Golden Earring Tickets

Golden Earring
Golden Earring enjoys a world-wide success as a good, flashy hard-rock band from Holland. There are over 35 Golden Earring albums on the market. Celebrating their 47th anniversary in 2008 Golden Earring has deservedly earned themselves respect throughout Europe and America as the Netherlands longest surviving and successful rock group.

They have developed an impressive live reputation, at times having performed over 200 concerts a year. The band has performed at a number of popular festivals and tours with many famous bands and musicians including The Who, Santana, the Doobie Brothers, Rush, KISS, Aerosmith, The Kinks, Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix etc.

In 1961 George Kooymans (guitarist/vocalist) co-founded an instrumental rock & roll combo, the Tornados, with childhood friend and bassist Rinus Gerritsen. Not long afterward, a British group of the same name had an international hit therefore Koomans changed the band's name to the Golden Earrings.

In 1965, having adopted a British beat style, they became the first Dutch rock group to record a full-length album, Just Earrings. The band subsequently underwent several changes before they secured a Dutch Top 10 hit with their debut release, Please Go (1965).

By this point Kooymans and Gerritsen had been joined by Frans Krassenburg (vocals), Peter De Ronde (guitar) and Jaap Eggermont (drums). Three years later, they scored their first Dutch number one with Dong-Dong-Di-Ki-Di-Gi-Dong, and followed it with another chart-topper, the Kooymans-penned epic Just a Little Bit of Peace in My Heart.

Earrings first album released was a mixture of ideas with none of them being particularly original. However the production work wasn't too bad considering the band were mixing five tracks a day! In 1969 Eggermont left the group to become a producer and was eventually supplanted by Cesar Zuiderwijk in 1969 as they began courting an international audience with their compulsive Eight Miles High which included one of the most imaginative bass guitar solos ever heard.

Meanwhile the band shortened its name to Golden Earring and set about revamping its sound to keep up with the times, eventually settling on a straightforward, hard-rocking brand of AOR. After years of experimenting with various music styles, they settled for a straight, hard rock sound and in 1972 Golden Earring were invited to support the Who on a European tour.

Hay and Kooymans subsequently co-wrote much of Golden Earring's material, including the international smash Radar Love, which broke them in America in 1974 and remains an album rock radio staple. This album was a progression showing more of the individual talents of the band and helped to break the band worldwide, proving them to be mainstream blues-rock professionals.

Robert Jan Stips left the quartet between 1974 and 1976 and was replaced by Eelco Gelling. However, by the end of the decade, the group reverted to its basic line-up of Kooymans, Gerritsen, Hay and Zuiderwijk, who continued to forge an imaginative brand of rock.

The band stayed popular in Holland while it took them until '82 to be recognized again elsewhere. Forced to retool their sound because of punk and new wave, they returned to international prominence in 1982 with the album Cut and the U.S. Top Ten hit Twilight Zone, a Kooymans composition. This was followed by a triumphant tour of the USA and Canada, where further chart success was secured with Lady Smiles'.

Something Heavy Going Down was recorded live in Leiden, Holland in 1984, as a back home concert after their return from their final US tour. The Something Heavy Going Down Live album cd released in 2001is just as good as the 1977 live album and features most of the songs from the albums Cut and N.E.W.S..

The concert is recorded in Holland and Barry talks to the audience in Dutch which is a nice touch. Radar Love enjoyed a second round of popularity when pop-metal band White Lion covered the song in 1989. Golden Earring returned to a major label in 1990 and recorded a string of successful albums and singles that lasted right up into the new millennium.

The live performances by Golden Earring have always been very dynamic and entertaining and have led to several live albums. According to a 1973, review of a show in a local magazine, the venues used to be jam packed and the sea of human flesh rolling before the band pounded and throbbed with the vibrations of the ultimate in ballsy bass sounds.

Their sound was fairly funky with some good melodic riffs and intricate playing occasionally featuring electronic effects as an enhancement of the overall rather than a substitute. Added to the audio were the visuals. Cesar Zuiderwijk was a real exhibitionist, bending over backwards, throwing his sticks into the air and catching them with impeccable timing.

He was into parachuting and would bring Radar Love to a climax, following a high speed drum solo, by vaulting over his kit with the arrogance and poise of a trained athlete. The band rocked in no uncertain terms with a maximum of visual excitement and action.

Based on the Walk Of Fame or Sony's Star Boulevard the band now has their own tile in Hoogeveen Walk of Veen with the hand prints of all four members. The band members cooperated for this at the foyer of the Tamboer theatre one afternoon in January. Golden Earring is the product of many years working together and it shows no doubt.