Story
 
Log in | You are logged in as:
    You are here: Skip Navigation LinksTitle page | Story

The beginning

Summer 1965. Schoolfriends Jan Tuijp and Evert Woestenburg decide, after a talk with Cees Tol in the dancing of mister Spruitje in Volendam, to start making music all three together. Therefore they need a bassguitar, two "usual" guitars and an amplifier. Rather soon the guitars for Cees and Evert are available. With money, put aside by the parents of Cees Tol for a new sofa, a Vox AC 30 amplifier, a very modern machine for that time, is bought.

There is no money for an instrument for Jan Tuijp. Jan is mostly recording the guitarplay of Cees and Evert and ticking the rhythm on the ground. After a number of weeks Jan is asked what his plans for the future are; does he want to play an instrument or do something else. They still need a bassguitar player. Jan decides to take the bass on his account, because he cannot read musical notes.

The bassguitar itself, though, is a big problem. The parents of Jan do not have the money and the parents of Cees cannot lend more money for a bassguitar. Desperately Jan Tuijp goes to Arnold Mühren of the Cats, a band from Volendam who is already very popular then, for help. At the time, Arnold Mühren put together his guitar himself. With his instructions Jan Tuijp builds his first bassguitar and amplifier himself.

The three boys begin. After a lot of practice they play the entire repertoire of The Shadows. Still something is missing. A drummer would not be unbecoming. Evert has a cousin, Gerrit Woestenburg, who can play drums and who likes to play in a band. Besides, Gerrit already has a drumset. The nameless group of musicians often rehearses in the open air on the back-yard of the Woestenburg family. Not everyone in the neighbourhood can appreciate this, so they often move to a new rehearsal room. Transport takes place with a wood rag barrow, willingly yielded by the late Mister Janus.


The first performance

Jan Veerman had heard a few times of a band without a name, that makes nice music and decides to drop in when the band performes again in the dancing of mister Spruit. There he performes with the band for the first time and sings a song of Elivs Presley, accompanied by Cees Tol, Jan Tuijp and Evert and Gerrit Woestenburg. The band without a name is complete, but still it has no name.

BZN 1965-1967
Evert Woestenburg (lying in wall), Jan Veerman,
Gerrit Woestenburg, Cees Tol and Jan Tuijp
After giving more concerts in the dancing, the five men get big plans. From time to time they have little differences of opinion and they decide to take a manager. This one would not be admitted for taking care of the performances, but for appeasing the discords in the group. In May 1966 Dick de Boer is asked to take this task on him. After careful consideration he decides to take this task on him, what succeeds rather well.

The needed equipment for the group is bought on the instalment plan at firm Müller in Amsterdam, who already had the greatest confidence in the starting band then. By working during the holidays, they try to fully redeem their debts.

In May 1966 the first official performance takes place during a fancy fair in youth club Pius X in Volendam. The group is allowed to play a few songs and reap a lot of success from the audience. That night the boys stood on stage for four hours in total, repeating the repertoire about four times.

The next morning all local newspapers mention a Band Without a Name that totally blasted Pius X away with their performance. The group will have think about a name now. Many names are brought up, like Flying Arrow and Flying Tigers, but nobody thinks these names suit the band. The name BZN '66, already used by the youngsters of Volendam, is taken as a temporary name. This name has never changed though, only the '66 was dropped.

It is going better and better with the BZN. Everywhere they come in Volendam they guarantee a spectacular show.


Change of guard

In the end of 1966, the band plays in or out of Volendam each Saturday and Sunday, Gerrit Woestenburg, the drum player, announces he wants to stop. He cannot combine the band and his study at the HBS. Besides he cannot bring in the made depts any longer. On January 10, 1967 his place is taken by the 14-year-old Jaap Sombroek, at a concert in the Verenigingsgebouw in Purmerend. Jaap adapts quite well, despite his young age.

BZN 1967-1969
Cees Tol, Evert Woestenburg, Jaap Sombroek,
Jan Tuijp and Jan Veerman
BZN is very known in the broad surroundings of Volendam, especially by their performances that fill halls everywhere. The transport of their belongings has improved a lot. Instead of a fishing kart, the band drives a blue-white Ford Transit, provided by garage Kil from Volendam.

On May 6, 1967 BZN plays a special performance on a boat, navigating the North-Holland canal. This performance is organised by the Ark from Purmerend.

More than two months later, on July 29, 1967, BZN plays outside North-Holland for the first time, namely in Berlikum (Friesland). A day later another performance is done in the provence of Friesland, in Gorredijk, and they decide to spend the night in the provence. No hotel is booked, but the band takes with them a tent, that can be put up on a farmer's yard near Berlikum. Without light and floor-cloth the members of the band try to sleep. At night around three o'clock the members are visited by a big column of snails, that fling themselves with devotion onto the sleeping. On top of it all it starts to rain, so they do not get to sleep. After this adventure the band never camped together. Both performances in Friesland didn't suffer from this and BZN is very successful in Berlikum and Gorredijk.


       
This site uses cookies for several purposes. First there is a cookie that keeps information about your current visit to this site, to determine whether you are logged in or not. When you end your visit to this site, this cookie will be deleted.
Secondly, this site uses cookies that are used by Google to place and personalize the advertisements that are shown on this site. Google uses these cookies to track which sites you visit and uses that information to determine your personal preferences and adapts the shown advertisements using that information.
When you keep visiting this site, you automatically accepts both kinds of cookies. This site does not offer a possibility to not accept the cookies.
X