On this date in 1970 “Venus” by the Shocking Blue hit #1 in the Billboard Charts. You probably remember the song- it was a strong rocker with a great chorus. I’m your Venus, I’m your fire, what’s your desire?
The Shocking Blue were a Dutch Band from Den Hague (The Hague) in the Netherlands. When I was twenty-one years old I went to Amsterdamn with several of my buddies to play rock and roll in the local clubs. My good friend- Jeffrey Berkow had moved there the year before and his letters and stoned late-night phone calls painted a pretty wild picture for the rest of us Baltimore guys. Jeffrey had a band (The Dutch Bombers) a sexy new Dutch girlfriend, and a record deal. When he asked us to join him we were off like shot, flying Icelandic Airlines over the North Pole.
When we got there, we crashed on Jeffrey’s floor for a month and rehearsed, smoking copius amounts of hash and drinking Heinekins.
A producer named Hans Von Osterhoot took an interest in the Dutch Bombers, and we found ourselves in a Ducth recording studio doing demos. I remember doing one or two original tunes and a few covers. Notably- Red River Rock, sung by Jeffrey himself. Of course, THAT was the song they all liked and decided to release as a single.
Fast forward a few months and the Ducth Bombers have a handful of gigs to promote their record with the Dutch audiences.
That’s when we found ourselves opening for the biggest Ducth band in history (kinda like the Jefferson Airplane of Holland) The Shocking Blue. They had a #1 world wide hit with “VENUS.” “Venus” was huge- later covered by several bands including Bananarama (who we played with in the 1980′s in Europe.)
The lead singer for the Shocking Blue was the beautiful Mariska Veres, a brunette goddess from another dimension (where English is not spoken.) When I got an eyeful of her, I couldn’t sit down. Well, it must have been evident what was going on inside my brain because their manager came right up to me and told me that Mariska was “off limits” permanently. I couldn’t even say hello. Apparantly she was married to the guitar player or some such nonsense.
Mariska had a great voice, too. Do you remember “Venus?” Great tune. She could really belt it out. In Holland they had about six number ones in a row. The Dutch Bombers? We faded back into obscurity in a matter of weeks. But it was a great experience and I got to visit Amsterdam (the city where everything is legal) while I was still a young man. Now THAT was a real eye opener! Eventually we ran out of money and flew back to Baltimore, but not before we lived out 3 lifetime’s worth of adventures in one crazy summer!
Let’s hear it for Mariska!
Sadly, Mariska passed away from cancer on 2006. Good-bye Mariska- I’ll never forget you!
