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highplainsdem

(59,333 posts)
Tue Apr 26, 2022, 12:39 PM Apr 2022

Henny Vrienten, a Dutch pop star and later bandmate of Golden Earring's founder, died yesterday.

He was 73.

His ska/reggae band Doe Maar was very successful in the Netherlands in the '70s and '80s. There's video of them sharing a stage, jamming, with Golden Earring and another Dutch group, Vitesse, and I'll post that below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doe_Maar

In 2016, Vrienten formed the supergroup Vreemde Kostgangers (Strange Boarders) with Golden Earring founder, songwriter and lead guitarist George Kooymans, and Boudewijn de Groot, a singer-somgwriter (born in a Japanese concentration camp in the Dutch East Indies in 1944) best known for protest songs starting in the 1960s. They made a couple of albums and toured. Not bad for a trio starting out with two members in their late 60s and one in his 70s. (Kooymans was still with Golden Earring; this was a side project.)

I haven't seen anything about the cause of death yet. I did see some posts mentioning ALS, but those were from people confusing Vrienten's illness with the ALS Kooymans was diagnosed with a year and a half ago.

Here's a clip from the Dutch TV show Veronica's Popnacht in 1982, with Doe Maar jamming with Golden Earring and Vitesse. The first song, mostly instrumental, is Doe Maar's "Nederwiet" - and that's Vrienten at about 5:17, sharing a mic with Kooymans. The second song there, starting at 5:40, is Vitesse's "Steady Rollin' Man." Then "Radar Love" starts at 9:17 (with Vrienten next to Golden Earring bass play Rinus Gerritsen).




Vreemde Kostgangers, live at Theater Carre, Amsterdam, in 2016. The song is one of Doe Maar's hits -- "Is Dit Alles" -- which was written by Vrienten.




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