Kayak | |
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Kayak in 1974
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Background information | |
Origin | Netherlands |
Genres | Progressive rock |
Years active | 1972–1982 1999–present |
Labels |
Harvest Records Smh Records Nl |
Website | www.kayakonline.info |
Members |
Ton Scherpenzeel Rob Vunderink Joost Vergoossen Jan van Olffen Hans Eijkenaar |
Past members |
Max Werner Johan Slager Pim Koopman Cees van Leeuwen Bert Veldkamp Theo de Jong Charles Schouten Peter Scherpenzeel Irene Linders Katherine Lapthorn Rob Winter Bert Heerink Monique van der Ster Edward Reekers Cindy Oudshoorn |
Kayak are a Dutch progressive rock band formed in 1972 in the city Hilversum by Ton Scherpenzeel and Pim Koopman. In 1973, their debut album "See See The Sun" was released, including three hit singles. Their main popularity was in the Netherlands, with their top hit (Ruthless Queen) reaching No. 6 on the Dutch charts in March 1979. They disbanded in 1982 after releasing nine albums.
In 1999 the band was asked to perform on the TV show De Vrienden van Amstel Live. After this performance, they decided to reform, and released seven further studio albums and three live albums. On 4 January 2008 they released Coming Up For Air. That same day saw the start of their 35th anniversary-tour. On 7 October 2008, they ended the tour at the Paradiso in Amsterdam. The concert was released on CD and DVD as The Anniversary Box in December 2008.
In October 2009 the band embarked on a Dutch tour. According to Ton Scherpenzeel (on the band's website), after that tour Kayak would no longer do the album-tour-album-tour cycle. They would probably keep on making new music though, as Scherpenzeel stated. But the sudden and unexpected death of Pim Koopman in November 2009 (halfway through the tour) made the future of the band very uncertain.
In May 2010, the band's website announced a tribute concert for Pim Koopman. The concert was held on 22 November at the Paradiso. It involved not only Kayak, but also some artists with whom Koopman had worked in the past. Some of the names that appeared on stage: Pussycat, Caren Maywood, Alides Hidding, José Hoebee and Michael Robinson. Okkie Huysdens (with whom Koopman formed The President) and Jeroen Engelbert (one of many members of Koopman's band Diesel) also performed. For the occasion, Kayak used Hans Voerman as an extra keyboard player. The drumstool was occupied by Hans Eijkenaar. After the concert, Kayak announced that Eijkenaar was the new drummer of Kayak. With Eijkenaar on drums, Kayak released their album Anywhere But Here in September 2011.