Eelco Gelling

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

Eelco Gelling was born in 1946 in Zwartsluis. In the early 1960s he played guitar in The Rocking Hurricanes and The Rocking Strings, small groups that played guitar music in the style of The Shadows. Around 1964 the singer Harry Muskee joined. The repertoire became more bluesy and the band carried on as Cuby + Blizzards, with a first single in 1965 and a series of albums from 1966.

Music and breakthrough

Cuby + Blizzards became well known in the Netherlands, Germany and England. The band played and recorded with the American bluesman Eddie Boyd and toured with Van Morrison and John Mayall. Mayall asked Gelling to join his Bluesbreakers, as Peter Green's successor, but Gelling stayed with his own band. The album Appleknockers Flophouse (1969) is regarded as one of the best Dutch blues records, and his guitar playing is compared with that of Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor. He played a 1960 Gibson Les Paul, which he continued to use for years.

Influence

In 1976 Gelling became a member of Golden Earring. On the album Contraband his slide guitar stands out, and he plays on Golden Earring Live. During an American tour he quit, after disagreement over the musical direction and after his Les Paul was stolen from a taxi in New York. Afterwards he played in, among others, the Muskee Gang and his own Eelco Gelling Band. In 2015 he was inducted into the Dutch Blues Hall of Fame. His raw, heavy blues playing showed that Dutch musicians could take the blues just as seriously as their English contemporaries.

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