Robbie van Leeuwen

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

Robbie van Leeuwen is a Dutch guitarist, sitar player and songwriter, born in 1944. In 1964 he founded The Motions, together with, among others, Rudy Bennett. That was one of the first Nederbeat bands to reach the charts, with a first successful single in 1965.

Music and breakthrough

In 1967 he started Shocking Blue, the group in which the singer Mariska Veres became the face and he was the guitarist and above all the writer. In 1969 the group reached number one with Venus, a song that later also topped the charts in the United States and the United Kingdom and was covered by Bananarama. Love Buzz and Daemon Lover also come from him, and Nirvana released Love Buzz as its first single. In 1974 he left the group and had success with Galaxy-Lin and the single Long Hot Summer. In 1977 he started the group Mistral together with Rick van der Linden, which worked mainly with synthesizers. After that he withdrew from the music world. In 2013 he received the Buma Lifetime Achievement Award.

Influence

Van Leeuwen wrote songs with a clear, sharp melody and a strong guitar theme, and showed that a Dutch band could score worldwide. In School of Rock he appears as the brains behind Shocking Blue.

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

Mentioned in other articles

• Venus SongGuitarist Robbie van Leeuwen wrote it, and Mariska Veres sang.

See also

• Venus