We'll be waiting to see the results of this. In the meantime, we've arranged for our CD to be presented in Vera on April 1st and we've secured another spot at the Pop=Prima Prijs 1999 this April (the 17th).

January 1999

Vicious Visjes: The recording of the new 6 songs are going quite a bit faster than the last bunch. Hopefully, we will be able to release the CD before the Rode Oortjes 1999 final (february 14th), where we will be playing too!

December 1998

Vicious Visjes: Wow! Our first gig in Amsterdam was a lot of fun - hopefully there'll be more. The recordings for another 6 songs have started. I think they're gonna be good!

The project with Daniel has also started, so I'm spending a lot of my time in the studio right now. Latest addition to the line up of musicians is Egbert, the singer to Danny's band awake (another possibly singer for his part was Patrick, our old Hooded Crow singer)!

November 1998

Vicious Visjes: We did the Nieuw Hart radio sessions, which we hoped would be good enough to make it onto the CD, but unfortunately the recordings didn't turn out as good as we hoped. Now we've decided that we're just going to record some more songs for the CD before we release it. Five songs just didn't seem worth the trouble.

October 1998

Daniel Ostvold is back in town... He's gathered all the people from the previous session and asked some more people to record an actual musical/rock-opera! ;) We'll see what this will turn out like!

September 1998

Vicious Visjes: Mixing is finished. Now doing some more additional editing to finish up the recordings. Also working on the sleeve for the CD now.

August 1998

Vicious Visjes: Finally started mixing...

July 1998

Vicious Visjes: The studio recordings should be finished this month, so we can start mixing in August. Then we should finally be able to release the CD in September!
Smoke In The Cabin: We've stopped all Smoke activities for now, as Donald wil be leaving for Italy soon. Donald and Michel will be doing one more acoustic performance in Dokkum July 31st, however.

June 1998

Vicious Visjes: Made 10 CDs of our first demo plus 1 new song and an old demo version of Miss Tits to see if we could get nominated for a spot at the Grote Prijs van Nederland and we DID get nominated, but only came in 3rd after the voting was done. Otherwise, still recording and gigging and organising etc...

May 1998

Vicious Visjes: Still recording. Been distributing some flyers at various gigs in May.

April 1998

Vicious Visjes: Still recording. Also busy organizing a festival on the 7th of June.

March 1998

Vicious Visjes: Recordings for the CD have started.
The Hooded Crow: Daniel approved of the latest set of mixes and so I finally got my own CD of the sessions.
Smoke In The Cabin: Trying yet another bass player...

February 1998

Vicious Visjes: We won the final for the Rode Oortjes Festival!! Because of this, we'll be doing a live interview for Oog Radio in Exit on the 16th. We'll also start work on a CD soon.
Smoke In The Cabin will be trying out a new bass player.

January 1998

Vicious Visjes played at the Rode Oortjes festival the 18th of January and won! The final for this festival will be the 15th of February. The show we recorded on the 16th will be broadcast on the 30th. More plans are up our sleeves (but that's a secret :).
Smoke In The Cabin: No luck in finding a new bass player yet. The video has been shown on TV Noord a couple of times.
The Hooded Crow: Daniel's songs turned out quite well, I think. Daniel didn't approve of the final mixes, though.

December 1997

Smoke In The Cabin: Terence has left the band and we're looking for a new bass player now. The video is finished and will be aired soon.
Vicious Visjes: Besides lots of gigging, we've started work on the next demo.
The Hooded Crow: Mixing for Daniel's project will be done on the 10th and the 18th.

November 1997

Smoke In The Cabin: I've finally seen the video, which is nearing the final stages of production now. In the meantime however, some friction within the band has led us to rethink our future.
The Hooded Crow: The recordings with Daniel will be on the 11th and 12th and I'm very curious how this will work out!
Vicious Visjes have released the first demo and presented it at Platform Theatre on the 2nd.

October 1997

The Hooded Crow: Danny is back in Groningen and has joined a band called Awake. Our first rehearsal for the recording session with Daniel Ostvold was very promising, although Kim was too ill to make it.
Smoke In The Cabin: The video is almost ready and will hopefully be finished before the gig on the 17th.
Vicious Visjes: All recordings are finished now and a demo tape will be released soon.
Alpha Alpha: Hans did some recording for the Alpha Alpha tapes, but I'm not very happy with the way it turned out. Probably have to do it again.

