A Beatgroup in Hillegom1960 - 1969
From left to right :Harry Maas - Ton Maas - Ton Hoogewerf - Ben Elfering - Henk van der Voort
In the early sixties Ton Maas and Henk van der Voort founded a band “The Rocking Stars”. They asked Ed Schuit to join them and later on Aad Maas joined the group as well.They played on on old guitars and a little drum. Their amplifiers were old radio’s. The songs they played were from Cliff Richard, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, The Shadows, Ritchie Valens and more well-known artists from that time.
In 1961 Ton Maas, the singer of the group, called himself Tommy Clifford after his idol Cliff Richard. The basguitar was played by Aad Maas, the leadguitar by Henk van der Voort and the sologuitar by Ed Schuit. During 1962 Koos van der Wolf started as the drummer and Ben Elfering as the percussionist at several songs, but he was also involved for the techniques.
In 1963 Ed left the group and was replaced by Ton Hoogewerf. The name of the band was changed into “Tommy Clifford and The Applicants”
From left to right :(Standing/hanging) Aad Maas - Koos van der Wolf - Kees van der Elst(Sitting) Harry Maas - Martin van der Valk
In 1964 Aad Maas joined the army and left the group. His successor was Harry Maas on basguitar. The group bought new and better instruments and amplifiers. They also started to make their own compositions like “Applicants Theme”, their opening tune for performances.
From left to right :Martin van der Valk - Harry Maas - Aad Maas - Koos van der Wolf - Kees van der Elst
In 1965 Ben Elfering left and Ton Hoogewerf (solo guitarist) was replaced by Martin van der Valk. Ton Hoogewerf took over the leadguitar from Henk van der Voort (one of the founders). He left the band due to military service. Furthermore Ton Maas (the other founder) was replaced by Kees van der Elst. The group changed their name into “Jerry and The Applicants”
During 1966 Ton Hoogewerf left the group because he married and the place where he went to was at the other side of the country. Aad Maas (back from military service) took over as the leadguitarist. He also played the organ.Ton Maas became the manager of the band. The name was changed into “J and the A’s”
From left to right :Kees - Martin - Koos - Harry - Aad
More own songs were composed as “Wall of Berlin”, “If you’ve got any sorrow”, “Here I stand before you”, “Insanable”, “Don’t persue me” and “Message to Isabelle M.”Most of the songs were composed by Martin van der Valk and Aad Maas.
From left to right :Koos - Aad - Harry - Martin - Kees
In February 1967 the group went into the GTB recording studio in The Hague and recorded 4 compositions. In June 1967 the group recorded another 2 new songs and 2 of the previous recordings were re-recorded at “De Drie Kronen” studio in Oudekerk aan de Amstel.
The songs which were recorded were : “Follow the man”, By my side”, Stephanie”, “Adation”, “Well, I am a boy” and the titelsong of their first E.P. “Will you teach me how to love”. They changed the name into “Group $oall”.
In 1967 they made also their first tour through Belgium, along the coast from North to south (from Blankenbergen till De Panne) and they were the support act during a concert of the “Golden Earrings”.A real fanclub was founded and they played in a big contest in “Treslong” in Hillegom were the achieved the third place.
During 1968 the group met hard times. They bought new and very expenses instruments and equipment, but due to the heavy competition the income was not enough to cover all expenses.In 1969 they decided to give up. All what’s left are the songs, which were released on E.P. and L.P. (see discography), a lot of pictures and a pile of newspaper articles.
Unfortunately some of our friends died
Ed Schuit born 27-03-1946 - died 10-08-1996Henk van der Voort born 12-02-1946 - died 29-09-2002Ben Elfering born 11-12-1943 - died 24-12-2004Koos van der Wolf born 30-11-1946 - died 31-08-2009
If you like to know more about Group $oall, their records or its history, click here
Written by : Ton Maas
