It can be stated with full conviction that ROX! from Emmen is the best Roxette cover band in the Netherlands. “It has to be, because there is only one”, Marco ter Beek laughs. Together with singer Sandy Altman, he forms the front of ROX!. In addition to the classics of the wildly popular Swedish Roxette, the popular cover band also plays their own songs, completely in style.
Where Roxette left off, ROX! further.
Marco and Sandy, along with four other band members, have been playing together for many years. “At one point you had cover nights all over the Netherlands,” says Marco. “We already had the same formation and then we thought: let’s do Roxette.” That plan was successful. As a cover band they already played The Look by Roxette and it was therefore a small step to expand their oeuvre with a number of Roxette classics. “That suited us very well and that’s how we did it,” explains Marco. And because of the Roxette cover band scarcity, they weren’t out of work. “We are one of the three in Europe and we actually travel all over Europe.”
However, due to the corona, the band came to sit at home. The energy and creativity that could not be released on stage found their way: writing songs, and then in the style of Roxette. “Everyone was at home and we all had nothing to do,” says Marco. “At one point I thought, together with Tim our keyboard player, let’s exchange some things among ourselves, in terms of ideas, music and I know a lot. That’s what came up with ‘Imagination’.” The song would not have been out of place in terms of style on an album by the Swedish band of millions. “It has become a very nice song,” says the singer. The average Drent also thinks so. The song finished in place 131 in De Drentse 1000. “What more could you want? That’s fantastic.”
Now that the nightlife is finding its way again and the stages are slowly filling up with bands, ROX’s agenda is filling up too! themselves with performances. But making your own songs doesn’t end there. In addition to ‘Imagination’, the song ‘A New Day’ has now also been released. “And we’re working on all kinds of songs now.” Perhaps an album. “I hope so,” Sandy says firmly. “Why not?”