September 1997

Smoke In The Cabin: Work on the rough cut of the video has finally started and we were promised that we'll get to see something soon.
The Hooded Crow: Reinder was asked by Norwegian artist Daniel Ostvold to get The Hooded Crow back together for playing on an EP which he will be releasing. He wants us, backed by Kim (singer of Heavy Klepto and Danny's girfriend), to record four songs of his. The recordings will take place somewhere in November, most likely.

August 1997

Vicious Visjes: Returning from my holidays in Prague and Austria I find that the demo recordings we were making with Vicious Visjes are almost completed.
Smoke In The Cabin: No additional work has been done on the video, but it turns out that Michel and our video director are going steady now! One gig for Smoke is being planned.

July 1997

Smoke In The Cabin: Recordings for the video are continuing. The video will be finished beginning of August! After that we'll probably do some promoting the band. One thing to start this off is some promotion on local station Radio Compagnie in Hoogezand.
Alpha Alpha: Reinders hand seems to have healed, so I want to start recording the last Alpha Alpha songs soon!
Vicious Visjes: Plans are made for Vicious Visjes and we've started recording some songs too.

June 1997

Alpha Alpha: Finally got the video tape from the Alpha Alpha gig we did for the Rode Oortjes festival and it's quite cool! Better than I expected. We won't be finishing the recordings for Alpha Alpha this month however, since Reinder broke his hand.
Smoke In The Cabin: Recordings for the video will be made this month and the whole thing should be ready somewhere in July (the song for the vid will be Final Chapter)!

May 1997

Smoke In The Cabin: No news on the video front. Smoke will be doing another gig the 24th.
Vicious Visjes: Michel and I started another project called Vicious Visjes (for now) with two new recruits and we'll have a short semi-acoustic try-out the 15th. Should be fun.
Alpha Alpha has picked up recording again; we should be able to finish the tapes next month.
The Hooded Crow: Finally got a tape of the last Hooded Crow song ('Cone'); it's pretty cool!

April 1997

Smoke In The Cabin: Again, I had great fun playing the Pop=Prima festival on the 19th, and again we didn't win, but the gig we did was a whole lot better than the one in November. There may be another gig for Smoke In The Cabin in May and we got an offer to do a video for one of our songs! I think we might stay together for a bit longer! ;)

March 1997

Well, this it it then. Danny got a job in Utrecht, which means we've cancelled all Alpha Alpha and The Hooded Crow rehearsals. All that's left are the 4 Alpha Alpha and 2 Hooded Crow songs that we're recording at the moment. I've also had quite enough of the constant arguing of Terence and Donald; I'll just go on with Smoke In The Cabin till the gig in April and then call it quits (unless we win or something). I guess I'll have to find some new people to work with... *sigh*

February 1997

Okay, playing the festival with Alpha Alpha was fun; we didn't win, but who cares. A bigger problem is Hans getting a job in Deventer, which means he'll be moving house. This will probably mean the end of Alpha Alpha. We will make some more recordings before this though. Smoke In The Cabin have talked out their differences and all will go well before the gig I hope. The future of The Hooded Crow is very uncertain at the moment however...

January 1997

Alpha Alpha got through the selections for "Rode Oortjes" and will participate in this event on February 9th. Smoke In The Cabin will play at the last evening of the first round of the Pop=Prima contest (somewhere in April), although the line-up for this gig seems quite unclear. Also, rumours are that Take It Or Leave It Part 2 will finally be released soon.

December 1996

We've quickly recorded and assembled a new Alpha Alpha tape to be in time to enter the "Rode Oortjes" contest and the "Pop=Prima Prijs". Smoke In The Cabin will also enter both contests...

November 1996

Finally got the video tape from the Simplon gig in May; can only say that the people at Simplon did a crap job, seeing that only the last 20 minutes or so are listenable/viewable. Smoke In The Cabin will do a try-out later this month and a festival on the 30th (Platform Theatre in Groningen, at the Hello festival).

October 1996

Ok, so Michel DID mail the tapes. Alpha Alpha did a few try-outs before an audience early this month and Smoke In The Cabin is planning a gig in November. Some THC is being planned as well...

