The pride of our own soil! You have to see The Earring live at least once, and you still can. I have had the pleasure of seeing them live "naked" twice.
Golden Earring
Golden Earring (known as The Golden Earrings until 1969) is a Dutch rock band. The group was founded in 1961 and is therefore (together with the band Bintangs, also founded in 1961) the oldest still existing rock band in the Netherlands and one of the longest-standing bands in the world. Golden Earring has had international success with their hits Radar Love, Twilight Zone and When the Lady Smiles, and their albums Moontan and Cut.
As one of the few Dutch bands, Golden Earring has achieved large-scale international success, especially due to their hits Radar Love, Twilight Zone and When the Lady Smiles, and their albums Moontan and Cut. The band has sold millions of albums worldwide and enjoyed international star status in the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in the United States. Golden Earring holds a dominant position in the Dutch music world, with more than thirty gold and platinum albums.
Golden Earring holds the status of one of the world's oldest rock bands (founded in 1961). The current lineup has been continuously active since 1970, a virtually unique fact in the international rock world. In 2009, Golden Earring made their comeback in England with concerts in Ipswich and London. In summer 2011, the band's latest album was recorded live in London, with producer Chris Kimsey, who has worked with the Rolling Stones among others. In October 2011, TNT Post issued a special stamp to mark the band's fiftieth anniversary, and there was an exhibition at the Hague Historical Museum. In 2011, it was exactly half a century since the predecessor of Golden Earring was founded, although the band prefers to see 1965 as their official founding year because that was when their first single Please Go was released. On 11 May 2012, the release of Tits 'n Ass took place at Paradiso in Amsterdam; this also reached number 1, making it the band's fifth album to reach the top of the charts.
Many fellow musicians express their appreciation for Golden Earring, such as the Rolling Stones and U2, who often play "Radar Love" during concerts in the Netherlands. Steve Harris of Iron Maiden has been a loyal fan of Golden Earring for years, and his band has covered the Earring song "Kill Me (Ce Soir)" and recorded it. Also, many commercials and feature films in the Netherlands and the US use Golden Earring songs, mostly their biggest international hit "Radar Love", which has now been performed by more than three hundred artists.
In 2008, the song "When the Lady Smiles" became one of Hillary Clinton's campaign songs. Earlier, her husband Bill Clinton had already used the hit single "Radar Love" during the 1992 US primaries.
In 2011, "Radar Love" was voted "The Best Driving Song Ever" by viewers of the British TV programme Top Gear.
End of an era
In February 2021, it became known that guitarist Kooymans has ALS, an incurable disease that affects muscle function. Singer Barry Hay then announced that Golden Earring would also stop performing. This year marks exactly sixty years since the band was founded.
At the end of 2020, George Kooymans informed the other band members about the ALS diagnosis. Singer Barry Hay, drummer Cesar Zuiderwijk and bassist Rinus Gerritsen kept the bad news to themselves, but it leaked prematurely on Friday morning. Kooymans responded briefly by phone this afternoon: "I am indeed ill, I have ALS. It is very unpleasant news and I am not really in the mood to say much more about it. I am under treatment at the university hospital in Leuven. That’s it."
Circle of friends
Whatever the progression of Kooymans' illness, continuing with a different lineup is not an option. "That will never happen," say both Hay and Zuiderwijk. "We are a group of four irreplaceable friends. A new band member? That wouldn't fit," says Zuiderwijk. "Let's just be happy with the fantastic 60 years we've experienced."
Top 2000
Golden Earring has no less than 18 songs in the 23rd edition of the Top 2000:
The NPO Radio 2 Top 2000 Award goes to Golden Earring in 2021. Voters have taken the list of lists as an opportunity to pay tribute to the legendary band from The Hague, which stopped that year. NPO Radio 2 honours this homage with the Top 2000 Award, with which the station annually puts a Dutch artist or band in the spotlight. Previous winners include DI-RECT, Danny Vera and Davina Michelle. The Golden Earring classic Radar Love forms a prominent part of the spectacular show with which DJ Bart Arens opens the list of lists immediately at 00:00 on Christmas Day. Arens: "With eighteen entries in the Top 2000, Golden Earring is for the first time the top supplier from our own soil. Radar Love, now at number six, has never been this high before."
Compared to last year's Top 2000, the number of Golden Earring songs has increased by seven; three of these are on the list for the very first time. All eleven entries from last year are now higher. Weekend Love (at 746; a gain of 906 places) and Sound Of The Screaming Day (at 1119; 866 places higher) are even among the biggest climbers in the 23rd Top 2000.
Sunday Morning Classic: Face It
Golden Earring was featured on 14-02-2021 as Sunday Morning Classic with the album Face It from 1994.
Inspired by the unexpected and spectacular success of The Naked Truth, Golden Earring opted to make a CD with new acoustic songs. To avoid alienating fans of the band's intense electronic side, a collection of rock songs was added. The result of this two-sided approach is a remarkable diversity of songs.
Besides the familiar straightforward rock songs like Liquid Soul and Legalize Telepathy, Face It also contains The Unforgettable Dream, embellished with bandoneon and strings, the intimate songs Spaceship and I Can’t Do Without Your Kiss, and the exuberant Johnny Make Believe.
Face It is the result of the acoustic touring Golden Earring was doing around the time of the release of this 1994 album. The album, recorded live in guitarist George Kooymans' home studio, has a spontaneity and handmade touch that had been missing from the group's output since the mid-1980s. The fact that Face It was recorded live in the studio does not mean the album lacks polish; the songs are tightly arranged and feature some major production accents such as string sections, backup vocalists and unexpected instruments like the accordion. The result is an album that sounds both lush and lively.
In 1994, the album Face It was released by Golden Earring. An album made in the wake of their first naked adventure. After The Naked Truth, The Earring gained a new reputation in the current music scene. With Face It, they delivered an album that showcases the diversity of these musical heroes.
Face It was accompanied by the documentary Making Face It. A making-of documentary with live performances of the album. A rock song Livin’ with me was one of my favourites. Unfortunately, this song never went further than the B-side of the single Hold Me Now. The documentary has never been reissued since the advent of the DVD. The ideal special edition of Face It would be the album with the bonus track Livin’ with me and the bonus DVD Making Face It.
Face It bares the band’s soul. Here the gentlemen are at their strongest.
https://golden-earring.nl/
source: Jan Liebregts, NPO and Wikipedia photo: Corné Henri Bibo
