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THE CATS
See The Cats on Video Click on the Image
Story of the Cats:
Charlie is since his childhood a big fan of The Cats ,he discovered a Cats album "10 jaar The Cats" in his mothers record collection .
Here at mothers record player Charlie started to sing along
Charlie was really touched by their music and began as adolescent in love to imitate Piet Veerman the lead singer . he joined all kinds of song contests and playbackshows ,he allways sang the number one hit Lea a song wich brought him beautifull prizes and mostly he ended up 1,2 and third place.
Charlie won the first prize a holiday in Spain by singing Lea from The Cats
Charlie met Arnold Mühren The songwriter and Baseplayer and also one of the singers of The Cats on a live television show in 1984
And also Cees Veerman one of the Lead singers Of The Cats
The last time Charlie met the group was in 1985 at the zoo in Zwartberg Genk Belgium.
In 1985 Charlie met the group for the last time They were invited by the Belgian Public Radio 2 for a program called Made in Germany where they sang a few songs of their german album Katzenspiele.Because The Cats were late the radio people adressed Charlie because of the resemblance that Charlie had with Piet Veerman the Lead singer.Funny though.
The real Piet veerman with the inpersonator Charlie
Also he joined the preselections of the Henny Huisman soundmixshow Every time he got the first place and was selected for television . He reached into the final wit the song Sailin' home
(Original footage of Sailin home)
cause he was a real lookalike of Piet Veerman as well visually as vocal (Look at the pictures and compare) and that was what the show is all about looking as much as the original artist.
Charlie sings Sailin' Home at Henny Huisman soundmixshow
He reached into the final on januari 29 1988 a big Chaos happened during the show people had to vote by phone but the phone service could not handle the amount of callers so the phone net went out for a few hours. After the TV show he was asked a lot of times to inpersonate Piet Veerman also there were some organisers who dare to anounce Charlie as the real Piet Veerman.Charlie hated this because the people came to see the real one and Charlie had only a few backing tracks of the Cats : Lea,Marian,Let's dance en Sailin home ,one way wind charlie went to see the show of Piet Veerman and was recognised by Piet he asked Charlie on the stage to sing Sailin' home together this happened in Dancing 'L Etoile in Hulsberg (now Chinese restaurant).
Charlie en Piet singing Sailin'home
When Charlie ran in to Piet en Neel during Volendam Fair they both said "hey there you have the Belgian Piet (Charlie lived 40 years in Belgium) en when Charlie imitated Urbanus (A Belgian Comic) Piet came to listen .Someone who was also a fan of Charlie's Urbanus imitations was drummer Theo Klouwer who passed away too soon.
Charlie and Theo Klouwer in de Oude Brug(the Old Bridge)
Charlie met theo many times in Volendam ,sometimes in "De oude Brug " were Charlie once sang during the fair ,when Charlie started his Urbanus act again Theo laught until the tears ran of his eyes.
Charlie and Theo outside het Gat van Nederland
Charlie sings de following hits from The Cats:
Lea
Excuse me
Lia (Duits)
I gotta know what's going on
I walk trough the fields
Marian
Scarlet Ribbons
Where have i been wrong
One way wind
One way wind (Duits)
Let's Dance
Trying to explain
Dreams
A love like yours
Spanish Harlem
Be my day
Ave Maria no morro
Love is a golden ring
It turnes me inside out
We should be together
Lonely walk
The Best years of my life(Clip)
Piet Veerman:
Sailin home
The town where you was born
All that you could be(beautifull)
The cats do not have a website of themselves the group was decayed in 1985 long before internet was born . But as many famous groups there is a tribute band : Tribute to the Cats bandCompiled by expierienced musicians and singers from Volendam dese artists approach The Cats very well.Still there are many Cats fans down below you'll find some links:
The Cats Volendam:
http://www.thecatsvolendam.nl/
The Cats Volendam:
http://www.thecatsvolendam.tk/
The Cats Popinstitute:
http://www.popinstituut.nl/biografie/the_cats.2530.html
Holland Rocks:
http://www.hollandrocks.com/jump/bio/bz2530.html
MSN GROUP The Cats:
http://nl.msnusers.com/thecatsvolendam
Piet Veerman:
Anita has made a nice website about Piet Veerman :
http://www.pietveerman.net
and about Next One
http://nextone.pietveerman.net
Anneke has made a beautifull Cats Site Click on the link below to enter:
THE CATS VIDEOCLIPS
One way wind (Katzenspiele) Deutsch
One way wind Original
Let's Dance Disco 72
