GARDEN OF LOVE piet veerman

historie 1965 The Cats release their first single Jukebox and sign to the Imperial label. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1966 The band's first hit single is What A Crazy Life. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1968 The band goes professional. Up until now the singles released by the Cats have only just failed to enter the charts. But that's about to change. The next six-and-a-half year the band will score no less than sixteen Top 10 hits, beginning with the number two hit Times Were When. The Cats' success is attributed to their new musical style. Whereas their music was initially rather rough, the focus is now on melodic compositions and close harmonies. The Cats spearhead the so-called 'paling sound', a term made up by prominent Dutch DJ Joost den Draaijer. Other groups in this genre are BZN, Canyon, Jen Rog, Left Side and Next One, but also the George Baker Selection, Ferrari and Classics. The first number one hit for the Cats is Lea, a song written by bassist Arnold Mühren. Only the Beatles, Abba, Queen, Michael Jackson and George Michael have scored more number one hits in the Netherlands than the Cats. BZN, Canyon, Ferrari, George Baker, Jen Rog, Left Side, Next One, The Classics, Wim Jongbloed -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1969 The Cats' next number 1 hits are Why and Marian, both of which are written by Muhren. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1970 The band's next number 1 is written by Piet Veerman and is called Where Have I Been Wrong. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1971 The Cats have 3 hit records in West Germany with Be My Day, Let's Dance and One Way Wind and go on stadium tours of Indonesia (1971) and Surinam (1972). Less successful are their attempts to conquer the UK and US markets. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1972 Due to problems with his voice singer Cees Veerman has to take a break from the band. Roadie Piet Keizer replaces him. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1973 The book The Cats - Een Hollands Succesverhaal ('A Dutch Success Story') is published. The band goes to the US to record the album Love In Your Eyes with American producer Al Capps. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1974 Love In Your Eyes is released in the US but the Americans are not impressed. In The Netherlands The Cats score yet another number 1 hit with Be My Day. Nevertheless, the band seems to have lost its creativity and announces that they will go their separate ways. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1975 The Cats get back together and release the album We Should Be Together. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1980 Again, the Cats announce that they are going to break up. Their last recording is the song The End Of The Show. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1983 When a documentary about the Cats is shown on television, the fans call for a reunion. The band reunites and scores several, smaller, hits. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1985 When singer Piet Veerman announces he prefers a solo career to the band, it definitely is the end of the show for the Cats. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1994 Cees Veerman, Arnold Muhren and Jaap Schilder record the album Shine with Jan Akkerman (guitar) and Flaco Jimenez (accordion). Jan Akkerman -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2001 Cats drummer Theo Klouwer dies of heart failure at the age of 53. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2002 EMI releases an unauthorized Cats Anthology boxed set, featuring three CD's and one DVD. Two of the CD's contain all the hits. The third CD consists of rarities, whereas the DVD is a collection of filmed promo material. Out of protest, the remaining band members don't show up at the launch party. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2005 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2006 The Cats reunite for a one-off. Forty years after the recordings of its debut single, the band cuts two new tracks, both written by John Ewbank (of Marco Borsato fame). The two new tracks - The Best Years Of My Life en Those Were The Days - are included on a sampler released by the end of April. On March 23 the band receives a Royal Decoration. The boxed set Those Were The Days reaches the gold status in July, acknowledging sales in excess 35.000 copies.