Even though he receives a Lifetime Achievement Award for more than 40 years of work as a Drenthe pop consultant, he remains modest and especially likes to tell who has also helped artist X or band Y take it a step further. Jan Stam received a big award at the Popgala Noord of Eurosonic Noorderslag for all his work behind the scenes in Drenthe pop music.
As an advisor to Art & Culture, the former Pop Drenthe, he stimulates pop music in the Northern Netherlands. Which, by the way, Stam already started in the seventies, by having talented bands perform and helping them obtain subsidies. That started in Hoogeveen. He did not do this professionally at the time, but as a volunteer.
Jan must have been about 15 years old when he volunteered in Hoogeveen to give regional bands a stage. Including at the Tinck youth center and later in the Tamboer theater, former music dealer Tjeerd Bruinsma remembers. Bruinsma was a jury member in the talent festival Het Noorden Is Zo Dood Nog Niet, created by Jan.
As a volunteer at the youth center, Stam noticed that pop bands needed that stage. “The politically supported amateur artists, but that concerned theater, dance and light music. Corps and choirs were supported, but pop music was seen by the government as a temporary indulgence of a group of young people. It was assumed that pop music would quickly disappear again,” says Tribe laughing.
Jan was already very enthusiastic and involved, Bruinsma explains as we walk past the stately building that once housed the Het Baken youth club. “That had to be closed, so the building was occupied by volunteers, with Jan in his punk outfit with his long hair and a large flag on the roof. The police had to evacuate the building and take him off the roof.”
The amount of festivals, talent development workshops, showcases, scouted and promoted bands and artists is endless over the past forty years. It is actually almost fifty years if you include Jan’s volunteer time. “I ended up creating my own job through all activities related to pop music.”
Pop Drenthe, Art & Culture Drenthe, Poppunt Drenthe, Hit The North, Poppodia in Emmen and Hoogeveen, Jan has helped build or done something for it. In this way, Stam paved the way for big names such as Skik, Tangarine and Blackbriar. “But,” Stam adds. “The band has to do it itself. It is a matter of hard work and perseverance. And you need some luck,” he also realizes. “The right people need to see you and pick you up.”
Jan’s colleague Erik de Vries gives a tour of Jan’s office at Kunst & Cultuur Drenthe. The walls of the workplace are covered with posters of festivals and photos of performances, backstage passes hang from the desk lamp and cassette tapes and CDs galore in cabinets. The office breathes music.
“I have been working here for six years now and only found out much later that Jan already knew me before I met him.” De Vries points to two posters. “Jan programmed the band I was in at the time in Apollo in Emmen and Noorderslag in Groningen. It often happens that he helps bands get started without you knowing it is him.”
Sander and Arnout Brinks from Tangarine presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Stam, and he thinks that is fantastic. “I was able to do a lot for them and then I followed their entire career.” The list of musicians and bands that have benefited in one way or another from the Jan Stam wheelbarrow is long, very long. Arnout: “I think that every musician, every band in Drenthe that represents something, is indebted to Jan.” Sander: “I don’t know anyone who, with so much love and passion and modesty, works so hard and for so long for pop culture and helping young artists. If Jan stops in Drenthe, then we screwed.”
Stam responds with a laugh: “Well, if the situation were like forty years ago, that would be correct, but now there is an infrastructure. And there is a budget from politics. My successor will soon be able to continue with that.” Stam (65) is not thinking about quitting yet, he wants to continue for at least another two years.
Even during and after the award ceremony, Stam remains modest and likes to provide examples of how others have helped him to give young musicians a platform or to develop themselves. It is Stam through and through. “Music is my first necessity. I enjoy helping others. I am bold, which is necessary to open doors for them. I am the helper, and the creator has to be on stage.”