I sometimes think of Monica,
she didn’t stay long at our school.
monicaCircus Custers (1987)
Sixteen years before the Amsterdammers Joseph Custers and Herman Erbé met monica had a modest, but timeless hit with a song about a divorce, the theme had already been brought to the attention by one-hit wonder Herman van Keeken. In Daddy don’t walk so fast (1971) a girl runs resolutely after her father to prevent him from disappearing with the northern sun.
That actually works. “When I heard my little girl sobbing like that, I took her on my arm and went back home.”
The story of the child is also central to the sad story by the duo Circus Custers from 1987. Monica fare considerably less well than the anonymous girl in Van Keeken’s hit. “She now lives with her mother in another city, she wrote us that.”
monica caught on. The audience sympathized with the girl who suddenly stops coming to school one day. It was DJ Hugo van Gelderen from the Tros who monica on his radio program for the first time. Frits Spits then adopted the song in his Evening rush hour†
It moved him, he later wrote in his book The standards of Spits II† ‘Did I imagine sitting in her class and hearing the teacher talk about her parents’ marital problems? In my mind I heard the screams, the quarrels, I saw Monica ducking deep under the covers not to hear it, I felt her despair, unable to share her grief.’
The text was written by an acquaintance of Spits, technician Bert Vervoorn. He had already made jingles with him in the 1970s. As a copywriter, Vervoorn also delivered contribute to the series Children for children and enriched the repertoire of Erik Mesie and Gerard Cox, but with monica he experienced his greatest moment.
This also applied to Circus Custers, the duo that occupied an unclear position in the music scene from 1980 to 1996. Custers (1951) and Erbé (1949) had one foot in the world of children and the other in pop music. ‘People can’t place us’ was their conclusion in 1994 AD† That was also because of the name. Circus Custers promised different things than Custers and Erbé had in mind.
Of monica† In love and another name song, Louise, they made it to the top 40, but kids were their biggest fan base. They contributed to sesame street and the bluff show and were awarded an Edison in 1992 for their children’s repertoire.
Unfortunately, monica a block to their leg, they couldn’t get rid of her. The public everywhere demanded monica, in every room and on every stage. According to Spits, the song would even have caused a distance between Erbé and Custers – and thus the end of Circus Custers. The divorce was final, but the men can now go through a door again.
John & Paul