“It’s the fear of every musician.” Arnold Kuik, guitarist of Mooi Wark, knows what he is talking about. He has seen many fellow artist fall off the stage. Last night it happened to him himself, during a performance at the TT Festival in Assen.
“We were busy with the fourth song, from AC/DC. There were podium lifters and I wanted to,” Kuik looks back. “I went from the side, but it was a bit too high for me. It was also wet and a cable was walking over it. I felt my leg with which I dropped out of it. Then I lost my balance.”
Chick fell down about four meters. “I first hit a box that was under the stage. Then I rolled on and fell on the pontoon. I immediately realized that it was not good.” The other band members stopped playing, but Kuik said bass player William Bossong that they had to continue. “Fortunately we had a guitarist with us. The show must go on. “
Due to the unfortunate fall, Kuik broke his wrist. “I went to the hospital from 1 am to 5 pm. People have taken care of me there fantastic. I will be told if an operation is needed next week. They also thought I had broken my nose, but that was just a bloody nose. And my head was swollen by the blow.”
The guitarist joins in a row of many musicians who have already fallen off the stage. “At festivals the stage is high. I am certainly not the first to happen to this. I have already seen so many videos of falling musicians and thought it would not happen to me. Now it happened to me.”
A happiness for Kuik is that he broke the wrist of his right hand. “That is my battle hand, with my other hand I grab the chords. If I broke that wrist, it would take much longer before I could play again. In the end it will be fine again, I am not afraid of that.”
Instead of acting, Kuik must fill in in a different way in the coming period. “Unfortunately, there is a line for me through the Zwarte Cross and the Farmers Rock festival. I have to think about what I’m going to do this summer. Beautiful Wark will go further in the meantime. There will be a temporary replacement, it is that simple.”
Reporter Jasmijn Wijnbergen brought a fruit basket to Arnold Kuik: