Henny Vrienten
Encyclopedia
Henny Vrienten is a Dutch
composer of TV- and film-scores. He used to be the singer, songwriter
and bass guitar
player of the popular eighties ska
pop band Doe Maar
.
alongside Ernst Jansz, two months his senior.
Henny also finds time to record an album with US producer Tom Salisbury. Paul Santos (released early 1977) and extracted single Lift Me Up Higher become a live-to-regret-experience, and in 1982 Henny confesses that "it still causes me nightmares."
alcohol-fuelled chocolate
) and records demos at his garage. He gets an offer from fellow Boudewijn de Groot
-collaborator Ernst Jansz
to join his band Doe Maar
but turns it down, questioning the survival prospects of a Dutch-language group playing for fun. In 1980 he changes his tune after splitting with his wife and her two teenage sons; not only does he join Doe Maar
, he also delivers the last three songs for the second album, adds the ska/reggae flavour that was largely absent on the predecessor, and designs the green/pink-sleeve.
Skunk is belatedly released in March 1981, 32 Jaar (32 Years) being the lead single and a hit. Follow-up Smoorverliefd (Smitten) misses the top 40, but with the 1982-released Doris Day (a complaint against TV boredom) Doe Maar
break through and become key-figures of the New Dutch Wave-explosion. Initially they enjoy their newfound popularity, but six months down the line Henny starts having his doubts: "what makes those teenage-girls fancy a thirtysomething? Is this what I want?" The answer is no, and the first thing he does is quit reading the now predictable fanmail.
In March 1983, by which time the fourth album Virus (4US) is released, Doe Maar
announce a six-month publicity-ban (i.e., no interviews and radio-/TV-appearances). This completely backfires as Doe Maar
-mania spirals out of control, and it's not only the band who are fed up. At the annual Pinkpop
festival, where they move from bottom-act to headliner, they're targeted with apples for selling out to the teen-mags and turning the festival into a glorified children's matinee. Although Henny refuses to give in ("Anyone fancy an apple?") he clearly gets the message; "(Applegate) was a wake-up call; it made us realise that we couldn't go on like this."
In between tours of Belgium
and the Netherlands Antilles
, Henny records his first Dutch-language solo-album, Geen Ballade which he releases in March 1984, a few weeks before Doe Maar
play two farewell shows for live broadcast.
Instead of embarking on a solo-tour, Henny decides to stretch himself by writing TV and film-scores (album-track Amstel Hotel 13:00 is described in the 2000 Doe Maar
-biography as an application letter) and producing for other artists, including Dutch
-born Belgian Raymond van het Groenewoud
, whose Habba is a fine example of what Doe Maar
might have sounded like had they decided to destroy the recordings for the fifth album and start from scratch. Eager to shake off his green/pink past he tells Music Maker magazine in 1985 "you can flush Doris Day down the toilet anytime you like; it's the worst song I ever wrote. Rhyming for rhyming's sake and stuff; and the worst thing of all is that it drew full crowd participation every night." Still, when all ex-Doe Maar
-members appear at a benefit-concert with their individual projects they end up doing the inevitable.
-member Joost Belinfante.
A new solo-album is in the pipeline but held back by the release of a Best Of-album; the expected Doe Maar
-revival never happened, and in early 1992 Mijn Hart Slaapt Nooit (My Heart Never Sleeps) saw the light of day. As with Geen Ballade the album received minimal promotion. At the end of the year all Doe Maar
-members reunited to support 1960s outfit CCC Inc. (featuring Ernst Jansz
and Joost Belinfante) at their 25th anniversary concert. Only few people notice.
In the mid-1990s a new generation of Dutch
-language acts emerged; Henny ended up collaborating with rap-group Osdorp Posse
.
Counting Crows
) spent a whole tour playing a Doe Maar
-covers-only set. The band attended the show at the Amsterdam
Paradiso
and on November 1, 1999 they announced their reunion for one last album and a 25-date tour of the Netherlands and Belgium
consisting of eight club shows, a record-breaking 16-night stint at the Ahoy Rotterdam, and a stadium-show at the Antwerp Sportpaleis. Klaar (Done) was released in April 2000 and the band finally gained respect from pop critics who previously criticized them off for singing in Dutch
.
by seven years) and Henk Hofstede (frontman of The Nits). Aardige jongens (Nice Guys) was promoted with a theatre-tour that saw them perform tracks from the album as well as individual oldies. The last show, in January 2009, ended on a sour note as Hofstede fell into the orchestra pit.
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
composer of TV- and film-scores. He used to be the singer, songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
and bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
player of the popular eighties ska
Ska
Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...
pop band Doe Maar
Doe Maar
Doe Maar was 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.-Early years:Doe Maar was formed...
.
Early days
Beginning his career in the late 1960s as a member of local outfit Les Cruches, Henny spends the early 1970s writing songs for others and recording two himself as Ruby Carmichael. He also works and tours with singer-songwriter Boudewijn de GrootBoudewijn de Groot
Boudewijn de Groot is a famous Dutch singer/songwriter. He is known for the songs "Welterusten Meneer de President" , "Land van Maas en Waal" , "Jimmy" and "Avond" among others...
alongside Ernst Jansz, two months his senior.
Henny also finds time to record an album with US producer Tom Salisbury. Paul Santos (released early 1977) and extracted single Lift Me Up Higher become a live-to-regret-experience, and in 1982 Henny confesses that "it still causes me nightmares."
Doe Maar
Quickly moving on to other stuff, Henny plays in several bands including the one night-only reggae-outfit Rumbones (Rumboon; DutchNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
alcohol-fuelled chocolate
Chocolate
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
) and records demos at his garage. He gets an offer from fellow Boudewijn de Groot
Boudewijn de Groot
Boudewijn de Groot is a famous Dutch singer/songwriter. He is known for the songs "Welterusten Meneer de President" , "Land van Maas en Waal" , "Jimmy" and "Avond" among others...
-collaborator Ernst Jansz
Ernst Jansz
Ernst Gideon Jansz is one of the founding members and frontmen of Doe Maar. Doe Maar is a Dutch 1980s ska/reggae band, and is considered one of the most successful bands in Dutch pop history....
to join his band Doe Maar
Doe Maar
Doe Maar was 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.-Early years:Doe Maar was formed...
but turns it down, questioning the survival prospects of a Dutch-language group playing for fun. In 1980 he changes his tune after splitting with his wife and her two teenage sons; not only does he join Doe Maar
Doe Maar
Doe Maar was 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.-Early years:Doe Maar was formed...
, he also delivers the last three songs for the second album, adds the ska/reggae flavour that was largely absent on the predecessor, and designs the green/pink-sleeve.
Skunk is belatedly released in March 1981, 32 Jaar (32 Years) being the lead single and a hit. Follow-up Smoorverliefd (Smitten) misses the top 40, but with the 1982-released Doris Day (a complaint against TV boredom) Doe Maar
Doe Maar
Doe Maar was 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.-Early years:Doe Maar was formed...
break through and become key-figures of the New Dutch Wave-explosion. Initially they enjoy their newfound popularity, but six months down the line Henny starts having his doubts: "what makes those teenage-girls fancy a thirtysomething? Is this what I want?" The answer is no, and the first thing he does is quit reading the now predictable fanmail.
In March 1983, by which time the fourth album Virus (4US) is released, Doe Maar
Doe Maar
Doe Maar was 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.-Early years:Doe Maar was formed...
announce a six-month publicity-ban (i.e., no interviews and radio-/TV-appearances). This completely backfires as Doe Maar
Doe Maar
Doe Maar was 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.-Early years:Doe Maar was formed...
-mania spirals out of control, and it's not only the band who are fed up. At the annual Pinkpop
Pinkpop
Pinkpop Festival, or Pinkpop for short, is an annual festival held at Landgraaf, Netherlands. It is held annually on the Pentecost weekend...
festival, where they move from bottom-act to headliner, they're targeted with apples for selling out to the teen-mags and turning the festival into a glorified children's matinee. Although Henny refuses to give in ("Anyone fancy an apple?") he clearly gets the message; "(Applegate) was a wake-up call; it made us realise that we couldn't go on like this."
In between tours of Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
and the Netherlands Antilles
Netherlands Antilles
The Netherlands Antilles , also referred to informally as the Dutch Antilles, was an autonomous Caribbean country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, consisting of two groups of islands in the Lesser Antilles: Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao , in Leeward Antilles just off the Venezuelan coast; and Sint...
, Henny records his first Dutch-language solo-album, Geen Ballade which he releases in March 1984, a few weeks before Doe Maar
Doe Maar
Doe Maar was 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.-Early years:Doe Maar was formed...
play two farewell shows for live broadcast.
