Bennie Jolink

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Bennie Jolink was born in 1946 in Hummelo, in the Achterhoek. He attended the art academy in Enschede and taught drawing and painting. He then played in the band Puddingh. When it broke up in 1974, he founded Normaal with the drummer Jan Manschot and a few band members. Jolink became the singer and guitarist, and from the start the great driving force.

Music and breakthrough

Normaal first sang in English. But when in 1975 at a pop festival in Lochem Jolink launched into a blues in the Achterhoek dialect, it went down so well that the band kept singing in its own dialect from then on. It was a reaction to disco and glam rock, and to the way the west of the country looked down on people from the eastern regions. The breakthrough came in 1977 with Oerend hard, about two motorcyclists who had never heard of riding slowly. The music was solid rock with influences of country and boogie, and the concerts in big party tents in the countryside became notorious. Jolink even invented a word of his own for it, høken, which found its way into the dictionary.

Influence

Normaal became one of the Dutch bands with the most Top 40 hits, although the group never reached number one. In 2015 the band gave a farewell concert in the GelreDome, and in 2016 Jolink stopped performing for health reasons. He received an Edison for his entire body of work in 2006. Jolink gave the regional language a place in Nederpop and is regarded as the founder of boerenrock, or 'farmers' rock'.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1999Howlin' at the Moon
• 2010Hubertus ♥ Diana
• 2019Post Normaal

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• Mixtape 11: Nederpop^NL Reader

Mentioned in other articles

• Boerenrock GenreNormaal was founded in 1975 in the Achterhoek around the singer Bennie Jolink and sang in the Achterhoek dialect.
• Oerend hard SongThe band around singer Bennie Jolink had been founded in 1974 and played raw farmers' rock, in clogs and overalls.