Doe Maar

Doe Maar is a Dutch ska band with punk and reggae influences. Their career ran from 1978 to 1984 and they were one of the most successful pop bands in Dutch history. Doe Maar translates as Go Ahead or Just do it, a phrase mostly used in a deprecatory, sulky manner.

History

Early years and debut album

Doe Maar was formed in 1978 by Ernst Jansz (CCC Inc., Slumberlandband). Piet Dekker, with whom Jansz played in The Slumberlandband (1975) and The Rumbones (1977), introduced him to Jan Hendriks and Carel Copier, spring 1978 at the farm of Gé van de Donk, their later sound engineer. Recordings from this meeting exist on which they played, without any rehearsal, all the Dutch-language songs Jansz had written at that time. Copier came up with the idea of the name after hearing the never officially recorded song Doe Maar. When Jansz was asked to form the resident band of that year's Festival of Fools he added five more members to the band: singers Truus de Groot (later Nasmak), Anouk Strijbosch and Wim van Oevelen (the later tour manager of the band), and clowns Mart de Corte and Jan Bogaerts.

Afterwards the 9-piece line-up was again reduced to four: Ernst Jansz (Born: May 24, 1948; keyboards, sax, percussion), Jan Hendriks (Born: September 20, 1949; guitar), Carel Copier (drums) and Piet Dekker (bass).

Piet Dekker turned out to be a songwriter as well. One of his songs appeared in 1979 on a sampler-album (Uitholling Overdwars) made up of new Dutch-language bands. They also released their self-titled debut on Telstar omitting the sampler-track Blozen (Blushing); along with the ska- and reggae-influences in Hé hé, Als de morgen komt (When Morning Comes), Regen (Rain), Je liet me staan (You Left Me), Er verandert nix (Nothing Really Changes), that later permeated their best known stuff, there were also punk, rock ‘n roll and calypso influences on this first album. The critics weren't impressed.

"I fail to see how this lot will make a positive contribution to the future of Dutch music". Muziek Expres January 1980

Entering the new decade, Doe Maar hit the bubbling-under charts with the Caribbean-/Indonesian flavoured Ik Zou Het Willen Doen (I'd Like To Do It) and the album sold 2000 copies. But it wasn't enough; after a fallout between Jansz and Piet Dekker (with the latter sent packing) the band seriously considered splitting up, but not before finishing their spring tour. Joost Belinfante (8 October 1946), an allround-freelance musician with whom Jansz used to play in CCC Inc and Slumberlandband, agreed to step in for the time being.

Skunk

After completion of their spring tour, members of the band decided that they wouldn’t split up. Jansz asked Henny Vrienten, a professional musician and composer who had previously collaborated with Jansz, if he would join the band. Vrienten initially refused as he felt it wasn’t advantageous to his career, but later changed his mind. He would then contribute to the three last tracks on Doe Maar’s second album Skunk. He would eventually contribute to the songs 32 Jaar, Smoorverliefd, and De Laatste Keer.

Skunk was initially supposed to be released in December 1980, but Telstar postponed the album’s release until March 1981, as the company did not believe that Doe Maar’s efforts would not survive amidst bigger names during the December period. Despite this, Telstar began to market the album and released samples to radio stations. Due to a miscommunication, DJs did not the that the record had not been released, and played the samples on the radio.

Listeners responded positively to the song 32 Jaar, although the original name of the song (Sinds Dag 1 of 2), didn’t stick and was difficult to remember. Due to this, a radio DJ called Frits Spits renamed it to the eventual title, 32 Jaar. 32 Jaar reached No. 29 in the Top 40, and Skunk eventually reached No.1 on the Dutch Top 100 Albums. Due to this, the band performed a lot of concerts, although attendance was not as high as desired by the band. Despite having been replaced by Vrienten, Belinfante regularly joined and performed with the band, playing trombone and percussion.

Doris Day and breakthrough

Carel suffered from a fractured muscle which basically ended his career. Searching for a replacement they recruited René van Collem (1961), a seaside bartender who knew how to play a reggae-beat. He joined in time to record the third album of which the title track (Doris Day) was a complaint against TV boredom. The song initially had a reference to the legendary movie program host Simon van Collem till it transpired that he was in fact René's father. Henny's other efforts dealt with subjects such as unhappy marriages (Is Dit Alles), failure to quit cigarettes, junkfood and alcohol (OK) and desperately searching for a warm embrace (Radeloos). Ernst delivered songs about getting the cold shoulder (Situatie), sleeping with a 17-year-old (Belle Helene, featuring a sax-solo from the man himself) and dumping a girl for being overexperienced (De Eerste Keer). With Joost he co-wrote Nachtmerrie Op Hol (Nightmare On The Loose) about dreams of revisited exams.