Instead of embarking on a solo-tour, Henny decides to stretch himself by writing TV and film-scores (album-track Amstel Hotel 13:00 is described in the 2000 Doe Maar
Doe Maar
Doe Maar was 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.-Early years:Doe Maar was formed...
-biography as an application letter) and producing for other artists, including Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
-born Belgian Raymond van het Groenewoud
Raymond van het Groenewoud
Raymond van het Groenewoud is one of the most popular Belgian music artists. He is of Dutch and Jewish descent and sings mostly in Flemish. His career started in 1973 and he has since scored many hits in Flanders and the Netherlands, in many different styles...
, whose Habba is a fine example of what Doe Maar
Doe Maar
Doe Maar was 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.-Early years:Doe Maar was formed...
might have sounded like had they decided to destroy the recordings for the fifth album and start from scratch. Eager to shake off his green/pink past he tells Music Maker magazine in 1985 "you can flush Doris Day down the toilet anytime you like; it's the worst song I ever wrote. Rhyming for rhyming's sake and stuff; and the worst thing of all is that it drew full crowd participation every night." Still, when all ex-Doe Maar
Doe Maar
Doe Maar was 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.-Early years:Doe Maar was formed...
-members appear at a benefit-concert with their individual projects they end up doing the inevitable.
Solo career
From 1986 to 1991 Henny plays ancient tunes like Teddy Bear's Picknick with Magnificent Seven, whose members include singer/advert composer Fay Lovsky and unofficial fifth Doe MaarDoe Maar
Doe Maar was 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.-Early years:Doe Maar was formed...
-member Joost Belinfante.
A new solo-album is in the pipeline but held back by the release of a Best Of-album; the expected Doe Maar
Doe Maar
Doe Maar was 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.-Early years:Doe Maar was formed...
-revival never happened, and in early 1992 Mijn Hart Slaapt Nooit (My Heart Never Sleeps) saw the light of day. As with Geen Ballade the album received minimal promotion. At the end of the year all Doe Maar
Doe Maar
Doe Maar was 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.-Early years:Doe Maar was formed...
-members reunited to support 1960s outfit CCC Inc. (featuring Ernst Jansz
Ernst Jansz
Ernst Gideon Jansz is one of the founding members and frontmen of Doe Maar. Doe Maar is a Dutch 1980s ska/reggae band, and is considered one of the most successful bands in Dutch pop history....
and Joost Belinfante) at their 25th anniversary concert. Only few people notice.
In the mid-1990s a new generation of Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
-language acts emerged; Henny ended up collaborating with rap-group Osdorp Posse
Osdorp Posse
Osdorp Posse was one of the first rap groups to produce rap music in Dutch language. ‘The Posse’ was formed in 1989 by Def-P , King , IJsblok and Seda...
.
Doe Maar; the reunion
In 1999, the four-piece rockband Blof (also referred to as the DutchNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
Counting Crows
Counting Crows
Counting Crows is an American rock band originating from Berkeley, California. Formed in 1991, the group gained popularity following the release of its debut album in 1993, August and Everything After, which featured the hit single "Mr. Jones"...
) spent a whole tour playing a Doe Maar
Doe Maar
Doe Maar was 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.-Early years:Doe Maar was formed...
-covers-only set. The band attended the show at the Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
Paradiso
Paradiso (Amsterdam)
Paradiso is an iconic rock music venue and cultural center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.-History:It is housed in a converted former church building that dates from the nineteenth century and that was used until 1965 as the meeting hall for a liberal Dutch religious group known as the "Vrije...
and on November 1, 1999 they announced their reunion for one last album and a 25-date tour of the Netherlands and Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
consisting of eight club shows, a record-breaking 16-night stint at the Ahoy Rotterdam, and a stadium-show at the Antwerp Sportpaleis. Klaar (Done) was released in April 2000 and the band finally gained respect from pop critics who previously criticized them off for singing in Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
.
New album
In 2008 Henny recorded an album with contemporaries Frank Boeijen (whose Frank Boeijen Groep outlasted Doe MaarDoe Maar
Doe Maar was 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.-Early years:Doe Maar was formed...
by seven years) and Henk Hofstede (frontman of The Nits). Aardige jongens (Nice Guys) was promoted with a theatre-tour that saw them perform tracks from the album as well as individual oldies. The last show, in January 2009, ended on a sour note as Hofstede fell into the orchestra pit.