I'm sure you guys don't know the Dutch guitar player Cock de Jong. (I believe they changed his first name for UK and US releases...) Cock was a dear friend. He used to play in The Rousers, with some minor hit singles in the UK, and The Thought, with some interest in the US. They played Holland's most famous venue Paradiso about twenty times in the late seventies and early eighties and they did support slots for bands as REM and The Jam.
The last ten years he played with his brother Theo in The Shavers. Only surf guitar, heavy drums and a fat, tatood guy shouting Dutch lyrics abolut sex, booze and the bad things of low fat margerinine. Because they had no bass player he played his Fender Tele's through a couple of Fender Devilles and an Ampeg bass head + 8x10. It sounded PHAT!
I'm a good friend of this band, the singer is my whisky-drink partner, I worked with the drummer and I toured with the band as merhandise guy and roadie. And we did some support slots with my former band. Cock was a real hero for a lot of musicians around were I live.
Cock fought against cancer in his tongue and throat the last year. He did a farewell concert some months ago which was breath taking and very emotional. He died saturday, at the age of 55. I just wanted to share this.
The sleeve of this album is made by Dutch cartoon artist Joost Swarte. He's like the Dutch Hergé (Tintin). This album was the Dutch answer to the late 70s UK beat. I helped promoting the re-release of this nice album.
