Johan is a Dutch band fronted by singer/guitarist Jacco de Greeuw. Their music has been primarily influenced by bands such as

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

Crowded House Crowded House are a rock band, formed in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, in 1985. Its founding members were New Zealander Neil Finn (vocalist, guitarist, primary songwriter) and Australians Paul Hester (drums) and Nick Seymour (bass). Later ban ...

, and

The Byrds The Byrds () were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) remaining the sole cons ...

Biography

Jacco de Greeuw founded Thank God For Us in the late eighties, after having played in several other bands. The band was renamed Little Mary Big when joined by

Marike Groot The Gathering is a Dutch rock band, founded in 1989 by brothers Hans and René Rutten and vocalist Bart Smits in Oss, North Brabant. The Gathering earliest releases were categorized as atmospheric doom metal with influences from extreme metal ...

. With this band, he reached second place at the ''Grote Prijs van Nederland'', an important music competition in the Netherlands. However, arguments with female vocalist Marike Groot (who later appeared on '' Always...'', the debut album of The Gathering), forced them to break up the band. De Greeuw formed a new band named Visions of Johanna after a

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...

. In 1992 they competed once again in the ''Grote Prijs'' competition, reaching the semi-finals this time. After some changes in the line-up, the band signed a contract with

Excelsior Recordings Excelsior Recordings is an independent record label located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. History Excelsior was founded by Ferry Roseboom and Frans Hagenaars under the name "Nothing Sucks Like Electrolux", releasing a few limited-run seven inch si ...

in 1995 and released a single ("Swing"). One year later, in 1996, the band's name was shortened to Johan. Under this name the band released a self-titled debut album. The album was received well by Dutch critics and became a commercial success. SpinART Records signed the band for the US region. When legendary record executive

Seymour Stein Seymour Stein (born April 18, 1942) is an American entrepreneur and music executive. He co-founded Sire Records and was Vice President of Warner Bros. Records. With Sire, Stein signed bands that became central to the new wave era of the 1970s ...

heard the band's music he became interested, and travelled to the Netherlands to see the band play. Impressed, he licensed the record from SpinART to release it on Sire Records. Subsequently, the band toured Stateside with Sloan, but then all went awry. For inexplicable reasons Sire pulled out of the deal and failed to give the album a proper release. The band planned to record its second release in 1998, but De Greeuw's clinical depression took its toll. Three more years would pass before ''

Pergola A pergola is most commonly an outdoor garden feature forming a shaded walkway, passageway, or sitting area of vertical posts or pillars that usually support cross-beams and a sturdy open lattice, often upon which woody vines are trained. The ...

'' was released, in 2001. The album received rave reviews and got a lot of

airplay Airplay is how frequently a song is being played through broadcasting on radio stations. A song which is being played several times every day (spins) would have a significant amount of airplay. Music which became very popular on jukeboxes, in n ...

on national radio stations. That summer Johan featured on the

Pinkpop The Pinkpop Festival is an annual music festival held at Landgraaf, Netherlands. It is usually held on the Pentecost weekend (''Pinksteren'' in Dutch, hence the name). If Pentecost falls on an early date in May, the festival is held later in June. ...

festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival c ...

. The following year the band even received the Dutch ''Edison'' award for ''Best National Pop Group''. After an international tour, hardly any news was heard from Johan until 2004, when members Wim Kwakman and Diederik Nomdem left the band. Jeroen Kleijn stepped up and became the band's new drummer, and Diets Dijkstra became the band's bassist. After this Johan started playing live again, and recorded its third album, ''

THX JHN ''THX JHN'' is the third studio album by Johan released on May 22, 2006. The previous album, Pergola, was released five years earlier. Like all Johan albums, it is released on the Excelsior Recordings Excelsior Recordings is an independent r ...

'', which was released in May 2006. The first single of the album, "Oceans", became a great success. This was helped by the song's video, in which an actual fan from Argentina travels from her home country to the Netherlands to see Johan play live. The fact that we see a real fan documenting her trip gives the video something special. The theme of fans thanking Johan (THX is short for ‘thanks’) is also applied to the album's booklet, where various fans from other countries appear. The video's original concept and the question of the authenticity of the clip's footage made for a serious online buzz. The single stayed in the Dutch charts for more than 25 consecutive weeks. Johan played a sold-out club tour and released two more successful singles, "Walking Away" and "She's Got A Way With Men". Through a deal with

V2 Records V2 Records (or V2 Music; V2 being an abbreviation for Virgin 2) is a record label that was purchased by Universal Music Group in 2007 and sold to IASin 2013. In the Benelux, V2 operates separately from PIAS, as the label bought itself out from ...

the album was also released in Germany and Italy. Although the album deal for the debut with Sire fell through in the '90s, the band still has a steady following in the US. The fourth album, titled '' 4'', was scheduled to be released on 22 December 2008, but was eventually released on 30 April 2009, breaking with the tradition of a new record every five years. On 26 August 2009 Johan announced they were disbanding at the end of 2009. On 22 December they played their last show, at Paradiso in Amsterdam. At this show they received a gold record for ''Pergola''. A DVD of their last show was to be released at the end of 2010, but this has not happened to date. On 11 January 2018 it was announced on the band's website that a new album would appear on 13 April 2018 and some concert dates were announced.

Line-up

Current members

*Jacco de Greeuw: lead singer,

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

(1996–2009, 2018–present) *Diets Dijkstra: guitar (1999), bass, backing vocals (1999–2009, 2018–present) *Jeroen Kleijn: drums (2004–2009, 2018–present) *Robin Berlijn: guitar (2018–present)

Live members

*Matthijs van Duijvenbode: keyboard (2007–2009) *Jan Teertstra: keyboard, backing vocals (2018–present)

Former members

*Remco Krull: guitar (1996–1998) *Niels de Wit: bass (1996–1998) *Wim Kwakman: drums (1996–2004) *David Corel: bass, backing vocals (1999–2001) *Diederik Nomden: guitar, keyboard (1999–2004) *Maarten Kooijman: guitar, backing vocals (2000–2009)

Discography

Singles

* "Swing" –

– 25 November 1996 * "Everybody knows" – Excelsior Recordings – 17 March 1997 * "December" – Excelsior Recordings – 4 August 1997 * "Pergola" – Excelsior Recordings – 26 March 2001 * "Tumble and fall" – Excelsior Recordings – 25 June 2001 * "Day is done" – Excelsior Recordings – 5 May 2001 * "Oceans" – Excelsior Recordings – 22 May 2006 * "Walking away" – Excelsior Recordings – 17 August 2006 * "She's Got A Way With Men" – Excelsior Recordings – 20 November 2006 * "About Time" – Excelsior Recordings – 22 February 2018

Albums

* ''

Johan Johan * Johan (given name) * Johan (film), ''Johan'' (film), a 1921 Swedish film directed by Mauritz Stiller * Johan (band), a Dutch pop-group ** Johan (album), ''Johan'' (album), a 1996 album by the group * Johan Peninsula, Ellesmere Island, Nunav ...

'' – Excelsior Recordings – 4 November 1996 * ''

'' – Excelsior Recordings – 23 April 2001 * ''

'' – Excelsior Recordings – 22 May 2006 * '' 4'' – Excelsior Recordings – 4 May 2009 * Pull Up – Excelsior Recordings – 13 April 2018

External links

Official website of the bandJohan on Excelsior RecordingsFree video of entire Amsterdam show on Fabchannel.com

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johan Musical groups from North Holland Dutch alternative rock groups