Biography
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Years Active
1993 – 1998 (5 years)
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Members
- Frank Gerritsen
- Maarten Heijblok
- Marcel Kruup
The Treble Spankers were a Dutch band that played a mix of surf, western and arabic inspired music. Mainly instrumental, the band itself has no vocalist, their sound very much has a movie kind of atmosphere to it. Occasionally a guest will provide some vocals. On the track Samira, from their 1995 album Hasheeda, these vocals too seem mainly for atmospheric effect as the lyrics are in Arabic.
The history of The Treble Spankers dates back to 1989 when Marcel Kruup (ex-The Other Side, The Comedown, The Kliek) started trash combo Ouke Baas. After gaining a live reputation in the Amsterdam underground the band underwent some lineup changes and finally renamed to The Treble Spankers in 1993. At that point the band existed of Marcel Kruup, "Phantom" Frank Gerritsen (ex-The String Phantoms), Maarten Heijblok and Frank Sloos (ex-The Kliek). The band started playing as opening act for The Kliek but soon the band became more popular.
September 1994 found the release of Araban (1994). The album got lots of airplay on Dutch national radio, various university stations in the US and at John Peel's program on BBC Radio. Due to the bankruptcy of their record label Semaphore the album was sold out in no time. Following impressive live performances at the Lowlands festival and Crossing Border festival The Treble Spankers signed a record deal with Polydor Records in 1995 after which they went into the studio to record their follow up album.
In 1996 Hasheeda (1995) was released. Following the success of Pulp Fiction and an "easy tune" hype, The Treble Spankers got massive airplay with the single Red Hot Navigator on Dutch national radio. The band played a packed Roskilde tent at the Pinkpop festival in front of 10,000 jumping fans and the album Hasheeda ended up selling an impressive 20,000 copies in the Netherlands. The band toured Belgium, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and the UK extensively. In December of 1996 Polydor re-released Araban with three extra tracks.
Early 1997 found the band in the Toe Ragstudio in London to record mainly covers for b-sides and bonus tracks of foreign releases. In the summer of 1997 the band went back into the studio to record their third album. During the recordings Phantom Frank's repetitive strain injury became unbearable and the band had to call it a day. In the short five years of their existence The Treble Spankers did over 500 shows and left behind two classic albums in the history of surf music.
After years of rest and revalidation Phantom Frank slowly picked up the guitar again and returned with a solo album in 2004. Later that year he formed The Phantom Four, an instrumental surf band, with which he started playing live regularly from early 2005.
Late 2005 Marcel Kruup and Maarten Heijblok formed Los Tiki Boys, an instrumental surf / rock&roll band.
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