Singer, songwriter and translator Jan Rot, who passed away last month, started his career in the Bluesgroep Drenthe from Hollandscheveld. Three former band members reminisce about this period and even have a sound recording in their possession on which Rot can be heard on a clavinet.
Father Time has unmistakably gnawed at the tough, long-haired musicians in the black-and-white band photo of the Hollandscheveld Bluesgroep Drenthe from 1976.
But despite the advanced ages of drummer Nico Benjamins (66) from Hoogeveen and guitarists Peter van Heereveld (64) from Hoogezand and Jaap Bisschop (70) from Wijchen, the fires of yesteryear are quickly rekindled because of the stories and anecdotes.
,,It was quite a wild time”, chuckles Van Heereveld, who came up with the name of the band. Bluesgroep Drenthe was founded in 1975 and has existed for about five years, in varying compositions.
Menso Alting College
The arrival of Jan Rot at the band had a link with the then Menso Alting College (MAC) in Hoogeveen. Van Heereveld: ,,Jan was in my class. Musically we also sometimes let us hear from us: Jan on a plastic saxophone and I on soap drums from Dash.” Later Rot went along to a rehearsal of the band. After that he lingered.
‘Christmas child’ Jan Rot grew up in Zuidwolde. He was 13 years old when the family moved to this place. His father worked as a doctor at Bethesda Hospital. Rot was attracted to pop musicians from an early age.
Although all retrospectives on his musical life start in 1978, as a singer and songwriter in the bands Streetbeats and Ratata, there was a serious, but unknown predecessor: Bluesgroep Drenthe from Hollandscheveld. ,,This was his start as a musician”, says Van Heereveld.
Contrary to the name, the band did not play exclusively blues. ,,But we strongly preferred this genre”, says Benjamins. Covers of Cuby & The Blizzards, Rory Gallagher, John Mayall. We also had a few songs of our own, which Jaap and Peter had written. Later the songs became a bit more new wave -tinted.”
Rolling Stones
From March 1976 Rot, then 19 years old, was the keyboardist of Bluesgroep Drenthe. Van Heereveld: ,,Jan was a fanatic music lover and blues musician in heart and soul. He was especially fond of the Rolling Stones and could philosophize extensively about all kinds of things in life.”
According to Jaap Bisschop, Rot was ‘different from others’. ,,He easily made social contacts and got along with everyone. Jan quickly made an impression and had a good chat. He also took care of the PR for the band and arranged performances.
Rot gave the band its own sound with his clavinet: a keyboard instrument that belongs to the stringed instruments. ,,A special thing”, Benjamins recalls. “Nobody had that.”
Ode to the ‘practice loft’
The song belongs to Rot’s legacy Dutchfield Blues : an ode to the ‘practice loft’ in Hollandscheveld where the band rehearsed every Saturday. It was an emergency house behind the ruins of the farm of ‘free farmer’ Klaas Hartman.
Bisschop: ,,The stoppages sometimes broke. Literally then. Jan was kindness itself, you didn’t argue with him.”
Dutchfield Blues is his oldest surviving text. In the book #stop the clocks van Jan Rot, which contains many of his pop lyrics and translations, he writes: “Everything before 1977 has disappeared when my father put a box in the trash.”
Anecdote
An amusing anecdote about Rot concerns a sleepover at the Van Heereveld house. ,,Jan sometimes stayed with us to sleep”, says Peter van Heereveld. “He loved that. Jan got along very well with my mother. Chatting together about anything and everything.”
On a Saturday morning, a special thank you note landed on the doormat of the Van Heereveld family. ,,Jan had pushed a dry sausage through the letterbox with a note for my mother: ‘Thank you for all the good care’. Typical Jan.”
Blues group Drenthe had a performance every month, which traditionally ended with a meatball with peanut sauce at cafeteria Haverkort in Hollandscheveld. “That was a fixed point.”
A performance that the three former band members will not soon forget took place at a farm in Pesse. Halfway through the performance, visitors in a jolly mood sprayed a fire extinguisher over the band and the instruments.
‘Snowed-in tire’
,,What a drama that was”, says Benjamins. “Everything was covered in a thick layer of powder. We were like a snowbound band. The performance was immediately ready, we could start with the cleaning. To complete the ‘party’, we later drove off the exhaust of the rented bus.”
It was clear to the other band members that Jan Rot’s ambitions extended beyond a blues band in the countryside. ,, With us, singer Henk (Van Nuil, ed.) was the front man † That wasn’t in the keyboardist’s package, haha.”
He went to study Dutch in Groningen. Benjamins: ,,Jan loved the music scene there. You had Herman Brood, New Adventures, White Honey. Much more interesting, of course, than a band in Hollandscheveld.”
‘Great period’
Blues band Drenthe continued for a few more years, but fell apart around 1980. ,,Study, military service, courtship”, sometimes Benjamins op. ,,Not things that are conducive to the survival of bands. But it was a great period.”
Van Heereveld: ,,I would like to do it all over again. Preferably with the same head of hair, haha.”