Three years ago I stepped into one of the best sushi restaurants of The Hague, Suzuran, where Micha Hasfeld was sitting at a table. Micha, an old friend of my father and leader of the band The Clarks, told me he had an idea for a theatre show about the pop music of Holland. After some miso soups, california rolls and sake, my father and I were extremely excited about his idea and Micha asked me to sing in the show.
Two years later we had the premiere in a sold out theatre in The Hague, Diligentia.
In the show you will go on a journey through the history of Dutch pop music. With the most funny old stories, videos and of course with live music.
We meet The Tielman Brothers , Johnny Lion & The Jumping Jewels, The Golden Earrings, Q65, The Motions, Earth & Fire, Shocking Blue. You will see The Rolling Stones at the Kurhaus and the radio ship Veronica on the beach of Scheveningen.
For me as a 23 year old girl (24 years now) this was obviously something new. I needed to get out of my comfort zone to sing, for example, Ria Valk and The Ramblers. I spent quite a time behind my laptop and thought while rehearsing the songs: this is not my thing! But I can't explain how much I've learned from this other music genre. Stepping in another time and another style of music is surely something worth learning. I enjoyed a lot of this learning process.
Of course, the theatre life was also a new thing. The Clarks is a professional cover band for 30 years already and they have played on many places at the Netherlands and abroad. But they never played in theatres, so for them it was also an exciting experience.
I can not describe how exciting the first minutes are of the show. The curtain is closed, everyone is ready, the light in the hall goes down, people stop talking. Anyway, I had some sweaty hands every time ;-)
After the premiere in 2012, we played in January, February and March 2013, among others in Rotterdam, Rijswijk and Zoetermeer. The last two were sold out. In between there were various radio and newspaper interviews and we have been invited to come to the lovely Tineke de Nooij and her radio show.
In the summer it's very quiet at the theatres, but in October we were back and we played for the second time in a sold out Rijswijk and Zoetermeer. We also played at Poeldijk and Vlissingen. We finished the year in a sold out Diligentia for the second time!
I'm very blessed to do this theatre show with The Clarks, Martijn Oosterhuis, Rudy Bennett ( The Motions ), Frans Krassenburg ( Golden Earrings ), Valentine Bovendeert and the crew.
On to next season, are you coming too?
