The Motions, The Hague Netherlands Beet band, founded in 1964 by Henk Smitskamp (bass), Robbie van Leeuwen (guitar), Rudy Bennett (vocals) and Sieb Warner (drums). Firstly recorded in 1966 - The Same Old Song / Someday Child - 7"single - HAVOC - SH 122.
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The Motions were very eager to live from
their music. So they made some terribly good stuff, and some dreadfull
stuff to make money with. One thing is true though: They fabricated that
Dutch anthem called "Everything that's mine". Richie Clark and The
Ricochets were founded in The Hague (Den Haag) in 1963. The members were
Rudy Bennett (real name Ruud van de Berg) vocals as Richie Clark, Hans
Emmerik on guitar, Hans Hoogduin on bass, Ton Lamet on guitar and Gerard
Melkert on drums. A single was made in '63 called "Ecstacy", "Ever
since you said goodbye" on the MMP label. A band name in combination
with the name of a singer went out of fashion. So somewhere in '64 they
were just called The Ricochets. Hans Emmerik left the band and was
replaced by Robbie van Leeuwen who came from "The Atmospheres". Ton
Lamet left the band and was replaced by Kid van Ettinger. Gerard Melkert
left the band and was replaced by Sieb Warner who came from a band
called "Willy and The Giants". They made two singles in this line-up.
The first was "Honeymoon song", "Springtime" on the MMP label and the
second was "Whiskey doodle", "Gee whizz it's you" on the Lumirex label.
Somewhere later in '64 Rudy Bennett, Sieb Warner and Robbie van Leeuwen
sold their Fender guitars, bought Gibsons, and formed a new band called
"The Motions". Kid van Ettinger went to join "The Incrowd", one of
Hollands best R&B bands ever. A new member was Henk Smitskamp on
bass, who came from "Willy and The Giants". The Motions first single was
released in '64 and included "It's gone" and a smashing "I've got
misery". It was released on the brand new Havoc label. The Havoc label
was founded in '64 by a few quite famous people in Holland: Jan Cremer
(the famous writer of 'I, Jan Cremer'), Willem van Kooten (famous
DeeJay), Cees de Man and Cees van Zijtveldt. But I think you must be
from Holland to know who these people are.
They used Jan Cremer's
provits of his first record to get the label going. This single was
released in '64 on Havoc and is quite good. It included the well known
songs "Boom boom" and "Good morning little schoolgirl". In '64 The
Motions were one of the support acts at a Rolling Stones concert in The
Hague. It ended in a riot, which was shown on the television the next
day. People smashing chairs, ect. Early '66 they recorded two singles at
the Pye studio in London with free lance technician John Stewart.
Earlier, John Stewart founded a production company with Scott Walker of
The Walker Brothers. This connection made it happen that The Walker
Brothers recorded The Motions' "My love is growing". On the 24th of June
'66 The Motions released the LP "Their own way". In October '66 They
received the "Ossekar" award at the "Grand Gala der Jongeren", or "Grand
Gala du Teenager", in Scheveningen. This event took place at The Casino
with fifteen bands like Hu and The Hilltops, Q65, The Golden Earrings,
The Outsiders, The Clungels and Rob Hoeke's R&B band. Every band had
to show their stuff within twentyfive minutes. The three Ossekar Awards
went to The Golden Earrings, The Motions and The Outsiders. On Tuesday
20 december '66 The Motions supported Little Richard in Paris, France,
together with The Outsiders and the French group Frankenstein and The
Monsters. Parts of the gig were recorded and broadcasted on Radio Europe
1, the organisers of the whole event. Tickets were available for up to
thirtyfive guilders. Rather expensive! Little Richard's shirt was torn
of his body by female fans. Frankenstein and The Monsters did a daft
horror-act which included spitting blood. In December Rudy Bennett went
solo and covered Tim Hardin's "How can we hang on to a dream". On June
the 5th '67 a special TV programme of thirty minutes about The Motions
was broadcasted called "Omsingeld" (surrounded). This goes to show how
popular they were, as no band ever got the honour before. In November
'67 the band released an LP called "Impressions of wonderful". On the
22nd of May '67 The Motions performed at a festival in Mallorca, Spain.
Also in 1967 Robbie van Leeuwen left, formed "Shocking Blue" and became
bloody famous indeed. But that's another story. He was replaced by Leo
Bennink who came from a band called "Mack". Henk Smitskamp left and went
to "Living Blues". He was replaced by Gerard Romeyn who came from "The
Teeset". After only six months he left again and joined "Image" and was
replaced by Paul van Melzen who came from the famous "Haigs". Their
manager by now was Cees van Leeuwen. Early '68 they became so succesfull
that they switched from Havoc to the bigger Decca label. In May '68
they appeared in TV programme "Moef Ga Ga" with the single "Miracle
man", "Something" on Decca. In '69 Paul van Melzen left and joined "The
Mailer McKenzie Band" and Sieb Warner went to "The Golden Earrings".
Rudy Bennett and Leo Bennink kept on going with new members Jan Vennik,
who came from "The Jayjays" and Han Cooper (real name Hans Gordinou de
Gouberville) who came from "The Bobby Green Selection". Also a new
member in '69 was Bobby Green himself (real name Bob van der Vaart) who
obviously came from "The Bobby Green Selection". They released a single
in 1970 called "Try to make you happy", "We all come together" on the
Negram label. After they released an LP called "Sensation" on the
Simogram label they split up in 1971. Jan Vennik went to Rob Hoeke's
band and later to "Ekseption". Han Cooper, Leo Bennink and Bobby Green
went to "Fisher and Friends". Bobby Green went on to make some more solo
records. "Wasted words" and "The same old song" have been re-released
on Negram in 1972 and 1981.