Early 1982 Doe Maar were still playing to below-capacity crowds, but that all changed after the March release of Doris Day which made Nr. 1. Regular television appearances and sellout gigs all over the country mainly attended by teenagers, made Ernst and Henny, already in their 30s, the ultimate pop idols. They enjoyed the success, but Rene's heroin addiction was seen as a problem. Therefore, the band decided to replace him with Jan Pijnenburg (1955). However, Jan P. had made one television-appearance in May before he was hurt in a car crash. René came back while his successor spent the next six months recovering. He played his biggest gig at Pinkpop on May 31 where the band (including Joost who still joined them from time to time) kicked off a sunny day.

Doe Maar's newfound success continued with Is Dit Alles (Is That All; a song that questions the perfect marriage) and gave rise to the Nederpop (New Dutch Wave) explosion; (relatively) young bands singing in their own language at a time when serious music fans snubbed it, something that Ernst was concerned about.

In October Doe Maar made their second appearance at Flaterpop, an indoor-festival celebrating contemporary Dutch-language music and they headlined the first edition of the live-broadcast Veronica's Rocknight following English-language groups Vitesse and Golden Earring. Joost was present, and a few hours into his 36th birthday he triggered off the jam-session by singing Nederwiet.

By the end of 1982 Doe Maar notched up their first number 1-hit with De Bom, a composition of Ernst with the underlying message 'What's the point of making a career/doing your homework when the (atomic) bomb can drop at any moment?'

Virus and overexposure

In January 1983 Jan P. was finally installed for the band's best-remembered line-up (although he spent a few more months walking on crutches). After a warm-up tour they taped a TV-special predominantly miming tracks off their yet-to-release fourth album (recorded with René) including their latest single Pa about a father-/son-dispute with the former mellowed out and the latter still carrying on regardless. Again it hit the top spot. The B-side, Nachtzuster (Nightnurse, written by Henny) was included in the TV-special.

By this time the boys stopped enjoying their success, and shortly after the release of Virus (creatively spelt 4US) in March, Doe Maar temporarily retreated from interviews and radio- and television-appearances.

This decision backfired, as Doe Maar-mania grew even bigger.

Foreign affairs

In September 1983, Doe Maar embarked on their first proper tour of Belgium with a surprise-performance at Flaterpop (October 9) thrown in for good measure. Ernst released his debut novel Gideon's Droom about the East-West theme. Henny recorded his first Dutch-language solo-album (Geen Ballade; released in March 1984) with a little help from his friends. The entire Doe Maar line-up even appeared on closing instrumental Amstel Hotel 13:00.

The band rounded off the year by touring the Dutch Antilles. In between shows (Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten) they recorded a new single. Macho b/w Grote Broer (Big Brother) was released in January 1984 and peaked at No.12.

Breaking up

In February 1984, Doe Maar went into the studio to record their fifth album; however, the band couldn't get into the recording, and during a crisis meeting on February 13 they decided to call it a day. The split was officially announced three days later after a newspaper-leakout. The 8 O Clock News spoke of "weeping teenage-girls who couldn't believe that it was all over".

Shocked by the fans' responses Doe Maar played two farewell-concerts at the Maaspoort in Den Bosch on April 14. Both shows were broadcast live on radio and television and featured special guest-appearances. During the matinee, that didn't sell out, Herman Brood and Belgian musician Jean Blaute joined the band for the first live-performance of Vrienten's duet Als Je Wint (When You're A Winner; a song about success and so-called friends). During the evening, the previous line-ups were briefly revived while Belinfante performed a special version of Nederwiet with improvised lyrics about birds and fish. De Laatste Keer proved to be a fitting closer.

The farewell-concert was first re-released in 1995 on CD and VHS at Free Record Shop only, and is now available on DVD.

Solo-projects

• Ernst Jansz continued working with Jan H.; as members of the reformed CCC Inc and Boudewijn de Groot's touring band. He released two solo-albums, De Overkant (after his second novel) and Molenbeekstraat.
• Henny Vrienten became a composer of film-, TV- and musical-soundtracks. He released three more solo-albums between 1991 and 2015. In 2016 he formed the supergroup Vreemde Kostgangers (Strange Borders) with Golden Earring-guitarist George Kooymans and Boudewijn de Groot.
• Joost Belinfante continued to work with both Jansz and Vrienten and remained involved in short-lived projects. In 1997 he released his second solo-album, Als Een Rivier (Like a River), also the first without any involvement from the Doe Maar-members.
• René van Collem joined funk-/disco-band Spargo for their modestly successful swansong album Step by Step which was released shortly before Doe Maar played their farewell-shows. In 1985 René continued with the established trio Powerplay; in true history repeats-mode he was soon replaced by Jan P. In the 1990s René drummed in several bands including the critically acclaimed Sjako. In 2013, René released his book Heroine, godverdomme (Godddamn heroin), named after the Virus-song inspired by his long-time drug-battle. He now works with teenage addicts when not performing.

