Kayak
| Kayak | |
|---|---|
.png) Kayak, 1974 (from left to right: Max Werner, Pim Koopman, Johan Slager, Ton Scherpenzeel, Bert Veldkamp) |
|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Kind of rock |
| founding | 1972 |
| Website | http://www.kayakonline.nl |
| Founding members | |
| Max Werner (until 1981; 2000) | |
| Cees van Leeuwe (until 1974) | |
| Johan Slager | |
Drums , guitar |
Pim Koopman (* 1953; † 2009) |
Keyboard , bass |
Ton Scherpenzeel |
| Current occupation | |
singing |
Bart Schwermann |
Drums |
Collin Leijenaar |
Keyboards, vocals |
Ton Scherpenzeel |
Guitars, vocals |
Marcel Singor |
Bass, vocals |
Kristoffer Gildenlöw |
Kayak is a Dutch type rock band. She attracted attention especially during the 1970s. Hits like Starlight Dancer or Ruthless Queen made the Hilversum music group internationally known.
Band history
Kayak was founded in Hilversum in 1968 by Ton Scherpenzeel and drummer Pim Koopman, who attended a music conservatory there. After guitarist Johan Slager, bassist Cees van Leeuwen and singer Max Werner joined them, the band consolidated in 1972 and they started working on their first album. In 1982 the band broke up after nine albums.
In 1999 the members came together for a television show. Then the band formed anew. At the reunion, Max Werner was there again, who was a singer with Kayak from 1972 to 1981, but had left the group due to a solo career.
style
Her debut album See see the sun is an example of pure progressive rock , her later albums then developed in the direction of pop-oriented art rock. In Germany they had a radio hit with Ruthless Queen at the end of the 1970s.
Released in the 2000s: KAYAKoustic (2007), Nostradamus - The Fate of Man (July 12, 2005), Merlin - Bard of the Unseen (2003), Night Vision (2001), the double live CD Chance for a Live Time (2001) and Close to the Fire (2000). Before that, the members around Ton Scherpenzeel, who had meanwhile played for Camel and initiated the Kajem classical music project, had not released an album since 1981 (Merlin). Nostradamus - The Fate of Man is also a soundtrack for the musical production of the same name. It was performed in 32 Dutch cities with great success with 13 participants in 2004 and 2005.
In January 2008 the studio album Coming up for air was released with various lead singers who have already proven themselves in the unplugged project KAYAKoustic and the lavishly staged Nostradamus tour, including the longtime singer (and successor to Max Werner) Edward Reekers with it. Kayak celebrated their 35th stage anniversary with the coming up for air tour from January to October 2008 . The then published compilation The Anniversary Box 1973-2008 contains a cross-section of the musical work as well as a DVD with the recording of the final concert of the tour, recorded at Paradiso in Amsterdam .
With an unchanged line-up, Kayak released her album Letters from Utopia in September 2009 , which consists of 19 tracks, spread over two CDs. The corresponding tour again led through numerous Dutch cities and took place in the last quarter of 2009.
On November 23, 2009, Pim Koopman, the band's drummer, died of sudden cardiac death. All upcoming dates of the current tour were then canceled. Pim Koopman was replaced by Hans Eijkjenaar on drums. On November 22, 2010, a tribute concert in memory of the deceased drummer took place in the Amsterdam Paradiso. As guests came u. a. Singers from the groups Time Bandits, Pussycat, Maywood and Diesel. A DVD of this concert was released in 2011 ( Kayak & Guests with a tribute to Pim Koopman ). In 2011 the band released the album Anywhere but here , in November 2014 the concept album Cleopatra - The Crown of Isis as a double CD. This was financed through crowdfunding; the kayak crowdfunders are listed in the booklet on the double CD. The title song of the new album had already been released as a maxi CD two years earlier. In addition, there is a 10-minute version of a previously unreleased song from 1971: Symmetry penned by Ton Scherpenzeel and Pim Koopmann.
In January 2015, according to the band's homepage, singer Edward Reekers and singer Cindy Oudshoorn announced that they would leave Kayak. In December 2014 the two played their last concerts as part of the Cleopatra tour.
Discography
Albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
 NL
|
|||
| 1978 | Starlight Dancer |
NL15 (5 weeks) NL |
|
| 1979 | Phantom of the Night |
NL1  (22 weeks)NL |
|
| 1980 | Periscope Life |
NL3 (15 weeks) NL |
|
| 1981 | Merlin |
NL12 (12 weeks) NL |
|
| 2000 | Close to the fire |
NL54 (6 weeks) NL |
|
| 2005 | Nostradamus - The Fate of Man |
NL87 (3 weeks) NL |
|
| 2008 | Coming Up for Air |
NL41 (10 weeks) NL |
|
| 2009 | Letters from Utopia |
NL67 (4 weeks) NL |
|
| 2011 | Anywhere but Here |
NL85 (1 week) NL |
|
| 2014 | Cleopatra - The Crown of Isis |
NL59 (1 week) NL |
|
| 2015 | The Golden Years of Dutch Pop Music |
NL90 (2 weeks) NL |
|
| 2017 | Journey Through Time |
NL54 (1 week) NL |
|
| 2018 | Seventeen |
NL6 (2 weeks) NL |
More albums
- See See the Sun (1973)
- Kayak II (1974)
- Royal Bed Bouncer (1975)
- The Last Encore (1976)
- Eyewitness (1981)
- Night Vision (2001)
- Chance for a Livetime (live, 2001)
- Merlin - Bard of the Unseen (Live-DVD, 2003)
- Kayakoustic (live, 2007)
- The Anniversary Concert (live, 2008)
- The Anniversary Box (live compilation, 2008)
- Kayak & Guests with a Tribute to Pim Koopman (live, 2011)
- Seventeen (2018)
Web links
- Official website (English, Dutch)