Cesar Zuiderwijk

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

Cesar Zuiderwijk is a Dutch drummer, born in 1948 in The Hague as Cornelis Johannes Zuiderwijk. At twelve he began with the guitar; two years later he switched to drums. His father died when he was a teenager, and drumming became, he said, the best way to get rid of his pent-up anger. He played in a school band, in Hu & the Hilltops and in Livin' Blues.

Music and breakthrough

In 1970 the Hague rock band Golden Earring asked him to succeed the drummer Sieb Warner. From that moment the band, apart from short periods, consisted of the same four friends: Zuiderwijk, George Kooymans, Barry Hay and Rinus Gerritsen. With Radar Love from 1973 the group reached number 1 in the Netherlands and also scored in England and America. Twilight Zone followed in 1982 and When the Lady Smiles in 1984. In total Golden Earring had almost thirty top-ten hits in the Netherlands.

Influence

On stage Zuiderwijk was a striking presence. At every concert he played a drum solo that he ended by jumping over his drum kit. Together with the bassist Gerritsen he formed the solid rhythm section on which the band thrived. After Golden Earring he gave drum lessons and opened a music school in Rotterdam. In 1992 he played Radar Love with the band and a thousand other drummers on the Maasvlakte. In 2021 Golden Earring stopped because of the serious illness of Kooymans.

Listening

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