Herman Brood facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Herman Brood
Herman Brood in 1979
Background information
Birth name	Hermanus Brood
Born	(1946-11-05)5 November 1946 Zwolle, Netherlands
Died	11 July 2001(2001-07-11) (aged 54) Amsterdam, Netherlands
Genres	Rock and roll
Occupation(s)	Musician, painter, actor, poet
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano
Years active	1964–2001
Labels	RCA Records
Associated acts	Wild Romance, The Moans, Long Tall Ernie and the Shakers, Cuby and the Blizzards, Stud, Jan Akkerman, Vitesse, Nina Hagen, Lene Lovich

Hermanus "Herman" Brood (Dutch pronunciation: [ɦɛrˈmaːnʏs ˈɦɛrmɑm ˈbroːt]; 5 November 1946 – 11 July 2001) was a Dutch musician, painter, actor and poet. As a musician he achieved artistic and commercial success in the 1970s and 1980s, and was called "the greatest and only Dutch rock 'n' roll star". Later in life he started a successful career as a painter.

Musical career

Herman Brood was born in Zwolle, and started playing the piano at age 12. He founded beat band The Moans in 1964, which would later become Long Tall Ernie and the Shakers. Brood was asked to play with Cuby and the Blizzards, but was removed by management. For a number of years Brood was in jail, or abroad, and had a number of short-term engagements (with The Studs, the Flash & Dance Band, Vitesse).

In 1976, Brood started his own group, Herman Brood & His Wild Romance (and started work with photographer Anton Corbijn), initially with Ferdi Karmelk (guitar), Gerrit Veen (bass), Peter Walrecht (drums), and Ellen Piebes and Ria Ruiters (vocals). They played the club and bar circuit, first in Groningen (the northeasternmost province of the Netherlands). In 1977 the band released their first album, Street.

The band played all over the Netherlands, playing as many gigs as possible.

Herman Brood in 2000

Brood's grave at Zorgvlied

They are still best known for their second album, Shpritsz—a play on the German word Spritze for syringe—from 1978. This album contained their first Dutch hit single, "Saturday Night." The band went through many personnel changes over the years; the best-known formation was Freddy Cavalli (bass), Dany Lademacher (guitar) (later replaced with David Hollestelle), and Cees 'Ani' Meerman (drums). A frequent contributor was Bertus Borgers (saxophone).

In the summer of 1979, Brood tried to enter the American market, with support from Ariola's US division, which was attempting to expand into rock music. Following on the success of Shpritsz, the band was booked as a support act for The Kinks and The Cars, playing in auditoriums; "Herman Brood and His Wild Romance Tour Cha Cha '79" headlined in New York's (Bottom Line) and Los Angeles' (Roxy). A re-recorded version of "Saturday Night" peaked at number 35 in the Billboard Hot 100, but the big break Brood hoped for didn't happen. When he returned to the Netherlands in October 1979, his band had begun to fall apart, and soon his popularity went downhill. Go Nutz, the album Brood had recorded while in the States, and the movie Cha-Cha, which finally premiered in December 1979, were considered artistic failures, even though Go Nutz produced three charting singles in the Netherlands and the Cha Cha soundtrack attained platinum status. The 1980 album Wait a Minute... was a minor success, but the follow-up albums Modern Times Revive (1981) and Frisz & Sympatisz (1982) failed to make the Dutch album charts.

Brood continued to record throughout the 1980s and had a few hits—a top-10 single, "Als Je Wint" with Henny Vrienten, and a minor hit with a reggae song, "Tattoo Song," but he spent more and more time on his art work. At the end of the '80s he made a comeback of sorts; Yada Yada (1988), produced by George Kooymans, was well-received, and he toured Germany with a renewed Wild Romance (which saw the return of Dany Lademacher). In 1990, he won the BV Popprijs, one of the highest Dutch awards for popular music, and recorded Freeze with Clarence Clemons of the E Street Band and Tejano accordion player Flaco Jiménez. A live "best of" album, Saturday Night Live, appeared in 1992. His 50th birthday, in 1996, was celebrated with a show at the Paradiso music and cultural center in Amsterdam, and the album (of duets) was released the same year.

Visual arts career

After his career in music, Brood turned to painting and became a well-known character in Amsterdam art circles. His art is best described as pop-art, often very colorful and graffiti-inspired screen prints, and he achieved some commercial success and notoriety by, for instance, creating murals in various public spaces in and around Amsterdam.

Discography (albums)

Filmography

• Cha-Cha (1979)
• Stadtrand (1987, German movie)
• Zusje (1995) - Bovenbuurman / Upstairs neighbor
• Total Love (2000, Israeli movie) - M.J
• Live And More (2003, Concerts from Philipshalle, Düsseldorf 1978 & Musik Hall, Koln 1990 (3DVDBox))
• Wild Romance (2006, scenes from Herman Brood's life)
• Herman Brood Uncut (2006, documentary)
• Kunst begin drrr niet an (2015, 80 min. documentary by Gwen Jansen, DVD, 90% of all screenprints and paintings are made by Herman in the IQ studio between the late 80s until his passing in 2001. Compiled from over 70 hours of footage, produced by Ivo de Lange for iq.nl)
• Unknown Brood (2016, documentary directed by Dennis Alink)

Literature

Book and DVD.

• Brigitte Tast, Hans-Juergen Tast (2009) "be bop" – Rock-Tempel & Nachtasyl – Band 2 zur Legende. Hildesheim: Verlag Gebr. Gerstenberg. ISBN: 978-3-8067-8733-7.
• Brigitte Tast, Hans-Jürgen Tast (2016) Herman Brood. Der Ladykiller im "be bop", Schellerten 2015, ISBN: 978-3-88842-049-8.