The Outsiders were a Dutch band from

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

. Their period of greatest popularity in the

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was from 1965–67, but they released records until 1969. In recent years their legacy has extended beyond the Netherlands, and the group is today recognized as a distinctive exemplars of the garage rock genre.

Career overview

Featuring Wally Tax (vocals), Ronnie Splinter (guitar), Appie Rammers (bass guitar), Tom Krabbendam (guitar), Leendert "Buzz" Busch (drums), and Frank Beek (bass guitar 1968-1969), the band exemplified the "

Nederbeat Nederbeat (also: Nederbiet) was the Dutch rock boom of mid-1960s influenced by British beat groups and rock bands such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and, much like British freakbeat, it is essentially the Dutch counterpart to American g ...

Sound", a raw, Dutch take on rock 'n' roll created in the wake of the 1960s

British Invasion The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of British culture became popular in the United States and significant to the rising "counterculture" on ...

. Unlike the many European bands influenced by

The Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...

, The Outsiders took their cues from harder-edged British groups like

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(who frequently toured the Netherlands) and

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

. In March 26, 1966, in

's-Hertogenbosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a city and municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 157,486. It is the capital of the province of North Brabant and its fourth largest by population. The city is south of th ...

, The Outsiders opened for Stones' second Dutch concert. The Outsiders released three full-length records, ''Outsiders'' and the singles collection ''Songbook'' in 1967, and ''C.Q.'' in 1968. The latter sold poorly upon release but is now considered a masterpiece of psychedelic garage rock. The band also released thirteen singles, including 1967's "Summer Is Here," which reached the Top Ten on the Dutch charts. Their eponymous debut album, which featured one side of studio recordings and another taken from their live show, also sold well during this period. Unusually for this era, the band never recorded any covers. While several Dutch pop groups of the era — namely Tee Set ("Ma Belle Amie"),

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 ...

("Venus"), and the

George Baker Selection George Baker Selection was a pop-rock band from Assendelft, the Netherlands. The band is best-known for the 1969 song " Little Green Bag" and the 1975 world-wide hit " Paloma Blanca". History In 1968, Hans Bouwens from Wormerveer joined th ...

("Little Green Bag") — all had hits in the United States on the Colossus label, resulting in what some music pundits jokingly called the "Dutch Invasion," the Outsiders were unable to join in on this success as their records were never released in the U.S.

The final year, reunions

After the summer of '67, many of the

bands fell from commercial favor, including The Outsiders. Later, Outsiders singles had lower chart peaks, and personnel changes, friction, poor promotion and management problems followed. Experiments and changes in musical style, though critically well-regarded today, only served to alienate the band's fanbase. The group began attempting publicity stunts in the hopes of building interest. These included dressing in medieval costumes, and staging a haircut for lead singer Wally Tax on Dutch television. By autumn of 1969, Ronnie Splinter quit music for a while. The band disbanded, with Tax and Busch forming Tax Free, in the early 1970s, in U.S., where they recorded one album. A reunion tour of the four original Outsiders took place in October 1997. Wally Tax died in 2005. Appie Rammers and Leen Busch were active with Tax & The Outsiders (revival band) from April 2015 to early 2017, together with Tycho Tax (vocals), Yuri Tax (guitar) and Mick Langenberg (guitar).

Legacy

The Outsiders are the subject of an official biography, ''Outsiders voor Insiders'' (1997), written in

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

by Jerome Blanes; the English version ''Outsiders by Insiders'' was published in December 2009 by Misty Lane Books in Italy. Two collections of photographs, ''The Outsiders Picture Book, Volume 1'' and ''The Outsiders Picture Book, Volume 2'' and two scrapbooks with articles have also been published. Reportedly, Kurt Cobain was a fan of the Outsiders and made an unsuccessful attempt to meet Wally Tax. When the Clash first formed they called themselves the Outsiders. A friend then showed them a record by the Outsiders, and they changed their name to the Clash.

Discography

Singles

*"You Mistreat Me"/"Sun's Going Down" (Muziek Express Op-Art ME 1003) 1965 *"Felt Like I Wanted to Cry"/"I Love Her Still I Always Will" (Muziek Express Op-Art ME 1006) 1966 *"Lying All the Time"/"Thinking About Today" (Relax 45004) 1966 (No. 10 NL) *"Keep on Trying"/"That's Your Problem" (Relax 45006) 1966 (No. 9 NL) *"Touch"/"Ballad of John B" (Relax 45016) 1966 (No. 6 NL) *"Monkey on Your Back"/"What's Wrong With You" (Relax 45025) 1967 (No. 4 NL) *"Summer is Here"/"Teach Me to Forget You" (Relax 45048) 1967 (No. 8 NL) *"I've Been Loving You So Long"/"I'm Only Trying to Prove to Myself That I'm Not Like Everybody Else" (Relax 45058) 1967 (No. 29 NL) *"Don't You Worry About Me"/"Bird in a Cage" (Relax 45068) 1967 (No. 32 NL) *"A Cup of Hot Coffee"/"Strange Things Are Happening" (Relax 45088) 1968 *"I Don't Care"/"You Remind Me" (Polydor S 1266) 1968 *"Do You Feel Alright"/"Daddy Died on Saturday" (Polydor S 1300) 1968 *"Hits Come Back" (Imperial 5C 006 24835) 1973

Albums

*''You Mistreat Me'' EP (Relax 11.001) 1966 *''Outsiders'' (Relax 30.007) 1967 *''CQ'' (Polydor 236 803) 1968 *''The Outsiders'' EP (Beat Crazy BC 001) 1994

Compilations

*''Songbook'' (Teenbeat APLP 102) 1967 *''Golden Greats of The Outsiders'' (Bovema Negram 5N028-26197) 1979 *''CQ (Complete Polydor Tapes)'' (Pseudonym CDP-1010-DD) 1993

References

External links

Tax and the Outsiders (Dutch)

Official website of the Outsiders (Dutch)

Official Biography of The Outsiders by Jerome Blanes in Dutch and English language: 'Outsiders by Insiders'
{{DEFAULTSORT:Outsiders, The Nederpop Dutch psychedelic rock music groups Beat groups Musical groups established in 1965 Musical groups disestablished in 1969 Dutch garage rock groups