Martha & The Pinguins
Saturday, 6 November 2010
In the early eighties i played the drums in a band called “Martha & The Pinguins”. With John van Dijk, who played the bass, i had been in a band with Ricky Roccoco before. Martha (whose second name i cannot remember) was the singer, and Louwrens Jordaan played guitar.
I tell you all this because our daughter just discovered some embarrassing pictures of this band, taken in Hoofddorp, where there was some kind of music festival. I have tried very hard to forget all this, but it is now so long ago that i don’t mind anymore.
After a year or so the band got a rhythm guitarist, Max Nel, and after a while Max, Louwrens and i started a new band, King of the Neighbourhood, with Dirk Hoogeveen on bass.
I used to have cassettes with rehearsals of Martha & The Pinguins, but i don’t have them any longer. But i do still have some cassettes of King of the Neighbourhood. The best recordings are some tapes that were made at Max’ home, a two room appartment in Amsterdam West, where we rehearsed.
Here is a song from one of those tapes, written by Louwrens, who is the only one who is still in a band. I used to love Louwrens’s songs, and i wish i had more cassettes of them, even though we were a pretty lousy band.