A shaky tribute

In preparation for fresh Doe Maar-tracks, a tribute-album was released. Trillend Op M'n Benen (Shaky Legs) featured covers stripped from the ska-/reggae-angle. The re-released 32 Jaar appeared in both Dutch and English (phonetically translated as Tastes Of Sweet Desire). Belgian group dEUS sampled Da Da I Love You by German three-piece Trio for their version of Pa, but permission came too late to have it included on the Dutch release. Only reggae-/rap-trio Postmen, also signed to V2, stayed close to the original with their version of De Bom. Rapper/funnyman Def Rhymz lightened up this doom-laden track with some nonsense-lyrics. It was released on single and became a top 10-hit early 2000.

Dutch dancemusic producer Jonathan Joosten sampled De bom for a dance version he called Tha Bomb. During a try-out concert prior to the reunion concerts he handed a demo to manager Frank van der Meijden. Original author Ernst approved the sample but the original record company and its licensee at the time didn't. The song was pitched to radio 3FM where it was picked up by DJ Rob Stenders, just days prior to the reunion concerts started. After 2 weeks the song was placed on the stations playlist, while there was no record released. The official release of the song, released on Digidance label Paella, contains an interpolation of the sample replayed by studio musicians Bert Meulendijk (guitar), David de Marez Oyens (bass) and vocals by Johnny Kelvin and Addy van der Zwan. Rumour has there was a white label 12" record that did contain the original sample, which was spread amongst Dutch DJ's. Sales of the single dropped after recordshops noted the single was different than the version played on radio, but it did peak the Dutch Dance charts.

Klaar: older and wiser

In February 2000, Doe Maar issued two singles on the same day; Vrienten's Als Niet Als featuring rapper Brainpower, and Jansz anti-violence track Watje which scored nr. 8 in the Dutch Top 40. An album, Klaar (Done), followed in April; Van Collem guested on five tracks while Belinfante was replaced by a three-piece horn-section. Vrienten's lyrics dealt with issues as growing older, and ladies man Jansz has grown up. Hendriks performed his one lead vocal in De Kater (Hangover), a song by Vrienten with a 'Let's drink our worries away and face the consequences later'-theme.

Klaar was released in April 2000 and instantly went gold.

Hees van Ahoy: hoarse throats

Due to overwhelming ticket demand the three reunion-concerts expanded up to a 25-date tour; eight warm-up shows in both the Netherlands and Belgium, 16-nights at the Ahoy plus one date at the Sportpaleis Antwerp. The tour was a success and recorded for the live-cd/DVD Hees van Ahoy, released in November 2000. RTL paired a TV-edit.

More reunions

Boudewijn de Groot's 2004-album Eiland in de Verte (Distant Island) features one song with Ernst, Henny and Jan H.

In 2007 they all attended the premiere of Doe Maar: The Musical for which Henny did supervising work.

Against anyone's expectations Doe Maar played eight shows in 2008 with Joost as the fifth man; four club dates (June), a three-night residency at Rotterdam's Feijenoord Stadium (July 11, 12, 13), and a performance at Belgium's brand new Werchter Boutique-festival. Henny was quoted "This is not a reunion, we're back together".

2012-2017

In September 2012 Doe Maar released the 2 cd Versies/De Limmen Tapes featuring rerecordings of their classic songs plus a brand new track co-written with singer-translator Jan Rot who appeared in the musical. Versies consists of rap-collaborations produced by Postmen's Remon 'Anonymous Mis' Stotijn. In October the band staged a few try-outs for their headlining slot at the Symphonica in Rosso-concert series; Rene van Collem was back on drums replacing Jan P. who now lives in Spain.

Early 2013 Doe Maar embarked on the Glad IJs tour (Slippery Ice Tour). In 2016 they celebrated the 32nd anniversary of their break-up and released a Dutch translation of 54-46 That's My Number with reggae-singer Kenneth Bron. In 2017 the band played at BLØF's annual Concert At Sea among other dates.

Discography

Albums

Other albums

Trillend op mijn benen is a tribute album featuring: Bløf, Postmen feat. Def Rhymz, Rowwen Hèze, Skik, Trijntje Oosterhuis, Caesar, Prodigal Sons, Grof Geschut, Daryll-Ann, Abel, Heideroosjes, Marcel de Groot, Bob Fosko and Osdorp Posse.

Doe Maar! De Popmusical, with sub title 'Met de hits van Henny Vrienten en Ernst Jansz', contains songs from the musical performed by: Daniël Boissevain, Kim-Lian van der Meij, Lenette van Dongen, Jan Rot, Annick Boer, Jan Elbertse, Dorien Haan and Bart Rijnink.

Singles