Robbie van Leeuwen (born 29 October 1944) is a Dutch musician who was a

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 ...

ist,

sitar The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in medieval India, flourished in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form in ...

ist, background vocalist and main songwriter for Dutch bands, including The Motions and

Shocking Blue Shocking Blue was a Dutch rock band formed in 1967 in The Hague. It was part of the music movement in the Netherlands that was generally known by the name Nederbeat. The band had a number of hits throughout the counterculture movement during ...

. In 1967 he played guitar on the only single ever released by "The Six Young Riders" titled "Let the Circle Be Unbroken". As of January 2021, he is the only surviving member of Shocking Blue's best known four-piece lineup.

Career

In 1970 he was in the band

, which had a No. 1 hit with the single "

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...

". In 1974 he left Shocking Blue and released the successful single "Long Hot Summer" with his new band

Galaxy-Lin {{unreferenced, date=June 2019 Galaxy-Lin was a Dutch pop rock band in which electric mandolins played a central role. The band was founded in 1973 by Robbie van Leeuwen, and released two records before breaking up in 1976. History Most of the ban ...

. He was the founder and main composer for this band which released two albums: "Galaxy Lin" in 1974 and "G" in 1975. The singer was Rudy Bennett, with whom van Leeuwen had already collaborated in another band, called The Motions. Galaxy-Lin disbanded in 1976. Together with

Rick van der Linden Rick van der Linden (5 August 1946, Badhoevedorp, North Holland - 22 January 2006, Groningen) was a Dutch composer and keyboardist. Van der Linden first gained fame as a member of Ekseption, but he played in several other bands including most no ...

, van Leeuwen founded "Mistral" in 1977. This group scored three hits during this period, "Jamie", "Starship 109" and "Neon City". The main instrument used was the synthesizer. The group produced three more singles in 1980, but these were not as successful as the earlier ones. In 1984 he released two more singles under the name "Cat's Eye". Except for producing two singles for former Shocking Blue singer

Mariska Veres Maria Elizabeth Ender, better known as Mariska Veres () (1 October 1947 – 2 December 2006), was a Dutch singer who was best known as the lead singer of the rock group Shocking Blue. Described as being similar to a young Cher, she was known fo ...

, a 1977 song titled "Too Young" and a 1994 song titled "Body and Soul", Robbie van Leeuwen withdrew from the music business and moved to

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

. In 2013 he received the Buma Lifetime Achievement Award. As of 2018 he, again, lives in the Netherlands, in

Wassenaar Wassenaar (; population: in ) is a municipality and town located in the province of South Holland, on the western coast of the Netherlands. An affluent suburb of The Hague, Wassenaar lies north of that city on the N44/A44 highway near the Nort ...

. In January 2019 he was interviewed on Dutch television during a broadcast of the daily talkshow 'De Wereld Draait Door' in connection with his 75th birthday in October of the same year. It was his first interview in years since Van Leeuwen is known to be very media-shy. Several bands played compositions by Van Leeuwen in 'De Wereld Draait Door' after this broadcast during the coming weeks. His best-known compositions are Shocking Blue's most famous songs: "Venus", which was in 1970 a US and UK No. 1 hit, "

Love Buzz "Love Buzz" is a song by Dutch rock band Shocking Blue. It was written by Robbie van Leeuwen and first released on the group's 1969 album '' At Home''. The song was covered by Nirvana, released as their debut single in 1988. Nirvana cover versio ...

", which was covered by

Nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...

and released as their first single, and " Daemon Lover".

References

External links

* 1944 births Living people Dutch rock guitarists Dutch male guitarists English-language singers from the Netherlands Musicians from The Hague Dutch songwriters Lead guitarists {{Netherlands-musician-stub