September 1996

If all went well, Michel has by now distributed some demo tapes among record companies - but, knowing him... well, he probably forgot or something. Hopefully the others will keep their promise in putting some effort in trying to get gigs. I managed to keep Donald happy by agreeing in moving rehearsals with him to Fridays, keeping only the Alpha Alpha and THC rehearsals on Tuesdays. We adapted the name Smoke In The Cabin for Donald's band for now. Dunno if it'll stick. And lastly, the others will probably insist on me mentioning I have a girlfriend now, so... ta.... :)

August 1996

Recordings are finished, although I haven't heard 'em myself. Hans managed to get his guitar stolen (that is, his guitar including case, harmonica AND lyrics and music to several songs) when he left it outside our drinking hole... Terrence is the new bass player for the Donald Project. Donald is sort of mad at me for not showing much motivation... ah hell - sod him. ;)

July 1996

And now it's too bloody cold to write. Is this supposed to be a summer? Ah well, summer break is on the way. I will be on a holiday for a few weeks, so no band stuff, besides some more recording we're doing.

June 1996

Oh dear, it's June already and still there's bugger-all happening. Well, one funny thing was that Hans has tried filling in for Danny in the project with Donald (this is getting quite incestuous isn't it?). And Donald has won the 'biggest belly' competition amongst group members! But it's too bloody hot to continue writing....or do ANYTHING for that matter.... I NEED A VACATION!!!

May 1996

Not much new happening. Danny has left the project we did with Donald and we're doing some home recording.

April 1996

Most of this month will be spent trying to get gigs. There are also plans to go back into the studio somewhere in August. The rest of the time will be spent on various projects. Did I mention Patrick and Michèle split up?

March 1996

We've decided to continue just the four of us, no new singer. Besides that, Danny, Hans and me are going to start Alpha Alpha again, maybe assisted by Reinder. Michel and I, for now assisted by Danny, will be teaming up with Donald and do our thing. Take It Or Leave It part 2 is on the way as well - this time it will feature The Mortality Waltz from the Metslawier sessions. And Age has an Italian girlfriend!

February 1996

Still looking for a singer. We've been trying out Donald Donleben (yes!) and Hans Dekker (Alpha Alpha) amongst others, but haven't reached a decision yet. Our succesful gig at De Toeter did get us to think about not replacing Patrick at all.

January 1996

Ok, I think things are finally settled after a long band discussion. Patrick has left the band (taking Michèle with him), with Reinder being back on "probation". We'll see how it all works out once we've found a new singer.

December 1995

I should have known to knock on wood when I made that last statement. Circumstances resulted in the premature departure of Reinder from the band. Both planned gigs are still on tho, and we're looking for a replacement. CD sales are going okay.

November 1995

Cool! The compilation CD is out and I must say we're certainly not the worst band on it! Oh yeh, the song featured is "Karma In A Tub", from the Metslawier sessions. Also, the Deep Purple tribute tape has been released and copies are being distributed all over the world right now. For reviews, see the ISS home-page. Hey, and we're planning a new year's eve gig. Ain't life great?

October 1995

I don't believe it! It's actually there! The CD is out! Wow! The presentation was a success and sales are going okay. Now we'll just have to wait for the release of the other two projects (both due next month). Patrick and Michèle got engaged.

September 1995

The CD will be released in October! And we will also be featured on a compilation CD of local bands here. All kinds of promotional things are being planned. And oh dear, oh dear; now Michel has actually grown his hair, but REINDER cut his!

August 1995

Finally somemore gigs planned! About time! We can use the money, seeing that the studio cost us quite a lot. Our first CD is still not done tho. Some trouble with the artwork. It will probably be October before it's released. Damn. Oh, and both Michel and Danny joined a second band. Michel is actually doing lead vocals!

July 1995

Well, the CD is still in the making. It should've been released some time ago, but well, we just had a bit of a rocky start here. Hopefully it will be out within a few weeks - everybody who ordered one will get prior notice! And last but not least, that girl Kim that has been pestering my guestbook is sorta involved with Danny now ;-)

June 1995

Actually, Patrick cut his hair now too - more on Michèle and Patrick's private life later! We wish to thank Milan Ciric from Sing-sing studio's in Metslawier for putting up with us - I hope the final result will be good!

May 1995

First, to put a hold to all those other evil rumours that have been spread abou t The Hooded Crow: NO, Reinder is NOT leaving the band; NO, Patrick and Michèle are still together (Michèle has just cut her hair); NO, we are not splitting up; YES, almost the entire band has moved house these last two months, so please check all phone numbers - the correct ones are mentioned in these pages; YES, I do have too much time on my hands and I should stop writing garbage like this and finally; NO, the girls everyone keeps sighting me with are NOT my girlfriends (sigh) !! Oh yes... one more thing. We're going to record a CD I think.... ;-)