Forty drummers, 20 drumsets, 80 drum sticks and at least another 20 musicians besides the drummers and 1 full house! Sven Bakker’s drum school 10 years jubilee in a nutshell. Numerically speaking that is.
When I first started thinking ideas hosting a hughe party, I had only some basic ideas in my mind. Altough for major publicity and fame there’s nothing worse than to present yourself on a wide scale, what I did know was that I wanted this show to represent me and – equally important – what I pass on to my students. What was also very clear, was the fact that I wanted to have control as much as possible and therefore I tried to work as indpendently as possible.
Nothing to de detriment of sponsorships, but highlights like these don’t come up easily.
How it all began…
Without going too deeply into my childhood, I can say 2 things:
1) learning skills in a group setting was not really my cup of tea and partly resulting from this I was and am a remainer and take things that are important to me very seriously. In addition to music it was skateboarding and drawing (a little later influenced by early hiphop). When I was 6 years old I bougt my very first drumkit for 56 guilders (it was guilders back than). About age 7 I had snare drum lessons, hitting only the tables of a secondary school in my neighbourhood and after a long period of
hard work I was allowed to play with the drumband.
After 10 years, our new instructor let us join competitions of solists and I won prices.
After finishing MBO (highschool) and after lots of study, stage- and teachingexperience, I started studying at the conservatory. I had already taught for about 6 years before I officially registred at Chamber of Comerce as drum school Sven Bakker. Starting the school also gave me the opportunity to sevelop some of my other skills as designing own logos, mading websites, stickers and flyers. Offcourse besides my regular activities like teaching, administration, promotion, networking etc.
The Preparation
Back to December 2014.
My drum school’s 10th years anniversary!
Time is right for roof blowing party. But…how to go about it?
People who know me well would say: a fully successsful party for you is not possible; you will always be annoyed by things that go wrong.
Quite possible with a laundry list of wishes for the show.
I admit: Let students watch a well known drummer doing a show-ff or let all my students play an asskicking show at a core stage… The decision to me was an easy one.
For half a year I kept busy with arranging everything the way I wanted it: writing, arranging and teaching the sheets, arranging the venue, decor, background photos, but also invent things, camera’s , photographers, press, food and drinks, a tribute for friend Harry, who sadly died in a recent accident, merchandise, gadgets for the contest, thank you gifts, info for presenter Ron Boos and so on and so on.
The Result
The opening of the show was a difficult test; working with unfamiliar people of mixed levels was initially a challenge, but the motivation they showed to be part of the show was so great I knew we were on te right track.
Altough many highlights were following and a lot of wishes appeared to be succesfull, this was actual the cherry on the cake.
Offcourse during such a large scale organisaton setbacks easily occur, not only during preparation but also during the event itself, but thanks to the enthousiasm of none other than DeeDee (Anne) Dekkers, well known from a.o. Herman Brood & His Wild Romance and the additional help of Martin Spronk, the first part of the show was a real success.
In the many groups that passed the revue, with a.o. my cajon students, lots of other professional musicians provided a great opportunity for my students to show their skills.
Young talent Fleur Raateland, allroud guitar player Paul Scheepmaker, with whom I integrated a part of my own musical carier.
Another fulfilled wish was a band called The Svennettes, a ful girl bandwith Emma de kroon and Fleur Raateland.
It is an honour that nobody less than guitarplayer David Hollestelle (who played this earlier with icon Hermand Brood) and singer DeeDee Dekkers with Slick accompanied 20 drummers in a perfectly carried out version of “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory” from punk icon/pioneer Johnny Thunders accompanied by no less than 3 drumming fathers and sons.
Some of the most asked questions asked by students and parents is if I also play in a band and what i do with my drumming and art. Therefore in addition to showing photos of gigs, students and my art on a projector, I thought an interview would clarify a number of questions and included a short demo of how I started at the drumband Irene as a kid.
Some of my more advanced drummers played a banging hiphop-medly, accompanied by Freddy Spierenburg and Oscar Davila well known from Def P’s Onderhonden en opened by beatbozer Rudebeats (Ruud van Schaik), after which some really cool improvisations took place.
Hip hop to the max, but it could be more hughe…
Producer Rick Rubin brougt together rock icons Aerosmith and hiphop pioneers RUN DMC for the literally wall breaking “Walk This Way”. I always kept this idea in mind when playing with Dutch top guitar player David Hollestelle (a.o. Herman Brood).
“Walk This Way”-Hoorn version was played by rock veterans David Hollestelle and DeeDekkers, Jan-Willem van Holland, Derk Jolink (together good for a major part of Dutch pop history, with Tony Daudey on one side and Oscar (wellknown from DefP’s Onderhonden) and Freddy on the other side.
Regardless of how large an audience would come to the show, I wanted to thank them for coming by holding a contest during which a lot of “limited edition” Drumschool Sven Bakker gadgets were handed out.
Also there was a special thank you for Jerke van de Berg and Micha Tombal both of whom I saw grow in stature as well as in their drumming skills.
Jerke ad Micha are good for 16 years of drumssons together and it’s thanks to students like these that my drumschool still exists.
With members of The Wild Romance on stage Herman Brood’s classic “Saturday Night” could not be omitted.
Again a big thanks to Slick for accompanying 20 drummers during this song.
Following a few short appearances, with a. o. “Let It Be” (1 st song all students learn), it was time for a very amazing ending with all drummers on (and besides and before!) stage at the same time, accompanied by a lot of professional musicians.
I had already planned an arrangement for Feetwood Mac’s “Tusk” I had already, but shortly before the show I got the idea adding a horn section (a small version of what’s in the official videoclip!). To Fief Macrander (alt sax), Jan Schoemaker (tenor sax) and Roel Smit (trumpet) I owe a lot thanks, because they studied this arrangement in a very short time, but whose input on the night made for an unforgettable appearance as they made their way to the stage from the back of the venue.
The evening was closed with an appearance by Avagardner, de band of friend and student Harry who passed away unexpectedly, where I filled in Hary’s place. A very special adding to this evening.
The valve came with an apearance by Slick.
Was this evening -as written earlier in this blog- succesfull?
Yes! Everything I wanted, also the last minute things, without subsidy and other third party money and totally the way I wanted it!
First of all: A big thanks to all drummers who to part in this, but also to: musicans, parents, photographers (Leo Lensen, Patricia van Cuyk, Armand Hoogland) and Ron Dorpsstraat for the cameras). Thanks Djowie Tromp for using the rehearsal rooms at Mupo Music.
In special: To Harry who I dedicated this how to!
Below a selection of the photos of the party. You can view more photos on facebook.
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